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Soft-throwing Tyler Cloyd has more than a few doubters he’s going to have to convince if he’s going to stick around in the Phillies rotation. So far, so good. After a decent start against the Mets in his first outing, Cloyd was fantastic yesterday, outpitching Johnny Cueto and holding the Reds to a run on four hits over seven innings as the Phillies topped the Reds 4-2.

Cloyd gave up a solo home run to Jay Bruce in the bottom of the third, putting the Phillies in an early 1-0 hole. Lerud and Cloyd singled back-to-back with two outs in the top of the fifth, though, giving Rollins an unexpected chance and Rollins hit a three-run homer to right, putting the Phils up 3-1. Mayberry extended the lead to 4-1 with a solo homer of his own in the sixth. Justin De Fratus made his first appearance with the team in a scoreless frame in the bottom of the eighth. Phillippe Aumont allowed a run on two hits in the bottom of the ninth, but still managed to nail down his first career save.

Cloyd struck out nine Reds in the game, throwing mostly in the mid-80s. After two starts he has a 2.77 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 13 innings. Righties have hit .167 against him.

The Phillies are 65-70 on the year after beating the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 yesterday. The Phils are 8-3 in their last 11 games.

Cloyd got the start for the Phillies and went seven innings, allowing a run on four hits and no walks. Two of the hits went for extra-bases, a double and a home run. He struck out nine.

He set the Reds down in order in the bottom of the first.

Cloyd struck Ryan Ludwick out for the first out in the bottom of the second. Jay Bruce was next and Cloyd’s 1-0 pitch to the lefty was in the middle of the plate. Bruce hammered it out to right, putting the Reds up 1-0. Cloyd struck Todd Frazier out for the second out and got Scott Rolen on a fly ball to center for the third.

Two strikeouts in the frame for Cloyd around the long ball for Bruce.

He struck out the pitcher Johnny Cueto and Zack Cozart in a 1-2-3 third.

Ludwick doubled with two outs in the fourth and the Reds still up 1-0. Cloyd struck Bruce out swinging 1-2 to leave Ludwick on second.

The Phillies led 3-1 when Cloyd started the fifth. Frazier led off with a single, but Cloyd struck Rolen out swinging for the first out. Ryan Hanigan went down on a popout handled by Lerud in foul territory for the second out. Cueto struck out swinging to leave Frazier at first.

Up 4-1, Cloyd threw a 1-2-3 sixth.

Ludwick reached on an infield single to start the seventh. Cloyd struck Bruce out swinging for the first and Frazier looking for the second. Rolen hit the ball well to left, but Nix took it on the warning track to end the inning.

Justin De Fratus started the eighth, making his first appearance of the year. He got Hanigan on a ground ball to short for the first out. Righty Denis Phipps hit for the pitcher JJ Hoover and De Fratus walked him, but Cozart was next and De Fratus got him to ground to third and the Phillies turned the double-play to end to turn the Reds away.

De Fratus gets it done against the bottom of the Cincinnati order in his first chance of the year. He was very good in the minors this season, throwing to a 2.10 ERA with an 0.82 ratio in 25 2/3 innings, mostly at Triple-A.

Aumont started the ninth inning looking for the first save of his career. Drew Stubbs led off and grounded to Utley for the first out, but Brandon Phillips followed that with a single to center. Ludwick was next and hit a ball in the hole between third and short. Rollins made a nice play, moving to his right to field the ball, then jumping and throwing to second to nip Phillips for the second out. It brought Bruce to the plate with two down and Ludwick at first before Ludwick took second without a throw. Aumont got ahead of Bruce 1-2, but Bruce hit a 2-2 pitch back up the middle and into center for a single. Ludwick scored and it was 4-2. It brought Frazier to the plate as the tying run. Aumont got ahead of him 0-2 and then threw three straight balls. Frazier chopped a 3-2 pitch on the third base side of the mound and Aumont made a nice play to get to the ball and throwing strong to first to get Frazier and end the game.

Aumont gets the call for the save after 20 miserable pitches for Papelbon on Sunday against the Braves. The run Aumont allowed was the first he has been charged with in four appearances with the Phils.

