Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 1:08 PM | 87 comments |
 

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
options
 
Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick is consoled by manager Charlie Manuel after lasting just 11/3 innings against the Marlins.

Things suddenly look very unsettled in the Phillies rotation.

The Phillies need a starter for tomorrow night's series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. They might need another starter Sunday, too.

Kyle Kendrick got rocked last night in a 10-8 loss to the Florida Marlins. He allowed seven runs in 1 1/3 innings, which made last night the worst start of his career. His previous worst start happened Aug. 11 against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, where he allowed seven runs in 3 1/3 innings. Kendrick is 1-4 with an 11.35 ERA (29 earned runs in 23 innings) in his last six starts, beginning with that start in Los Angeles.

He has not pitched six innings once in that stretch.

He has allowed six or more runs four times.

If this were the beginning of the season, the Phillies could afford to be patient with Kendrick. But there are only 17 games left and they're 2 1/2 games behind the Mets in the National League East and three games behind the Brewers in the wild card.

They need to make up some ground quickly. Kendrick is not helping matters.

"We'll talk about our pitching. We'll try to figure out the best possible way for us to go," Charlie Manuel said about Kendrick's spot in the rotation.

The Phillies appear to have a few options at this point:

  • Give the ball to Kendrick.
  • Give the ball to lefthander J.A. Happ. He allowed five hits and three runs in 31/3 innings in relief of Kendrick. But he also had an 8.49 ERA in his last three starts for triple-A Lehigh Valley. The Brewers also hit .275 against lefthanders, compared to .247 against righthanders. "This is the stretch drive and he's kind of inexperienced with where you're going to put him," Manuel said. "I'm not saying he can't do the job because I've seen him pitch a good game, and he's going to be a good big-league pitcher."
  • Adam Eaton? Manuel would not even say that's a possibility last night, and for good reason. Eaton was 4-8 with a 5.80 ERA before the Phillies optioned him to the minors in July. He went 0-4 with a 7.02 ERA in seven starts in the minors. If he had shown signs of anything positive in the minors, maybe they could go this way. But he actually pitched worse against minor-league hitting.
  • Pitch Brett Myers on three days rest. He has pitched on short rest just once in his career: Oct. 3, 2004. He is 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA (three earned runs in five innings).
  • Make it a bullpen day.

I expect to know more about tomorrow night's starter before today's series finale against the Marlins. The Phillies might not announce a decision on Sunday's starter until later this week.

*

Bob Ford writes that with 17 games to play it's no time for Manuel to be patient with his players. Go with the hot hand.

