Just who's clutch? (pitching edition)

In Monday night's game against the Giants, Jon Lieber was undone when, with two out a man on third, he HBP'd Omar Vizquel, served up an RBI double to J.T. Snow and allowed a three-run homer by Moises Alou. For the rest of his game, Lieber was pretty much fine, but this trend of one meltdown inning per start has held through much of his season. Lieber seems to throw either 1-2-3s or crooked numbers, with little in between.

Then there's Robinson Tejeda. Yes, he got waxed last Friday night by the Pirates, but for much of this season he's been a veritable Houdini, repeatedly making good pitches with guys on base to minimize the damage or escape entirely unscathed. It's almost enough to make you wonder who's the veteran in his mid-30s, and who's the rookie with barely 100 innings over AA ball...

Here's a selected list of Phils pitchers and their batting average and OPS allowed with opponent runners in scoring position:

So we've got three 25-and-under guys (Tejeda, Madson and Myers) who seem to "bear down" and make pitches when they really need to. Their combined salary? About $1.1 million. (And then there's Padilla, whose work in this situation sure seems to run counter to the complaints of Chris Wheeler and others about his "space cadet" tendencies.) By contrast, Lieber and Lidle have done some of their worst work in game-changing situations. These two mid-30s veterans are pulling in close to $9 million between the two of them.

The point here isn't to rip the veteran starters; to some extent, those bad numbers could be the result of lucky bounces, quality of opponent hitters, bad karma or what have you. And the Lieber/Lidle pattern of smooth sailing or disaster, as opposed to the Tejeda tightrope act, is arguably easier on the bullpen (not to mention the digestive system for those following at home). But I do wish the Phillies as an organization would demonstrate some knowledge of this information rather than just mindlessly genuflect at the altar of "veteran presence."