The twittersphere and livingphillysports.com are reporting that the Phillies have optioned Kyle Kendrick to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. In his place, Andrew Carpenter will be called up to the big club. After last night’s 5-run 5th inning debacle, this comes as no surprise. The Cardinals hit 3 dingers off Kendrick in the inning and Randy Winn’s shot in the 6th off Chad Durbin capped a 4-homer spree in six Cardinals’ at-bats.

In fairness to Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee (why didn’t they yank him after Pujols led-off the barage with a monster shot?), Kendrick had been pretty good against St. Louis. His previous 5 starts against the Cardinals produced a 4-0, 1.67 ERA.

No matter. The Kyle Kendrick experiment is getting tired and it should be clear to everyone that he isn’t starter material on this team. Going into the season, I called for Kendrick to be the 5th starter over Jamie Moyer, a stance that looks pretty dumb right about now.

As JGT pointed out earlier in the day, Dan Haren is rumored to be on the Phillies’ wishlist. Haren is struggling this season in Arizona and has the poor record to show for it: 7-6 with a 4.56 ERA (for as mediocre as that W-L record is, it has fewer demerits than Roy Halladay’s). Goodtimes seemed to shrug-off the huge upside of landing Haren by saying he’d be an “upgrade from (Kyle) Kendrick.” He certainly would, but to describe Haren as a better fit in the 5-spot than Kendrick is to ignore the fact that Haren has been one of baseball’s better pitchers over his 8-year career.

As far as how he’d fit in with the Phillies, Haren’s career numbers make him a rival to steal the #2 spot from Cole Hamels. Haren has a marginally-better career ERA to Hamels (3.69-3.71), a better strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.9-3.5) and a slightly better WHIP (1.19-1.193). That’s several blocks from the Kyle Kendrick neighborhood.

While Hamels’ career winning percentage is higher (.574-.558), that’s probably more a product of playing the majority of his career on a playoff-caliber team whereas Haren’s spent the past six years in Oakland and Arizona. And for whatever it’s worth, Haren’s highest finish in Cy Young voting was 5th and that was last year. Hamels’ best finish in CY voting was 6th in 2007. To boot, Haren has pitched in 3 All-Star games to Hamels’ 1.

I don’t bring this up to disparage Cole Hamels, rather to point out how good Haren is. For a guy buried in relative obscurity in Arizona, his addition to the Phils’ rotation would make their top-3 competitive with the top-heavy rotations in Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco. Keep in mind that Haren has a better career WHIP and a higher strikeout-to-walk ratio than the Phils’ staff ace, Roy Halladay.

I don’t know what the Phillies would have to offer Arizona in trade; the D-Backs seem to always be in rebuilding mode so they’d presumably want young talent and we know what that cupboard looks like around here. Haren is under contract for another 2 seasons after 2010 (plus a 2013 club option) and he’ll average between $12.75 and $15.5 million the next few years. That’s a big price tag for a Phillies team that wasn’t willing to spend $9 million on Cliff Lee.

But if Ruben Amaro wants to erase his collosal, blunder-filled offseason (and help people forget about the fact Chase Utley is probably gone until September), pursuing Haren wouldn’t be a bad place to start. This kind of midseason move is what a 2-time defending N.L. pennant winner embroiled in a bitter division race should do. I know Jamie Moyer has been very good this season and that Haren’s isn’t cheap. But I’d rather see him on the mound in September and October.

Last night marked the first time a Mets pitcher has allowed 10 runs and 4 homers in a single outing. On the hill for that disgraceful performance was none other than Mets’ ace, Johan Santana. Placido Polanco, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley homered, Jamie Moyer walked and Shane Victorino hit a grand slam off Santana last night. Sure, this is only one game but it was the rubber match of the series between two bitter rivals. 36 total runs were scored in the series and none of the 3 games was decided by less than a 6-run margin.

