As I was leaving Thursday afternoon’s Business Persons Special at CBP with the Phillies losing in extra innings to the Manny-less Dodgers, I was thinking, where the hell are our WFC?
The Phillies were sitting at 16-16 after losing 2 of 3 to Los Angeles. The starting pitching had been a mess all season and the team was struggling mightily at home. They just couldn’t seem to get it together. There are a few different reasons for this, in my opinion.
1. Still riding the hangover from 2008. I’ll admit, I’ve had a hard time coming down from the high that was the 2008 season, but as a fan, I’m allowed to never come down from that. As professional baseball players, these guys need to forget about what happened last season and start getting their shit together for 2009. I think a few recent events have helped the team to forget about `08. First, the team played the Dodgers and now can go a while without playing them again. There were tons of questions asked of the Phillies about last season’s playoff series against them. That certainly didn’t help them to focus on this season.
The final ceremony honoring the 2008 WFC finally happened on Friday morning with the Phillies in Washington. The Phillies finally got to meet with President Obama. at the White House. I feel that having this final ceremony honoring last season’s champions will finally allow the team to focus on this season, and this season alone. I’d also recommend that the team took the World Series patches off of their jerseys, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
2. Pitching has been terrible. The last game against the Nationals just continued this point. Chan Ho Park didn’t even make it out of the 2nd inning. He was clearly laboring throughout the first inning and into the second, and he just didn’t have it. The bullpen came in however and held down the fort so that the offense could get it going.
This team is built to win with offense, but they also need their pitching to be able to hold them in games. They’ve all had some trouble so far this season. Jamie Moyer has gotten rocked in his last two starts and really needs to get it together before creating an awkward situation for both him and the team. If Moyer can’t start, there’s no other spot for him. He can’t be a reliever and would obviously refuse a demotion to the minors.
If I was running the team, I’d put J.A. Happ into the rotation and pull Park into the bullpen. Happ has worked extremely hard out of the bullpen so far and has done more than enough to warrant a start. He would have gotten the start on Saturday night, but having to pitch in relief of Friday night screwed him out of the start. He’ll be in the rotation shortly. The Phillies need him.
3. The bench hasn’t been producing. The bench has been atrocious this season. Besides Matt Stairs and his 2 pinch hit home runs and a few other clutch hits, the rest of the bench has been terrible. Greg Dobbs needs to find his stroke that he had last season where he led the team with pinch hits with 22. Miguel Cairo has just been atrocious. He’s been sent down to Lehigh Valley in order to clear some room for the extra pitcher that the Phillies need to carry for a bit. Hopefully Cairo stays down in AAA for a bit and the Phillies go out and get a better bench bat than Cairo. He’d be good to keep around as insurance, but he’s been terrible off of the bench. Chris Coste, while I love him, hasn’t been producing either. He’s been able to stick around because he’s a serviceable backup catcher who can provide some offense off the bench when needed. He hasn’t been doing that so far this season, so some have been calling for his head. His time here in Philly does seem to be nearing an end in the near future though. Lou Marson will be up here next year, and that will most likely spell the end of Coste. Until that happens, the bench needs to step it up.
After this weekend’s sweep of the hapless Nationals, the Phillies are now 4 games above break-even point. They might have turned the corner on their maddeningly inconsistent play over the first part of the season. They have an off day tomorrow, so there is a concern the momentum may be lost, but they’ll have to try and focus.
With the off day, it allowed the Phillies to bump Jamie Moyer back a day so he could face the Marlins and not the Yankees in their bandbox of a new stadium. Cole Hamels gets the start on Tuesday, so it would be a good opportunity to continue this streak that they’re on.
Just goes to show how much things can change in a span of 48 hours. The Phillies looked like they hit a wall, but all it took was four games against the Nationals to right the ship. Maybe they’ll be able to keep it going this time.
-KK
