Bullpen, Bench are Key Questions Facing Phillies

Thursday, November 5, 2009

By John R. Finger
CSNPhilly.com

NEW YORK — No one on the Phillies was really interested in talking about what went wrong during the World Series. There was just too much that went well during the regular season and the playoffs to focus on the negative.

After all, the players said, it’s very difficult to make it to one World Series let alone two in a row. The fact of the matter was that in going down to the Yankees in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, the Phillies were not shy about looking into the cold, harsh face of reality.

Sure, veteran Andy Pettitte beat them even though he walked five hitters in 5 2/3 innings. When a reporter from New York asked about the latest postseason victory for the lefty, the answer was honest and objective.

“He wasn’t that good, to be honest,” Jimmy Rollins said. “But he made one good pitch to every hitter. When he needed a double play grounder, he got it.”

Tip your cap, as they say.

And the difference in the series?

“The Yankees got the two-out hits and we didn’t,” Rollins added. “That’s all you can really say about it. They were better in this series.”

Needless to say, the Phillies prefer being the champs after feeling the other side of it in 2009.

“I can feel what [Eric] Hinske felt last year,” said Shane Victorino, who like the Yankees’ pinch-hitter in 2008, made the final out in the 2009 World Series. “I guess I'm going to be on the highlights all offseason watching myself make the last out. I definitely didn't want to be that guy. I wanted to get on base somehow, someway, but it didn't work out that way.”

But make no mistake about it: The 2009 season was successful. Wildly successful, in fact. The season was bittersweet with the team capturing their third straight NL East title and second straight National League pennant, with the death of the legendary Harry Kalas casting an early pall on the season.

But these Phillies persevered. Of course talent always helps, too, and needless to say the Phillies are wildly talented. With the core veterans in the lineup set to come back and beginning to enter the prime years of their careers, mixed with a bona fide ace at the top of the rotation in Cliff Lee also expected to return, the Phillies have to focus on plugging in some holes in order to get back to the playoffs in 2010.

Needless to say, the Phillies know this.

“Never look back,” veteran Rollins said after the Game 6 defeat. “Never.”

Boastful, but not brazen, Rollins joked about how he would be satisfied even if the Phillies were to win the World Series in even numbered years. Surely the team’s fans would have no problem with that, either.

So expect the Phillies to pick up the $9 million option on Lee, with Rollins, Victorino, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez, Carlos Ruiz and Chase Utley set to re-anchor the batting order again.

But will the Phillies exercise a $5.5 million option on third baseman Pedro Feliz or look elsewhere — perhaps even at free agents Chone Figgins or Adrian Beltre?

And what about Brett Myers and Pedro Martinez? Though neither pitcher completed the entire season, both could be valuable cogs in 2010. Martinez could be the end-of-the-rotation mainstay with Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ, while Myers could be insurance if a starter or reliever goes down.

Big questions.

Bigger still is how will the Phillies bolster a bench that was one of the weakest aspects of the club all season. Sure, lefty slugger Matt Stairs is a late-inning homer waiting to happen, but they happened few and far between in 2009. Moreover, because manager Charlie Manuel does not use his bench players as generously as other managers, guys like Stairs and Greg Dobbs struggled with consistency at the plate.

Late-inning hits are one thing, but late-game pitching was the 9,000-pound gorilla in the room for the Phillies this season. At various points this season, the Phils’ relievers struggled with overuse, inconsistency and bad luck. Closer Brad Lidge was the poster child for the last two of that list.

Nevertheless, the Phillies promise to be active this off-season, especially since they know that the window of opportunity to win another World Series is open right now.

And when it comes to being active, it’s worth wondering if the Phillies will revisit trying to trade for Toronto’s Roy Halladay. With Lee likely to return, the Phillies would have the best starting staff on the planet with Halladay added to the mix.

But what would the price be and would the Phillies be willing to part with Cole Hamels to get Halladay?

By all indications the Phillies’ brass is asking a lot of these same questions. With the free agency period to open in two weeks and the winter meetings to start next month in Indianapolis, many of these questions could be answered rather quickly.

For more on the Phillies from John Finger visit his blog, “Finger Food.”