Do You Recall...Matt Beech?

The Baker Bowl continues its hard-hitting monthly exposé of past Phillies scrubs and the smart-ass fans who love them.

Do You Recall...Matt Beech?

There's a big baseball-related news story making its way through both the shameful mainstream media and the shameless alternative media on this day: Jose Offerman, former major leaguer and Phillies utilityman, assaulted two opposing players with a bat during a game in the independent Atlantic League on Tuesday night. All the coverage is focused on the perp, Offerman, with little mention of the victims. Even the lovable mooks at the 700 Level missed a golden opportunity to catch up with a far more recognizable member of the Phillies family. And so far, I'm the only commenter to point it out; actually, I'm the only commenter, period.

Why?

It's because the main target of Offerman's wrath was once one of the most infamous Phillies on arguably the worst Phillies team of the past 20 years.

It's because a subpar but persistent pitcher who never was surrounded by adequate major league talent deserves a better eulogy than trading a beanball for a broken finger.

It's because the pink elephant in the room is none other than Matt Beech, a Phillies left-handed starter--make that the Phillies left-handed starter--from 1996-1998.

I have italicized for emphasis because after the 1996 mid-season trade of Terry Mulholland for Desi Relaford (two Baker Bowl favorites), Beech was the only lefty in the Phillies' rotation pitching on a consistent basis. In fact, he was the only lefty starter on the roster in 1997 and 1998. It was for this reason that Beech kept his place in the rotation despite his brutal statistics. (Mulholland, by the way, was still active as of last season at age 43, his 20th season in the majors, for very similar reasons.)


Matt Beech Phillies Statistics: 8-22 career record, 295 IP, 5.37 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 266 K, 131 BB

Little Matty Beech probably had no idea that when he started picking up crayons with his left hand it would someday allow his team to lose 14 consecutive games he started (though he only picked up the loss in half of them). Or that he would personally pitch 22 straight starts without a victory, a span of a little more than one year. Or that he was seriously considered one of the best bets to be the first pitcher to lose 20 games in a season since Brian Kingman in 1980.

Obviously, the fans can blame the Phillies organization and their inability to either acquire or develop another left-handed starter as much as they can blame Beech. There wasn't even a guy the Phils could call up for a September cup of coffee--lefties went to the Phillies minor-league system to die. It was like they weren't even trying.

On the other hand, maybe there wasn't much they could do to help Beech in the first place. In 1998, with an improved Phillies squad led by emerging youngsters Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu, Beech complied a 3-8 record and a 5.15 ERA with 3.86 runs of support per game. In 1997, an much worse team supported Beech with 4.25 runs per game, and still his record was 4-9 with a 5.07 ERA.

Looking through rose-colored glasses, Beech was a pretty good strikeout pitcher with a 2.03 K/BB ratio, and he kept the lefty spot warm for Randy Wolf once he finally arrived in 1999. Also, Beech managed to hold onto a great sense of humor on a sinking ship filled with a bunch of stoics. I don't remember the exact quote, but after the game he finally snapped that 22-start non-winning streak he said something to the effect of, "Awesome. At this rate I'll be a 20-game winner in 15 years."

Unfortunately, he hasn't pitched in the majors since 1998 and will most likely not make it out of the minors again. After the Phillies released him into free agency, Beech shuttled between 11 different minor league teams, including the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League (ironically, the current employer of Jose Offerman) where he was a teammate of John Rocker. He's now pitched for the Atlantic League's Bridgeport Bluefish for the past two seasons thus proving, like Terry Mulholland before him, that lefties endure no matter how large their misfortune or how little their talent.

Maybe it's time for me to consider a different career path.

For doing a job when there was nobody else suited to do it, I fondly recall Matt "Lefty Longevity" Beech.

Full Matt Beech Statistics (including minors and indies) [Baseball Cube]