Taijuan Walker was quite rough last night, not that we should be surprised. I want to like Walker and he has had spurts of productivity, but it just seems that his usefulness on this team has run its course. They just don’t need to keep running him out there each time and expect that he’s somehow going to improve.
However, right now, his next scheduled start is going to be in New York, against the Yankees. That...might be an issue. That’s probably not the place or team to put a pitcher like Walker
up against. However....
Should the Phillies give that next start to Andrew Painter instead, giving him his major league debut in Yankee Stadium? That stadium might not hold the same knee buckling mystique that it had in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, where a rookie might get overwhelmed at the idea of pitching on that vaunted mound. But if the choice were to come down to giving Painter that start or Walker, might the team do it? Remember, the plan all along was for him to be making his debut right around this time. It was never specified where and he hasn’t truly been dominant enough that he’s banging down the door to get here.
Someone has to make that start though. Maybe it should be Painter.
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