Several seasons ago, my family and I were at a Phillies' game where Mathieson, a big, promising righty starter, blew out his arm (this might have been as far back as 2007). Since then, he's had Tommy John surgery twice, and he opened the season at AAA Lehigh Valley, as a closer. His record has been good, and you have to figure that he'll figure into the Phillies' bullpen mix before too long, especially if Brad Lidge ends up on the disabled list.
It's too early for the Phillies to push the panic button (although the experts on WIP sounded like they were doing that yesterday, at least a bit), but without Ryan "Mensa" Madson and Lidge, they'll need some help. This development might mean that when J.A. Happ returns from the disabled list, the team will put Kyle Kendrick in the bullpen instead of Jamie Moyer, thereby giving the team another righty arm in the bullpen.
It's not a great situation, but, then again, the team has dealt with adversity before (translated: suffering through Lidge's hellacious 2009) and gone pretty far (Game 6 of the World Series). This development bears watching, because Phillies' fans expect this team to return to the Series for the third year in a row.
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