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

• How much longer do we have to entertain the idea that Brett Myers is an integral part of this team? Everyone seems willing to cut him slack when he’s acting like a Northern Floridian (wife beating, rednecking, bar brawling) but the thing that amazes me is how people seem to always think he’s going to be the answer to the Phillies’ pitching woes. For a guy with a career ERA of 4.39 (4.43 in the playoffs), he’s a pitcher I’d just assume let drift off to sea quietly.
• Remember all that talk about what a lock the Phillies are to win the N.L. East? Well, according to the coolstandings.com season simulation, of current division leaders, only Detroit is less of a lock to win their division than the Phillies. The simulation also shows that the Phillies rank 5 out of 6 (with the Tigers last again) among current division leaders’ likeliness to make the playoffs altogether.
• For all the fanfare surrounding Pedro Martinez’s start against the Cubs last Wednesday (7 hits, 5 IP, 3 ER), he offered little more than a Jamie Moyer start. The big knock against Moyer has been his inability to go late into games; this is exactly the same m.o. Pedro has (remember how Grady Little’s decision to keep a tired Pedro in too long in Game 7 cost Boston the 2003 ALCS, and Little his job?). Here’s to hoping his performance tonight against Jon Garland and the D-Backs tonight shows some improvement.
• For the first time in the past 4 seasons, Ryan Howard is not leading the National League in any significant category (including strikeouts, though he’s on pace to K 199 times this year, matching his career high from 2007). The good news: in the past 2 series (6 games against the Cubs and Braves), Howard is hitting .381 with 4 home runs in 24 at-bats with only 5 strikeouts. And he also has a triple on his card during this stretch, helping to give him an unwordly 1.548 OPS.

Apparently Jamie Moyer is unhappy with the fact he’s been demoted to the bullpen. Of the impression he had that his starting spot in the rotation was guaranteed, Moyer said the following:

Ultimately, I’m a little disheartened because I know this past winter, when I was negotiating with the Phillies, this was a sore thumb, if you will, about this potentially happening. You can’t promise anything in this game, but I really feel like Ruben kind of parlayed to me that this type of situation would not happen.

In response, Ruben Amaro said “and you and your agent assured me and my staff that you wouldn’t suck.”

Of course Amaro didn’t say that but perhaps he should have. Obviously, the contract negotiations included the part about how the Phillies would intend to continue using Moyer as he’s always been used: as a starter. But nowhere is it written that he is inked-in for 40 starts during the season. Especially when his ERA ranks 91st in the N.L. among all pitchers who’ve started a game this year.

On one hand, I feel bad for Moyer because his benching really doesn’t accomplish anything. His replacement, Pedro Martinez, is most-likely not going to pitch his way into the playoff rotation so Moyer’s being cooled for a long shot. But on the other hand, Moyer has been around long enough to realize that performance dictates playing time. At some point (Brad Lidge) the manager has to make a change when something isn’t working (Brad Lidge) regardless of how dear the player is to the team’s soul.

It’s official: Jamie Moyer has been moved to the bullpen and Pedro Martinez will make his debut on Wednesday night against the Cubs. J.A. Happ will start tomorrow in the first game against Chicago. In other pitching news, the Phils have activated Chad Durbin from the D.L.

This still of Coco Crips narrowly-avoiding what appears to be a devastating right from James Shields is a great sports photo. While it has nothing to do with Shane Victorino, it is still a great baseball snapshot so I’ve decided to include it to show other incidents in which baseball players have been ejected for poor behavior. In fairness to Victorino, Shields and Crisp were tossed for fighting as oppossed to simply throwing their hands in the air, 350 feet away from the aggrieved umpire.

So my thoughts on the ejection are twofold. One, little is clearer in umpires’ minds than their willingness to eject players who argue balls and strikes. The ambiguous nature of umpires’ senses of the strike zone is one of the peculiarities in baseball that make it unlike other sports. Fundamental to this agreement that strike zones vary (at least in umps’ minds) is the ability to practice that interpretation without constant harrassment from players and managers. So it makes sense that umpires are quick to toss players who violate this rule.

In Victorino’s case, his actions after the ejection tell us a lot about the frustration that led to the incident. Facing a sweep at the hands of their closest divisional pursuer, the Phillies trotted-out their one pitcher who is completely dependent on strike zone consistency, Jamie Moyer. With Moyer relatively ineffective and out of the game, Victorino’s cool was lost as Rodrigo Lopez threw a third ball. You can understand why Shane was angry and to his credit, his reaction was fairly mild. That is, until he was tossed.

He looked like George Brett going after the pine tar gestapo, sprinting out of center field with murder in his eyes. Of the call and the incident, home plate umpire Ed Rapuano said “he’s right in the line of sight and he’s out in front of everybody, waving his arms in disgust of a pitch that I called. It’s very simple. And Charlie agreed with me.” A moot point the ejection is certainly not and two questions were raised by this incident that are worth being put to our readers:

One, are umpires too quick/too eager to insert themselves into the outcome of games? And two, to what end is the crowd’s perpetual booing following the ejection tiresome and idiotic or merely reflective of the same frustration that led Victorino to go nuts? To the patient and balanced fans of Philadelphia sports, I put these two queries to you.

