Blanton, Halladay and Kendrick have combined to not walk a batter in twenty innings. Happ, Halladay and Kendrick have combined not to allow a run in 20 1/3 innings.

Yesterday Kendrick shut out Baltimore for four innings but the Phils lost 4-3. Kendrick left with a 1-0 lead, but Escalona got hit hard again after Kendrick left the game. Escalona was charged with three runs in the fifth inning, raising his spring ERA to 13.50. Drew Carpenter followed Escalona and allowed a run over three innings to drop his spring ERA to 1.13 over eight innings.

Polanco went 2-for-3 in the game to raise his average to .375 (9-for-24 with nine singles).

Saturday Happ threw four strong innings as the Phils topped the Twins 5-4. Happ held Minnesota to a single single and struck out three before Bastardo got hit hard in the sixth inning. Bastardo allowed four runs on five hits — only three of the runs were earned. Durbin, Madson, Contreras and Baez all threw a scoreless inning in the game. Francisco hit a solo shot in the game and Cody Ransom had a three-run homer. Clay Condrey pitched the sixth for the Twins and allowed a run on a pair of singles.

This suggests that Madson will close if Lidge can’t start the year.

Scott Eyre may be open to the idea of pitching again.

First cuts of camp for the Phillies included Scott Mathieson, Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, Jesus Sanchez, Joe Savery and Drew Naylor.

Amaro says it’s probably unlikely that Romero will be available to start the season in the article linked above. I think it’s definitely unlikely.

Not many people have been blown away by what Bastardo, Zagurski or Escalona are doing in spring training.

The five pitchers who have started spring games for the Phils so far, Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Happ and Kendrick, have combined to throw to a 1.87 ERA with an 0.96 ratio and struck out 19 over 24 innings.

Yesterday Blanton and four other pitchers combined to throw a three-hit shutout as the Phils topped the Tigers 4-0. Blanton threw four scoreless innings and Savery two. David Herndon, Scott Mathieson and Yohan Flande each tossed a scoreless frame. Detroit had three hits in the game, all singles and all off of Blanton. Ibanez homered for the Phils and Utley and Victorino each had a pair of hits. Utley raised his spring average to .545.

Mathieson has now struck out four in two scorelss innings. Herndon has pitched three scoreless innings, allowing two walks but no hits.

Article about Herndon here.

Carpenter is trying to get Madson’s help with his change-up.

Today’s games against the Rays and Tigers have been cancelled due to awful weather.

Phillies starting pitchers overall combined to allow about .495 runs per inning in 2009. Those five pitchers combined to allow about .439 runs per inning, which is about 88.7% of .495.

Halladay threw 239 innings last year, which would have been about 25% of the total innings thrown by starting pitchers if he had thrown them for the Phillies and the Phillies starters had still thrown their 963 2/3 innings. He had a 2.79 ERA and a 1.13 ratio in ‘09 and it seems like he may be able to reproduce those fantastic numbers with the move to the NL.

Blanton seems like a good candidate to be about as good in 2010 as he was in 2009.

Hamels seems like a good candidate to be better. Maybe a lot better. He also seems like a good candidate to eat up more innings than the 193 2/3 he pitched in 2009.

Happ seems like he will drop off a little. Moyer will be better or pitch less.

It seems reasonable to assume that the improvement by Hamels and the Moyer spot in the rotation will outweigh the drop off for Happ. As starters, Hamels and Moyer combined to throw 337 innings with a 4.75 ERA and a 1.35 ratio in 2009. Hamels and Moyer, or whoever takes over for Moyer, are going to combine to be a lot better than that in 2010.

If those five did exactly what they did in 2009 again in 2010, here’s what the other Phillies starting pitchers would have to do in 2010 for the Phillies to match their 2009 totals in these categories:

Insert your own Jose Contreras joke here, but someone in the starting rotation is going to be a lot worse in 2010 than they were in 2009 or the numbers for the rotation are going to get better overall.

