 |
| Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. |
We're a month into the season, and the Phillies are a 12-15 team. They have an inconsistent offense, basically solid starting pitching, a good bench so far, and a terrible bullpen besides the back-end guys. Here's where we're at.
Start with the good stuff- the A grades:
- Pinch-Hitters- Yes, all of them. It seems like the only way the Phillies score any late-inning runs.
- Kyle Kendrick- He's not your 2010 Kendrick.
- Papelbon- Even if he says stupid stuff about Obama taking his guns, if he keeps saving games, I'm for him.
- Bastardo- Not much needs to be written beyond his numbers.
- Utley and Young- Really good first months from guys who we were told were "too old" to be good.
- Health- Most of the health issues have been avoided.
Now the pretty good stuff- the B grades:
- Cliff Lee- He wasn't unhittable every start, but he was damn good this month.
- Mike Adams- A couple of shaky spots this month don't ruin an overall solid body of work.
- Jimmy Rollins- I can't say too much bad about his opening month.
- Frandsen, Galvis, Mayberry, and Nix- Their numbers aren't eye-popping, but I wouldn't say any of them really were putrid in their roles this month. They were good as pinch-hitters, and passable when forced to start.
- Jon Pettibone/John Lannan/5th starters- Lannan looked like he was off to a good start before he got hurt. Pettibone did better than I thought he would after getting the shot. He's shaky, but that's life with a rookie 6th starter.
Now the mediocre stuff- C grades:
- Ryan Howard- This is an unfair grade to one of my favorite players ever. His numbers aren't bad at all, but this wasn't a "great" Howard month. He lacked power for much of it. They need him to hit long balls.
- Cole Hamels- He's coming on fine now, but the first two starts were terrible. He'll be fine, and his grade will improve.
- Dom Brown- He's not been great yet, but he's shown some flashes of power. The Phillies need more from him. If his next month is like the first month, he'll fall on this scale. Still, he wasn't really awful.
Not good stuff. D grades:
- Management of the games- I've seen several decisions I felt made games worse, or cost us them. Not good at all.
- Catching- The Phillies were actually starting Quintero because Doc liked him better. Dare I say this, it was ugly. Only Kratz's power numbers saved this from failure.
- Doc Halladay- He was at a C going into tonight, and stunk tonight. Having an ERA over six after a month is bad.
- Phillippe Aumont- He's hanging on by a thread at this point.
Failing grades. F:
- Ben Revere- Maybe we should have sought more offense? I defended this move hard, so this one hurts. I hope he shows me that .294 stroke soon.
- Durbin/Valdes/Horst- The only thing worse than one mop-up guy is two…. or three…
- Base-running- Yeah, no more going on contact with zero or one outs and a guy on third.
- GM work- We already have DFA'ed three players and still have two garbage time, multi-inning relievers in this pen. Yay off-season!
It's only a month, so relax. This team will play better, hopefully soon. Last night's game just put me in a crappy mood to do this.
