Phillies Playing .500 Baseball, Rotation is Dominant and Ryan Howard Finally In The Best Shape of Of His Life
Was anyone expecting this? After the rough ones in Cincy and New York to start the season, the Phillies have won 5 out of 6 and the rotation is showing us things that we haven’t seen in years. Not only that, the bullpen has been lights out. After getting torched for 15 ER in their first 12 2/3 innings of work, they fired back to the tune of a .73 ERA in their last 12 2/3, including 4, Jeanmar Gomez saves.
Before I touch on Vincent Velasquez, we need to look at the body of work from rest of the rotation at this point. ERA sometimes blinds people from the big picture. All it takes is one bad outing and your season becomes an afterthought. So let’s dive into the real stats. As it stands today the Phillies’ pitchers sit first in SO’s, 2nd in WHIP and 2nd in BAA in the MLB.
Charlie Morton – 2 GS, 10.1 IP, 1.35 WHIP, .216 BAA
Aaron Nola – 2 GS, 14.0 IP, 0.71 WHIP, .196 BAA
Jeremy Hellickson – 2 GS, 11.2 IP, 0.60 WHIP, .146 BAA
Jerad Eickhoff — 2 GS, 12 IP, 0.92 WHIP, .200 BA
Not too bad for a team projected to win 65 games all season. Argue about sample sizes all you want. Argue that they pitched to 3 of the worst offenses in the National League. But one thing is clear, there is sneaky talent in this rotation. I still don’t see Morton and Hellickson sticking around past the trade deadline, but if Klentak has proven one thing with the Giles deal, it’s that he can lure a playoff contender to overpay.
Enough has been said about Velasquez over the past day…Most Strikeouts in a Phillies CG SHO since 1913, Joining Scherzer, Kluber, Santana, Clemens and Wood with 16+ K’s 0 BB 0 R with 3 or fewer hits allowed, youngest pitcher since Prior with 16+ K’s. But what about this…
–Fastball velocity, 94.2 is the most for a Phillies pitcher since 2002.
–Struck out the sides in the first inning on 16 consective fastballs.
–Hitting 97 on the gun on pitch 110
That’s our 5th starter we are talking about. Stat line of 2 W, 0.00 ERA and 25 K’s in 15 IP. The man Matt Klentak coveted when he was shopping Ken Giles. The same Ken Giles who is stuck in the 8th inning role with Houston, sitting on a 12.27 ERA and who’s avg fastball velocity has dropped almost 1 MPH since 2014.
152 more games to go. Eickhoff, Velasquez and Nola will be on an innings limit and Morton and Hellickson’s future is undecided. Who care’s, I’m having fun so far.
Ryan Howard
I think this is it, Ryan Howard is finally in the best shape of his life. 3 HR, a few big one’s and a +.500 slugging percentage. I can get down with that. Maikel Franco can’t do everything, our top of the order has to start producing. We are still not getting on base enough, .278 OBP (2nd to Last in NL) and we need to go back to our roots of stealing bags again. We have so much speed at the top of lineup. It starts with them.
In Other News
Phillies LHP Daniel Stumpf suspended 80 games without pay after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
— MLB (@MLB) April 14, 2016
Such a shame. I’m more upset at the fact that he was able to squeeze a couple outs in his last two outings. Could have went down in history with legends like Doc Hamann and Harry Heitmann as one of the proud members of the infinity ERA club.
Plenty of more content to come including a look into the Opening week in the Minor Leagues and potential #1 overall picks in June.