Time for the Philadelphia Phillies to Give J.C. Romero His Release and Let Mike Zagurski Take Over as Left-Handed Specialist

J.C. Romero has spent parts of five seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, as he joined halfway through the 2007 campaign and played a major role in the team’s first division title. Romero was equally effective in ’08, but after spending the first 50 games of the ’09 season suspended for testing positive for a banned substance, Romero hasn’t been the same pitcher. He’s been worse than ever this year. His 4.11 ERA seems decent enough, but he’s lost his effectiveness. Romero has been relegated to that of a LOOGY – a lefty one-out guy suitable only for facing left-handed hitters – but it’s gotten to the point that the Phillies can’t trust him anymore. Just three NL relief pitchers who have logged as many innings (15.1) as Romero have posted a worse WHIP (1.826). And Romero ranks as the worst left-handed reliever in the league according to WHIP. He’s walking batters at a historically awful rate, 7.04 per nine innings, and his strikeouts have dropped to just 5.87 per nine innings. Rome...