Some twelve hours after holding St. Louis to two runs over 6 1/3 innings in his third big-league start, rookie left-hander J.A. Happ finds himself back in the minors:
The Philadelphia Phillies have optioned pitcher J.A. Happ to Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the All-Star break. Happ, who started Wednesday's game against St. Louis, won't get another start before next week's break and the Phillies filled the vacant roster spot by bringing up infielder Mike Cervenak from Lehigh Valley. ... Cervenak has never appeared in a big league game. In 90 games with Lehigh Valley, he was batting .310 with seven homers and 52 runs batted in.
The question now might be whether Happ comes back along with (or in advance of) Brett Myers after the break. I don't know about you, but I could do with seeing Happ rather than Adam Eaton for the rest of, oh, forever.
As for Cervenak, I basically know what you know: he's a 31 year-old righty corner infielder making his major-league bow. Looking at his minor-league record, it's a little weird that he's never gotten so much as a cup of coffee: he's been at AA or higher since 2002, hitting for consistent if unspectacular power in the Yankees, Giants, and Mets organizations.