by Kerry Kauffman

Created on: July 01, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

As a Phillies fan for the past 30 years I have seen some great teams, some decent teams, and unfortunately many more bad Phillies teams. This team for me falls above decent, but not great and therefore most likely wont win the division and possibly not even the wild card playoff yet again. Let me break down the team as I see it.

The pitching staff always seems to be a question mark with this team. The season started with the starting rotation seemingly better than it has been in years with a rotation of Brett Myers, Cole Hamels, Freddy Garcia, Adam Eaton and Jamie Moyer. The only 2 dependable (for the most part) of those 5 has been the young Hamels and the 44 year old Moyer. Myers started off the season struggling and ended up in the bullpen when closer Tom Gordan went down. Now he is injured as well. Garcia, acquired in the off season from the White Sox, has been a huge bust and pitched a lot with an injury, and now is out indefinitely. Eaton, who was with the Phillies before, has been so inconsistent, some good, but mostly quite bad. Jon Lieber went from the bullpen into the rotation with mixed success, but he too is now on the disabled list. With the injuries the rotation has a youngster Kyle Kendrick pitching for them and had a few other rookies take a turn or 2 in the rotation. A dependable and healthy starting rotation is key for any team wanting to make the playoffs, which the Phillies do not have at this point.

As for the bullpen, the season started with 39 year old Tom Gordan as the closer. With his proneness to injuries, he was always a question mark and now is once again on the disabled list. So in stepped Brett Myers who did a nice job as the closer until he too injured his shoulder. Now Antonio Alfonseca is the closer, he has handled that role in the past, but is more suited at this stage in his career as a set up man. Ryan Madsen has done a good job as the setup man. Rookie left hander Mike Zagurski has good stuff but doesn't strike fear into opposing left handed hitters at this stage of his career. Geoff Geary has been overworked it appears and really is better off in middle relief instead of the 7th inning where the team has been forced to use him because of the injuries. The bullpen is another area that needs to get improved for the Phillies to make a run at the playoffs. Hopefully the return of Myers and Gordon will do the trick.

The starting 8 are a solid team defensively, especially up the middle with Jimmy Rollins and the much improved defensive

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