Two innings for the bullpen in which they allow a run on two hits and a walk. Aumont threw 25 pitches in the game and De Fratus 13.

The Phillies lineup against righty Johnny Cueto went (1) Rollins (2) Pierre (3) Utley (4) Howard (5) Mayberry (6) Brown (7) Frandsen (8) Lerud. Brown returns to the lineup to start in the right, making his first start since August 28. Lerud gets career start number two behind the plate.

Pierre singled with one out in the top of the first, but Utley grounded out behind him for the second out and Howard struck out swinging for the third.

Frandsen singled with two outs in the second, but Lerud grounded to short to set the Phillies down.

Brown hit the ball hard in the inning, but Cozart made a nice play at short for the second out.

Down 1-0, the Phillies went in order in the third.

Mayberry struck out as the Phils went in order in the fourth.

Lerud and Cloyd singled back-to-back with two outs in the fifth. It brought Rollins to the plate and he hit the first pitch from Cueto out to right-center for a three-run homer, putting the Phils up 3-1. Pierre singled, but was left on first when Utley flew to left for the third out.

Back-to-back two-out singles from Lerud and Cloyd give Rollins an unexpected chance to hit in the frame. Home run number 17 on the year for Rollins.

With one out in the sixth, Mayberry hit an 0-1 pitch out to left. 4-1. Brown lined softly to second for the second out before Frandsen singled again. Lerud grounded to first to end the frame.

Cueto set the Phillies down in order in the seventh.

JJ Hoover struck out Mayberry in a 1-2-3 eighth.

Righty Logan Ondrusek set Brown, Frandsen and Lerud in order in the ninth.

Rollins was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer. 6-for-13 with two home runs so far in September. He has 16 home runs in his last 373 plate appearances.

Pierre 2-for-4. He’s 6-for-his-last-30 with six singles.

Utley was 0-for-4 to drop his average for the year to .242. He’s 3-for-his-last-23 (.130).

Howard 0-for-4 and struck out twice. 5-for-his-last-33 (.152).

Mayberry was 1-for-4 with his 14th home run. 306/355/523 in his 121 plate appearances since Pence and Victorino were traded. 10-for-his-last-21 (.476).

Brown 0-for-4 in his return to the lineup. He’s 0-for-his-last-15.

Frandsen 2-for-4. 9-for-his-last-22. His isolated power for the year of .064 is a little better than Pierre’s (.062) but not as good as Polanco’s (.070).

Lerud 1-for-4 with a big single ahead of the Rollins homer. 2-for-8 on the year.

Kendrick (8-9, 4.01) faces righty Mat Latos (11-4, 3.79) tonight. Kendrick has a 2.09 ERA in his 14 appearances since the end of June, seven of which have been starts. 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA over his last four starts. Latos threw to a 4.77 ERA in his first 15 starts of the year. Over his last 17 outings, he’s thrown to a 2.70 ERA and opponents have hit .208 against him.

After dropping two straight one-run games to the Reds, the Phillies won one last night, plating a run in the bottom of the eleventh to win 4-3 and earn a split in the four-game set.

The game was expected to be a pitcher’s duel between Hamels and Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto. Both pitched okay on a soggy, rain-soaked night, but both saw their pitch count climb early and both were gone by the time the seventh inning rolled around. The Phillies did get outstanding pitching in the game, but it came from their bullpen. Hamels left after six and after he left, five Phillie relievers combined to throw five shutout innings without allowing a hit.

Three of the first four Cincinnati batters reached in the top of the first as the Reds jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. In the fifth, a ball hit hard to short went for a single as Martinez couldn’t handle it and Todd Frazier followed that with a two-run double that extended the Cincinnati lead to 3-0. The Phils got two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a pair of sac flies, then tied things up at 3-3 in the eighth when singles by Brown, Mayberry and Kratz loaded the bases for a sac fly by Rollins. Mayberry chopped a single into left with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eleventh.

The Phillies are 58-67 on the year after beating the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in 11 innings last night. The teams split the four-game set. The Phillies have pulled ahead of the Mets and into third place in the NL East. They’re 19 1/2 games out of first in the division.

