Quick Stains: Tears for Independence Day

Well, the Phillies got rocked down by the Mets hard (losing 3 of 4) and then proceeded to get beaten by the Astros last night. What's going wrong? Well, pitching, obviously.

During the Saturday struggle against the Mets, a particular low point was when they showed Philadelphia pitching stats, and just how many categories we rank last in. It's amazing we're not getting beaten more often than we are, but that goes to show just how successful our offense has produced. Sure, Helms and Barajas are busts, and Burrell has been atrocious, but the emergence of Victorino and Rowand, as well as Greg Dobbs, has more than compensated for this. The fact is, our starting pitching, ranked as one of our great strengths at season's beginning (at least, by me it was) has turned into a giant mess. We know the names of who's on the DL, so there's no need to repeat them, but even more depressing is the shallowness of our minor leagues. At this point, I'd say it's time to start selling off some people and netting ourselves some prospects. Hamels and Moyer cannot pitch every game, and Myers (when he returns) cannot save a beleaguered bullpen by himself.

When I say trading people off, who do I mean? Well, sadly, Aaron Rowand, for one. Yes, I realize he's a star player, an All-Star even, but his trade value is probably as high as its ever going to be after his wonderful first half, and I haven't heard any news about re-signing him after this year. If we can't resign him, let's move him. I love the guy, but this is looking less and less like our year, and it's time to build up the farm system.

Who else can we move? There's no interest in Burrell. None. We've got two more rather expensive years of Adam Eaton, who's pitching like a solid starter, but a solid number five starter, and nothing better, so he won't move. Victorino should take over for Rowand in the outfield, so he's gotta stay, despite all the calls the front office has received about him.

Unfortunately, the Phils do not have an excess of anything other than outfielders. Our lineup is good, but sacrificing one key player would destroy us. Can you imagine taking the field with Happ or Durbin headed to the mound and no Chase or Jimmy? It would be morally offensive. I see Rowand as the only player we could move that would get us good value. If Lieber was healthy, I'd say ship him to a contender, but he's not, and he wasn't pitching very well when he was. Garcia will not re-sign after this year (expect him to have a good year somewhere else, though, a la Millwood w/ Indians in 2005). Those nice free agent fellas (Zambrano, maybe Buerhle) are not coming to Citizens Bank to pitch, so don't hold your breath. The answer is getting arms in the farm. Homegrown heroes such as Hamels and Myers.

How do we get those arms? Perhaps smarter men than I may know.

We'll have to see if Gillick still thinks we're a contender on July 30th. It depends on how many times we can out slug our opponents, as we're not going to blow them away with pitching.