It's the pitching, stupid
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It's the pitching, stupid
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — A season ago, the Phillies were 30-47 when they scored three or fewer runs. That means they won 39 percent of the time when the offense was anemic. Only five teams in the last 30 years had a better winning percentage and it was a large reason why the Phillies won a franchise-record 102 games in 2011.
Those Phillies had a 3.02 ERA, the lowest for any team since the 1989 Dodgers, who had a 2.95 mark. They allowed 3.27 runs per game in 2011, the franchise's lowest clip since 1917.
They are allowing 4.33 runs per game in 2012 and have a team ERA of 4.00. Both figures are worse than the league average. And when scoring three runs or fewer, the Phillies are 4-23 (.148), a far cry from the clip established a season ago.
In 11 June games, Phillies starters have a 5.77 ERA.
"I think that's partly because you do see Roy [Halladay] down," Charlie Manuel said. "That definitely has something to do with it. But the other thing is we're just not getting it done."
Exactly. It's not because of one man. Kyle Kendrick has floundered. But so too has Joe Blanton, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee. Vance Worley hasn't pitched deep into a game in his return from injury.
The days of Four Aces seem like forever ago.
The bullpen is in shambles. A payrolll of $178 million bought the Phillies this on Tuesday: Their five pitchers were Kyle Kendrick; three minor leaguers in Joe Savery, B.J. Rosenberg, Jake Diekman; and Chad Qualls, who was signed late in the winter off the scrap heap.
So what to do? Not much. The Phillies have called up just about every possible arm. Mike Stutes and David Herndon are far away from a return — if there even is one.
Tyler Cloyd has pitched well at triple-A Lehigh Valley, but there are no guarantees he carries his pinpoint control to the majors. Even if the Phillies were to move him into the rotation and send Kendrick to relieve a depleted bullpen, it's difficult to say an upgrade has been made.
"If we score seven runs," Manuel said, "we can win some games."
It'll have to be with the current crop of pitchers showing improvement.
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Kendrick and Blanton do not belong in the starting rotation. So it's Kendrick to the pen to become the mop up specialist and Blanton to Broad Street. Qualls is no set-up man. So it's to Broad Street with him too. Rosenberg needs more trips to Dorney Park and a picture of Broad Street to hang on his wall. Valdes should be back in Philly. Given time, the 4 lefty bullpen will pay dividends. Time to empty the farm or acquire outside help for the pitching department. Also time to unseal the envelope that contains Rich Dubee's job description. In the spirit of investigative journalism, it may also be time to start asking why Phillie pitchers are injured so much - and Phillie position players as well. Aren't these guys supposed to be athletes, as in the human subclass defined as strong of arm and fleet of foot? Here we are only one-third of the way through the season and the Phils are starting to look like something out of a Solzhenitsyn novel.— onthebucks- How did all the other teams do who were 15 back in mid-August?— jtj10
- Would all the would-be managers have used Savery or Rosenberg? Do the fans really think anyone could manage with such options. Oh, I forgot, most of the posters would use Papelbon every day. That is, after they traded him. Those fans deserve this team. They're a perfect marriage.— 2smart4philly
- If Lee is pitching so great, let's try and see who will take him off our hands and give us a decent position player in return - third baseman, 2nd baseman, leftfielder, centerfielder - any one would be fine.
Lee and Pence may not be the big time players we thought they were. Maybe they were happy to be stars on bad teams and they don't measure up when they are playing for all the marbles.— candidly - Does Victorino really have any trade value?— joepir
- Friend of mine from the DV Area thinks that they should have traded Utley to an AL team two years ago. I didn't agree at the time but my friend looks like a swami now. Thome's performance in interleague play may be marketable for some missing pieces come sell time (I know, I know. Everyone loves Big Jim, but bidniz is bidniz)>— drbob456
- Victorino by his own admission says his hand only bothers him when he bats LH! So why doesn't he bat RH only? He is batting over 300 RH and 225 LH. Why doesn't Cholly get involved in this decision?— larryv
