This Week's Pitching Probables (Sept. 24-29)

Could it be the Dickey going against us?

Or maybe it is the Blanton and Kendrick show going for us?

Or the fact that the Phillies last loss (before sweeping the other three teams in the division) was to the Mets?

At any rate, totally understandable.

So many great Dickey jokes to be made.

cheezit, and look how many guys also have BB/9 rates at or near 4. Say what you will about the talent-deprived Kendrick, but he doesn’t walk that many guys.

Not like Tony Romo botching a hold to lose the game, but up there in my pantheon of season-enders.

on Fan Appreciation Day would be kind of boss, don’t you think.

I don’t think that is as big a worry here… Since then, the Phillies have faced Dickey twice more, and Wakefield once, to a 2-1 record. More importantly, the offense (even when it tanked in Dickey’s most recent start against the Phillies) did not stay there. They will be fine. Dickey alone will not kill them. (Now if you told me that the weekend featured Dice-K + Wakefield + Dickey, then I might worry, as that hat trick caused Slumpmas the first time!) Play the starters and go for the win!

While the media is overblowing this, the fact is that Manuel did do what he had to do (a little thing considering the off days, but still a change) to insure that the Big 3 would face Atlanta. Meanwhile, Bobby Cox did not use the off days over the last several weeks to insure that he could throw his best pitchers at the Phillies. This is a huge contrast, and one that paid dividends to the Phillies, so it makes a ton of sense that it is being a little overblown.

Interesting. Dickey just keeps on moving up. He was originally set for Sunday until Mejia got hurt. I’ll revise the table.

Wait – I understand putting Misch ahead of BIG PELF if you want to give BIG PELF a rest, but what’s the point of flip-flopping Dickey and Gee?

If you don’t have hope, you have nothing.

I don’t know that you go with an entirely scrub team against Atlanta for 2 reasons. Firstly, I am not so sure that Atlanta in the playoffs is an award winning idea. Although considering that the other option may be the Giants, your mileage may vary.

Further (and this is even something that Halladay said recently), overly long rest leads to rust- 5 or even 6 days is great, but much more knocks him (and possibly many pitchers) off of their game. A better idea may be to send all of them to Atlanta, and let each of them “start” on their assigned day. These starts would be minimal workloads- think 3-5 innings each and no more than 60-80 pitches each, allowing the pitchers to stay in rhythm while also giving them rest.

Would that only be the case of a non-tender? I was under the impression that he is still under arb control by the Mets, but I could be wrong on this.

Nope – you forgot the Twins.

i think you’re right!! i totally didn’t realize they were playing each other. i can’t believe this hasn’t been discussed more!

So, this would be the “other” magic number, which I guess is three to clinch a playoff spot. I seem to remember that being celebrated by some teams in the past.