Phillies: Breaking down the five starters in the rotation

Vince Velasquez

Vince Velasquez is certainly not starting his season off the way he hoped for. In the final year before he hits arbitration, Velasquez has pitched up and down. He hasn’t been that consistent starter in the rotation the Phillies need to have if they want to compete for October baseball.

Velasquez won his first three starts of the season but then lost his three next starts. Despite ranking sixth in strikeouts in the National League with eighty-three, he lacks consistency.

On his start on June 8, against the Milwaukee Brewers, Velasquez was completely dismantled. He pitched 3.2 innings and allowed ten runs. Ten runs in less than four innings. That wasn’t the only horrible outing Velasquez has pitched this season.

Back in April, in just his third start of the year, Velasquez managed to allow six runs in just four innings against the Atlanta Braves. Philadelphia ended up losing that game 10-1.

Earlier in the season, prior to Jerad Eickhoff being placed on the 60-day disabled list, there was some talk that Velasquez would be moved to the bullpen should Eickhoff return. However, that clearly hasn’t happened yet and Gabe Kapler has no plans of doing so in the near future.

Despite all the bad starts, there have been very few good outings the righty has had this season. On May 17th, Velasquez pitched six and one third shutout innings in Philadelphia’s win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

In that game alone, he struck out five. The most strikeouts Velasquez got in May was against the San Francisco Giants with a total of twelve strikeouts.

At some point, the team will have to determine what they want to do with Velasquez. If he remains inconsistent through the end of the season, a move from the rotation is probable.