What do Jon Lieber, Robin Roberts and John Denny all have in common?

Answer: They will never pitch for the Phillies again.

It appears as if the Phillies' pitching woes have just gotten that much worse. Is it too early to start thinking about Eagles' training camp... which by the way begins in 34 days.

Jon Leiber has hurt himself in a freak accident taking a mis-step after surrendering a single, which incidentally scored a run, bringing his June ERA to 6.66. That's not good karma. Let's burn his uniform, sacrifice a chicken, and hire clairvoyant to rid the Phillies of this awful curse.

It is quite possible that Jon Lieber will have season ending surgery and not pitch again this year. Here's a full report on Lieber's injury. With Freddy Garcia and Tom Gordon already on the DL, the Phillies' already thinning staff has just gotten that much thinner, kind of like Brett Myers' hairline. (see pic to the left)

Speaking of Brett Myers... will the Phillies ask him to return to the starting rotation? If that's the case, who is our closer?

Jamie Moyer has already volunteered to be part of a 4 man rotation. Which will allow Myers to stay in the pen. Moyer is a true gamer and is tough as nails. Jamie Moyer is 44 years old and he's still pitching deep into games and has arguably been our most consistent starter. (Hamels is his only competition, unfortunately)

So what are the Phillies to do? They've listed a whole lot of names from AA Reading, AAA Ottawa and haven't ruled out a trade. The Good Phight has a few of those suggestions. And even though Lieber was the most likely candidate to be traded... it was me, the prognosticator of all prognosticators that said something like this was bound to happen and it was a good thing to have 6 'quality' starters. (Please note, quality is used very loosely here.)

I've always thought the Phillies should have kept all 6 starters and used one in the bullpen. I had no idea it would turn out to be Myers, in a closer's role. Regardless. Our 6 starters has now dwindled down to 3.

I also pleaded with Pat Gillick on numerous occasions to keep Aaron Rowand. I think we're all glad he did.

But now, with the Phillies realistically in a position to make a move towards first place and make the playoffs. What doe Gillick do?

Is it time to try and get something for Pat Burrell? Do we now trade our beloved Aaron Rowand? Should we package a few of our young outfielders? I don't know. I'm not paid the big bucks to make these decisions. I'm a little worried that I'll be disappointed with what goes on... all we can do is wait and see.

Starting Pitching Heads Success

Fresh off a successful 7-3 homestand, we have a day to recuperate and reflect on our recent accomplishment. A few things come to mind. First, we don't have Ryan Howard in the line-up, who's about ready to return from the DL shortly.

Second, is that our regular performers, really haven't been our regular performers. According to We Should Be GMs,

"...the Phils lineup has been slumping lately, with Rowand (5-24), Victorino (5-24), Rollins (5-32), Utley (1-11), Burrell (4-19), Helms (2-14), and Ruiz (4-22). collectively that's 26-146 for a pitiful .178 batting average..."

It is pretty pitiful. These numbers were posted before Sunday's game.

So what then is the reason for our recent success? For starters, it's the starters.

Remember all the complaints from the beginning of the year about how our starters were good on paper, and how they weren't performing... well, I think this kind of talk will be muffled for a little while. Our starters are keeping us in ball games.

Despite the fact that we've been see-sawing back and forth the last few games, W-L-W-L-W, we have still put up an impressive 8-3 record in our last 11 games. (I'm including 11 games in our recent up-surge, instead of the 10 games of the homestand).

The biggest reason for this 8-3 record is our starters. Here are the numbers.

We have definitely been getting Quality starts (QS). According to baseball statisticians, a quality start is awarded to a starting pitcher who completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. Incidentally, the QS statistic was invented in 1985 by John Lowe, who was a sports writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Of the 11 games, we had 8 quality starts. (Garcia was very close to another with 5.2 inn, and 2 ER).

A few other things have skewed these statistics... for example, Lieber's 8 innings with 1 ER ended in a loss. Bad luck. And Eaton's 7.2 innings with 1 ER on the next night, was nullified by a blown save which the Phils eventually won, taking another win from the starters. So that 5-3 record, could very easily by 7-3.

Here the breakdown of wins for each starter in this stretch. (Phillies' record is in parentheses), and then there ERA's over these games.

