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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Things will change when and only when there are more empty seats than than filled ones.— Seegs- @dasher....you ask some very good questions......
@hoffman.....you make some very good points
While every team goes to spring training saying the right things, most teams/players/coaches already know what the season is gonna bring. Amaro/Manuel already knew the team would flounder without Utley/Howard. The players knew it and other teams/players around the league suddenly got a little more spring in their step to play against us. Still, if the BP hadn't imploded the way it has our W-L record would probably be way better than it is.
There are two things that stand out for me above all else this season as being very, very strange.......
1. Cliff Lee is 0-3 in mid June? wha, wha wha happened? Nobody in MLB could have seen that coming. Nobody.
2. I actually witnessed with my own eyes the Phils score a run on a suicide squeeze in a regular season game. I saw it! I really did.....it's been more than a month or two ago but it really happened. It worked to perfection, and to my knowledge in EVERY SINGLE instance that has begged for one since then, we haven't tried it again. I love Charles, but someone's got the lights turned out at the dinner table, folks.— Mark1npt - The Phils are 6th in quality starts with 39, on 3 behind the leaders, so I have to believe it's the bullpen far more than the starters that's responsible for this. Charlie may be guilty of keeping the starters in too long so as to avoid the 'pen, and that's where the losses come from (other than the poor situational hitting.) For QS see
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching/sort/qualityStarts/order/true— Xyzzyx - @dasher, you asked some brilliantly funny questions, especially the Herndon question and the Pence/Brown/whiteface question. Been laughing for 5 straight minutes. Question #1 about 26-year old and still raw rookies is so true but Question #3 about Charlie sitting Poppins or Victorino and if management would have his back was a bit off-kilter...no way on earth Charlie does anything to hurt Poppins' feelings. Victorino? Well, he must have pics of Charlie and some barn aanimals, that's all I can think of.
@Mark, terrific point about the suicide squeeze you (must have thought you) saw. Somehow, I had the same dream. Must be us old guys getting a bit senile.— advantasux - Matt, how bad is it to now spend every day covering the Phils? It's really gettng ugly.— farley
- Our PHILLIES are in need ofr some major changes as much as I like Chase trade him to an AL team so hecan DH. Get what you can get for Blanton. I LOVE Thome but if an AL team wants his bat as a DH send him too.As for Howardrthe same thing if you can get something in return that helps in the near future send him too. long with Victorino and Jroll too. Clean house and bring up the kids and what you get for who your traded for. Than relaod for next season there will be money to spend so you resign Hammelsbefore you make any other move and then rebuild the team new 1stbase Center fielder, leftfielder, 3rd base, remake the bullpen there wouldbe money to havea good playoff team and who knows.. but get Hammel signed 1st.— srcdaddy1216
- Seriously, scrdaddy, what teams would eat the remainder (or even a large portion) of Utley and Howard's salaries? If you can't get rid of that $45m per year, you don't have $$$ for short term improvements. We could probably sign Hammel, the O's pitcher, but I thinks Hamels in California Dreamin'.
Sigh ... sometimes I believe that the sports journalists read these posts and THEN come up with their articles.
Relevant Statistic ... last year Phils pitchers allowed a total of 120 HR (second best). This year already have allowed 71 (third worst). Starters last year 85. This year already 50. Phils WHIP is extremely good, so it's the long ball that has been the difference.— zubzub- "If we score seven runs," Manuel said, "we can win some games."
If Harold Stassen could get 270 electoral votes, he could win some presidential elections. Sounds easy by Charlie's logic.
What has Dubee done to help bring along a single one of the young pitchers on the staff? From time to time there have been outstanding pitching coaches like Johnny Sain, Johnny Podres or Charlie Lau. Phils need one now.— Claudio Vernight - The rat glued to the top of "Wheels" head... believes that game last night was the bottom. Something has to give. Big trade, fired manager or fired GM...or all 3. Plodding along like things are magically going to change seems about as silly as, well, "Wheels" hair (that is REALLY silly!).
The rat glued to the top of "Wheels" head still knows this is a long season and the Phils need to work to stay within about 5 to 7 games out come the All Star break. If so, the back half of the season offers up many divisional games & the ability to make a run. The return of Halladay, Howard and Utley will help, but certainly not the answer. This team needs a spark of energy....maybe a big change in players, manager or front office is the kick in the pants they need.
So says the rat glued to the top of "Wheels" head...so shall it be.— kelprod2 - Sign Harold Stassen. He will surely help them 'make another run for it,'— NewMick314
- One of the oldest, and truest baseball adages is: "You can never have enough pitching."
It's seems to be excepted as a trueism everywhere throughout baseball, with the one notable exception of the Phillies GM's office, where RAJ continues to repeat the same mistake over and over again by believing he's the one exception to that rule.
Whether it's trading Cliff Lee, discarding Roy Oswalt, or casting off servicible bullpen arms, RAJ always believes he has enough, always finds out he's wrong, and always compensates for his errors by further draining a farm system that was one of the best in the game, and who's success was built to a large degree by some very bright baseball men that RAJ has also discarded along the way.
In the past there was enough talent in the system to cover for RAJ's blunders, ...a guy like Cliff Lee could be foolishly traded away, and then later re-aquired, when the error became apparent, but recovering from each of these miscues has meant a hit to the farm system, and the farm system now has nothing left to offer immediate help.
I agree that the numbers of the pitching staff are down dramatically, but the problem isn't on the mound or in the bullpen, it's in the front office.
Bring back Gillick!!!!— andyd - To have a major league team that sucks is not that great an accomplishment. To have a major league team that sucks for close to 180 million, that takes some special talent! My cap is off to you, Rube! No matter what you do down the road, I'll always fondly remember you as the guy who traded Cliff Lee for three corpses.— dasher
- I know that nobody wants to believe this, but ... Pat Gillick is currently employed by the Phillies as a front-office advisor to the president/general manager. He scouted Cespedes and Soler in the offseason and flew to the DR to meet with Aramis Ramirez ... among other things.— zubzub
- Tyler Cloyd— wo_fat
