General

Do The Phillies Have Too Many Starters?

Aug 6, 2009, 5:45 PM UTC

J.A. Happ might have been pitching for his job last night. With the addition of Cliff Lee to the Phillies rotation and the signing of Pedro Martinez the week before, the writing was on the wall for Happ. You’re going to the bullpen.â†µ

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â†µWhile Lee’s first start was a gem -- one of the two best outings for a Phillies pitcher this season -- Martinez is still working the kinks out of an arm that hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since last September. The talk in Philly is who will be in the rotation and who will be jettisoned to the bullpen when Pedro comes up. Conventional wisdom would be that Happ, the rookie -- although he’s hardly a rookie after playing a key role on last year’s World Series team -- would draw the short straw and go back to the long man role in which he started this season.â†µ

â†µâ†µLast night against the Rockies, Happ pitched a complete game, four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts -- his second complete game shutout of the year and easily one of the most dominating starts of his career. Not to be outdone last night, Martinez struck out 11 batters in a rehab start with Reading, including nine punch-outs in the first four innings.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe Phillies have a situation on their hands, and it’s a good situation to have: too many starters and not enough starts. So who goes to the bullpen? Clearly, it shouldn’t be Happ. Happ has gone six or more innings in every start since June 20th (nine) and is 4-2 in that span, with his only poor outing coming against the St. Louis Cardinals on the day he thought he was going to be traded. He’s only given up 15 runs in his last 58 innings (10 runs in 52 innings if you take out that St. Louis game). He deserves to start.â†µ

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â†µAccording to MLB’s Todd Zolecki, who spoke with Phils GM Ruben Amaro, Happ isn’t going anywhere.â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“Happ’s not going anywhere. He’s not going out of the rotation,” Amaro said. “He deserves to stay in the rotation. He has pitched very well. He’s one of our most effective starters.”â†µâ†µâ†µPedro didn’t sign a contract to sit in the bullpen and deserves at least a chance to start. So who? Amaro thinks the Phillies can go with six starters. To many fans, it’s obvious who should go to the pen.â†µ

â†µâ†µJamie Moyer. Sure he leads the Phillies in wins, but he also “leads” all starters in ERA (5.55) by a country mile. The solution? Make Moyer a de facto long man/bullpen pitching coach. Who knows, Pedro could break down in a month, and Ol’ Jamie will be right back where he’s been. For now, he’s still extremely valuable to the team, just not in the starting rotation.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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