Phils Pitchers Getting Ready for October

Don’t get me wrong, we have been doing a TON of NFL stuff on the blog recently, but that does not mean that we have forgotten about the best Philadelphia sports team of my lifetime.  I will get back to the week-by-week previews to make sure that they all get out in time, but I did watch just about every pitch of the Giants series and want to take a quick football break for a few Phillies comments.

Doogan actually sent me a text last night that started with “Nothing like a series with the Giants to make you feel good about your pitching staff, huh?”  And, he is right on.  The Giants are a very weak offensive team, especially with their 3- and 4-hitters (Sandoval and Molina) hobbled, and their 2-hitter out (Sanchez), but as the rest of Doogan’s text was also right on:  “But, Pedro looked pretty dominant, huh?”  So, let’s quickly talk about a few keys to the Phillies postseason pitching:

• Cole Hamels:  I think that it would be hard to argue that if Cole Hamels pitches in this year’s postseason the way he did in last year’s, that the Phillies are not only the CLEAR favorites to win the National League, but are probably the overall favorites to repeat as World Champs.  And, his outing Tuesday night was not only good-looking in the box score, but it was a much different Cole Hamels than I have seen all year.  In fact, it was about as good as I have ever seen him, including his dominance in October last year.  His change-up was just as good as it was last year and had the Giants hitters walking back to their dugout shaking their heads, looking befuddled.  That’s always fun to watch.  But, more importantly, his fastball was generating a lot more swings and misses than it has recently.  And, maybe most importantly, his curveball looked fantastic, in that he was putting it where he wanted, when he wanted, which enables him to throw it in any count.  When Hamels can mix in the curveball with his dominant other two pitches, he becomes just about unhittable.
• Brad Lidge:  Arguably the most important Phillie is also the one with the biggest question marks surrounding him.  But, this seemed like a new Brad Lidge.  During his struggles this year, Lidge was struggling in three distinct areas:  (1) hitters were not chasing the slider like they did last year; (2) when he threw a fastball anywhere near the plate, it seemed to get hit real hard; and (3) and this may be the root cause of the first two, he was not getting ahead of hitters, mainly because he didn’t seem to have that “get-me-over” slider that he used so well last year.  But, now against the Giants and a couple outings before, also, guys are chasing that slider in the dirt, he is locating his fastball better, and most importantly, he’s starting hitters with Strike One.  His best days (of 2009) may still be ahead of Lidge, which would be nice.
• One more note on Lidge, and I quoted these stats earlier on the blog, it might be simply a matter of getting him rest.  When he is pitching with at least one day of rest, Lidge has a 2.38 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP, and has pitched a scoreless inning in 75% of appearances.  When he is pitching without rest, he has a 9.95 ERA, a 1.90 WHIP, and has only pitched a scoreless inning in 44% of appearances.
• Pedro Martinez:  I don’t really think this is such a huge deal for the starting rotation because Lee, Hamels, Blanton, and Happ are clearly the four guys that will be starting postseason games for this team (and unlike the last couple of years, it doesn’t look like they will be in a major pennant race down the stretch–knock on wood), but for the bullpen, it might be big.  Pedro looked utterly dominant last night.  I am actually getting pretty excited about this bullpen now.  If Lidge can figure out the back-end, and Myers and Romero come back healthy, the Phillies could have Romero and Eyre from the left-side, and a possibly DOMINANT Madson, Myers, and Martinez from the right-side.  I would be happy to not see Chad Durbin anywhere near the 7th or 8th innings of a playoff game.
• Joe Blanton:  I know, he didn’t pitch in the Giants series, but how incredibly good has this guy been?  Honestly, I think it is getting lost in the shuffle of Lee and Pedro and rookie-of-the-year talk with Happ and Cole’s apparent reemergence.  But, the most consistent and best pitcher on this team since May has clearly been Blanton.  He has been a really steady, consistent, reliable starter in whom, with all honesty, I have a TON of confidence heading into the postseason.
• Carlos Ruiz:  As good as the pitchers have been, I think it would be wrong to overlook the impact that Carlos Ruiz has had on this ballclub.  He is quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the team.  He is so good behind the plate and SOOOO good with his pitchers.  He calls as good of a game as I can remember seeing from a catcher day-in and day-out and he works his absolute tail off behind the plate.  He’s only hitting in the .240’s, but he gets some big hits and seems to understand the role of an 8th-place hitter, in that with guys on, he has to be the RBI-guy, but with no one on, he just wants to make sure that the lineup gets turned over.  I am quickly falling in love with Carlos Ruiz.

One final note, how weird is it to be in this situation?  The Phillies are running away with the division and it feels pretty comfortable.  This team believes that they are the best team in the league and they go out every day and play like they believe that.  They are not chasing anything; they are not out their trying to prove themselves; they are not out there trying to figure out what they need to improve to “take the next step;” they have taken that step and they are just trying to maintain.  And, the best part about it is that there is no sense of complacency–they seem just as hungry as they were a year ago, they have just added the “We know we can do it” to the perpetual “We really want it.”  And, honestly, I think that comes straight from their secondbaseman…but that argument may be for another day.