Phillies Nation

I love how we always complain that the Phillies dont get enough national coverage but when the day finally comes we use it in a negative way to blame the slow starts. correct me if im wrong but didnt we start off slow last year. I no that the distractions do have something to do with the slow start but ITS ONLY APRIL. Cole will settle down and we will begin to look like the 2008 phillies soon enough. WHERE IS THE FAITH?

LETS GO PHILLIES!!!!!!

Lidge will be fine when Chooch returns because he’ll be able to throw his slider. He seemed to be holding it back to some extent with Coste behind the plate.

I think the quality of the pitching to this point should be a testament to how important Chooch is to this team. I think his catching ability has been drastically overlooked. I think now that he’s on the DL it sheds some light on his ability to call a game and block Lidge’s nasty slider.

Rollins slow start is countered by the hot starts of Utley and Ibanez..

The problem right now is pitching.. and clearly we aren’t going to have the wrost ERA in the National League, as we do right now.

“Early Troubles”

Tim, probably for the past week you’ve been leading off the comments with a negative-post…. where is your optimism.

Outside of your praise for Ibanez, its been mostly focused on what has gone wrong for the Phillies, instead of what has gone right, and what will most likely improve.. Set a positive tone for us will you please

I do think there’s a natural letdown/hangover to winning a title, especially when your emotional leader (Rollins) starts very, very slow. But I think one thing not included is “tired arms,” much of it due to a really long season and playoffs. Aside from Eyre, Condrey, and Happ, the pitching has been terrible, not just Hamels. 74 earned runs in 11 games, almost 7 runs a game (-15 run differential overall). That’s on all 5 starters and the 2 horses in the pen, Madson and Lidge. When/if those 7 guys come around, we’ll see some more winning baseball. It is absolutely critical that Hamels’ velocity comes back. Not panic time, but that’s an alarm, these games count. Makes the Lowe debate all winter on this site even more interesting. We can talk about distractions, rings, WBC (many teams dealt with that), Kalas, etc. It would help to just plain pitch better.

Their history shows they’re slow starters, no reason why they would change their pattern just because they won last year. If this team was usually fast off the gate then these distractions could be brought out as the reasons why they’re off to the slow start. Check out their records from the last few years after 11 games.:

09- 5-6
08- 5-6
07- 3-8
06- 4-11
05- 5-6
04- 5-6

They’ve had different reasons for slow starts, some years its their starting pitching, other years their bullpen, and sometimes the offense doesn’t show up until May. Whatever the reason maybe they usually struggle early. The distractions coming from winning the world series didn’t help but I don’t think its the main reason why they’re off to another slow start.

Geoff, a losing record (5-6) after just ELEVEN games don’t amount to a hill of beans in attempt to justify playing the blame game. You can express “concerns” but having a daily fixation on Moyer, Rollins, etc and tagged them as the cause of all (or part) of our woes on such SMALL samples of stats that are meaningless in a season so brief is laughable. And as Tim suggests, in the coming weeks, “.. some real assessments can made.”

Let’s accentuate some positives that gives us definite signs of better days ahead for the team.. Utley, Howard, Ibanez, Feliz, etc. Surely the pitching will improve as it rounds into form and rhythm without further distractions.

I just think its a negative view-point when we’re looking at a 5-6 record as EARLY TROUBLES.. instead of just a SLOW START..

Would it make a world of difference to be 6-5, or 7-4 right now??

Maybe if you think that really every single game matters.. but I look at the fact that a bunch of people are underperforming.. and we’re still at 5-6

Worst ERA in the National League.. and we’re still at 5-6

Jimmy Rollins couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.. and yep.. we’re still at 5-6

I agree with Don M… as bad as the pitching has been, we’re actually somewhat lucky to be 5-6. Glad we’ve played the Nationals and Rockies and not the Marlins… not yet at least.

Credit Condrey, Utley, Ibanez and the offense coming through with some nice early-season rallies.

It’s not panic time, but it’s certainly concern time for the pitching. I’d like to see us give up less than four runs a game just once (hasn’t happened yet). Just for comparison’s sake, in 14 postseason games last year, we gave up less than four runs 8 times, and we won all 8 of those games. I don’t expect pitching quite like that, but it’s gotta get better soon. Three of those games came against the Brewers…