The Phillies beat the Blue Jays 4-2 yesterday. Hamels sat down the first nine men he faced before allowing a solo homer to Jose Bautista to start the fourth. Ryan Vogelsong followed Hamels and allowed a run over 2 1/3 innings. JC Ramirez pitched the last three innings and held Toronto to a pair of singles while striking out three. Cody Ransom hit a solo home run for the Phils. Dobbs doubled twice. Mayberry was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles to raise his average for the spring to .368.

Kyle Drabek started the game for Toronto and pitched two scoreless innings.

This says Brad Lidge will pitch in a game on Monday.

He improved his rate of getting hits in 2009 over ‘08 and ‘07, posting a .279 average. His strikeouts were down as well — for the second straight season the percentage of plate appearances in which he fanned went down. That’s where the good news ends, though, as for the third straight year his home run rate fell and for the second straight year his walks fell.

Here’s the percentage of plate appearances in which Howard has homered, walked, struck out or got a hit over the past four years:

Again, the good news is more hits and fewer strikeouts. The bad news is that the walks are way down since 2007 and the home runs are falling to. In defense of the declining walk rate it’s important to notice how dramatically intentional walks have fallen off for Howard in the past two years. In 2006 and 2007 he was walked intentionally 72 times. In 2008 and 2009 he was walked intentionally just 25 times. Also, even if his home run and walk rates are down since 2006, it’s important to remember 1) that he was absurdly good in 2006 (he hit 313/425/659 with 58 homers and was MVP of the league) and 2) in 2009 he was fifth in the league in runs created, third in homers and first in RBI. So he’s still rather productive.

Roy Halladay threw three scoreless innings last night as the Phils topped the Braves 7-4. Madson allowed four runs in the fourth inning, only two of which were earned (Dobbs made an error at third in the frame). Drew Carpenter threw three scoreless innings in the game. Baez allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless inning and Escalona threw a perfect sixth. Werth hit a two-run homer and Mayberry and Francisco each drove in a pair of runs.

Victorino saw his first spring action and went 1-for-3 with a single.

This article suggests Moyer is the heavy favorite to be the fifth starter. In the article, Rich Dubee suggests that the fifth starter likely won’t be decided by which player pitches best in spring training. I think chances are good it will be decided by which player has a name that rhymes best with Ramey Hoyer.

The group of players walked in about 14.9% of their plate appearances in 2009 on average. Howard walked in about 10.7% of his. The only player on the list who drew walks less often was Aaron Hill.

The Yankees beat the Phils 7-5 yesterday in a game that featured Jose Contreras allowing six runs on six hits and three walks over 1 2/3 innings. Kendrick pitched very well before that, throwing three scoreless innings. Scott Mathieson struck out two in his inning, but allowed a run on a single and a double. Mayberry went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and Rollins was also 2-for-4 with a solo shot.

It sure seemed like Moyer was a heavy favorite to win the fifth starter job. I still think he is, but it’s great to see Kendrick pitching so well.

Halladay will pitch in tonight’s game against the Yankees. Victorino, who has missed time with a sore shoulder, is expected to play.

Charlie Manuel tops Gene Mauch and Dallas Green in this poll on best manager in Phillies history. I concur.

Hitters (13): Ruiz, Howard, Utley, Polanco, Rollins, Ibanez, Victorino, Werth, Schneider, Gload, Dobbs, Castro and Francisco.

Sure looks like it’s a tough task for Brown to work his way on to the roster, not matter how well he hits this spring.

Pitchers (12): Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Moyer, Madson, Durbin, Baez, Contreras, Bastardo, Kendrick, Escalona.

Romero and Lidge on the DL. Pretty low confidence in the Bastardo, Kendrick and Escalona guesses, especially Escalona. The other 22 look like sure things and Bastardo seems closer to a sure thing than Kendrick or Escalona.

No change there for me since the last guess, which came on February 12.

