Skip to main content

Buchanan returns to the mound in Clearwater

In his first action facing hitters since he was sidelined with a severe right ankle sprain in an outing for the Triple-A IronPigs in mid-May, right-hander David Buchanan looked good on the mound in an exhibition with the Phillies' extended spring training team on Thursday.

According to Jim Peyton of PhuturePhillies.com, who was present for the outing, the 26-year-old hurler faced 14 batters, retiring 13 of them and looked good moving around on defense.

Screenshot_2015-06-18-18-20-41_1Buchanan, who tallied a 0-5 record with an 8.76 ERA in five starts with the big league team and went 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in three starts for Lehigh Valley this year, posted images (featured to the left) of his ankle in various stages of the injury this week on Instagram.

Seeing action in that same game was righty hurler Shane Watson, who is nearing a return to full-season club action following his second shoulder surgery last year.

Watson, who stands six-foot-four and is up to 240 pounds, threw five scoreless innings, notched one strike out, walked one and gave up three hits. He ranged 88-94 MPH with his fastball.

The Phils' top pick in 2012 (40th overall) expects to make one more start with the rookie level Gulf Coast League team next week prior to being activated for either Class A Lakewood or Class A Advanced Clearwater.


The California native sports a 4-7 record with a 4.44 ERA and a .227 batting average against in 21 career professional appearances. Watson last pitched in a regular season game in July of 2013.

Also of note, RHP Ethan Martin, out since spring training with shoulder inflammation, saw his first action of the regular season on Wednesday, when he took the mound for the Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers.

Martin, 26, tossed one inning in relief, surrendering one earned run on a walk and a hit without striking anyone out in the Threshers' contest against St. Lucie.

Last season in 32 relief appearances with the IronPigs, Martin posted a 2-1 record along with a 3.93 ERA and a .256 batting average against. He also appeared in two games with the big league team.

This post was originally published on PhilliesNation.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...