Frustrating Phillies

It has been a while since I have had anything to say about the Phillies. That is not to say that I have been following them any less or more, but the ups and downs of a team with the best record in baseball are certainly quite remarkable considering, well, that they are the team with the best record in baseball (45-28). Normally, when a team has the largest lead in any division in baseball (4.5 up on the Braves) and one of the best starting pitching staffs ever assembled, there should not be much of a complaint about what they are doing on the field. But as a diehard Phillies fan, avid standings/statistics checker, and writer of this blog, I have to wonder… Are the 2011 Phillies a frustrating team to watch?

What do your conversations consist of with your friends when the Phillies are brought up? What are you texting your buddy in the 7th of another low scoring game? Are you surprised when the Phillies don’t score, or is it expected? Are these questions you normally ask about a team that is on pace to win 100 games?

My texts generally consist of things like this:

“What the _ _ _ k was Howard swinging at there?”

“Great at bat Jimmy”

“Man, Hamels is dealing”

“Would it kill them to get a hit with runners in scoring position?”

“Does Wheels ever shut up?”

And so far fifteen times this season.. “The FAT MAN!!”

Regardless of what happens from April to September, this season and this team that Ruben Amaro and former Phils’ General Manager Pat Gillick have put together will be looked at as a failure if it does not end with the second parade down Broad Street in four years. If that is the case, shouldn’t we be enjoying this regular season a bit more than we are? I know it is nice to see that once Kyle Kendrick takes his turn in the rotation that we will almost certainly be the favored team for the next four games. It is a good feeling when you wake up on Tuesday morning and know Doc Halladay is taking the mound, but do you find yourself worrying about who the starter will be for the other team? In 2007, I could care less whom the other starter was, frankly, I did not think it mattered. We were going to score runs off of whoever took the mound (I preferred right handers just because that gave Ryan Howard a better shot at a home run) but I knew we would score. I worried about the bullpen holding our lead, but I did not worry about Jimmy getting on base, or wondering if Chase still had it. Right now, every game seems to be a worry as to whether they will score enough runs to win.

Take this past weekend for instance, the Phils rolled into Seattle (When I was a kid, I always wanted to see the Phils play Griffey and as soon as interleague play came around he bolted for Cincinnati and was never the same) on a serious high. They were the winners of seven straight, including four in a 45 hour stretch against the Marlins, and were coupled with the Red Sox as the hottest team in Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, the Phils managed to scrape seven runs together in three games and lost two of three to the Mariners. Believe it or not, their win did come against reigning Cy Young winner “King Felix” Hernandez, but they were shut out on Sunday wasting yet another stellar performance from Cole Hamels. Shutouts or getting one to two runs have become commonplace for a team that still features Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the middle of the lineup.

How many times this season have you looked at the clock and saw that it was 8:10 PM and the game was already in the bottom of the 5th inning and scoreless? You were probably flipping channels and waiting for Howard’s at bat and watching Cliff Lee breeze through the lineup. The Phillies pitchers work fast and they are some of the best at what they do. It is obvious when they are in a groove, innings fly by, strikeouts and zeroes pile up on the scoreboard. But then you look at who is pitching for the other team. You realize it is a journeymen, it may be somebody you have heard of, but it might not be, yet it seems as if they are matching the Phils Cy Young award winners pitch for pitch. You think, actually, I am not going to print what you think, but how can this be happening? Why do Oswalt, Hamels, Lee, and Halladay constantly have to walk on eggshells while they are out on the mound? You do not assume any of them are going to blow the game, but when the other team is constantly one pitch away from tying the game, or taking the lead, it is inevitable that losses can and will occur.

Obviously, at 45-28 the Phils have done a good enough job on the offensive end to take command in the NL East, but I just wish I was more ecstatic about the state of the team. Aside from Oswalt being a little shaky, you cannot ask for more from Halladay, Lee, and Hamels. Do yourself a favor and check out the main pitching categories (wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA, WHIP) and you will find all three in the top five or top 10 of every one of those categories. Their statistics are mind boggling. Hamels has to be the front runner for the Cy Young award at this point, and he finally seems to have figured out he cannot control everything in a game and has become unflappable on the mound. Halladay is Halladay and on a bad day he is going to give you seven innings and three earned runs. On a good day, he cannot be touched(Sorry Major League Baseball is really cool and does not allow copyrighted material on youtube, get a clue Bud Selig?). Lee may have the highest ceiling of them all. He has had his share of shaky outings this season, but when he is on, he is absolutely lights out. He struck out 17 in seven innings earlier this season, and took the loss.

The Phils will most likely ride this pitching staff to their fifth consecutive NL East Division championship (only 9 more to match what the Braves did from 1991 to 2005) but what happens when we go up against another dominant pitching staff (read Atlanta or San Francisco again)? Will we put up enough runs to ride the pitching staff into the sunset and down Broad Street? Only time will tell, but for now I just hope the offense catches fire and I stop worrying about who the third starter is when we play the Brewers.

Werth Watch

For the first time this season, the play of the Washington Nationals as a team is a bigger story than the signing of the bearded one. The Nats had reeled off eight straight wins before losing last night to the Orioles. Jayson Werth has not been the catalyst for this, but his move to the leadoff position ($126 million for a leadoff guy?) has coincided with this current streak. During the eight game win streak, Werth managed six hits and seven strikeouts. Yikes. He is hitting .232 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs.