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Monday, March 30, 2009
Myers or Blanton for opener

More for you chewers to chew on, courtesy of Jim Salisbury.  He's covering the beat today while I work on the season preview, and let's just say the poor guy picked a busy one.  After Cole Hamels threw 64 pitches in four minor league innings and allowed 10 hits, three runs, one walk, five strikeouts, he said he felt good, but needed one more practice start.  Rich Dubee said that either Joe Blanton or Brett Myers will start opening night April 5.  Hamels is on track to pitch this Saturday's exhibition in Philadelphia against Tampa Bay and the fourth game of the regular season, in Colorado April 10. 

Posted by Andy Martino @ 5:06 PM  Permalink | 24 comments
24
Comments   
Posted 05:10 PM, 03/30/2009
Muck the Fets
Blanton?
Posted 05:28 PM, 03/30/2009
RAS
April 10 in Denver. R U kidding me? It'll be below freezing up there. I'd wait to pitch Hamels in the next series at Washington.
Posted 05:57 PM, 03/30/2009
luke5513
Blanton will win 15+ games this year. I love this guy!
Posted 06:25 PM, 03/30/2009
bobbyuk
Blanton and Park have been the two best pitchers in spring training this year. Myers was doing very well--then got lit up in his last start--so did Moyer.
Posted 06:31 PM, 03/30/2009
Mh225
Why Blanton?
Posted 06:34 PM, 03/30/2009
celtic_13
Good point RAS. Why not give Hamels the start for the Ring Game? Seems like the natural choice.
Posted 06:43 PM, 03/30/2009
OppoJack
Luke - I completely agree. Blanton will have a good year for the Phils.
Posted 07:06 PM, 03/30/2009
CenterCityPhan
I like Blanton, too. It's nice to have choices.
Posted 07:17 PM, 03/30/2009
pattymac3
Blanton has pitched really well but Charlie will give the ball to Myers if only out of respect to the opening guy last season.
Posted 07:46 PM, 03/30/2009
RAS
When is the ring game?
Posted 10:13 PM, 03/30/2009
mick314
Blanton will get the call and Myers cant complain about it as Dubee has a picture of Brett making out with Dan Gross.
Posted 10:40 PM, 03/30/2009
Captain Awesome
Manwich Joe Blanton!
Posted 11:49 PM, 03/30/2009
fcskills
Myers should not get the ball for this game; he will be so amped up that he will overthrow all of his pitches and his mechanics will be terrible. See all of the games last year when his meatball... I mean fastball stayed up about an inch too high in the zone and his curveball hung like a beer league softball. Blanton needs to throw hard to be most effective... give him... or dare I say... Park the ball.
Comment removed.
Posted 07:49 AM, 03/31/2009
Gmanonskis
I think Myers deserves another shot at opening day. Hamels needs to pitch the day he is ready - they've gotta get as many starts / year from their ace as possible. If it's 34 degrees in Denver, tough break.
About Andy Martino and Matt Gelb














Andy Martino is in his second season on the Phillies beat. A former New York City public school teacher and graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he previously wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered baseball and worked with the award-winning investigative sports "I-team." Follow him on Twitter here.

Matt Gelb is in his first season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He also interned at The Inquirer in 2008 and has covered just about every sport for the paper. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.

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