UPDATE: Dan Levy chimes in on the issue at sportingnews.com

Despite all the disingenuous and idiotic talk last week about a 6-man rotation, what’s likely to happen to the Phillies rotation is that it will be without Jamie Moyer. Pedro Martinez appears to be ready to pitch and may even be on the mound tomorrow night in Chicago (though the Phillies still have a “TBD” listed for tomorrow’s night’s starter). I’m not sure the Phillies thought it would come to this but a spot has to be opened up for Martinez to audition for the post-season rotation and Moyer’s spot is the only one that makes sense for him to fill.

Jim Salisbury at the Inquirer seems to think this is a good idea. I suppose it’s a good idea if determining a 5th-starter for the next month and a half is really that important. The long-term impact will only be felt if Pedro manages to distinguish himself to the extent he deserves to take one of the top-4 guys’ spots in the playoff rotation. You can sit Moyer down to audition Martinez but in reality, Moyer won’t be starting in October anyway, so he’s being shut down simply to see what Pedro can do.

So I guess the point is that Moyer’s sitting in the hopes Pedro will not only supplant Jamie but surpass Happ or Blanton as well. For my part, I’d sit Cole Hamels for 10 days. Despite his bold talk about pitching well when it matters, he has done little to inspire confidence in his ability to beat Matt Cain, Adam Wainwright or Clayton Kershaw in a playoff start. Now that the serious focus is on being in playoff shape, Moyer’s benching would be little more than a human interest story. The real fine tuning needs to be at the #2 spot.

Jamie Moyer (10-7, 5.32) will fire the Phils’ first shots tonight in a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies. Opposing him will be Jason Hammel (5-6, 4.66), who, not surprisingly, has a lower ERA than Moyer. What is surprising is that his ERA is lower than his near-namesake and fading ace, Cole Hamels (4.68). Well at least it’s close.

Just because Cliff Lee made the Giants look like a bunch of circus monkeys last week in his much-hyped debut doesn’t mean we’re all sold on the state of the Phillies pitching. Sounds like Ruben Amaro is however. The way things currently stand the best-possible playoff starting rotation would be Lee, Hamels, Blanton and Happ. Of course, there are many out there who would argue that Jamie Moyer should be in the rotation because he’s from Souderton. Oh well, either way that rotation is out-matched by St. Louis and San Francisco. To that effect Bill Conlin chimed in earlier today.

I don’t want to get too down on the Phillies. After all, they always manage to beat bad teams (provided they’re not A.L. teams). And I’m really not trying to knock Ruben Amaro; the guy’s done a pretty good job in his first year (see Raul Ibanez and Cliff Lee). But there are big question marks in the starting rotation as well as in the bullpen, most notably Cole Hamels and Lights-On Lidge. Hopefully, when Condrey and Romero return from injury and Pedro is ready to go (whatever that may mean), Charlie Manuel Rich Dubee will be able to fit the puzzle pieces correctly.

Getting through yesterday without any baseball was like having 19 prostate exams in a row. Alas, I’ve come through unpenetrated and am looking forward to the beginning of the 2nd half of the season. The question for the Phillies is a question that faces the division-leading Dodgers as well: can they hold onto their first place positions for the next 2 and a half months? Or will wild card challengers, Florida and San Francisco, be able to unseat them, operating on pitching alone? In the Phillies case, we’ll get a good glimpse at this division match-up as they begin a 4-game set tonight at newly-named “Land Shark Stadium” against the Marlins. Jamie Moyer faces Chris Volstad at 7:10.

Sportingnews.com lists its power ranking going into the 2nd half and has the Phillies at number 5. The only N.L. team ahead of the Phillies is the Dodgers; hard to argue with that considering the two teams’ records (56 vs. 48 wins for the Phils). Rounding out the top 5 is Boston, the Yankees and the Angels. The Giants are right behind the Phillies at #6, the Cardinals are #8 with the Rockies and Marlins at #12 and #13, respectively.

I think these arbitrary standings speak volumes about how the National League is currently comprised. The Dodgers played far-and-away better baseball than the rest of the League throughout the first half. The Phillies were shaky but hold a commanding lead in their division and the Central is a crap shoot.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the Phillies are the prohibitive favorite to win the East. Aside from L.A., the Giants pose a very real playoff threat as they have the League’s best pitching staff and while they don’t score many runs (368; only the Cubs, Reds and Padres have scored fewer), they do have the 3rd-best run differential (+44; only the Phils (+48) and Dodgers (+105) are better).

As the SN poll asks about the Phillies, “what else will Philadelphia do to improve its rotation? Because, let’s be honest, Pedro Martinez is not a cure-all?” With what we’ve seen from the team throughout the first half this, fellow Phillies fans, has become the $64,000 question.