Philadelphia Phillies: Left-Handed Relief Pitcher Jake Diekman is Here to Stay
The Philadelphia Phillies called up relief pitcher Jake Diekman recently and he made his major league debut last night, pitching 1 1/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts. Diekman entered the eighth inning of a close game with runners on second and third base with two outs, and recorded a huge strikeout to escape the jam.
Diekman is a left-handed reliever who tore up Triple-A Lehigh Valley, posting a 1-0 record and a 0.59 ERA in 15.1 innings pitched. He recorded five saves but his most impressive statistics were his peripherals – 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings, just 1.8 walks per nine innings, a WHIP of just over 1, and no home runs allowed among the 61 batters faced.
The Phillies have Antonio Bastardo as a top lefty out of the ‘pen, but the LOOGY (lefty one-out guy) after that is up in the air. Joe Savery has been rotating between the major leagues and Triple-A, and the Phillies have recently recalled left-hander Raul Valdes from the minor leagues. Diekman may have the edge on the rest of the pitchers though in securing the job, especially if he continues to keep his strikeouts up and his walks down.
Diekman was initially a 30th round selection of the Phillies in the 2007 amateur draft, and he didn’t make much of a splash until last year when he performed well for the Double-A Reading Phillies. Diekman is 12-16 with a 3.78 in his minor league career, and his 8.3 K/9 rate is am indicator that he is going to be a good pitcher.
The Phillies received a strong contribution from Michael Stutes last season, even though he wasn’t expected to make the team out of spring training (he didn’t initially and was called up when there was an injury). Diekman could have the same impact for the Phillies.
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