GaryMrMets
07-01-2004, 03:04 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/9053229.htm
Posted on Thu, Jul. 01, 2004
Sam Donnellon | Life without an ace
CONSISTENT PITCHING WOULD GET PHILS TO PLAYOFFS
LAST NIGHT, just a few hours after Roger Clemens and Matt Clement squared off in a Chicago matinee, the Phillies started Paul Abbott against the Montreal Expos and Zach Day.
Abbott was released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before they reeled off all those consecutive wins and became respectable. Day has won five games and lost eight, but he has limited the opposition to three runs or less in 12 of his 16 starts, including last night's 6-3 Expos victory over the Phils.
Day's record might even be .500 if the Expos had managed any runs at all in three of his starts. Then again, the Expos are dead last in the National League Least, so bad that, for two nights this week, the Phillies looked every bit the class of the division that everyone thought they would be when the season began, scoring 31 runs.
There are several theories
why they are instead, four games over .500, scrunched together with four other teams in a
division race that is likely to
not have a wild-card consolation prize.
One theory says the uptight manager is to blame.
More on that tomorrow.
Another says they are just too impatient at the plate, too stubborn as a group to learn how to work pitchers.
Last night, after three innings, Day had recorded five one-pitch outs.
Another theory blames injuries to their pitching. Closer
Billy Wagner and starters Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla have missed considerable time
already this season, pushing Tim Worrell from setup man to
closer for awhile, necessitating the roll of the dice on Abbott, who has eaten innings and kept the Phillies in the four games he has pitched.
That's not exactly the definition of an ace. And nobody's
calling Abbott that, not even in jest.
Then again, no one is calling Randy Wolf, Kevin Millwood or even 10-game winner Eric Milton that either.
"Vicente, when he's healthy, has the stuff to be one," catcher Mike Lieberthal said last night, hopefully.
The earliest Padilla is likely to pitch this season is August, and there's a chance he might not pitch again at all.
So the ace theory is the flavor of this month, as the trade deadline approaches and Randy Johnson still pitches for Arizona. Fans clamor for general manager Ed Wade to make that stab at a man due $16 million next season, even though he historically has resisted such measures.
"I don't mean this to be critical," Wolf said. "But we really
haven't ever plucked anyone at the trade deadline."
The boldest thing "Offseason Ed" has done at this time in years past is trade away superstars, including an ace, Curt Schilling.
Schilling asked for it, of course, as did third baseman Scott Rolen. But it doesn't hide the feeling that what the Phillies could use right now is something they once had.
A guy who can stop losing streaks in their tracks.
A guy who can give your team an occasional night off.
"But how many aces, really, are in the league?" asks Lieberthal.
By Wolf's criteria, only a handful.
Win 20 games in a season, he said, and you belong.
There are many more guys out there with ace potential, he said, than there are actual aces. San Francisco's Jason Schmidt,
Milwaukee's Ben Sheets,
Chicago's Kerry Wood and
Mark Prior have ace stuff.
Andy Pettitte does, too, and of course, Clemens. Pettitte has won more than 20 games in a season twice in his career, but the smartest thing he did last winter was talk Clemens out of retirement once Pettitte made that bold move to spurn the
Yankees and listen to his wife and head to Houston.
Smart, because Pettitte has no experience as a staff ace.
Clemens, with six Cy Young Awards, can hardly recall a time when he wasn't.
Do you need an ace to get to the playoffs? To win in the playoffs? History is cloudy on this. Florida's Josh Beckett was not a regular-season ace, yet he suffocated teams in the postseason. The Angels won a World Series the year before with no real ace, and their opponent, the San Francisco Giants, spent at least some of the season without one.
"Jason Schmidt was our ace at the end," said Tim Worrell, a member of that team. "But not until the middle of the '02 season did he become that.
"I don't think you have to have an ace."
Said Wolf, "I'd rather have four or five starters who give you a chance to win every night."
Theoretically, at least, the
Phillies have that right now in Milton, Wolf, Millwood and Brett Myers. All have the stuff to keep their team in games, and yet 30 times already this season, including last night, the Phillies' starters have failed to finish the sixth inning.
An ace like Johnson would help those numbers.
A second half of the season in which the staff pitched to its potential would, too. The Phillies shouldn't need an ace to reach the postseason.
Then again, they shouldn't score 31 runs in two games against the Expos, yet still manage to be playing only .500 ball against them over the last 9 days.