Hamels got the start for the Phillies and went six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks. One of the hits went for extra-bases, a double. He struck out four.

The Phillies have won four games in a row that Hamels has started and scored 15 runs in those games (3.75 per game).

Zack Cozart and Drew Stubbs singled back-to-back to start the top of the first. It brought Jay Bruce to the plate and Hamels struck him out swinging 1-2 for the first out. Hamels walked Ryan Ludwick on four pitches, loading the bases for Todd Frazier. Frazier hit a ground ball to third, taken by a charging Frandsen. He might have had Cozart at the plate with a good throw, but went to first for the second out instead. Cozart scored and it was 1-0 with men on first and second for Miguel Cairo. Cairo lined a ball towards short. Martinez made a very nice play, diving to his left to field it and then throwing to first in time to get Cairo.

Hamels threw 34 pitches in the inning.

Hamels got Wilson Valdez, Ryan Hanigan and pitcher Johnny Cueto in order in the second.

He set them down in order again in the third. He was at just 53 pitches after needing just 19 to set down six in a row in innings two and three.

Cairo singled with two outs in the fourth. Hamels struck Valdez out swinging to leave him at first.

Hanigan walked to start the fourth. Cueto tried to bunt him to second, but popped it up to Kratz in foul territory for the first out. Cozart struck out and Stubbs flew to left to end the frame.

Bruce and Ludwick singled back-to-back to start the sixth, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Frazier was next and pounded a ball to center, over the head of Nix and off the base of the wall. Both runners scored, putting the Reds up 2-0. Nix didn’t handle the ball as it came off the wall for an error that allowed Frazier to move up to third with nobody out. Hamels got Cairo on a ball he handled himself for the first out. He struck Valdez out for the second before walking Hanigan intentionally to pitch to the pitcher. Cueto grounded to Hamels as well to leave Frazier at third.

Two misplays in the inning behind Hamels and Hamels does well to limit the damage to two runs after the Reds put a runner on third with nobody out.

Nix’s error allows Frazier to take third with nobody out. Ludwick’s ball was hit hard, but Martinez had a chance to make the play. He didn’t get in front of the ball, swiping at instead and deflecting it as it went passed. It would have been a good play to field the ball, but if he had it likely would have been a double-play that changed the inning.

Rosenberg threw a 1-2-3 seventh with the game tied at 2-2.

Great outing for Rosenberg, who was pitching on one day of rest but has thrown three of the last four days. He’s gone 1 2/3 scoreless innings over his last three outings after throwing to a 12.91 ERA over his first eight.

Phillippe Aumont made his debut in the eighth with the score still tied. Ludwick was the first hitter he faced and Aumont got ahead of him 0-2 on two straight swinging strikes before throwing three balls in a row. Ludwick grounded to short 3-2 on a diving play by Rollins for the first out. Frazier flew to center for the second before Cairo walked, but Aumont got Valdez on a ground ball Aumont handled himself to end the frame.

I would be absolutely thrilled if Aumont can help the Phillies. That said, I’m pretty worried about how likely that is. He’s had an enormous problem with walks in the minors, walking 4.99 batters per nine over his minor league career. At Triple-A this year he has walked 34 in 44 1/3 innings (6.9 per nine). There’s close to no chance he can be successful without cutting that number down enormously. One walk in one inning so far. He got a bunch of help from a very nice play by Rollins for the first out last night.

Papelbon started the ninth in a tie game. Coming into the game, opponents were hitting 406/472/719 against him for the year in tie games. He walked Hanigan to start the inning and pitcher Mike Leake ran for Hanigan at first. Lefty Xavier Paul hit for the pitcher Sam Demel and bunted Leake to second with the first out. Cozart flew to Mayberry for the second and Papelbon struck Stubbs out swinging 0-2 to leave Leake stranded.

Better results in a tie game for Papelbon. He’s allowed one runs in 12 1/3 innings over his last 12 appearances while striking out 14.

Horst struck out Bruce and Ludwick in a 1-2-3 tenth.

