Young Studs Showing up Veterans in Phils’ Pen

 

My Fellow Phans,

So, here we sit in a rain delay and while we await the start of this Phillies and Cubs game, I figured it would be a perfect time to blog.

For those of you who have seen the Phillies over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed a new trend occurring within the Phillies’ bullpen. Now, this trend is both good and bad for different reasons. Now, of course, this growing trend is the strong emergence of young relievers as the most reliable pitchers in the phillies bullpen.

Take last night’s game for example. Roy Halladay pitched 7 beautiful innings and left with a 7-0 lead. Now, usually that is a pretty good indication that the Phillies are well on their way to and easy victory. Well, not tonight.

Manuel brought in Jose Contreras to start the 8th. Well, Contreras was horrendous. He couldn’t get anybody out and ended up allowing 4 runs in just a third of an inning.  He walked 2 and surrendered a pair of hits. JC Romero followed him and didn’t get a single hitter out. He allowed 2 hits and a walk. By the time Romero left, it was 7-5 Phillies.

Enter young stud Michael Stutes. Stutes took 5 pitches and retired the next 2 hitters. Just 5 pitches! Let’s recap here: 42 pitches between Contreras and Romero. They gave up 5 earned runs, 4 hits, and 3 walks. Stutes comes in and gets twice as many outs in 37 less pitches. Let me ask you, who is pitching like he really wants to be here?

Stutes then threw 10 pitches to get the first two outs of the 9th inning before handing the ball to Antonio Bastardo. Bastardo proceeded to strike out Carlos Pena on 3 pitches lowering his ERA to 1.13 on the season, best on the Phillies’ staff.

Well, what does this say? It tells us two things. Firstly, that there is a chance of worriment later on this season when Charlie Manuel shows “trust” in his veteran relievers in important games and they could end up blowing it as they would have last night if they weren’t bailed out by the young guns.

On the brighter side, this is giving the Phillies some serious hope for the future. 2 of their 3 best relievers are both in their young twenties. We have a future closer and setup man on the club and both are showing very promising virtues. Yes, not only are we Phillies fans being delighted by what we are currently seeing from Stutes and Bastaro, but we should be seeing these to promising young men for many years to come.

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