*

In the Phillies Notebook: Jamie Moyer could pitch on short rest tomorrow night.
Posted by Todd Zolecki @ 1:08 PM  Permalink | 87 comments
87
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:29 AM, 09/10/2008
    Anyone else tired of yelling at their TV when Charlie leaves pitchers in that obviously don't have it? Geez, even Stevie Wonder could see that Kendrick was floundering, but Manual and Dubee just act like it's ok, Blanton, Kendrick, Eaton, Madson, pick a name , they will come out of it. The Mets won't hand it to us this year and now we are in the position of having a 45 year old start on short rest. I hope Carassco is watching this at home, but we didn't need any quality pitching, we needed a past their prime outfielder (Stairs) and a another bench player who won't play (Uguchi). Ugh.
    — jimmymack
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:34 AM, 09/10/2008
    I was surprised Happ didn't get the start last night. He really needs to be used as a starter, not as a long reliever.
    — JayW
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:46 AM, 09/10/2008
    jimmy-great line about steveie wonder. I think you're being unfair to staris. he's been great since he got here. Pinch hitting very well, filling in at RF, etc. Only thing he can't do is run and (charlie listen closely now) that is why we brought up Golson. As for pitching- I said yesterday that we needed to start Happ last night and go to a three man rotation for as much as possible. Everyone called me Gene Mauch--well, you wanted kendrick--hope you enjoyed. Uguchi will be here next year as the back up infielder instead of Brunlet. He was great last year for us, and we owed him.
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:50 AM, 09/10/2008
    excuse the typos. That was bad even for me....
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:01 AM, 09/10/2008
    17 games to play. That was the magic number last year. Lets see how our boys respond this year. Let's get a W today and go from there. And thank God we miss CC.
    — Beef69
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:06 AM, 09/10/2008
    no, he's not. He's on the beach in Venuzuella. A better option may be Carpenter (the guy who pitched so well against the yankees in Spring Training. What they are going to do, however, is give Happ the starts
    — jeff gross
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:11 AM, 09/10/2008
    I'll give the Phils props for battling back after a 9-1 deficit to come w/in 2 runs. I agree they should've had Golson even Iguchi to pinch run for Stairs and they might've gotten another run. I think they should give Happ a chance as a starter on Sunday. I know he's inexperienced and he wasn't fabulous last night, but it couldn't be any worse than Kendrick is right now.
    — KarenA
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:21 AM, 09/10/2008
    Anyone is better then Kendrick right now. Besides Eaton. I think they have no choice but to pitch Happ. Happ would have gave his team a chance to win. Kendrick was done before he took the mound last night. He body language is terrible. He just does not have it right now. And no time to wait until he gets it back.
    — Beef69
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:21 AM, 09/10/2008
    Jeff, you can't go to a 3 man rotation. It would be a Gene Mauchesque overreaction. Jamie Moyer is 45 years old! Cole Hamels is in the midst of his first healthy season and has never thrown so many innings before. The pitchers would be ineffective within 2 weeks. You just can't do it for 3 weeks straight. Heck in the playoffs teams don't even go with 3 man rotations. Go with a 4 man rotation the rest of the way. Battle it out on Blanton's starts. Its the best move. I'd rather sacrifice a little bit 4 more times for him to start than push the rotation too much and have them throwing 5 innings without their best stuff for the rest of the year and consequently burning out our bullpen.
    — Chewy59
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:29 AM, 09/10/2008
    Jeff, I understand the frustration. I really do. BUT pitching guys on short rest is usually not the answer. They are not trained to do it and you are asking for trouble. Zo points out that Myers has only done it once in his career. Moyer hasn't done it since 2004 and the last time he did it after throwing 100 pitches in the previous start was in 2001! Hamels, well we are all well aware of the issues that surfaced over asking him to pitch on his regular rest against the Mets. What was it, the first time all season that he made 4 consecutive starts on 4 days rest? Don't get me wrong, I would love to have guys be able to go on short rest when you need them...AND BE EFFECTIVE. That's the conundrum for Manuel and Dubee. They have to decide whether Moyer, Myers, or Hamels at 75% will give us a good enough start to justify exposing them to the very real possibility of an injury that could very well affect the rest of this season and beyond. It's not that I WANTED Kendrick to pitch. It's just that I do not want to see Moyer or anybody else pitch on short rest, give us an abbreviated, less than effective start, and get injured or limit their effectiveness for the rest of this season and beyond. If Manuel and Dubee do not want to expose them to that kind of risk, they have no choice but to go with Kendrick. He was obviously not their first choice, as it took them a while to finally give him the start, but they had to put somebody out there and their other options weren't the greatest either. I think it's really the limited options we have that have really backed us into a corner here, so, if you want to be ticked at anybody, be ticked at management for not giving Manuel and Dubee more than 3 starters they can count on.
    — bski
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:36 AM, 09/10/2008
    Can we please dub the Kyle Kendrick experiment a failure? Can we please not depend on him as a member of our rotation for next year? Everyone writer, analyst, scout and their mother last year told us that what Kendrick accomplished was admirable, but would be short-lived. The guy has a very unimpressive two-pitch repertoire, an average-at-best sinker, and a below-average slider. They keep making him throw a crappy change up, and none of his pitches are effective in the strike zone. If he throws strikes, he gets smoked. If he doesn't throw strikes, he walks the ballpark. Good night, Kyle. I am very sorry, you seem like a nice kid, and I wish you could do well, but you are simply not a Major League starting pitcher. As for the rotation the rest of the season, all I can say is...ugh. We're in trouble. Myers, check. Hamels, check. Moyer, ok. And how feeble were Utley and Howard's 9th inning ABs?? Since when is Arthur Rhodes Randy Johnson??? They were bailing like John Kruk in the '93 All Star Game, for Pete's sake!
    — RollinsWasRight
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:38 AM, 09/10/2008
    jeff: gotta agree. I was screaming at the TV for Charlie to get Kendrick out just before, predictably, Jorge Cantu took him deep and blew the game wide open. If I hadn't just paid about $1000 for this new TV a few weeks ago, I may well have thrown my beer at it.
    — RollinsWasRight
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:40 AM, 09/10/2008
    We should have gone after Burnett, look what he's doing with the Bluejays... Could have had Burnett, Holliday and Fuentes, got Blanton, Stairs and Eyre. Not quite the same at all!
    — AChamp1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:42 AM, 09/10/2008
    Did anyone read what Zo said about Happ's 8.49 ERA in his last 3 starts in Lehigh? He's not the answer either. I don't know if there is an answer really...
    — Gary Varsho


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