Phillies News: Raul Valdes Optioned, Tyler Cloyd Recalled

After last night's game, Tyler Cloyd was recalled from the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Cloyd will start tonight against the Colorado Rockies in place of the injured John Lannan. Lannan left his last start on August 14 after pitching less than two innings (well, "pitching"). He was diagnosed with a recurrence of the same knee injury that put him on the DL earlier this season, and not, as I had previously thought, with an attack of suck-itis.

Cloyd spent half of May and half of June with the Phillies this year, starting six games with an ERA of 3.41. He had a few tough starts in the minors at the end of June, but since the start of July he has a 1.88 ERA in eight games. His last start for the IronPigs was on August 14, and he allowed one run on three hits in a complete game.

Of course, saying hello again to Tyler Cloyd means saying goodbye to someone on the 25-man roster. That man is Raul Valdes. Valdes' ERA was rather... inflated from his last stint with the team, but since he was recalled in late July he hasn't pitched much better. In seven games and fifteen innings, he has a 7.20 ERA. That's lower than that 7.65 he had in his first stint with the team, so we could look at that as progress. Or, we could look at it as him being really bad, and then him being very slightly less bad. Valdes hasn't pitched since August 14, when he came in to mop up after Lannan's horrible, injury shortened start. It seems like the Phillies would rather give young BJ Rosenberg a chance. To that I say bravo, because really, how much worse could he be?