Posted on Thu, Jul. 01, 2004
Sam Donnellon | Life without an ace
CONSISTENT PITCHING WOULD GET PHILS TO PLAYOFFS
LAST NIGHT, just a few hours after Roger Clemens and Matt Clement squared off in a Chicago matinee, the Phillies started Paul Abbott against the Montreal Expos and Zach Day.
Abbott was released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before they reeled off all those consecutive wins and became respectable. Day has won five games and lost eight, but he has limited the opposition to three runs or less in 12 of his 16 starts, including last night's 6-3 Expos victory over the Phils.
Day's record might even be .500 if the Expos had managed any runs at all in three of his starts. Then again, the Expos are dead last in the National League Least, so bad that, for two nights this week, the Phillies looked every bit the class of the division that everyone thought they would be when the season began, scoring 31 runs.
There are several theories
why they are instead, four games over .500, scrunched together with four other teams in a
division race that is likely to
not have a wild-card consolation prize.
One theory says the uptight manager is to blame.
More on that tomorrow.
Another says they are just too impatient at the plate, too stubborn as a group to learn how to work pitchers.
Last night, after three innings, Day had recorded five one-pitch outs.
Another theory blames injuries to their pitching. Closer
Billy Wagner and starters Randy Wolf and Vicente Padilla have missed considerable time
already this season, pushing Tim Worrell from setup man to
closer for awhile, necessitating the roll of the dice on Abbott, who has eaten innings and kept the Phillies in the four games he has pitched.
That's not exactly the definition of an ace. And nobody's
calling Abbott that, not even in jest.
Then again, no one is calling Randy Wolf, Kevin Millwood or even 10-game winner Eric Milton that either.
"Vicente, when he's healthy, has the stuff to be one," catcher Mike Lieberthal said last night, hopefully.
The earliest Padilla is likely to pitch this season is August, and there's a chance he might not pitch again at all.
So the ace theory is the flavor of this month, as the trade deadline approaches and Randy Johnson still pitches for Arizona. Fans clamor for general manager Ed Wade to make that stab at a man due $16 million next season, even though he historically has resisted such measures.
"I don't mean this to be critical," Wolf said. "But we really
haven't ever plucked anyone at the trade deadline."
The boldest thing "Offseason Ed" has done at this time in years past is trade away superstars, including an ace, Curt Schilling.
Schilling asked for it, of course, as did third baseman Scott Rolen. But it doesn't hide the feeling that what the Phillies could use right now is something they once had.
A guy who can stop losing streaks in their tracks.
A guy who can give your team an occasional night off.
"But how many aces, really, are in the league?" asks Lieberthal.
By Wolf's criteria, only a handful.
Win 20 games in a season, he said, and you belong.
There are many more guys out there with ace potential, he said, than there are actual aces. San Francisco's Jason Schmidt,
Milwaukee's Ben Sheets,
Chicago's Kerry Wood and
Mark Prior have ace stuff.
Andy Pettitte does, too, and of course, Clemens. Pettitte has won more than 20 games in a season twice in his career, but the smartest thing he did last winter was talk Clemens out of retirement once Pettitte made that bold move to spurn the
Yankees and listen to his wife and head to Houston.
Smart, because Pettitte has no experience as a staff ace.
Clemens, with six Cy Young Awards, can hardly recall a time when he wasn't.
Do you need an ace to get to the playoffs? To win in the playoffs? History is cloudy on this. Florida's Josh Beckett was not a regular-season ace, yet he suffocated teams in the postseason. The Angels won a World Series the year before with no real ace, and their opponent, the San Francisco Giants, spent at least some of the season without one.
"Jason Schmidt was our ace at the end," said Tim Worrell, a member of that team. "But not until the middle of the '02 season did he become that.
"I don't think you have to have an ace."
Said Wolf, "I'd rather have four or five starters who give you a chance to win every night."
Theoretically, at least, the
Phillies have that right now in Milton, Wolf, Millwood and Brett Myers. All have the stuff to keep their team in games, and yet 30 times already this season, including last night, the Phillies' starters have failed to finish the sixth inning.
An ace like Johnson would help those numbers.
A second half of the season in which the staff pitched to its potential would, too. The Phillies shouldn't need an ace to reach the postseason.
Then again, they shouldn't score 31 runs in two games against the Expos, yet still manage to be playing only .500 ball against them over the last 9 days.