Back with the team after the birth of his son, Horst continues to give the Phillies fantastic work out of the bullpen, dropping his ERA to 1.00 after 18 innings. In his last four appearances he has struck out nine in six scoreless innings. Hasn’t allowed a home run this season. Has walked seven in 18 innings, which is too many.

Valdes set the Reds down in order in the eleventh. Righty Chris Heisey hit for Valdez and grounded to second for the second out.

Valdes was pitching for the second straight day. He has a 1.23 ERA in eight August appearances and an 0.77 ratio for the year.

Five scoreless innings for the pen in the game in which they allow two walks and no hits while striking out four. Everyone was really good, perhaps most interestingly Rosenberg throwing a 1-2-3 seventh and Aumont making his debut in a big spot in the eighth.

Valdes has thrown two straight days and threw eight pitches in the game. Aumont threw 18. Everyone else was under 15.

The Phillies lineup against righty Johnny Cueto went (1) Pierre (2) Frandsen (3) Utley (4) Howard (5) Brown (6) Nix (7) Kratz (8) Martinez. Rollins on the bench with Martinez at short. Pierre leads off. Mayberry on the bench with the lefty Nix starting in center for the third time this season. Kratz catches with the lefty Schneider on the bench. Four lefties in a row for the Phils three through six in the order.

The Phils were down 1-0 when they went in order in the bottom of the first.

Nix and Kratz singled back-to-back with two outs in the second. Martinez had a good at-bat, but popped up to first to leave them both stranded in the ninth pitch of his at-bat.

Cueto had thrown 42 pitches through two innings. He had the option of pitching around Martinez to face Hamels, raising an interesting question about which of them is the better hitter. Hamels 168/196/202 in 490 plate appearances. Martinez 187/247/276 in 298. So Martinez takes it and it isn’t real close. Hamels was out-OPSing Martinez coming into the game for 2012 — .559 to .461.

Pierre walked with one out in the third and Frandsen was hit by a pitch behind him. Utley followed with a single to center. Pierre tried to score and was thrown out at the plate. Howard walked to load the bases for Brown, but Cueto struck Brown out swinging 2-2 to leave them loaded.

Would have been better not to get thrown out at the plate, but the Reds got a great throw from Stubbs and a nice block of the plate from Hanigan to get the out. Pierre was also likely slowed a little by the very wet base paths. Even given that out Cueto was at 68 pitches after three innings. Would have been nice to make him throw some more.

The Phillies went in order in the fourth.

Hamels singled to right to start the fifth and Pierre bunted him to second with the first out. Hamels took third on a balk before Cueto struck Frandsen out swinging 2-2 for the second out. Utley lined to right to leave Hamels at third.

No run for the Phils after putting Hamels on third with one out. Frandsen can’t put the ball in play, striking out for the second out.

The Phillies were down 3-0 when Howard started the bottom of the sixth with a walk. Brown was next and doubled to left, moving Howard up to third. Righty Jose Arredondo came in to face Nix and Nix flew to right, deep enough for both runners to move up. Howard scored to make it 3-1 with one out and Brown on third. Kratz was next and flew to left. Brown tagged and scored. 3-2. Rollins hit for Martinez, who had failed to handle the hard ground ball by Ludwick in the two-run top of the inning, and went down on a ground ball handled by the catcher Hanigan.

Another extra-base hit for Brown, his third in two games. Howard is really slow, but did a nice job to tag and score on Nix’s ball to right. Likewise, if Brown doesn’t take third on Nix’s ball he can’t score on Kratz’s.

Polanco hit for Rosenberg and grounded to third for the first out in the seventh. Pierre grounded to second before Frandsen drew a walk. Lefty Sean Marshall came in to pitch to Utley and struck him out to leave Frandsen at first.

Brown singled to center off of Marshall with one out in the eighth. Mayberry hit for Nix. Righty Sam LeCure came in to pitch to Mayberry and Mayberry moved Brown up to second with a single into center. Kratz followed that with a single to left that loaded the bases for Rollins. Rollins his a fly ball to left. Brown tagged from third and slid in just safe ahead of the throw from Ludwick, tying the game at 3-3. Wigginton hit for Aumont and struck out swinging to leave the runners at first and second.