Moyer 1-1 (2-1) 8.10 ERA
Hamels 2-0 (2-0) 2.40 ERA
Garcia 0-1 (1-1) 3.85 ERA
Lieber 1-1 (1-1) 2.40 ERA
Eaton 1-0 (2-0) 0.66 ERA
____________

Starters 5-3 (8-3) 2.63 ERA

PS - It appears as if Jaime Moyer is about to go into a slump. His last two starts, he's accumulated 9.2 innings and given up 12 ER.

You are the Weakest Link... Goodbye!

It appears as if our reigning National League MVP is our weakest player. Our $900,000 baby is not holding up his end of the bargain. The new face of Major League Baseball is getting a lot of time to watch his friends run around the bases...

To date, Ryan Howard is the weakest of our eight everyday position player starters. His .213 average is nearly 70 points lower than our next worst starter.

Howard has to uncross his bats, to take off the hex... but I'm sure he knows that.

All in all, that's pretty impressive.

Granted, Chase Utley's 5 for 5 game tonight raised his average nearly 50 points, but it is still encouraging to look at our 7 starters without an MVP trophy and smile at their current averages.

Rollins - .295

Victorino - .282

Utley - .296

Burrell - .344

Helms - .290

Rowand - .365

Ruiz - .296

That kind of production is going to score some runs. It doesn't matter if we're hitting singles, doubles or homeruns, this offense is going to score runs.

This offense has finally woken up and is no longer relying on Jimmy Rollins to provide the pop. Burrell is still hitting. Rowand has a 13 game hitting streak. Utley has finally woken up, and Helms, Victorino and Ruiz are doing there jobs very well.

Now if we can just wake up our sleeping giant, Ryan Howard, we'll be in good shape and we'll be tough to beat. At this point though Ryan Howard is the least of our worries. He seems to be hitting a homerun now and then (he hit his 3rd tonight), he's still getting on base via the walk and is still finding ways to drive in runs... he's got 12 to date.

On another note....

Another strong outing by a Phillies starter. Lieber pitched well tonight. 6 innings (that's half a dozen, Jon), 2ER, 5Ks, 0 BBs and a victory.

Tomorrow night is Cole Hamels. This guy is a stud. Hamels is coming off a 15K performance and has pitched solid in every outing. His opponent, Shawn Hill has not let up more than 2 earned runs in any of his 4 previous starts. It should be a great game tomorrow. Two young arms. I'm looking forward to a pitcher's duel.

Skeeter at Driven to Center believes we'll continue our winning ways and end April at 13-12... it is definitely doable.

Freddy Not Ready; Don't Sweat It

Freddy Garcia left yesterday's game with tightness in his bicep. Though this is never a good sign, but don't sweat it. I'm encouraged by the fact that we still have Jon Lieber around.

I've said time and time again that we should keep 6 starters for something like this. I was predicting a Cole Hamels back spasm or a blister of some sort early in the season, but I didn't predict this.

Despite Garcia's injury, all is not lost. We're not sure how long he'll be out, and we have a serviceable replacement. We are in a much better situation than we were last year in the fact that we still have 5 quality starters that many teams would love to have.

What this injury may do is increase the urgency to trade Aaron Rowand. With the youth on this team, and the lack of leadership from Burrell, I think someone like Rowand is needed. What's funny about this statement, is that Rowand is only 29 years old. This says a lot about the future of this ball club.

Lieber is not 29. Jon Lieber is 36. It's ironic that 36 is also the number of donuts Lieber eats the day before his scheduled starts. Lieber is a veteran and will undoubtedly provide leadership for this ball club. As will Jaime Moyer. The oldest of the other four starters is Garcia at age 30. Amazing youth on this ball club.

Lieber has already shown leadership in the fact that he has graciously accepted his role in the bullpen. He's expressed his desire to start, but has not made a stink about losing that status.

I'm disappointed," Lieber said. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I'm going to do it for these guys in here, but I think I can still start. That was my mind-frame this offseason, to better myself. I signed here to be a starter."

Keeping Lieber around turned out to be a good thing. Here is what I see happening. Garcia is out for a few weeks. Lieber takes his spot in the rotation, but not as the #1. Myers is now our opening day starter. Garcia will return, spend a few days in the pen, and then will be inserted into the rotation. However, I think he'll replace whoever it is that is struggling. If Lieber has a desire to start, now is his time to earn his keep. If he goes 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA, then we'll leave him be and replace someone else.

This injury is a bad thing, I'm not downplaying that, but I the situation is definitely more manageable with the presence of Lieber.