{"id":1292,"date":"2009-07-11T12:02:23","date_gmt":"2009-07-11T19:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/11\/nl-east-at-the-half-way-house\/"},"modified":"2009-07-11T12:02:23","modified_gmt":"2009-07-11T19:02:23","slug":"nl-east-at-the-half-way-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/11\/nl-east-at-the-half-way-house\/","title":{"rendered":"NL East at the Half-Way House"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies are on top and just starting to play the brand of baseball that won them the 2008 World Series.\u00c2\u00a0 If the pitching continues to improve, they will run away from the pack.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mets have more injured players than healthy ones and only a miracle could get them back into contention.\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves still don’t score a lot of runs and hand the ball over to a bullpen doesn’t always hold a lead.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

If the Phillies make a trade it is only to shore up their pitching for the playoffs.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The Marlins have the best chance to\u00c2\u00a0overtake them down the stretch in the NL East–but that is a long shot at best.<\/em><\/p>\n

Atlanta (42-44).<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves did what everyone said they needed to do.\u00c2\u00a0 They traded for a bat and got Nate McLouth who has continued to put up the same numbers he did for the Pirates.\u00c2\u00a0 He makes the offense\u00c2\u00a0significantly better if not overwhelming.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Chipper Jones has stayed on the field most of the season, so given the strength of the starting rotation, the Braves should be pushing the Phillies.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they will, but to do so they have to make sense of their bullpen.<\/p>\n

The still anemic Braves offense cuts the margin to operate rather close.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem in many of the recent years has been\u00c2\u00a0the Braves bullpen more than the starting pitching.\u00c2\u00a0 At first it just looked like they couldn’t buy a good reliever.\u00c2\u00a0 But I am beginning to wonder if the problem isn’t Bobby Cox.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

On paper the Braves pitching should be among the best in the league.\u00c2\u00a0 Tommy Hanson has given them another strong arm.\u00c2\u00a0 What is hurting the strong starting pitching is how little they are used.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Bobby Cox is at the head of the class when it comes to the conventional wisdom of bullpen use.\u00c2\u00a0 Cox says give me a lead into the sixth inning and I will show you three relievers, maybe four or five, to close the game out.<\/p>\n

Cox makes more trips to the mound than any other manager, especially when you look at the strong starters he has.\u00c2\u00a0 During the past week he only let one pitcher go into the seventh inning–Javier Vasquez who threw 108 pitches in a 2-1 win before being taken out.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night Derek Lowe had allowed only five base runners in six innings and thrown only 88 pitches.\u00c2\u00a0 But Cox yanked him at the end of six and brought in three relievers to close out the game.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I doubt the Braves bullpen will stand up to the wear and tear and will collapse before the season is out bringing the rest of the cards down on top of them.<\/p>\n

Marlins (45-43)<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 The Marlins have the horses to keep pace with the Phillies, but they are young and it would take a leap of faith–or at least another quality starter–for them to best a more seasoned Philadelphia team.\u00c2\u00a0 Hanley Ramirez (16-60-.347)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0has overtaken Jimmy Rollins as the most inspirational all-around player in the NL East and he has a lot of help.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan Uggla, Cody Ross, and Jorge Cantu\u00c2\u00a0are playing well although Uggla is hitting only .229.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Jeremy Hermida started strong though he has tailed off, but it is the pitching that will tell the tale.<\/p>\n

Josh Johnson is having a career year and leads the team with a 7-2 record and a 2.82 ERA.\u00c2\u00a0 Ricky Nolasco was supposed to be every bit as good, but he struggled in April and May.\u00c2\u00a0 He turned his season around in June and that has been one important\u00c2\u00a0difference for the Marlins as they have surged back into contention.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

They other important change is Dan Meyer closing out games.\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Lindstrom wasn’t up to the job and got hurt.\u00c2\u00a0 Leo Nunez and Renyel Pinto stepped in and did credibly, but in the last week manager Fredi Gonzalez has been giving the ball to Meyer with good results.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meyer went from Atlanta to Oakland and beyond as promising but\u00c2\u00a0failed starter.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00c2\u00a0has found success in a new role in relief.\u00c2\u00a0 He has been good all season long and now has an ERA of 1.81 and 32 Ks to 10 walks in 34 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 If he continues in the closer role it allows Pinto and Nunez to return to set-up duties where they have been excellent in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 It could bode well for the Marlins bullpen, but the starters still need to fill in behind Josh Johnson.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia (46-38)<\/strong> If there was a sports writer in America that thought Raul Ibanez was going to lead the Phillies into another World Series, please step forward and claim your prize, but I want it time-stamped and notarized.\u00c2\u00a0 In Philadelphia Ibanez is just part of what is the best offense in the National League.\u00c2\u00a0 They are scoring a lot of runs–5.32 per game–more than anyone else and it is\u00c2\u00a0not really close.<\/p>\n

They have four players on pace to hit forty home runs.\u00c2\u00a0 Ibanez, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth all have a chance to best that mark.\u00c2\u00a0 Shane Victorino is having another fine year.\u00c2\u00a0 If Jimmy Rollins rounds into form, the Phillies will run away with it in the second half.<\/p>\n

To do so, however, their pitching will have to continue its current direction.\u00c2\u00a0 In June Joe Blanton kicked it into high gear and Cole Hammels has tried to follow suit.\u00c2\u00a0 J.A. Happ is filling in well for Brett Myers and while Jamie Moyer is not pitching all that well, he can win in front of the Phillies’ offense.\u00c2\u00a0 That leaves only Brad Lidge, who like Blanton seems to have started to take this a little more seriously.\u00c2\u00a0 Lidge has a lot more work to do however, still dragging an ERA of 7.03 into the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

As in Atlanta, it may be the bullpen that spells the difference.\u00c2\u00a0 But for the Phillies, they can make the playoffs without a great pen because they can win even when someone manages to score a few late inning runs.\u00c2\u00a0 Trading for Roy Halladay would just put the Phillies in line for another World Series run.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They don’t really need him to win in a weaker NL East where the Mets may have folded the tent until next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Phillies are on top and just starting to play the brand of baseball that won them the 2008 World Series.\u00c2\u00a0 If the pitching continues to improve, they will run away from the pack.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mets have more injured players than healthy ones and only a miracle could get them back into contention.\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}