The Phillies seem to have been on a roller coaster the past few weeks. When they’re away from the comfy confines of Citizens Bank Park, they look like they are the top team in the National League. When they’re back at the Bank, however, the team just can’t put it together. That’s bass ackwards.
The Phillies just don’t seem to be playing very consistent right now. I think that it’s a result of not having certain players on the team step up and snap out of their funk.
Taking a cue from this week’s poll, I’m just going to throw my opinion out there.
I’ll start with the most recent Phillies player to fall flat on his face. Brad Lidge has been pretty bad recently. I’m willing to cut him some clack because of what he did for the WFC last season, but he still needs to step it up. The blown save on Saturday against the Yankees was terrible and he deserved to blow that save by making bad pitches. Sunday’s blown save wasn’t nearly as bad. A few seeing-eye singles and a stolen base blew that game. He seemed to pitch better than he had the day before, but he needs to find out where “Lights Out” went and bring him back.
Jimmy Rollins started off this season in a terrible slump. He knew it, everyone knew it. Rollins un-retired from the prediction game to come out and say that he was going to bat .400 in the month of May. While not batting .400, his 255 BA is still a lot better than the .207 he had in the first month of the season. J-Roll is a, if not the, leader on this team. His struggles in the leadoff spot have hurt this team on many different occasions, but he’s adamant on being a leadoff hitter and Charlie Manuel seems to agree. Jimmy needs to get back to just being a leadoff hitter and not trying to be a power hitter, as he thinks he has become.
Jamie Moyer has tried 4 times to get career win #250. Last night seemed to be his best chance, but the Phillies offense couldn’t get it done. Jamie gave up a three run HR to former Phil Wes Helms, but Moyer wasn’t getting any leeway on the sides of the plate by the home plate ump. In order for Moyer to be effective, he needs to get some pitches on the outside edge of the plate. When he gets squeezed, as has been the case recently, he can’t rely on putting pitches where he wants. When he gets squeezed, he has to put his pitches closer to the center of the plate, and that comes back to bite him in the ass a lot.
J.A. Happ has pitched extremely well so far this season. He pitched well enough out of the bullpen to earn a promotion to the rotation, a place I thought he should have been at the start of the year.He deserved the win on Saturday against the Yankees, but Lidge decided to blow the save. Happ is young, but he has the stuff to be in the rotation for years. I’m glad he is finally getting his chance to pitch on a regular basis in the rotation. Now, he has the potential to be this year’s Kyle Kendrick, but I think he has enough to stick around for a while.
All in all, I really think the one that needs to step it up the most is Lidge. The Phillies’ offense can provide enough offense to support Moyer’s usually pretty high ERA and they can also produce runs when someone is in a slump, like Rollins. Happ is only being asked to be better than Chan Ho Park, and that shouldn’t be too hard.
Lidge needs to get back to that point where he was “Lights Out.” The Phillies need to know that when he comes in the game, it’s over. They need other teams to know that as well. You can’t have players wondering about their closer. They need to have confidence that he’s going to end the game. Last year, once the Phillies got to the 7th inning, the game was pretty much over with J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson, and Lidge coming in to end the game. With Romero coming back soon, I hope that the end of the bullpen can get back to what it was last season.
This Phillies team is dangerous enough without their shutdown closer. Just imagine what it would be like to have him back to form? Oh right, we don’t have to. It happened last year.
-KK
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