Season in Review- Starting Pitching

If you need to understand why the Phillies are not the team they were in 2011, look no further than the starting pitching staff. Not since the 2011 season have they had a super elite staff, and this year they fell to mediocre status, even finishing with a poor staff.

While you strive for over 150 starts from your original starting five, the Phillies got just 121. Only two of the original five pitched 200 innings, only two had sub-4.00 ERA's, and only two had WHIP's below 1.20. In other words, it was ugly.

So let's grade them-

• Cole Hamels- 8-14, 3.60, 220 innings, 33 starts, 202 K's, 50 BB's, .246 BAA, 1.16 WHIP- Well, this wasn't a $24 million performance, but was it bad? No. Hamels early struggles inflate all of these numbers, as his ERA was down in the 3.20 range after his first two starts. Sure, you can expect more from him, but at the end of the day, had others lived up to their end of the bargain, he would have been good enough. I'll say C+, given his expectations and role.
• Roy Halladay- 4-5, 6.82, 62 innings, 13 starts, 51 K's, 36 BB's, .238 BAA, 1.47 WHIP- There you have the biggest difference. 2011 Doc could have won the Cy Young. 2013 Doc was the Cy Yuck. Amazingly, he didn't give up that many hits, or not strike guys out, but he walked a ton of people, and it came back to hurt him. His command and velocity were both virtually gone. Does he come back? I don't know. I'd doubt it. I can't give him anything but an F, despite his heroic efforts to come back. Bad pitching is bad pitching.
• Cliff Lee- 14-8, 2.87, 222.2 innings, 31 starts, 222 K's, 32 BB's, .232 BAA, 1.01 WHIP- How old is he again? Seriously, Cliff seems to just keep going. The NL All-Star was his normal self, dominating hitters every time out. He didn't hit the DL at all, like Cole (though he missed a start or two), and was durable. Yeah, he gets paid to do this, but he's an A.
• Kyle Kendrick- 10-13, 4.70, 182 innings, 30 starts, 110 K's, 47 BB's, .285 BAA, 1.40 WHIP- Not that it matters, but I would not bring him back. After being really good early, Kendrick became an automatic loss later in the year. I will credit Kendrick for durability (until the end), and giving us 182 innings at the back end of the rotation. He just wasn't very good. I give him a C-.
• John Lannan- 3-6, 5.33, 74.1 innings, 14 starts, 38 K's, 27 BB's, .296 BAA, 1.52 WHIP- Not durable, not all that good, and hopefully not back. Lannan had a tough year after leaving DC, and that's not a shock. The Phillies got what they paid for. He gets an F.
• Jon Pettibone- 5-4, 4.04, 100.1 innings, 18 starts, 66 K's, 38 BB's, .284 BAA, 1.47 WHIP- Bright spot? I'll allow it. Pettibone wasn't supposed to play a big role, and 100 innings later he did. He has a lot of work to do, and some of his numbers suggest regression could be ahead. His results for this year weren't bad though. I think he can pitch in the majors, and just needs to work on some more things before he's ready to do that full-time. I'll give him a B.
• Tyler Cloyd- 2-7, 6.56, 60.1 innings, 11 starts (13 games), 41 K's, 25 BB's, .328 BAA, 1.79 WHIP- You can see why he was waived, right? The time for Cloyd has come and passed, though he could have helped the IronPigs next year. He gets an F.
• Ethan Martin- 2-5, 6.08, 40 innings, 8 starts (15 games), 47 K's, 27 BB's, .261 BAA, 1.70 WHIP- I wanted desperately to rate Martin as a reliever, but he made more starts than relief appearances. Martin has a great arm, and in the early innings, it would show. Then they kept playing though, and his lack of command hurt. He has a great future in the bullpen, and it showed once he moved out there. He gets an F as a starter, and a B as a reliever from me.