Mayberry would win the game with a single in the bottom of the eleventh, but also had a big hit in the eighth-inning rally that tied the game.

Righty JJ Hoover started the ninth for the Reds. Pierre led off with a walk. Frandsen followed with a bunt. Cairo fielded and Frandsen stopped in the middle of the base path on the way to first. Cairo swiped at him while taking a look at Pierre, but Frandsen dodged the tag and was safe at first, putting men on first and second for Utley with nobody out. Utley flew to center for the first out. Howard hit a ball in-between first and second that a diving Cairo gloved, but dropped trying to transfer to his glove. Howard had a single and the bases were loaded for Brown with one out. Brown grounded into a double-play to turn the Phillies away.

Ew. Utley can’t move the runners up and Brown hits into a huge double-play when the Phillies could have won the game with a different kind of out.

The Phillies left another army on the bases in the tenth. Kratz singled off of Hoover with one out and moved to third when Rollins followed with a double. Schneider hit for Horst and grounded to third for the second out with the runners holding. Pierre popped to third to end the inning.

Nothing for the Phils after putting runners on second and third with one out. Schneider grounds to third for the first out with Kratz holding third.

Frandsen singled to center off of righty Alfredo Simon to start the eleventh. Frandsen moved to third on a double by Utley and Howard was walked intentionally, again loading the bases for Brown. Brown grounded to first with Cairo fielding and throwing home for the force out Frandsen. Mayberry was next with the bases still loaded and he chopped a ball through the left side of the infield and into left, scoring Utley to give the Phils a 4-3 win.

Second big hit of the game for Mayberry in three at-bats.

Brown had three at-bats in the game with the bases loaded. None of them went well. He struck out swinging with the bases loaded to end the third. With a chance to win the game in the ninth with one out and the bases loaded, he grounded into a double-play. With one out in the eleventh and the bases loaded again he grounded to first.

Pierre was 0-for-3 and walked twice. He was 0-for-11 with two walks in the series. 256/302/314 over his last 136 plate appearances. 301/343/366 for the year.

Frandsen 1-for-3 with a walk. Struck out with a runner on third for the second out in the fifth. 5-for-8 in the series with a walk and a triple. 357/400/440 on the year in 91 plate appearances.

Utley 2-for-6 with a double. 5-for-18 with two doubles in the series. 250/354/464 for the year.

Howard 1-for-3 with three walks and struck out twice. 4-for-14 with a home run and five walks in the series. 250/335/464 on the year. 322/394/593 over his last 66 plate appearances.

Brown was 2-for-6 with a double and left nine men on base. Had some trouble in his at-bats (three of ‘em) with the bases loaded. 6-for-17 in the series with a walk, three doubles and a home run. 286/362/405 for the year.

Nix 1-for-2 with an RBI and an error in center that required an impressive effort from Hamels not to cost the Phils a run. 1-for-5 in the series. 253/323/410 for the year. 178/240/200 over his last 50 plate appearances.

Kratz was 3-for-4 to raise his average to .319. He started three of the four games in the series and went 6-for-10 with a walk, a double and a home run. 319/383/725 on the year in 81 plate appearances. Across both leagues there are 445 players with at least 75 plate appearances for the year. His .725 slugging percentage is best among those players by a whole lot. Justin Ruggiano is second at .615.

Martinez 0-for-2 with a big no-play on the Ludwick single that helped the Reds score two runs in the sixth. 0-for-2 in the series. 148/200/246 in 66 plate appearances for the year. Rollins was 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI in the game. 4-for-16 with three doubles in the series.

Mayberry was 2-for-3 with a game-winning single. 5-for-15 with a home run in the series and 238/279/399 for the year.

Kendrick (6-9, 4.20) faces righty Edwin Jackson (7-8, 3.69) tonight as the Phils faced the Nats. Kendrick has thrown 15 scoreless innings over his last starts, allowing eight hits and one walk while striking out 13. He has a 1.93 ERA over his 12 appearances since the end of June, five of which have been starts. Jackson’s hit rate is the best of his career — he has allowed just 124 in 144 innings and opponents are hitting just .232 against him (righties .218 and lefties .245). He’s coming off one of his best starts of the year, having allowed two runs on two hits and a walk over seven innings while striking out 11 Mets his last time out.

