Actually, by the end the pen wasn't mightier than much of anything
December 27 2006
Up to number five on the
list of the biggest decisions of the 2006 season:
#5: Phillies don't make a move to strengthen the bullpen down the stretch
after trading away Cormier and Franklin.
Things happened quickly after the Bell trade. The biggest deal of the year,
Abreu and Lidle to the Yankees, went down just a couple of days later.
Randy Wolf returned from Tommy John surgery. And seemingly almost as an
after-thought, the completion of the cleansing of the no-longer necessary
pieces for a team rebuilding, the Phillies dealt away Rheal Cormier and Ryan
Franklin for minor leaguers Justin Germano and Zac Stott.
The Phillies were 49-55 the day they traded away Cormier and his 1.59 ERA.
Franklin, who had thrown to a 4.58 ERA with the Phillies, would go about a
week later. It didn't look like it would matter at all. The Phillies were
simply bad, and they had just traded away Bobby Abreu. At the time,
the pen was a strength of the team.
The thing was, the pen had been solid in big part because of Cormier and
Franklin, not in spite of them. And by the end of the year it became
perhaps the biggest problem.
By the end of August the Phillies were in a playoff hunt despite hovering
around the .500 mark. On August 29 they beat the Nats 10-6 to improve to
66-65 and found themselves just a half game out in the Wildcard chase in a
weak National League.
Their unlikely push for the playoffs had already begun, starting in
mid-August. They had called in the cavalry and the cavalry turned out to be
surprisingly old, a right-handed outfielder who could share time with
Dellucci in right in Conine, another option at third in Jose Hernandez, and
Jamie Moyer for the rotation. A left-handed bat off the bench in the person
of Randall Simon would arrive in early September.
What they didn't do was make a significant addition to the bullpen.
The Phillies had a couple of big problems with the pen down the stretch as
two key pitchers went down with injuries and one was simply unable to get
people out.
Tom Gordon had been lights out all year. He cruised through April, May and
June and started July with a sparkling 1.91 ERA. On July 19 Bobby Abreu hit
a two-run double in the top of the ninth off of Trevor Hoffman to put the
Phils up 5-4 in San Diego and Flash needed just nine pitches in the bottom
of the inning to earn his 22nd save. His ERA was 2.06. Two days later he
gave up a two runs in an inning and on the 23rd got hit hard again, giving
up two runs in an inning for the second time in two appearances. On the
25th of July he made his longest outing of the year, throwing 41 pitches
while allowing an unearned run on three hits and three walks.
Gordon made four outings without being touched after that but got hit hard
on back-to-back outings on August 11 and 12, giving up five runs in 2 2/3
innings. Gordon wouldn't pitch again for the Phillies until September 7.
On August 21 he was put on the DL with a right shoulder strain. Gordon
would pitch decently in September when he returned, throwing to a 3.60 ERA
in ten appearances.
During 2006, the 38-year-old Gordon threw to a 2.06 ERA in his 40 games
through July 19 and a 5.85 ERA in his 19 games after July 19.
If Gordon had been lights-out for most of the year, Arthur Rhodes had
certainly not. It was Rhodes who couldn't get through the eighth inning on
the game on the 25th of July, forcing Manuel to bring in Gordon for what
would be his longest outing of the year. Rhodes' ERA for the season hit
6.23 after he was charged with a run in 2/3 of an inning on the 25th. He
was good for the Phils in August, however, throwing to a 3.27 ERA in 13
appearances and notching three saves while Gordon was unavailable. He would
appear in just three games for the Phillies in September -- Rhodes strained
his elbow in a game against the Marlins on September 9 and would be done for
the year.
Perhaps stranger than two older pitchers breaking down at the end of the
year was what happened to Ryan Madson. He simply got shelled in September
as part of a small group of pitchers that Manuel felt comfortable using. In
16 relief appearances Madson threw to a 6.89 ERA.
Oddly enough, the thing that didn't happen was Fultz or Geary breaking down
completely. As workhorses in the pen Geary was a rock and Fultz made a
contribution although in a changed and lessor role. Geary threw to a 2.04
ERA in 17 2/3 August innings and a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 innings in September.
Fultz got shelled in his last three outings in August, allowing eight earned
runs in 2 1/3 innings, but followed it up by pitching well in reduced action
in September, throwing six scoreless innings over eight appearances. The
six innings Fultz threw in September were the fewest for any month of the
season -- he threw at least 11 in every other month.
And there were others. White and Condrey and Smith and Sanches and Smith.
But it wasn't enough.
The thing is, Cormier and Franklin by themselves would have helped, but they
probably wouldn't have been enough, either. Franklin made it through the
season for the Reds, throwing to a 4.60 ERA in August and a 4.70 in seven games in
September. After leaving the Phillies with a 1.59 ERA, Cormier would end
the season at 2.44 overall after throwing to a 4.50 ERA with the Reds in 21
games in August and September.
But if even Cormier and Franklin weren't the answer, the Phillies needed
help and they just didn't get it. The back of the Philllies bullpen was
old. It wasn't a sure thing they going to run into problems at the end of
the year, but it was certainly a possibility. The team strengthened itself
in a lot of other areas, especially their starting pitching, for their
stretch run, but they virtually left their pen alone and it came back to
haunt them.
The pen remains the Phillies' weakness today. Even if you count on another
terrific year from a healthy Gordon, the pen is still short. At Gordon's
age the team has to plan for him to miss time with injury or break down at
the end of the season. At the end of last season both he and his fellow
grizzled veteran Arthur Rhodes did just that, and the Phillies didn't have
enough depth in their pen to bail them out.
This
article laments the fact that the Rangers have passed on drafting
pitchers like Cole Hamels.
There's a review of the Phillies' 2006 at the team's web site.