Phillies Nation

Stiff neck was an excuse to rest him after a rought start. He can pitch through a stiff neck. He’s OK I’m sure.

Nice comeback attempt.

Martinez was throwing “cupcakes” from the start. Not one of his pitch reached 90 MPH. He had a Jamie Moyer fastball without the Jamie Moyer pinpoint control. ;-)

Aside from his “stifness” of the neck that occurred during the game, it seem that he was unable to bounce back effectively from his last start of 130 pitches. Without control, he was not able to get by with off speed pitches.

throwing 130 pitches caught up to pedro no question about it,but who can blame charlie for leaving pedro in there with the terrible bullpen we got and the good game he was pitching…durbin is basiclly what clay condrey was last year and should only pitch when their winning or losing by 9 runs.

was tooling around and read a scouting report on Durbin and it jives with why he struggles when he has guys in 2 strike pitcher counts

“Is far too hittable to take a regular turn at the big-league level. Lacks a true strikeout pitch as well, which hinders his effectiveness”

If this is how he is seen then it seem like hitters know they can sit on pitches, work counts in their favor cause they know he does have a pitch they should worry about striking out on.
So i asks myself – besides a injury compromising his performance,
doesn’t this seem fixable (well not now). Why couldn’t someone improve one of his pitches or help him develop a new one. it just kills me. One of the best bull pens in the bigs last turned to crap…and i’m not talking about Lidge that another can of worms…snakebitten by injuries yeah, but it seems like the pitching coach staff has the analytical prowess of Ralph Wiggum. How long did it take before we heard anything about Hamels curveball trickle out of the war room and make it way to the press…I been screaming my lungs out about this month into the season and all i did is look at his pitch data….whoopty – do! The issue of mastering that pitch is a different issue. I’m sure that solving pitcher’s problems is challenging but it doesn’t differ from any other problem in that you recognize the problem in the first place esp. in Durbin’s case when its already been spelled out for you by others in the same fricking business as you.

Durbin has been concistently awful. Hope Manuel realizes not to put him of Lidge in unless we have a 20 run lead.
The almost-comeback shows why the phils have a lot of heart and a ring.

Stiff neck or not, Martinez has had all his problems so far in the early innings. Pitch count probably has little to do with it. The neck problem showed up while batting, same as Happ’s ribcage. No one has even mentioned pitch count as a factor in Happ’s case.

Who should have been used last night instead of Durbin? Moyer was out, due to his upcoming start in Tuesday’s doubleheader. Kendrick pitched long relief the night before. Condrey can only pitch a little due to his recent injury. Not a lot of options, and Durbin can many times get people out.

Maybe the Phils would have won without Durbin’s mistakes, but six scoreless innings would have been required; a difficult task for any bullpen, let alone one with so many injuries. And the Braves aren’t a pushover team.

Durbin may not have a real great out pitch, but he must have one at times or he wouldn’t be usable at all. And teaching pitches is not as easy as some people seem to think. If it were, everyone would be a twenty game winner or a shut-down closer.

NO MAGIC NUMBERS

Durbin is not a multiple innings pitcher he will not be included in the post season roster, and probably won’t be with the Phillies next year. Charlie continues to show respect for the men under his command until it’s not warranted. Moyer could have come in like you said T Mac, but it was a chance for final test with Durbin with the luxury of the division lead and few games left in the season. Durbin failed miserably. I give credit to Charlie for going the long yard with Chad and now he knows he can’t depend on him.

Pedro vs Happ in post season:
Here’s hoping the DL relievers gets back and Happ gets fully healthy soon so he takes a deserved spot in the starting lineup in post season, and not in the bullpen. I thought the best Pedro would do is win three games, but he performed above and beyond my expectations. I don’t see him replacing a healthy Happ. Charlie stated otherwise in a Phillies Zone post before Pedro’s inconsistent start. Hopefully Charlie is is just using the media to build the fire inside a young Happ. otherwise I can’t explain why he made the comment.

Durbin has movement on his pitches but he needs to hit corners. He did that at the beginning of last season but has been hit around since.

Pitching coaches contributions are overrated. The pitchers need to make pitches. You can teach someone how to throw a pitch and coach them on where to throw a pitch and in which situations. If they can’t do it, they can’t do it.

The magic number is not really 8 because you have 2 teams chasing the Phillies, the Marlins and the Braves. So any combination of 8 Phillies wins and Marlins losses means the Phillies finish ahead of the Marlins. But you also need a combination of 8 Phillies wins and Braves losses for the Phillies to finish ahead of the Braves.

Today’s game is important because of the final 13 games for the Braves, 7 are against the Nationals and 3 are against the Mets. it would really be helpful to win today. The Braves are in real good position to pick up a playoff spot. It’s not out of the question that the Braves could take 10 or 11 of those 13 final games.

that’s “mastering it…”