Lou Marson & Jason Donald Olympic bronze medalists
double bobble head.
Confounding first half for R-Phils
Tony Zonca
By Tony Zonca
Progeria is a disease in which you age a half-century . . . in five years. The way Phillies pitchers have struggled up to this point, pitching coach Tom Filer will be collecting Social Security benefits by Labor Day.
The season-long pattern has been to blow late leads or fall behind desperately in the early innings.
Which holds much of the responsibility for a 39-56 Phillies record that nobody saw coming, least of all the Phillies brass.
The back end of the bullpen has blown 12 saves. The club is 9-19 in one-run games. The bullpen has a 7.06 ERA in its last 29.1 innings. The starters own an ERA of 4.68. The relievers are at 5.23. From June 1 to July 14 the club has recorded six saves . . . along with six blown saves. Patrick Overholt, who was so good so early, hasn’t recorded a save since May 25.
Wait, we’re not finished.
The overall staff ERA, its 20 saves and 91 home runs surrendered all rank near the bottom of the Eastern League. Its 397 walks (4.2 per game) are the most allowed in the league.
“We lead the league in walks and have an ERA of about five (4.89),” said manager P.J. Forbes. “We came here with high expectations for our pitching staff. All the ingredients were there. We were just worried about how the young kids were going to swing the bats here. It turned out that should have been the least of our concerns.”
The offense has been, if not better than expected, as least serviceable. Its .267 team batting average was ranked fifth in the league and its 83 home runs third. With speedsters Greg Golson and Javon Moran on and off the disabled list lately, the running game has suffered, but the offense still ranks highest among non-contending teams in the league and second-best in its division.
“I’m mixed about it,” Forbes said about the offense. “I think there are some veteran guys who could be having better years. Obviously we’d like to get Brad Harman to finish strong. (Neil) Sellers and (Luke) Appert are starting to pick it up. I’d like to have seen them pick it up earlier, because they both have Double-A experience.”
Still, it comes down to pitching and defense, which hasn’t been stellar either.
Overall fielding numbers have put the Phillies in the bottom half of the league all season. And while Phillies hitters have hit into 113 double plays, they have turned only 73 – fewest in the league.
A former infielder, Forbes believes he knows why. Again, it goes back to pitching.
“The problem is, when you walk as many guys as we do, you play long games,” he said. “Your defense is on the field a lot, and that takes its toll on them. It also goes back to the type of pitchers we have; we don’t have a lot of ground-ball pitchers.”
Confounding the situation is the fact that two Phillies – shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson – were this week named to the U.S. Olympic squad. That four Phillies – Donald, Marson, outfielder Greg Golson and pitcher Carlos Carrasco – played Sunday in the prestigious Futures Game at Yankee Stadium. And that Wednesday, an unprecedented seven players represented the Phillies in the league all-star game.
Nonetheless, is it a coincidence that it all started to unravel, that the losses began to pop up obediently like Kleenex in a tissue box, when the organization decided to convert lefty starters Josh Outman and Fabio Castro to the bullpen on May 1?
Sure, Andrew Carpenter, a 19-game winner at Clearwater last year, and Kip Bouknight, an E.L. all-star last year, were major busts and are no longer around. But the team was playing .500 ball at the time and offering no clue about what was to come.
After that move, the Phillies stumbled in May and June, finishing 18 games under .500 during that span.
“Guys were out of their roles at the time,” Forbes said. (Injured closer Justin) Pope was gone and Outman and Castro were pitching in the seventh and eighth innings. I totally understand it (the organization’s move). This was about a big-league need, trying to find a lefty (for the bullpen). I’m not crying over spilled milk. It’s just a matter of fact.”
“I’m really disappointed in what’s transpired this year,” said Filer, who has been known to take particularly bad losses personally. “I came in with the same expectations a lot of other people had, thinking that we were really going to be good this year.
“It seemed like we were going to have guys who could command the strike zone, pound the strike zone with fastballs. Really, that just hasn’t happened.”
What needs to be done to save Filer from an advanced old age?
No. 1 prospect Carlos Carrasco has to begin fulfilling his vast potential; Carpenter, should he return, has to show the stuff that made him so special last season; J.D. Durbin has to continue racking up quality starts; Outman has to find his niche, though he seems lately to be settling into his role as setup man; and Overholt has to regain his confidence and the electric stuff he had in amassing 10 saves in the early going.
“Pitching and defense win championships, period, end of story,” Forbes said in writing our ending. “You don’t win without them. Teams are always looking for them in the big leagues. The teams that win are the teams that pitch.
“Again, it all goes back to start to finish. Did we get better? Are we better at the end than when we started? That’s what I’m hoping for.”
