Philly Sports Post - Home of the PSP Podcast

Last Monday we recorded a podcast exclusively covering opening day; the festivities, the lost parachute jumper, the Phillies on-field performance, and what the game meant in the big picture. We were concerned that the Phillies flaws were all on display, but felt one game wasn’t a big deal. After an entire week of baseball, the Phillies look better, and it appears things aren’t quite as bad as they seemed. Let’s break down the squad’s week.




Charlie Manuel: B Like I said on the previously mentioned podcast, it’s easy to be a smart manager when you have a great bullpen and clutch pinch-hitters. The bullpen, aside from Chad Durbin, has returned in 2009 just as unhittable as it was in 2008. The pinch-hitters may be off to a slow start, but its hard to knock that group after Matt Stairs gives you an instant replay of last October by hitting a game-winning two-run homer to beat the Rockies. In all it was an uneventful week from the skipper: nothing foolish, nothing brilliant.

The Rotation: F You can’t sugar coat this start, a combined staff ERA of 8.07 after 6 starts. Brett Myers has somehow managed to be unhittable while leading the majors in gopherballs. Cole Hamels looks like he has no velocity or control after his spring training elbow concerns, and if you weren’t already worried read this piece by ESPN’s Buster Olney. Joe Blanton and Chan Ho Park were lights out this spring, yet neither could get past the 4th inning of their season debuts. Finally, Jamie Moyer looked awful as well in his loss to the Braves, but to be fair Jamie has always struggled against Atlanta. His Monday start against the Nationals is much more to his talents, namely taking advantage of a young free-swinging team. Still, you can’t pitch any worse, and they came out of the week 3-3, so I feel pretty good. Kind of like returning from Tampa after splitting games 1 and 2, even though you knew the Phillies didn’t play their best ball.

The ‘Pen: A All-around a great week for the bullpen, as they collectively posted a stellar 2.63 ERA. When you take away Chad Durbin’s adventurous inning against Colorado on April 10, that ERA falls to 1.50. This unit also got an encouraging 4.1 scoreless innings from lefties Scott Eyre and Jack Taschner, easing some of the concern surrounding JC Romero’s suspension.

The Lineup: C After 18 BRUTAL innings to start the season, things have gone fairly well for the offense. Utley, Howard and Werth have all been excellent, as has surprise star Pedro Feliz, who had his best week since joining the team. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino have been disappointments at the top of the order, which may be why the 3,4,5 guys are all on fire, yet the team is just 3-3.

The Bench: D+ Matt Stairs’ game-winner aside it was a tough week from the bench. Especially concerning is Greg Dobbs’ 0-5 start considering he was a huge part of all those late-game rallies in 2008. Another solid season from Dobbs would go a long way to helping the Phils repeat.

Final Grade: C- The starters were all terrible and the team has gotten nothing from the top of the order, yet they are 3-3 so they may have gotten off easy. There is some promise that you may have found some right-handed pop with both Werth and Feliz killing the ball in the early going, but even with this balanced attack you couldn't break .500, so maybe things aren't quite so good. There’s obvious room for improvement, but .500 is .500. So let’s sit back and get a better idea of what we have before getting too concerned or excited.