It’s early in the season but the Phillies ability to open up a collective offensive salvo after losing 9-1 on Friday was the confidence boost this team needed at the plate. The Phils scored 4-more runs in their last two games than they had in their previous 5 games combined. More importantly, they retook control of the N.L. East standings by winning the series against the Mets.

Up next for the Phils is the St. Louis Cardinals who open a 4-game set at the Park tonight. The Phillies will miss Chris Carpenter during the series, having instead to face Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright, Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse. They’ll then play two at home against Atlanta and then hit the road for a 3-game set in Denver. Including the Mets series, the Phils will have played 13 consecutive games once this brutal stretch is over. Beating the pants off the Mets was certainly the way to kick it off.

Kyle Kendrick’s career may have been ruined last night. After out-pitching Jamie Moyer in spring training, Kendrick was relegated to bullpen duty to start the 2010 campaign. Joe Blanton’s abdominal injury forced Kendrick into the starting rotation and after two starts he was not looking good, amassing an ERA of 17.47. So needless to say, last night’s start against the Braves was probably a chance for him to right his ship and begin to show the organization that keeping him around makes sense.

But in the end it was the organization that let Kendrick down. All he did last night was pitch 8 complete innings, allowing no runs and giving up 4 hits and 2 walks. Those are numbers that you’d expect from Roy Halladay, not the 5th-and-a-half starter. Kendrick did his part and fans were probably feeling good about his teammates’ ability to get three outs and nail down the win with a 3-run lead going into the 9th.

Sure as turnips fall off trucks, however, Ryan Madson came in to close the game and promptly gave up consecutive home runs in to Jason Heyward and Troy Glaus. Not to be outdone, medieval retread Jose Contreras gave up the game-winning dinger to Nate McLouth in the 10th. The grand irony of watching the Phillies bullpen collapse was the fact that Billy Wagner pitched a perfect 10th inning for the Braves and got the win.

In the offseason when Ruben Amaro was trying to show the world he could imprint his name on a World Series winner, every ounce of energy was poured into signing Roy Halladay. For good measure, Amaro added Placido Polanco so that the Phillies could improve upon their already ostentatious offensive numbers. But in a series of non-moves that reeked of ignorance, Amaro did nothing to improve the one area of the team that has been awful for the past two years: the bullpen.

Had it not been for Brad Lidge’s unworldly perfect season in 2008, that team may well have not won the World Series because of how shaky the pen was (excepting Lidge, of course). And last year’s bullpen was downright awful. So what should the G.M. do as a follow up? Well, for starters lets shitcan our best long reliever, Chan Ho Park. Then let’s go into the season with a closer who blew 11 saves last year, a set-up guy in J.C. Romero who hasn’t seen rubber in ages and a few 54th-round fantasy baseball draft scrubs as offseason pickups.

If this team does not win the N.L. East, it will be because of its bullpen. Plain and simple. It is the part of this team that has been bad for multiple seasons and Amaro’s inability to address it with anything other than Danys Baez and Jose Contreras is a sign of either ignorance of an unhealthy obsession with putting all his eggs in the Halladay basket. So going forward, let’s hope Kyle Kendrick and the rest of the rotation can expect a little more help from organization than they got last night.

A far more interesting and telling game than yesterday’s Phillies blowout win over the Nationals will be played tomorrow night. Aside from the fanfare and excitement surrounding opening day and Roy Halladay’s debut, is there anyone out there who really thought that Doc wouldn’t get the win and that the Phils’ offense wouldn’t hammer the hapless Nats? Tomorrow will mark the first start of the season for the one guy upon whom the Phillies championship hopes rest the most: Cole Hamels.

