The Phillies 5th starter will be ...?

but aren’t we at the level now where that might be one too many “if’s” esp. as the 5th starter is still an “if”. and the bull pen is filled with “ifs” as well. Red Sox and Yankees don’t have alot of “ifs” in the pitching department as far as I know.

I agree. Moyer.

To be honest, I don’t really consider Bastardo a starter at this point either. The fly ball tendency doesn’t mesh well with CBP, and he hasn’t shown the health it would take to assume a starter’s workload.

That being said, I’d rather Bastardo take the ball every fifth day than Vogelsong, or Mathieson (who, as philiafan alluded to below, is a reliever exclusively at this point).

I’m pretty surprised that no one else has landed Wang yet. Maybe his price is higher than expected?

You’re right about Moyer. Last year, his ERA splits were 5.35 with 5 or fewer days of rest, 4.01 with 6 or more days. Small sample size though.

Agree. I’be been banging away on this idea since we signed Pedro, because I thought moving Moyer to the pen was a decision they didn’t have to make. This idea is a hedge against every 5th day Moyer or every 5th day Pedro.

I should note that once you combine the two salaries, it will once again reignite blah blah blah Cliff Lee, $9MM, blah blah blah. But as you point out, Moyer’s a sunk cost in 2010.

This is pretty much what happened once Moyer was relegated to the bullpen, and it worked out that way for about 2-3 weeks because of some bad weather. I don’t know that I’d be a slave to implement the 5a, 5b religiously (why not trot Moyer out there if it’s a game vs the Marlins, for instance), but it is an interesting (if not expensive) way to use Veteran Clubhouse Presences, protect their arms, as well as the arms of the top 4 guys.

The other thing is that I don’t really trust what Pedro says, and doubt he has much interest at all in routine starts before, say, August 1. So I’d be kind of inclined to be creative, structure some kind of contract that says—we’ll use you starting in August.

The roster spot consideration is more important. You could go with one fewer reliever or bench player. Last year’s bench was so bad you wouldn’t have missed a beat doing this. This year, I think the Phillies will have to rely on the bench to give the thirtysomething core more routine breaks.

Besides, it was pretty obvious that Pedro blew out something that last game of the WS. I mean that ball should have be 83 mph when it reached the plate, not when it left his hand.

Moyer can prove that unless your name is Satchel Paige those should be knuckleballs your throwing at 50 years of age

At the alleged age of 60, Satchel Paige becomes the oldest player ever to appear in a major league game. Pitching for the Kansas City A’s, he blanks the Red Sox for three innings striking out one and giving up just one hit to Carl Yastrzemski.