The Phillies are 1-2 in spring training after two losses and a tie since the last post.

Yesterday they lost to the Rays in ten innings, falling 5-3. Happ and Aumont combined to throw five scoreless innings to start the game before Joe Savery gave up three runs in the sixth. A two-run double by Domonic Brown, who is hitting .538 so far this spring, tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Yohan Flande threw a scoreless ninth inning but gave up two runs in the top of the tenth. Jimmy Rollins had a solo homer in the game and Ross Gload went 3-for-5 with a double.

Saturday the Phils and Pirates played to a 3-3 tie in ten innings. Blanton gave up three runs in the bottom of the first, two of which came on a two-run shot by Ryan Church. Baez and Zagurski both pitched two scoreless innings in the game. Jesus Sanchez had another impressive outing, striking out two in a perfect bottom of the tenth. Brown went 2-for-3 with a walk.

On Friday the Phils fell to Toronto 14-9. Hamels celebrated the start of a brand new year by giving up a home run to the first man he faced. He pitched better after that, allowing a run on two hits and a walk in two innings overall. JC Ramirez, Ryan Vogelsong and Bill White followed Hamels and combined to give up 13 runs over three innings. Bastardo struck out two in a perfect eighth. Tyson Gillies went 2-for-2 with a home run and Brown was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI.

Moyer had an impressive outing in the B-game against Toronto on Friday. He struck out three while tossing three scoreless frames.

Lidge will face hitters on Wednesday and Romero is “a ways from facing hitters.”

Victorino still has a sore shoulder and will not play today against the Yankees. Kendrick is expected to pitch in today’s game.

There were five teams in the NL last year that allowed fewer runs than the Phils. They were the Dodgers, Giants, Cardinals, Braves and Cubs.

By runs allowed per nine innings there were six teams whose starters were better than the Phils in ‘09. They were the five above plus the Rockies.

By runs allowed per nine innings there were eight teams better relievers than the Phils. The five above plus the Reds, Brewers and Padres.

If every team plays a similar amount of innings, it’s tough to allow fewer runs overall if both your starters and relievers are worse than the Phils at preventing runs per nine innings. So I don’t think there’s a lot of confusion about how the teams that didn’t have better starters or relievers wound up allowing more runs overall than the Phils. Here’s how the total runs allowed for the four teams that had better starters or relievers than the Phils in ‘09 looked for the season:

Despite the fact that they allowed more runs per nine innings, the Phillies relievers allowed fewer runs overall than Milwaukee or San Diego. The Brewers bullpen threw 52 more innings than the Phillies pen while the Padres threw 79 2/3 more.

The Phils scored two in the ninth to top the Yankees 3-2 yesterday. Timing, fellas. Halladay struck out three in two perfect innings and was followed by Kendrick , Contreras and Carpenter, who each threw two scoreless frames. Ozzie Chavez doubled in Juan Castro to put the Phils up 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh. Sergio Escalona got hit in the top of the ninth, yielding two runs on four hits as the Phils fell behind 2-1. Paul Hoover tied it up with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth and Wilson Valdez’s infield single scored pinch-runner Dewayne Wise to give the Phils the win. Polanco made a throwing error at third and dropped a wind blown foul ball. Release the hounds.

Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer are expected to pitch this afternoon as the Phils face the Blue Jays.

Um, really?

Of the 16 teams in the NL, it seems fair to say that the Phillies starters were seventh best in the league and the relievers were ninth best in the league.

That’s a little misleading, though, because the Phillies had some awful problems with their rotation in 2009. They started the season terribly. At the end of May, Phillies starters had thrown to a 5.86 ERA and a 1.51 ratio over 48 games. They had an awful stretch to end the season as well. They didn’t get a quality start in their last 12 games, pitching to a 6.60 ERA and a 1.66 ratio over those games. They were pretty good in between, though. Here’s their ERA and ratio by month for 2009:

In June, July and August, Phillies starting pitchers threw 499 1/3 innings with a 3.41 ERA and a 1.25 ratio. Atlanta’s starters had the best ERA in either league in ‘09 — they threw to a 3.52 ERA with a 1.27 ratio for the season.