Let’s assume that the Phillies starting pitching breaks into three categories. The first is Roy Halladay’s presumed dominance in the form of a season that should bring at least 18 wins. The second group is Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer. Their collective ability to keep opposing teams’ run totals under what the mighty Phils offense puts up will determine their success. While it’s true that the last 3 spots in the rotation account for 60% of the team’s starts (give or take) and that each win by Moyer counts as much as each win by Halladay, Hamels and Halladay’s starts will begin to count for more as the season progresses. That is, as the season wears on we’ll know whether this team genuinely has the secret to playoff success: top-heavy starting pitching.

And so the third part of the equation is Cole Hamels. If Hamels has a season like 2009, his wins won’t come in droves as they did in ’08. Nor will his value in a playoff-shortened rotation bode well for the Phillies’ pitching matchups in the postseason. Sure, we’re 161 games from October but it’s not too early to start focusing on Hamels’ ability to regain his form and make the 1-2, righty-lefty combo of Halladay and Hamels the wrecking crew that Ruben Amaro banked on when he cut ties with Cliff Lee. We’ll get a first glimpse at this recipe tomorrow evening in Washington.

• Philly’s NCAA run isn’t going as planned so far. Villanova barely escaped a first-round departure yesterday at the hands of Robert Morris. Had it not been for a little leprechaun in their corner (or unscrupulous refereeing), the Cats may well be back on the Main Line today sipping on lattes. To make matters worse, Temple is currently losing to Cornell, threatening to make me eat my words.
• Flyers’ goaltender, Michael Leighton, and his high ankle sprain have dealt the team an 8-10 week severance with his services. This could spell disaster for the team’s playoff hopes if backup, Brian Boucher, can’t deliver. He passed his first test last night against Dallas, stopping 27 of 29 shots. ESPN.com’s Scott Burnside chimes in on this latest installment of the mystery of potential underachievement on the part of the orange and black.
• Les Brown at the Daily News wonders whether LeSean McCoy will be the answer at running back for the Eagles. The most likely candidates to join McCoy in the Eagles’ backfield are Saints’ back, Mike Bell, and Raiders’ back, Justin Fargas.
• As for the Sixers, they just plain stink. The conventional wisdom is that their best bet is to keep on tanking and improve their future by depending on the lottery. The problem with that is the fact that the NBA is chock full of shitty teams, so the Sixers’ chances of landing a game-changer in the draft aren’t exactly great. It just goes to show how flawed the NBA is from a competitive perspective: you’ve only got a shot at the title if you’re one of two or three teams and you’ve got even worse odds of improving through sucking because there are so many bottom-feeding teams nibbling at the lottery teat.
• And finally, the team that all of Delaware Valley believes will win at least 110 games in 2010 will face the Orioles tonight in Clearwater. The nice thing for us here at iSportacus is the fact that there really aren’t any roster spots up for grabs so we don’t have to do much reporting. The only real questions surrounding the team are the issue of whether Kyle Kendrick or Jamie Moyer will start fifth and when in the holy hell J.C. Romero will be healthy again. It’s a sign of what a good position the Phillies are in that the majority of spring training talk is surrounding Jayson Werth’s contract and the potential of the team’s top prospects, both scenarios that won’t have an effect on this season. Looking pretty good heading into the season.

The ultra-interesting debate over who the Phillies’ 5th starter will be is heating up. On paper, a win by the 5th starter counts for as much as a win by a team’s ace. But no team carries enough pitching talent to put a top-flight starter in the 5th spot. So why go with a 5-man rotation? Simply put, teams have to because the 4-man cycle is simply too taxing on today’s pitching arms.

Enter Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer. Paul Hagen at the Daily News thinks Kyle Kendrick will have to be demonstrably better during spring training in order to “unseat” Jamie Moyer’s spot in the rotation. For sure, if there’s anything to the idea of paying dues in sports, Jamie Moyer is the walking definition. But at what point is holding Kendrick back in order to have a Supreme Court-style seat for Moyer counterproductive?

