Grading the Phillies First Half

My Fellow Phans,

Over the past few days, I have seen a great number of posts on Facebook or other mediums discussing the Phillies first half. Well, read no more: the only post on the Phillies half you need to read is right here. Haha, I kid. In all seriousness, I think to correctly "grade" the Phillies, you need to break it down into each part of the game: Offense, Starting Pitching, Relief Pitching, The Bench.

So that is exactly what I will do here. I will break each of those sections down and grade each equally and then give an overall rating constructed from the previous four grades. So, without further adieu, here is my Phillies first half grades:

Offense: Lets face it, the offense has been sketchy for most of the year. The Phillies best hitter in the first half is currently on the disabled list and that is Placido Polanco. The next best hitter is really a toss up between Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard. Chase Utley has been hurt, while Jayson Werth has looked downright dreadful since his hot start, and Raul Ibanez has been a non-factor ever since he returned from surgery last year. Jimmy Rollins is taking longer than expected to get his feet back under him since returning from the DL and Shane Victorino has just been in a downward spiral for awhile now. Let's not kid ourselves here: this team has just not hit like we all know they are capable of.

Grade: C+

Starting Pitching: The starting pitching has been good for the most part. Halladay has been all that is expected and more while Moyer and Hamels have pitched better than their 2009 numbers. Throw in quality starts from Joe Blanton and Kyle Kendrick and you have a quality rotation, at least in the first half. The ERA of the starters is 3.95: more than good enough to win in this league. Sadly, the run support has not been there and their record is just a clip over .500.

Grade: A

Relief Pitching: The bullpen has been sketchy all year. Although their ERA (3.83) is better than our starting pitching. That surprised me when I read it. However, there are some pitchers who I just do not trust at this time. This includes our beloved close Brad Lidge. I don't get why he struggles so much with such good stuff. I was going to give the pen a lower rating then I did; seeing the ERA changed my mind a bit:

Grade: B-

The Bench: At the start of the season, every bench player on the Phillies we either struggling tremendously or not playing enough for any judgment about him to be accurately made. However, the bench has saved us in recent weeks filling in for our injured players. Greg Dobbs has been playing at a higher level than anyone expected upon his return from the minors. Brian Schiender, Dobbs, and Wilson Valdez have all been playing admirably while we recover from these injuries. The bench deserves more credit than people give it.

Grade: B

So now I take the grades and enter them into my trusty GPA machine. The Phillies GPA for the first half is a 3.00. That's a B right?

Phillies Overall Grade: B

Synopsis: Having a B grade is nothing to be overly excited about, as a B is around the average, we all know that this team is capable of so much more than it is giving us. It should be an interesting second half. Lets hope the Phillies can continue their streaks of strong second halves and pull this one out again.

I posted another poll on the right side about the Phillies first half. Don't forget to vote when you're done reading!

Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!