If you follow the Philly Pressbox (https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com) (@phillypressbox) you’re aware that we did a review and analysis of each Phillies player, Manager Charlie Manuel and the coaching staff leading up to Opening Day 2012.  Now that the season has reached the 50 game mark there have been four additional players that are on the roster that we will get to know. Today we will profile Jake Diekman. 

Jake Diekman –The 6’4″, 200 lb., 25-year-old lefthanded was the Phillies 30th round draft choice in the 2007 amateur draft out of Cloud County Community College in Concordia Kansas. He was called up from AAA Lehigh Valley and made his major league debut on May 15th against the Houston Astros. Jake pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball in that game and picked up the win, 4-3. To date, he has pitched in 7 games, all in relief, has a 1-0 record with a 5.68 ERA. He has struck out 12 and walked 2 in his 6.1 innings of work.

Diekman began his minor league career in 2007 playing in the Gulf Coast League and with Class A Williamsport. He posted a combined 3-4 record with a 2.72 ERA. He started 10 games and relieved in 3. During that first season Diekman started to earn the reputation as a strike out pitcher. He tallied 46 k’s in 51 innings of work. In 2008, Jake split time between Class A Williamsport and Class A Lakewood. He was a full-time started on both teams. He started a total of 27 games and loggged 141.1 innings of work. His combined record was 4-9 with a 5.09 ERA. He totalled 96 strike outs. 2009 saw the move to the bullpen at Lakewood. Diekman pitched in 32 games, 30 of them in relief. His record was 2-0 with a 4.04 ERA and 2 saves. He struck out 52 batters in 55.2 innings of work. By 2010 Jake was spending his fourth season in “A” ball. He was with both Lakewood and Clearwater. The path to the big leagues wasn’t looking very promising, however he pitched well in 2010. He appeared in 45 games, all in relief. He was 2-2 with a 2.91 ERA and 1 save. He struck out 56 batters in 55.2 innings. In 2011, Jake finally got the promotion to AA Reading and again pitched very well. He was 0-1 with a 3.05 ERA in 53 games with 3 saves. He struck out 83 batters in 65 innings of relief. The outstanding 2011 got Diekman promoted to AAA Lehigh Valley to start 2012 and it didn’t take long for him to excel. Before getting the call to the Phillies he had pitched in 13 games with a 1-0 record a 0.59 ERA and 5 saves. He had struck out 22 batters in 15.1 innings. It wasn’t an easy climb for Diekman but it appears that everything has come together.

The promotion to the big leagues was well deserved!! 

Personal Analysis:It will be interesting to see how the Phillies use Diekman at the big league level once he gets comfortable. They presently have Antonio Bastardo and Joe Savory as lefthanded relievers with Bastardo having worked himself back in to the 8th inning slot. That leaves Diekman and Savory as clean up guys. Obviously being a strike out pitcher will be to Diekmans advantage moving forward and will likely put him in position to get big lefthanded hitters out. We look for Diekman to get more work once he gets settled in the big leagues. He’s a good looking, young lefthander with an unusual delivery that has nothing but upside.

Tomorrow we will preview Raul Valdez.

For those that haven’t followed our Phillies Profiles you can see them all in the archives file under “Phillies”.

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