Some news and thoughts as the regular season comes to a close:
-The four NL playoff teams are set in stone, but the first-round matchups are still impossible to predict. With two games left, the four teams are all within two games of each other. Three teams (the Phillies, Dodgers, and, amazingly, Rockies) still have a shot at the top seed. We know the Phillies will be playing the Dodgers or Rockies (we’ve known that for about a month), but we don’t know who will have home-field advantage, in either case. I think it’s pretty important that the Phils have a strong showing this weekend, because I don’t want to play a Rockies team coming off a sweep of the Dodgers to take the division, or play the Dodgers without home-field advantage. With wins today and tomorrow, the Phils can guarantee themselves a good position for the NLDS.
-With that in mind, the Phils are sending Cole Hamels to the hill for today’s game. They haven’t announced this, but this pretty much means that Hamels will not be starting Game 1 of the NLDS on Wednesday. The team has suggested that they might limit his pitches today, but I don’t think it makes sense to have him start Game 1 out of his normal routine of four days off, and I think the team knows this. If it had been my decision, Cole would have pitched on Friday night and been in line to go in Game 1, but now that he’s pitching today, I think it would be a pretty bad move. It looks like Cliff Lee will get the ball on Wednesday.
-Some really bad news about the bullpen yesterday: J.C. Romero is done for the season and Chan Ho Park will be out at 
least until the NLCS. The team couldn’t be sure what they would get from Romero anyway, but he was such a huge part of the ‘pen last year and, really, such a huge part of the World Series title. Assuming the Phils put eleven pitchers on the roster for the NLDS, it will likely be the following: Lee, Hamels, Joe Blanton, Pedro Martinez, J.A. Happ, Brad Lidge, Ryan Madson, Scott Eyre, Brett Myers, Chad Durbin, and Clay Condrey. Tyler Walker and Sergio Escalona are other bullpen options. If the team decides that Happ will be in the rotation, then Escalona would have to be considered to add another lefty to the ‘pen, alongside Eyre.
It was an interesting move to throw Hamels today (47 pitches, 3 innings, 3 earned runs), but I think it’s the right move. Let’s be honest and look at their careers–Lee is the better pitcher. Hamels was INCREDIBLE in the playoffs last year, yes, but Lee has been consistently good (except one bad year in Cleveland) for a long time. He is a Cy Young winner. I like the move of Lee in Game 1.
The Cardinals loss clinches home-field advantage in the first round–that’s good. It also gives us home-field against St. Louis if that is the NLCS matchup. I’m not sure who I want to play, but I’m starting to think the Dodgers would be a better matchup.
Definitely bad news about Romero and Park. I think Walker is going to be on the roster over Condrey. Not saying I agree, but I think that’s what they’ll do. And, there is talk of a Kyle Kendrick appearance in the postseason–that’s pretty scary.
I’m guessing because the awfulness of the Red Sox and Yankees media markets, the Phillies are guaranteed to play on Wednesday afternoon, right, since they want a prime time game with the Yanks on Wednesday and the Sox on Thursday. But, it has to be noted that there IS a chance that we open on Thursday, right?
Very happy to see that Cardinals loss, I thought they were gonna edge us out. I could be wrong about this, but I think I heard that both NLDS series are starting on Wednesday, with one of the ALDS series starting on Thursday.
I don’t have a problem with Lee in Game 1, but I’d go Hamels. If you look at their career numbers, they’re very close: 3.64 ERA for Hamels, 3.97 for Lee. Granted, Lee was in the AL, but Cole has pitched in Citizens Bank Park, so those numbers are pretty comparable. Plus, in September/October this year, Hamels has a 3.32 ERA to Lee’s 5.45. And on top of that, Hamels turned in one of the all-time great postseasons just a year ago, while Lee has never even pitched in a playoff game.
ya, just saw that the official schedules for the postseason have come out, at least in that both NLDS’s will start on Wednesday. it only makes sense–TV-wise–that the Phils will play the early game because you know that the Yanks (or Sox) will be in primetime, and the other game is in LA, and i doubt they’ll schedule that for 10:00am local time
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