The Phillies haven’t been exactly setting the world on fire with the starting pitching this year, and let’s look at some of the reasons why.
First we’ll check out a list of the best pitcher’s in the MLB, and the numbers that they have put up.
It’s Clayton Kershaw leading the way so far with a 1.40 ERA in 64.1 IP, and his 4-2 record. He’s given up 4 HR and has 67 SO. Closely following Kershaw is Shelby Miller from the St. Louis Cardinals.
We have a top 15th finisher so far, in a surprise, it’s Kyle Kendrick sporting the 15th best ERA in the MLB at 2.47 with is 4-1 record, I think at this time, he has to be a frontrunner for an appearance in an All Star game.
What are the rest of the Phillies doing? Let’s look at the snapshot that I took tonight of Phillies pitching:
We all know about Roy Halladay, and his troubles. We knew something was wrong, and Halladay could no longer hide what was happening to him. In 7 games, he was in a word, awful. 2-4 with 9 HR and 33 ER later, Halladay is out for probably most of the year at 8.65 ERA. We may never see him again in a Phillies uniform on the mound, it would be a terrible way for him to end his Phillies career, but it just may happen like that.
Cole Hamels got his 6th loss the other night, he’s hasn’t been too good, sporting a 4.61 ERA and suddenly the talk is starting, ‘is Cole Hamels injured too?” He has an incredible 24 BB so far and has given up 9 HR, which is the same as Halladay.
Cliff Lee has been having a respectable year so far in comparison, he is 4-2 with a 2.86 ERA only issuing 9 BB but has surrendered a team high 52 H already to opponents.
Jonathan Pettibone has been a bright spot and of course Kyle Kendrick have been the bright spots for the Phillies in a definite surprise for all of the fans of the team.
What is the problem with this team? Look at this pitching and the hitting that we’ve seen so far from the offense and it’s hard to believe that they are almost a .500 team. Just think they could be doing with only a little bit more success from both pitching and offense.
It’s the Cincinnati Reds in for the weekend series, those Phillies bats better start waking up or we’re going to be seeing some serious shake ups on this team by the All Star break. Then we may be asking, did the Phillies wait too late to try to retool this team that isn’t working. We’ll see what happens next.