Remember how excited we all were when Pat Gillick brought Freddy Garia to the Phils in december? I remember. I remember thinkining: Finally, a GM whose decied to address pitching! Hell, we have one of the best rotations in the NL. We can beat the mets right?
Well unfortunatley, my high is gone. Pat Gillick obviously decided that getting Freddy Garcia was all that had to be done. Oh I'm sorry, i forgot about all the washups we signed. And the 900K slap in the face to howard.
Right now our setup man is a guy whose best stuff dried up three years ago(alfonseca), we have an aging closer with a bum shoulder(gordon), a guy whose never proven to have the CONSISTENT control neccessary to be a good pitcher(madson), a very solid, but mediocre LRP(Geary), and a bunch of kids who still need 2-3 years to even know if they got anything or not-and only one of them(castro) looks like he'll ever be anything special. Thats not addressing the bullpen
Raise your hand if you would have rather taken a chance on Dustin Hermanson(A 40 save closer for WS Champion) or Joe Borowski( a guy who had 38 saves last season) who both have only given up four hits through ST so far over fucking Alfonso Aflonseca and Jim Ed Warden? If your hand isn't raised its because just like Pat Gillick, its jammed squarely up your ass!
Now i understand that theres only so much that can be done via Free Agency-with that in mind, the blame must rest on the farm system. Yes, we have produced Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Something is obviously going right. What is going wrong is the pitching development. Who is the last phillies pitching product besides Cole Hamels, who has been anything even remotely decent. Floyd was a bust, little did we know he was such a freaking headcase who couldn't seem to figure out "If i have a 97mph fastball, i shouldn't pitch it down the middle".
If the phillies spend one more cent this year, it should be on scouts and coaches. Wheres our Chad Cordero? Wheres' our Benitez? For as long as I can remember, our biggest deficency has been pitching and yet, we don't focus on developing players to address our number one problem. Christ, if we had pitching, we could have gone somewhere in 03, or 04, or 05, or 06, or you get the picture.
So please, Pat, get Montgomery and Giles to see the light. A couple of 100,000's could get us some great pitching coaches and development specialists. Let's do it.
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2 comments:
i agree wholeheartedly, phils keep having just enough talent and not enough substance (i.e., pitching) to contend without winning. something must be done, and it is a sad look at our pitching staff
do you froget myers? he did come from our farm system. and cole hamels, which you mentioned. those are two good pitchers. i understand our farms system for pitching is no florida, but i think we have some good arms down there and you have to give it a few years. since we don't have ed wade trading our prospects before they make to the big leagues, we'll have some guys comming up in a year or two that look promising. yeah gavin floyd is a bust, they pushed him too hard to pitch in the big leagues. also i think you assesment of gillick is a little harsh. i mean what would you give up for lieber? seriously? or if you are gillick what would you be willing to give up for a reliever? rowand? then who do we have playing right field? that's wouldn't be an improvement. and madson should have a good season, he did two years ago when he was just in the bullpen, and he was throwing his shitty curve then. wait until about the middle of may to see where we stand with pitching.
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