If you were lucky enough to have a ticket to tonight's game (it was sold out), the ninth inning alone was worth the price of admission. Cole Hamels, true to his word, didn't pitch around Barry Bonds in any of their four battles. But, in the ninth, Hamels showed just how much confidence he has in himself and his nasty changeup by throwing five straight to Bonds.That takes guts.
Bonds fouled off the first four, then swung at and missed the fifth and took a seat on the bench.
"That at-bat right there should tell everyone how good this kid's changeup is," said catcher Rod Barajas, who tried to get Hamels to throw a fastball and later realized how foolish that idea was. "It's a deadly pitch. It's got to be ranked as one of the top five pitches in the game. He was adamant about throwing it. Any time he wants to throw that pitch, I'm OK with it."
One more thing about Hamels: if the Phillies stay on rotation and he keeps pitching every fifth game, he's scheduled to start July 6 in Denver, four days before the All-Star Game in San Francisco. Could Hamels be the NL starter? Well, a lot of factors will come into play. How well does Hamels pitch in his next five starts? How many other NL starters will be available to pitch more than one inning? Right now, I think Jake Peavy, Hamels, Brad Penny, Brandon Webb, John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Oliver Perez, Matt Morris, Roy Oswalt, Chris Young and maybe even Camden's Ian Snell merit All-Star consideration. Who would be your All-Star starter?
* It appears Charlie Manuel and Pat Gillick have different ideas on how to build a pitching staff.
* Our Sunday baseball notes features more on Bonds, a few words on Alex Rodriguez and more.
1 comment:
Scott,
Good article on the bullpen issue and I love the fact that someone is finally calling out Called Strike Three, I mean Pat Burrell. Where is good ole Jamie? We need someone to explain Burrell's .224 batting average. The only word that accurately describes Burrell is pathetic.
I think the answer as to whether to build from bullpen to starters or vice versa lies somewhere in between. Last year, when the starters struggled early in the season the bullpen was rock solid. Eventually, after pitching 3 and 4 innings every night their arms fell off and they struggled towards the end of the season. This season, outside of a few feeble outings by The Chief (Freddy Garcia) and Adam Eaton the starters have been solid. The bullpen has been god awful. So, there you have two situations that are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think you need to have a little bit of both. For example, if you have 1 or 2 starters that regularly go 6 innings (like the Chief) and the rest of the starters can go at least 7, and then you add in a solid bullpen, then I believe you're golden. Unfortunately, this bullpen is a joke.
Post a Comment