With Opening Day only three days away, I expected the Phillies to add another bullpen arm this weekend.  With players recently hitting the waiver wire (Aaron Fultz, Rudy Seanez, Tim Byrdak), I figured it was only a matter of time before one of them was in red pinstripes. Well the today the Phillies did pick up a bullpen arm, just not any of the obvious.  They claimed Tim Lahey off waivers from the Cubs.

When I saw this on Rotoworld this afternoon, and I to myself “Who’s Tim Lahey?” 

If you don’t know, Lahey was the first overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft last off-season.  The Cubs made a real with the Rays for them to draft him and deal him to Chicago.  Lahey is a converted catcher, with only two years pitching experience.  He has had some success in the minor leagues (15-6, 3.94, but has only 2 career appearances above Double-A. 

It’s heard to fathom what type of impact he’ll have on the Phils.

People are going to look at this move in one of two ways.  The first being, the Phillies are taking a flyer on a player, who might be an impact on in the bullpen.  The Padres took the same risk with Kevin Cameron last sesaon and it worked out.  Cameron also had a full season at Triple-A the year before and had much better numbers in the minors then Lahey. 

 The other thought is the Phillies grabbed Lahey to save a buck, and get a cheap arm for the bullpen.  If he doesn’t work out, there’s other arms out there (Mike Stanton, Antonio Alfonseca), who can save the day.

I’m sort of siding with the latter.  I normally don’t question Pat Gillick, but this move has me wondering the motives.  Gillick has had success in the past with flyers, but there’s a hole in the bullpen, and I’m not sure if a leftover Rule 5 pick is the way to fill it, epsecially when there’s better arms available.