Another one of the Phillies young heralded arms is getting his first shot at the majors.
Righty reliever Michael Schwimer was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley after third baseman Placido Polanco was placed on the disabled list with a sports hernia injury. To make room for Schwimer on the 40-man roster the Phils transferred Joe Blanton to the 60-Day DL.
Schwimer, 25, put up an impressive 9-1 record and 1.88 ERA with 86 strikeouts and 22 walks over 67 innings pitched for the IronPigs. He also recorded 10 saves in 46 appearances with Lehigh Valley.
In four seasons split between all three levels of the minors, Schwimer went 20-10 with a 2.51 ERA and 313 strikeouts to just 79 walks.
With those gaudy numbers it seemed only inevitable that Schwimer would be a September call up but with Polly’s injury and the Phillies short a reliever in the pen it happened a couple weeks earlier.
Now the question is if Schwimer can follow in the footsteps of other former farmhands like lefty Antonio Bastardo and righty Michael Stutes who have both shined in the Phillies bullpen this season.
My guess is that Schwimer won’t be going anywhere considering his 4:1 strikeout to walk ratio and that he averaged far more than a K and inning in the minors this season. With powerful control like that, who knows, maybe sometime soon Schwimer could even be closing games for the Phightins.
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And, just an observation, by adding Schwimer to the roster, the Phillies now have three Michaels (Stutes, Martinez) making it the most popular first name in red pinstripes -- Roy is second most popular at two.