The Phils beat Florida State 13-6 last night in their first spring training action, a game that was most notable for an ugly debut for Phillippe Aumont. Aumont got hit hard in the third inning, getting just two outs while being charged with five runs on three walks and two hits, including a three-run homer. The Phils outscored Florida State 13-1 after finding themselves in a 5-0 hole in the third. Dane Sardinha went 2-for-2 with a double and four RBI and the Phillies walked 16 times in the game. Drew Naylor, Joe Savery and Jesus Sanchez threw four perfect innings to end the game and struck out nine batters combined. Happ got the start and allowed a single and a walk over two scoreless innings.

The Phils play the Yankees this afternoon, with Halladay and Kendrick expected to pitch.

So who were they? Well, opponents put up an .802 OPS against the Phils in the second inning in 2009. There were three pitchers who faced at least 100 batters in the second and allowed an OPS worse than .802 — Moyer, Blanton and Happ. Opponents hit to a .786 OPS against the Phils in the fifth. Two Phillies pitchers faced a hundred or more batters with an OPS worse than that — Blanton and Moyer.

Blanton and Moyer are on both lists. Moyer just had a rough year all around and his numbers for the second and fifth weren’t remarkable compared to the other innings in ‘09, but here’s what batters did against Blanton in the second and fifth innings compared to what they did against him in all other innings in 2009:

Nine of the 128 batters that Blanton faced in the fifth inning in 2009 homered (7%), but just four of the 266 (1.5%) he faced in the third and fourth innings.

Happ notably got hit real hard in the second and the sixth and pretty much not at all any other time in the game. Overall, the sixth wasn’t a big problem for the Phils. It was for Happ, though. Here’s his second and sixth versus all the other innings he pitched in 2009:

Happ was pretty much untouchable when he pitched in the fourth or fifth innings last year. The 190 batters he faced combined to go 35-for-171 against him (205/271/304). Apparently the batters were resting up for the sixth, though, when they pounded him to the tune of 362/402/649. So there was some drop off.

Happ starts tonight against Florida State. Phillippe Aumont is also scheduled to pitch. Victorino will not play with a sore shoulder.

The article linked above also suggests that Amaro is not currently pursuing any trades or signings.

Interesting stuff on Happ in this article.

Phillies opening day payrolls 1986-2010 here.

The table below shows the Phillies rank in the league for runs allowed by inning per game in which the team played that inning (so, for example, a team that played 158 games in which they pitched the eighth inning would have their total runs allowed in the eighth divided by 158 while a team that played 161 games in which they pitched eighth inning would have their total runs allowed in the eighth divided by 161). Remember that the Phils were sixth-best in the NL in runs allowed overall, so any inning in which they were worse than sixth they were worse than they were overall compared to the rest of the league.

The post from last week showed that, compared to their 2008 season, the Phillies dropped off the most in the second, fifth and ninth innings. Those are the same innings the Phillies fared the worst in during the 2009 season when you compare their runs allowed per game to the other teams in the league.

Hamels is working on improving his curve ball and adding a cutter.

This suggests that Chan Ho Park had an opportunity to stay in Philadelphia and make $3 million on a one-year contract. He eventually signed with the Yankees and will make $1.2 million with a chance to make an additional $300,000 in incentives.

JC Romero is trying to be ready for opening day but needs to be realistic.

JA Happ will start tomorrow’s game against Florida State. Halladay, Kendrick and Andrew Carpenter will pitch Thursday against the Yankees. Hamels and Moyer on Friday against Toronto. Blanton on Saturday when the Phils play the Pirates.

Victorino has a sore shoulder and may not play in Wednesday’s game against Florida State.

This lists the Phillies top prospects as ranked by Baseball America for 2008, 2009 and 2010.