BY SCOTT LAUBERJust a quick pregame note to let you know that Pedro Feliz has been activated. He isn't starting tonight against the Nationals (Greg Dobbs is back at third base). Lefty reliever Les Walrond is headed back to triple-A Lehigh Valley.
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Some of you have asked, via e-mail and comments on The Blog, about the rotation. For now, the rotation won't change. Rich Dubee said today that the Phillies want to maximize Cole Hamels' rest. Hamels leads the NL with 181-2/3 innings. So, unless there's a change of heart, he will remain on his usual turn. He'll pitch Saturday against the Dodgers, and he'll miss next week's series against the Mets.
"I think the rest is more needed," Dubee said. "It's something that we've been cautious about all year, and something we've exploited every chance we've had to give these guys an extra day of rest. [Jamie] Moyer is 45 years old. He's a wizard and great at what he does, but any day we can give him a rest we're going to give him a rest."
Agree? Disagree?
More in tomorrow's News Journal.
2 comments:
Disagree so thoroughly that I'm angry. There are things that you can do to actually significantly improve your team's chances as a manager and this is one of those things. Give him rest later. There are several more opportunities to do so. His arm doesn't magically get less rest on Monday because the team didn't have a game then.
Listen-- I LIKE Hamels getting rest. I advocated for more rest in early July when they idiotically decided to move up Hamels to pitch him against the Braves-- thus missing the Mets series before the all-star break all in the name of getting him an extra start.
Then all of a sudden, they decided he needed rest. But not any specific amount of rest. Only the EXACT amount of rest that would keep Hamels from pitching against the Mets. How? Well, they had him start the Sunday after the all-star break instead of the Friday on full rest or even Saturday. Then they had to play the Mets the next series and Cole wasn't available. It would even have been appropriate to wait to start Cole until they played the Mets that Tuesday. But starting him third in the rotation after break and pitching him on Sunday was the only way to keep him from playing the Mets. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th spots in the rotation after break would have entailed him playing the Mets.
Now, Kendrick will face Santana two times before the end of the season. And inevitably the division will be decided by a game or two. It is as though the Mets are in charge of setting the Phillies rotation.
What's even stupider is that if they decided to push Hamels back and start Blanton Sunday and Myers Monday, and then use Hamels Tuesday, he would start against the Mets twice, and STILL he would get seven starts more this season, just like he would if they didn't.
So he can get extra extra rest, still start the same number of games and pitch the same number of innings just by pitching him Tuesday. And no one needs to pitch on short rest.
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