After eight more scoreless innings from the starters, the five guys who have started for the Phillies in official spring training games have a 1.41 ERA and an 0.81 ratio. Kyle Kendrick has surprisingly been the best of the bunch, allowing just four hits over nine scoreless innings without walking a batter. It may be enough to make him wish he pitched for a team that was considering spring training when choosing its starting rotation.

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.

While the Phils struggled some in the early innings last season, it was still the relievers who had more trouble overall. The table below shows the Phillies rank in the NL for starters and relievers for 2009 in ERA, ratio, runs allowed per nine innings and runs allowed per batter faced:

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.

The second, fifth and ninth were pretty clearly the problem innings for the Phils in 2009. When your closer puts up a 7.21 ERA for the season you don’t have to look real hard to figure out what went wrong in the ninth, but it surely means there were some guys pitching a lot and getting hit real hard in the second and the fifth, too.

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.

It might not be till we’re well into the 2010 season, but I think that when the batting order settles down for the Phillies it will go Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Polanco, Ruiz. In this article, though, Manuel seems to suggest that the Phillies may start the season with Polanco hitting second and Victorino hitting sixth or seventh.

I think he’ll change his mind before 2010 is over. Either way, are the Phillies better off with Polanco or Victorino hitting second?

If you were to make the decision based solely on their numbers from last season, Victorino was clearly the better hitter and the better choice to fill the two-hole in the order. Victorino hit 292/358/445, topping Polanco’s 285/331/396 line for the year in all three categories.

One of Polanco’s biggest problems in 2009 was that he didn’t hit left-handed pitching. At all. Both Polanco and Victorino have been good hitters against lefties over their career — Polanco has a 316/357/462 line against them for his career and Victorino is at 288/357/479. Polanco struggled against them in 2009, though. He played a full season and hit a weak 266/304/434 against left-handed pitching while Victorino pounded away to the tune of 314/385/459.

Given how much better Polanco’s career line against left-handed pitching is than the numbers he put up last season, it sure seems likely he’ll bounce back against lefties in 2010. Lets’ hope so, especially if he’s going to be hitting second against them.

The chart below shows numbers for Victorino and Polanco for ’09 and for their careers along with the average numbers for #2, #6 and #7 hitters in the NL last season (although I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of lineups in ’10 that include Utley, Howard, Werth and Ibanez with none of those players hitting second that would have Victorino hitting sixth). They are ordered by OPS.

So, again, Polanco didn’t have a good 2009. He was outhit by the average NL #2 hitter while Victorino was a lot better than the average #2 hitter. On the other hand, over their careers both players have been better than the average #2 hitter was in the NL in 2009.

The biggest question we’re going to get at least part of an answer to in 2010 is whether the weak ’09 season for Polanco is a fluke or part of a trend. While he and Victorino have very similar numbers over their careers I think it’s very reasonable to expect that Victorino will be the more productive offensive player the rest of the way. Here’s the percentage of plate appearances in which the two have gotten hits, walks or extra-base hits over the past three seasons:

For each of the three categories Polanco’s numbers are down in 2008 and 2009 compared to the previous year. The numbers aren’t as dramatic for Victorino, but his numbers have generally been getting better.

Important to remember is that Polanco had a monster season in 2007, probably the best of his career. He hit a career-high .341 and on-based a career-high .388. So there was a lot of room to fall. In terms of the percentage of plate appearances in which they got a hit or a walk, Polanco buried Victorino in 2007. It was very close in 2008 — 33.86% for Polanco and 33.81% for Victorino with more of Victorino’s hits going for extra-bases. In 2009, Victorino sailed past Polanco. We’ll see if it’s for good or not.

Ben Sheets signed a one-year, $10 million contract with Oakland. The linked article also says that Greg Golson is now a Yankee.

Charlie Manuel has lost about sixty pounds.

MLB.com announced it’s list of the top 50 prospects, which includes Domonic Brown at 14 and Phillippe Aumont at 47 (that link is unusually interesting and includes video of the players). Michael Taylor is 35 and Kyle Drabek 17.