I’m going to say we will have Scott Mathieson in the Lehigh Valley bullpen to start the season. Phillies management has repeatedly stated their interest in the reliever and that he just needs more innings under his belt to get back to the Phils roster.
Good news for Pig fans. Mathieson was dominant in Reading last year. We lost a lot of game in 2009 in the 9th inning because of poor late inning efforts. Who knows where the Pigs land if they had a solid closer last season.
26 days…
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
I’m hungry!
Phillies optioned Sergio Escalona to the minors today so I’d assume he’ll also be part of the Ironpigs pitching staff. He gave up 1 homerun in 40 2/3 innings at Reading last year and 0 homeruns in 13 2/3 innings in Philadelphia. With the Ironpigs he allowed 4 homers in 19 2/3 innings.
http://zozone.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/escalona_moyer_and_polanco_upd.html
lol, I also saw JC Romero was shuffled to the AA squad too.
To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed in Escalona. He pitched well in the minors, but as each day goes by, he’s looking like one of these AAAA pitchers who will never be successful in the majors.
I think Escalona will start the year with the Pigs, but it could be crowded depending on what they do with Zagurski, Mathieson, Rosenburg, and Schwimmer, and to a much smaller chance, Bastardo.
If I had to guess today, I’d say the following –
MLB – Bastardo (even though he hasn’t had a great spring)
AAA – Zagurski (he pitched the whole year in AA last year, I don’t think they’d make him repeat, even though he wasn’t dominant); Escalona
AA – Mathieson (only pitched a few innings there last year. They may want to start him here, with the possibility of a quick promotion); Schwimmer, Rosenburg
It doesn’t mean much but when dropped to minor league camp, Mathieson was sent to AAA camp where Schwimer and Rosenburg to AA camp. I’m working with a contact in Florida to get more details on this race. Stay tuned.
Who needs to go to Reading to see Strasburg now that the Phillies have assigned Ehren Wasserman to their minor league camp? 🙂
Some guy named Tracy was also reassigned to minor league camp today.
Right now it looks like Zagurski makes the Phillies until Romero is ready, unless there’s another late spring acquisition . Remember, they didn’t get Jack Taschner until March 27th last year.
Decal –
You think they keep Zagurski over Bastardo? Or are you suggesting they possibly keep 2 leftys?
Matt, according to Todd Zolecki, the Phillies beat writer at mlb.com, the Phillies now have 7 healthy relief pitchers in camp for 7 bullpen jobs: 5 righties, Danys Baez, Jose Contreras, Chad Durbin, David Herndon, and Ryan Madson plus 2 lefties, Antonio Bastardo and Mike Zagurski. Lidge and Romero are expected to start the year on the DL and would not be eligible to play until at least April 10 at Houston. Zolecki then says the bullpen looks like the 1st 6 above plus the loser of the 5th starter spot between Kendrick and Moyer so that sounds like Zagurski may be the odd man out. I know, it’s confusing because at first it sounds like Zagurski is in and then in the next paragraph Zagurski is out.
Zagurski will be at AAA, at least to start.