There must be a reason Kyle Kendrick is still on this team, and that reason must have something to do with the belief that he can be a reliable starting pitcher some day. Kendick has pitched 3 seasons with the Phils and has amassed a very solid 24-14 record, good for a .632 winning percentage. While his ERA hasn’t been great (4.66), neither has Jamie Moyer’s during the same 3 seasons (4.53). In fact, over the past 3 seasons, Kendrick’s ERA isn’t much worse than Joe Blanton’s (4.22).

The point with Kendrick is that he needs to be found a place on this team. Moyer is in the last year of his contract (read: career) and is slated to make $6.5 million compared to Kendrick’s salary last year of $475,000. But getting a bang for the buck shouldn’t really be the point for a team suddenly in desperate need of young arms. If Kendrick does get the nod in the 5th spot and fails, the team can always bring Moyer in to spell him at some point during the season. It’s time to see what Kendrick can do.

The Phillies are in Florida today and will play the first game of a doubleheader this afternoon at 4:15. I was thinking about that last night while watching the Colts-Dolphins game and looking at the atrocious football/baseball hybrid field and thinking about what an awful place Landshark Stadium is to play baseball. For one, the field will be trashed after last night’s football game. Secondly, nobody ever goes to Marlins games anyway, so the only people who have to suffer from watching their games are those who tune-in on their TVs.

Joe Blanton goes against Josh Johnson in the first game. An interesting stat on Blanton is that in his last 5 starts, he’s gone at least 6 innings in 4 of those games. For a team with a bullpen that is struggling (to put it kindly), a Blanton start is just what the doctor ordered.

And in the second game, Jamie Moyer will face Anibal Sanchez, who is 2-7 with a 4.50 ERA. ESPN has the start time listed as 7:10 and 8:10 so I suppose the dimension-defying nature of the game’s timing should provide some interest. They also have the Phillies’ record as 75-69 in one place and 87-61 in another. Oh well, the game is at Landshark Stadium so espn probably figured nobody would notice the mistakes anyway.

We have the 700level.com to thank for this picture of a pre-facial pubescent Jayson Werth. Nowadays he’s armed with a mean landing strip on his chin. I don’t know, I guess he thinks it looks good. In any event, Werth’s 34th homer of the year was of the 4-bag variety last night as he and Joe Blanton (6 scoreless innings) propelled the Phils to a 6-1 victory over the hapless embarrassment that is the Washington Nationals. The Phillies’ magic number is now 11 with 18 games to play.

We’ve all heard it before: the Phillies are an all-or-nothing team, meaning their offense is predicated on the long ball. Traditionally this is not the way that successful playoff teams win largely because their opponents in the playoffs trot-out higher quality pitching than the average seasonal opponent. Whether this holds true this postseason is anyone’s guess. In a season when the 5 teams that comprise the N.L. pennant chase (Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, Rockies and Giants) have starting pitching better than most years’ playoffs, the home run ball may be at more of a premium this October.

What is going to matter for the Phillies is their pitching. The mid-season turmoil surrounding Cole Hamels’ sub-par season and the Moyer vs. Pedro storyline seems to have disappeared as every starting pitcher has thrown extremely well of late and it looks like J.A. Happ will be back as he’s slated to start on Friday night against Atlanta. As the bullpen’s well-documented problems go, Chan Ho Park left the game last night after a scoreless 8th with a hamstring problem though J.C. Romero’s much-needed left arm looks like it’ll be back in form for the playoffs. According to espn.com, Romero says he’ll make 5 appearances before the end of the season.

Cole Hamels will go tonight in the final sleeper against Washington. This weekend promises to see a better opponent (as least in the pitching department) as the Phils go to Atlanta for 3. Their bats will be tested by Tim Hudson, Javier Vasquez and Tommy Hanson which should provide for a few games more similar to a playoff series than the last 3 outings against the team from Chinese Taipei. The playoffs are right around the corner and assuming the Phillies win tonight against the Nationals, they will have taken 8 of their last 10. Playing well going in is key, and it looks like the Phillies should have some momentum heading into the home stretch