Introducing Brian Sanches

As you may or may not know by now, the Phillies have added Brian Sanches to the 40-man roster and promoted him to the active roster to fill the void left when David Herndon hit the disabled list with an elbow injury last night.

The Phillies opted to go with the experience (and, perhaps, right-handedness) of the 33-year-old, who pitched well in spring training and has continued to do so at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The roster move means no promotion for lefty prospect Jake Diekman. You can read our earlier summation of the situation here.

In the meantime, here's Brian Sanches in Cliffs Notes:

Sanches averaged 49 appearances and 61 innings from 2009 through 2011, posting a 2.92 ERA while averaging 7.8 strikeouts, 4.4 walks and 0.9 home runs per nine innings. In 2009 and 2010 he posted ERAs under 2.60 with solid strikeout numbers and a middling walk rate. Last year, his walks ballooned to 5.3 per nine innings, and along went his ERA, going from 2.26 in 2010 to 3.94 in 2011. Like a lot of guys in his role, Sanches struggles against lefties. Last year, they hit .257/.393/.487 against him. Over the last three years he has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 1-to-1 against lefties (52 walks, 55 strikeouts).

Against righties, Sanches has been nothing short of dominant. Last year, he held them to a .198/.271/.328 line. The year before, .195/.263/.325.

With Brian McCann, Michael Bourn and Jason Heyward all on tap for this three-game series against Atlanta, rookie lefty Joe Savery could be pressed into action if Charlie Manuel tries to go batter-by-batter in certain relief situations. The obvious hope is that Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay pitch deep into the game and eliminate any need for anybody besides Jonathan Papelbon, Chad Qualls, Jose Contreras and Antonio Bastardo.