Can the Phillies Offense and Bullpen Carry Them All Year?

Written by: Josh Landsburg on 17th May 2009

Can the Phillies Offense and Bullpen Carry Them All Year? | read this item

The Phillies currently lead the National League with 50 HR, and they are second in the NL in bullpen ERA, but they rank second to last in the NL with a 5.39 overall ERA. The good news is that the Phillies out-slugged the Nationals this past weekend, winning all four games in which the Nationals scored at least five runs in every game. The bad news is that the Phillies pitching staff gave up at least five runs in every game to the last place Nationals. Now, don’t get me wrong, to the Nationals credit, they actually have one of the better offenses in the N.L. this year, (ranking third in overall batting average at .279), and they have a lot of pop in that lineup with Adam Dunn, Ryan Zimmerman, and others. However, in my mind, that is still no excuse for the way the Phillies have pitched this year against the Nationals or anyone for that matter.

The Phillies bullpen has been pretty solid, but their starting rotation simply has not cut it. So, I ask you, can this Phillies team win with their bullpen and offense alone? To be honest, even though they have good karma, coming off the World Series victory and all, I don’t truly believe that they can compete with the Mets in this division, or have any hopes of winning back-to-back championships if they do not start to get consistent starting pitching. Let’s go through one by one the Phillies starting rotation, and I think you will understand why I, and all Phillies fans should, have some concerns with this pitching staff: LHP Cole Hamels, their ace, had a good outing his last time out, but he has battled injuries all year, and I am not 100 percent confident that he will stay healthy all year. RHP Brett Myers has not been a reliable starter his whole career, and although he was good in his last outing, does he really solidify that number two spot? RHP Joe Blanton has been up and down all year, with more bad games than good games. LHP Jamie Moyer, the wily veteran, has not looked right all year, and who knows if he’ll be able to turn things around. I would hope that he would and could, but maybe last year, (16 wins), was his last solid year he had left in him and it’s time for him to retire. Finally, RHP Chan Ho Park in the fifth spot in the rotation: well, you know my opinion on this already if you’ve been reading the blog from the beginning.

I always thought that J.A. Happ should have been the fifth starter, and still believe that to this day, but Chan Ho Park had looked good his last couple outings, (12 innings and just one earned run), but then he pitched today and came back to reality. There’s a reason that he has not been a starting pitcher in this league for the last several years, and we saw that today. I do believe he could be successful as a long innings relief pitcher, but not as a starter. So, there you go, those are their pitchers 1-5, do you have any solutions? I’d love to hear everyone’s responses before I give my own. In tomorrow’s post I’ll play Phillies GM and let you know what I would do in the next month or so when it comes to the starting rotation. For now, I’ll leave you with this: you have to admit, Phillies fan or not, it’s pretty impressive that they have stayed at or near the top of the division all season long even with all of their problems. But, what does that say about the NL East? Ahh, that is a story for another day.

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Hometeamgal says:

May 19, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Well, Mr. Blogger and Phillies’ analyst, you are “right on the money” re: Chan Ho Park and J.A. Happ. J.A. Happ is going to be the 5th. starter, and Chan Ho Park is going to the bullpen. Why didn’t GM Reuben Amaro, Jr. read your blog from the beginning?

Maybe, the aura from being World Series Champions is helping the Phillies stay in the game and in the race despite their starting pitching woes.