The Phillies have designated 36-year old reliever/starter Nelson Figueroa for assignment to make room on the roster for Brad Lidge who is getting activated from the D.L. Figueroa has pitched in 9 games (1 start) for the Phillies this year and he is 1-1 with 1 save, a 4.82 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP. Figueroa will likely reject a minor league assignment if he clears waivers likely ending his days with the Phillies.

33-year old righty starting pitcher Roy Halladay tossed a perfect game (the 20th in MLB history) against the Marlins last Saturday. He whiffed 11 helpless Marlins as he threw 72 strikes out of his 115 total pitches. Halladay has started 11 games for the Phillies this year and he is 7-3 with a 1.99 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP as he has been outstanding this year. He has only given up 73 hits this season in 86 innings pitched as he has been missing a ton of bats this year. He is being really aggressive in the strike zone as usual as he has whiffed 70 batters while only walking 12. Halladay has been awesome this year and there is no reason to think he can’t keep up the outstanding work.

The Phillies are scouting the White Sox right now looking at J.J. Putz and Bobby Jenks. I think a deal can be made between these two teams as the Phillies are desperate for a closer. I would offer the White Sox Antonio Bastardo, Scott Mathieson and Ben Francisco for Bobby Jenks and infielder Jayson Nix. With Jimmy Rollins and Brad Lidge all beat up getting Jenks and Nix would be outstanding. From the White Sox side of things they would be shedding Jenks’ salary while getting two live arms for the pen and Ben Francisco who could work his way into a lot of atbats for the White Sox who are struggling offensively this year.

The Phillies have designated 34-year old righty swinging catcher Paul Hoover for assignment to make room on the roster for Brian Schneider who is coming off the D.L. Hoover played in 6 games for the Phillies this season and he is 5 for 18 (.278 avg, .770 OPS) with 6 runs scored and 2 RBIs. I’m thinking that Hoover would accept a minor league assignment with the Phillies as he played well enough to be called right back up if something happened to Carlos Ruiz or Brian Schneider.

Wow that didn’t last too long. Rollins has now played in 12 games this season for the Phillies and he is 14 of 41 (.341 avg, 1.096 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 2 homers, 7 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. He will be missed as the alternatives are not the best. 38-year old righty swinging Juan Castro and 32-year old righty swinging Wilson Valdez (recalled from AAA) will share SS while Rollins is out of action. Castro has played in 24 games for the Phillies this year and he is 18 of 70 (.257 avg, .570 OPS) with 6 runs scored and 11 RBIs. He will likely get to play 3 out of every 5 games with Valdez getting the other two. Valdez has played in 18 games for the Phillies this year and he is 12 of 52 (.231 avg, .596 OPS) with 6 runs scored and 5 RBIs. The Phillies will likely give Rollins a little more time this time around to get healthy before activating him from the D.L.