It's the pitching, stupid
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.
It's the pitching, stupid
Matt Gelb
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.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
Buy Phillies tickets 
It's all Ruben Amaro's fault. Like he could predict that almost every member of the team would be injured. It's just bad luck thats all. Oh and it's Rubens fault the Flyers lost also.— neddyflanders- in Ruben's bizarro world, as evidenced by what he's done for 3 1/2 yrs, there are basically 2 types of players: the first type are so-called "superstars" who are worth everything --no salary demand and no untouchable prospects are too much to get what you want, even if nobody else in basebll shares your enthusiasm (players who fell into this sacred category -- at various points in ruben's little brain-- were Howard, Halladay, Lee (second time, but not first around), Oswalt (boy was he wrong), Pence (boy was he really really wrong), Papelbon, Ibanez (first time around), and even Polanco, Rollins, Blanton (huh?)) ... category 2 is reserved in ruben's little brain for everybody else, which in ruben's world means they are all interchangeble as Ruben cannot distinguish between a relief pithcer who may be good but not great vs others that are completely worthless garbage (Herndon, Baez, Qualls, etc) or utility men who can get on base and play defense vs those who are simply trash (Bowker, Gload, Francisco, Bruntlett, Wigginton, etc) and so Amaro simply opts for the cheapest trash he can get and that's why his teams lost in the playoffs to teams that had better and more complete 25-men rosters -- because cluless rube doesn't bother with 25-men rosters after filling his quota of what he considers "stars" he fills the roster with trash... now his methods and inability to evaluate talent is plain to see as most of the team is indeed pure trash— warbiscuit
- @andyd, haven't seen comments from you previously but I must commend you for this one. Each ridiculous action by the GM has caused an equally ridiculous reaction, with the net effect being the decimation of a farm system recently considered 4th best in all of baseball.
— advantasux - @Mark1npt - I wouldn't fault Lee much for his current record. The guy has a damn good ERA, but each and every time he's up the Phils can't seem to do much at the plate. Frankly, that's what the entire season looks like to me, and it's a criticism that was made in the previous two seasons as well. Any time they play "small ball", they do well. Problem with that is that the team's mentality seems to be that only HRs count, not men on base or runs scored. You can't win that way.
— Yoda117 - @warbiscuit, I know you caught h*ll in the recent past for posts such as this one but I must say that so much of what you (with a few of us along in support) have put forth since the end of last season has turned out to be completely on the mark.
Painful as it is to accept, the team we love so much is nearly in ruins, the renaissance our city felt with this team and its exciting fun ballpark seems like a hundred years ago now, and no one in ownership seems to realize that cities as close to us as Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh simply have lost any hold they once had on their fan base, with no sign that their fans will soon return, despite all three competing for division leads this season.
Our ownership needs to wake up to the fact that it CAN happen here and has begin to happen here.— advantasux - Bring back Moyer. Old man can throw better then what we have out there now. Come on Rub. Jamie can step in and pitch better then Kendrick.— StewieLavin27
- This is a situation with so many problems there is no easy fix. No one on the planet should've expected much more out of Qualls. He had good numbers in a big pitcher-friendly park and bad numbers everywhere else. Contreras is about 60 yrs old. The odds of Utley overcoming his condition are pretty slim. I'm a fan but Howard has been in steady decline. Rollins is barely a shadow (where's the swagger?). I think Jimmy's a comfy family man now with no fire in the belly. It was obvious there was something wrong with Doc long before he went on the DL... Why did they sign Kendrick to an extension? Did they think people would be lining up for him when this contract ended? Why is Pierre still in LF late in games with a lead? Victorino isn't playing like it is a contract year... that's a partial list that doesn't mention Pence. I'm still watching, but it is painful.— esh
- @Claudio....Charlie Lau? Pitching coach? OMG,I've been laughing so hard I can't see my keyboard! (Lau was a hitting coach, to those of you that don't remember or weren't alive). He was the proponent of the swing and let go with the back arm method (a la George Brett)....but you're right Claudio, where are all the good pitching coaches? Every 10 years there seems to be 1. Somehow I don't think we have him :)
@Yoda....you have half a point. In about half of Lee's starts he's had 0 or 1 run support, but he's had the lead in games quite a few times that he's coughed up this year, too. The Lee of last year with 10 shutouts would have won each of those starts this year. Thus he takes some of the blame here for his record also.— Mark1npt - If Bryce Harper was in the Phillies system he'd still be 2 or 3 years away from being called up from the minors.— formerphilsfan
- Trade/bench ALL the underperforming old timers and get some new blood!!! try to keep away from the overweight has-beens!!! Dont expect Howard and Utley to do much at all and get Utley to think about rehab next year on his OWN TIME.... ie during the winter....when he is OFF... for millions of dollars he should be working year round.— westie33
- This all falls on the shoulders of Booben: gutting of the farm system, overblown contracts, etc. Not to work in the off-season to replace an obvious infield in decline (Polanco, Utley), a mediocre bullpen, and punch-less line-up was feckless and irresponsible. We're back to being the basement dwellers of the past, with no quick fixes for this train wreck of a team.— DameB
- Slowly but surely the philly.com bloggers are mentioning things like "this is what $180 million got them." It is an astounding feat. More remarkable than the Mets going 50 years without a no-hitter that a National League team with a $180 million payroll is in last place. There are no circumstances where that should be acceptable after April. No amount of bad luck, other teams fortunes, or injuries. The only other team to spend like the Phillies is the Yankees, who have been doing it since the last strike shortened season. In those 16 years they have finished 2nd three times and 3rd once. It would seem impossible to have much more mystery than "do you finish 1st or 2nd." It is truly an amazing feat which needs to be dishonored more. Amaro has shown historic ineptitude- historic! He is what Mario Mendoza is to hitting and Rich Kotite is to football coaching. At what point is he held accountable or are the Phillies' brass trying to add to the amazement by having the poorest performance by a GM in the history of sports not result in a rapid firing?— jtj10
- The Red Sox are really the closest team to the Phillies in terms of payroll. The Yankees typically spend 30-40 million more than either the Phillies or the Red Sox. Boston is also in the basement. Not that it makes it any better, but Boston is the fairer comparison. — s
- It's early yet. It ain't over til it's over. It ain't over til the Fat Lady sings. That's why we play the games. Stranger things have happened. The '51 Giants were 15 games out in mid-August.Anybody can get hot. It's who is playing best in September.
I'm running out of platitudes.— Konstanty
