Phillies rotation woes remain after trade deadline flop

Now It’s Up to the Hitters

In other words, another “wait ‘til next year” August slog starts for the Philadelphia Phillies.

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But wait! There’s an offensive side to this game too! Don’t the Phillies have all the firepower they need to go on a tear? There are plenty of games left, and it’s not as though Atlanta and Washington are totally over the horizon in this race.

A seven out of ten-game run coupled with 4-6 or 3-7 performances by the Braves and Nationals, and presto!

GM Matt Klentak: “For this team to accomplish what it wants to accomplish, we’re going to need the stars in that room to carry us. We have the talent. We had a very splashy offseason. We brought in a lot of talent and those guys are going to have to do what they do to push us into October.”

No one needs a reiteration at this point of the big names the Phillies brought into their clubhouse to punch up their offense this past off-season. They led to many predictions of, at minimum, an NL East crown for the team, including by a majority of the writers for this website.

So, since almost all those stars have underperformed – with the exception of Andrew McCutchen, who was badly injured rather early – couldn’t we see a probability-driven surge by the offense?

Maybe.

However, to be realistic, you have to ask yourself if the following baseball commonplace is true: “Good pitching beats good hitting.” A corollary to this is: If you have not committed to a five-deep “opener” system for starters, your starting pitchers are your most important pitchers.

At best, back in February, the Phillies overestimated the majority of their starters; at worst, they knew those starters weren’t all that good and, cynically, just decided “to go cheap” on starting pitching.