Phillies Breakdown: Pitching Depth

With the acquisitions of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez, the Phillies seemingly have a surplus of starters on their 40-man roster. Once the relief pitcher injuries straighten themselves out, the Phillies bullpen might be just as deep. Rodrigo Lopez, who as spot-started five games, made his first appearance out of the pen last night. That still leaves six starters for five potential starters:

1. Cole Hamels
2. Cliff Lee
3. Joe Blanton
4. J.A. Happ
5. Jamie Moyer
6. Pedro Martinez

Meanwhile, the relief corps has been hit by injuries and some inconsistency this year, led by Brad Lidge's less-than-perfect season. Chan Ho Park has been a pleasant surprise in the pen, becoming much more dominant there. And, with Brett Myers' recovery from hip surgery way ahead of schedule, the bullpen could get a shot in the arm. Assuming everyone regains their health, here is how their relievers would stack up:

1. Brad Lidge
2. Ryan Madson
3. J.C. Romero
4. Chan Ho Park
5. Scott Eyre
6. Chad Durbin
7. Clay Condrey
8. Rodrigo Lopez
9. Brett Myers

Obviously there are a total of 15 pitchers listed and the Phillies will most likely carry 12 or 13 into the playoffs. However, once Major League rosters expand to 40 players on September 1st, you can expect to see all of these names, health pending, on the active roster. You would expect that all six of the starters identified will remain on the roster, leaving the question to be which of the latter three will be moved to the pen. Despite his dominance this season, the most likely candidate is Happ.

This also begs the question of Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched all season. Martinez pitched well in an August 5th rehab start, and he could be able to join the Phillies rotation as soon as their August 11th or 12th in Chicago. This might make sense, considering Pedro has such dominant numbers against current Cubs (mostly against Alfonso Soriano).

So now for the statistics. Here are the current statistics for the afore mentioned starters (excluding Pedro Martinez, who has not pitched) in 2009, through August 5th:

Hamels: 7-6, 21 G, 123.0 IP, 4.68 ERA, 107 K
Lee: 8-9, 23 G, 161.0 IP, 3.02 ERA, 113 K
Blanton: 7-5, 20 G, 125.1 IP, 4.02 ERA, 107 K
Happ: 8-2, 26 G, 115.0 IP, 2.74 ERA, 86 K
Moyer: 10-8, 21 G, 118.1 IP, 5.55 ERA, 68 K

Clearly, the weak link here is Jamie Moyer. Despite not having appeared in relief since 2004 when he was with the Mariners, Moyer fits the bill of an inning-eater out of the pen. However, his style of pitching does not typically lend itself to any type of situational relief. As a result, it would not surprise me to see Moyer left off of the playoff roster, especially in a short NLDS series.

The next assumption, barring a waiver wire acquisition, would be that Brett Myers can return to a relevant role in the bullpen. If he can capture some of the magic that he had as the Phillies' 2007 closer, the team would have another power arm in the back end of their bullpen. This would most likely leave either Rodrigo Lopez or Clay Condrey off of the roster. Nevertheless, it is always good to have options, especially with injuries and inconsistency prevalent this season.

With these 15 arms, there is no doubt that the Phillies will construct a championship-caliber rotation led by Hamels and Lee. If they can creatively build the bullpen to be as effective as the starters, the Phillies' pitching depth should become a strength of the team down the stretch.

Phillies Recap: August 4, 2009

Colorado Rockies 8, Philadelphia Phillies 3

Jamie Moyer battled incosistency all night and the Colorado Rockies got the early jump on the Phillies. After the Phillies cut an early defecit in half, the Rockies offense unloaded in the sixth inning with four runs, winning the game 8-3. The Rockies' Jason Hammel evened his record as 6-6 as Moyer fell to 10-8.

The start was not what Moyer wanted as he got two batters into the sixth before being lifted for Rodrigo Lopez. Moyer gave up a secon-inning homer to Garrett Atkins and it was all downhill from there. He was tagged for six earned runs in five innings, allowing 10 base runners and striking out three. Lopez, in his first appearance out of the bullpen was not impressive as he allowed two of Moyers' runs to score, then gave up two of his own. Tyler Walker and Brad Lidge each added a scoreless frame, but the game was decided by that point.

Hammel on the other hand was much more impressive as he scattered nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, while striking out six and not walking a batter. Jimmy Rollins provided one of the few offensive bright spots for the Phillies, mashing a monster two-run homerun to centerfield in the fifth. The Phillies would go on to add another insignificant run in the sixth. Once again, the impatience of their hitters leads to a rough offensive night, and the middle of the order produced mostly strikeouts and groundouts.

However, the real story here is the rough start by Jamie Moyer. The soft-tossing lefty never found a comfort zone and saw his team draw some boos late in the game. The Phillies fall for the fifth time in six games and are now 59-45 but maintain their five game lead in the NL East. They will faceoff again with the Rockies tomorrow night as both teams now look for their 60th win of the season.