Being the Phillies, prior to the game there was talk of removing Eude Brito from the rotation if he faltered (a good idea) and replacing him with Ryan Franklin (a bad idea). Brito faltered, alright, but it should be argued Franklin outdid him, serving up a home run to Alfsono Soriano, the first guy he faced in so-called relief. In an otherwise surprisingly dependable bullpen Franklin remains the lone liability. He arrived in town with a reputation for giving up the long ball and his recent appearances have done nothing to dispel that perception.
In the end, starting pitching is still the name of the game and the Phils really don't have enough. I, for one, am not exactly looking forward to Jon Lieber's return. He had one good outing this year and one decent appearance; otherwise, he has been lousy, serving up a lot of home runs for an alleged ground ball pitcher. Ryan Madson? Encouraging, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. He wasn't exactly impressive in LA and while he beat a good hitting Diamondbacks team the Phils appear to have caught them when they were suffering a bit of a letdown. I need to see several good outings from Madson before I anoint him the number three or four guy let alone the answer. Cole Hamels? I remain guardedly optimistic. To take any other approach given his physical history just doesn’t make much sense. Corey Lidle? A career .500 pitcher, so we can expect win one/lose one going forward. Brett Myers? No doubt about it; he is the most dependable starter at this point.
I'm sorry, this is not a championship caliber staff.
3 comments:
it should have been at least a playoff caliber staff.
I put that on the individual pitchers not doing what they are paid to do. Individually some of them are letting us down. They needed all of them to fulfill what they can do.
Cory Lidle is a better pitcher than what he has shown us. Jon Lieber is better than what he has given us. They're letting us down.
Ryan Franklin, well he was a mistake from day one.
I suppose Myers was due for a stinker, but a tip of the cap to him for not having one until nine and a half weeks into the season.
This team will continue to tantalize everyone's playoff hopes, only to inevitably fail in the end. They don't have the horses and even though there's signs of improvement to this end - they still don't have the know-how.
RSB: No tip of the cap from me as I am about to say in my next post.
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