But beyond all that, they can just change their minds next week if they want to, despite Manuel's saying the move is for the whole season. So this move can be only SO idiotic--especially considering that if it doesn't work, Cholly gets fired and Myers and Lieber can flip spots again. How many games can it cost them? They're losing every night anyway.

First of all, the Phils are not going to win anything with the current bullpen. Bottom line. In any close game, they are not going to be able to get it done. Every guy out there needs to be slotted down one or two roles. At least one. Madsen is ill-suited for the big situations. I happen to think Myers could thrive in those situations. You move Geary, Alfie and Smith down and it makes every one of them better. No reason Brett can't close. Let's face it, Gordon seems to be hanging on by a thread.

For this reason, I blame Gillick more than Charlie. Manuel said repeatedly he needs bullpen quality. Gillick acquired Alfonseca and this Rosario guy. Stand Pat blew it.

This move makes Lieber a useful pitcher again. And he is a useful starter. Nobody said this is a permanent move, but if Brett is all for it -- it could be the spark that gets everybody going. Hell, if the staff ace is willing to do this, it has to make everybody else pumped up. Several great starters have transitioned to great bullpen guys -- Smoltz, Eck, Righetti...

Give it a chance. It just might work. A team 3-9 has to make bold moves.

If Lieber is more effective as a starter than Myers had been, and Brett in the bullpen is better than Lieber thus far (which is not exactly asking much from either of them), then how does this move not improve the team?

I think it's telling that the analysis in the newspaper is basically, "Phils suck. Gas Prices high." This from the same group of writers that, to my memory, uniformally picked the Phillies to win somewhere between 85-92 games.  All of a sudden 12 games undoes everyone's predictions?  In many cases, the standings on June 1 don't really tell us a whole lot about how teams stack up, how can the standings on April 18 be meaningful?  Which is not to argue that the Phillies don't have flaws that need to be corrected.  But the notion that the season is teetering at the brink is pretty insane, too.

Moving Myers to the pen reflects that, unfortunately, Phillies management doesn't understand this.  Even if the Phillies were 3-9 bad right now, it wouldn't be time to panic.  This a close division and this is not a team that can afford self-inflicted wounds like this.

And Papelbaum is back in the pen isn't he?

Jon Lieber sucked in the pen.  Big surprise there.  As a starter, he's barely league-average.  So you're replacing 200+ innings of very good pitching for 200+ innings of mediocre (at best) pitching.  I don't see how that's an improvement.

Actually, Lieber is league average in the first half of seasons, and quite an excellent pitcher in the second half. He has demonstrated this over several seasons. The Phils are probably figuring their hitting will picks up. It almost has to. With this move, they gain a pitcher by bringing Lieber back to the rotation, back to usefulness.

Lost in all this is the fact that sure, the bullpen as currently constructed blows.  But at least they had leads to blow.  Replacing Myers with Lieber decreases the odds that the bullpen will inherit leads to protect.  

Given that Myers has a 9.65 era, I am not sure of your logic here. No, they haven't had many leads period.

What if Garcia gets hurt again?  Or Eaton?  Or if Lieber doesn't work out?  You can't yo-yo Myers back and forth between the two roles.  If you're moving him to the pen, you have to commit to that.  See Madson, Ryan, 2006.  So ultimately, you're losing all of Myers' innings as a starter, replacing those innings with inferior pitchers, and then saying that the ~80 innings he'll pitch in the pen will make up for that.  That's foolhardy, at best.  And considering we're discussing 200 innings, that's hardly a small sample size.

What if any pitcher gets hurt? That will hurt any team. Not just the Phillies.

Let's continue this thinking outside the box. Why don't they flip Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard in the batting order? After all, Howard's got a great OBP--perfect for setting the table for the big power hitters like Rollins!

As for the Phils' bullpen... why not get Hamels in there too? I mean, hell, what if Flash Gordon goes down--who'd be the closer!? We can groom Hamels for that role, and it'd prolong his career to boot, since he'd be putting fewer innings on his glass-like arm!

This could work in other sports too. Why not move Brian Westbrook to wide receiver, to help fix the Eagles' lack of depth there??

The possibilities are endless! Kudos, Charlie Manuel. Kudos on thinking outside the box!

"Finally, out of the blue, Manuel drops this: He's putting his No. 1 starter, Brett Myers, into the bullpen. There was five seconds of silence. Literally. I timed it later. Then laughter. Much laughter. The beat writers attempted to convince Manuel that he was joking. They stared at each other. Literally, jaws were dropped. One writer offered to bet Manuel $100 that he was kidding. Finally, they realized he was serious, and they launched into the pitching staff inquisition."

I liked this move when Charlie announced it and it looked good tonight, right up til Hatteburg sent one out of the park.

Manuel made a bold move. Now he needs to make another. Gordon is a setup man, nothing more. He needs to move Myers into the closer's role.

What if those 80 innings as a reliever cost you 10 games? Suddenly they seem a lot more important, don't they? Those 80 inning are almosy all going to be in high-pressure, game-in-the-balance situations. You cant't simply compare innings.

And Mariano Rivera doesn't throw one pitch. He is a closer precisely because he's a genius at it -- and it happens to be a pretty crucial role. Watching these Phillies, how could anyone not understand how crucial the 'pen is?