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Each was linked to a major question hanging over Charlie Manuel's ballclub on Opening Day. One was the what-were-the-odds-of-this-happening pairing of White Sox righthander Gavin Floyd and Tigers comebacking veteran Freddy Garcia. Who would have thunk it?
Floyd was a dud when the Phillies gave up on him and shipped him to the White Sox along with lefthanded prospect Gio Gonzalez for Garcia, who was coming off a 17-victory season.
No need to repeat the rest of the horror story. You know it by aching heart.
More irony: Floyd pitched the Sox into the Twins playoff with his 17th victory. And for the second straight year, Garcia was a one-game winner.
It was an epic flip of former flops.
The other story involved the pitcher the Phillies were forced to acquire when Garcia went on the DL with a shoulder injury that required major surgery after the season. Kyle Lohse was acquired from the Reds for prospects and pitched well enough for the Phils to attempt re-signing the free agent last winter. But agent Scott Boras put a top-of-rotation price on the righthander's head. Lohse wound up signing a 1-year deal with the Cardinals for much less than the Phillies' final offer, then proceeded to win 15 games.
Boras finally hit the Mother Lohd Monday. Lohse signed a 4-year deal for $41 million that includes an unrestricted no-trade clause.
This was a season where the Phillies answered most of the many questions that hung over them when it began.
Could they replace Kyle Lohse in the rotation?
Could Jamie Moyer pitch as well at age 45 as he did at 44?
Would the league catch up to Kyle Kendrick?
Adam Eaton?
Could Charlie crack the whip if he had to?
Would new closer Brad Lidge recover from an early spring-training setback in his rehab from offseason knee surgery? Confidence was in short supply when Lidge showed up at his press conference on crutches. Then, on his first formal warmup pitch in February with cameras rolling, something clicked in the knee and Lidge didn't make his first appearance until Sunday, April 6, in Cincinnati.
Lights Out Lidge? From that moment on he was a walking blackout.
Moyer? A rubber-armed Methuselah.
Kendrick? Kaboom.
Eaton? Deadest money this side of Lehman Brothers.
Charlie? Kenesaw Mountain Manuel.
The Garcia fiasco was just one of the occluded areas to disrupt the 2007 pitching staff. With Tom Gordon about to go down, Opening Day starter Brett Myers was moved to the bullpen. He set up at first, then closed when Gordon went to the DL. The more he did it, the better he got and by the time the Phillies won the East pennant on the final day, Brett was a first-class closer. And he loved it.
The other big story line was the righthander's move back to the top of the rotation. Brett didn't take it as a promotion. Would he be physically and mentally able to slip back into a starter's routine?
Myers became the only major ongoing concern in a staff that enjoyed remarkable physical health from the day pitchers and catchers reported. Myers was the only starter to go down. And that wasn't "down" with an injury. It was "down" to the minors for a quartet of meandering starts at three levels. He played more one-night stands than U2.
But when Myers came back up, he locked himself into the best stretch of his career - just in time for the Phillies to reassert themselves in a division race that appeared to be slipping away.
A respectful nod to pitching coach Rich Dubee for the job he has done conditioning, aligning and handling a staff that features baseball's deepest and most effective bullpen.
Pat Gillick has been GM of four teams - Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners and Phillies. All have played in the postseason. The man has an amazing ability to build rosters with a minimum of holes. His main 2007 pickups were Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs. Werth showed the tools this season that made him a No. 1 draft pick when Gillick was in Baltimore. Gillick knew Dobbs from the Mariners' system and the part-time third baseman has become the game's best pinch-hitter. Pedro Feliz played to his scouting report - great glove at third, unerring gun of an arm and a low-average hitter with sporadic power. Geoff Jenkins? So Taguchi? So, who's perfect?
Joe Blanton was underperforming in Oakland when Gillick picked him up in July for B-List prospects. He is just about what you expect from a No. 4 starter and has enough upside potential to consider bringing back.
There were scoffers when Gillick filled out the bullpen with waived Rudy Seanez and Scott Eyre. But the front end trio of Chad Durbin, Seanez and Eyre have combined for 13 victories. Eyre is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA. They reflect not only strong general managing but excellent scouting. Gillick, special assistant Charley Kerfeld and big league scout Chuck LaMar operate far under the radar. Pat's Aloha shirts are said to be made of the same stuff that makes stealth bombers invisible.
There were lots of questions on Opening Day.
The answers will be on display today. *
Send e-mail to bill1chair@aol.com.
For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/conlin.
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