Black Friday Bargains: Phillies Ink Reliever
Sources have told David Murphy at the Daily News that the Phillies have signed 32-year old, Philadelphia-native Mike Koplove to a one-year deal with the hopes he'll make the defending-World Championship club in spring training.
Throughout most of his career, Koplove has always been a bit of a groundball specialist, which would normally make him a serviceable fit for Citizens Bank Park and the well-above-average Phillies offense.
His 2007 season with the Indians, however, was not a good one. He lost his groundball tendency and his ERA skyrocketed. Koplove then spent all of 2008 with the Dodgers AAA team, and while his game returned to a certain extent, he was certainly less than dominant.
Too a certain extent, predicting future performances of relief pitchers is a bit like predicting the next card in poker. In that frame of mind, picking up Koplove is certainly worthwhile, but I wouldn't expect him to be much of an ace in the pen.
