Phillies: Is it too early to worry about pitching woes?
The Phillies are off to a good start, with an 8-4 record, second in the National League East. Pitching has been an issue. Is it too early to be concerned?
The Phillies are off to a solid start at 8-4, a half game behind the Mets in the National League East. When they added Andrew McCutchen, J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura and ultimately Bryce Harper, instantly the lineup became one of the best in the National League.
While the team is capable of outscoring teams when the pitching struggles, the staff has performed worse than expected, with a staff ERA of 4.75 and last in the league in strikeouts with only 98. Let’s examine the pitching woes and answer whether or not it’s too early to be concerned about the pitching issues.
Starting Pitching
Aaron Nola, the ace of the staff after finishing third in the Cy Young Award voting last season, is off to a tough start. He hasn’t lost a game, at 1-0 after three starts and has 13 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings. However, he’s been uncharacteristically wild, walking eight, contributing to his lofty 6.46 ERA.
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Jake Arrieta is off to an excellent start with a 2-1 mark and a 2.25 ERA. Another promising sign is his 15 strikeouts in 20 innings, after posting a low strikeout rate last season. Along with Arrieta, Zach Eflin has been excellent; in fact, has been the best on the staff so far. Eflin is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 12 innings.
The biggest and probably most frustrating performances have come from Nick Pivetta. After hearing about his “great stuff” for the past few seasons, it has yet to materialize on the field consistently. All the best tools in the world won’t work if a person doesn’t know how to use them. In the case of Pivetta, he’s allowed an alarming 24 hits in 13 1/3 innings with an ERA of 9.45.
Vince Velasquez has appeared in two games with one start and has a 3.00 ERA in six innings. Can he be more consistent and show he’s a legitimate MLB starter? The jury is still out. All told, the starting pitching has a relatively mediocre 4.46 ERA.
Relievers
The unit has been either great or terrible. Pat Neshek, Adam Morgan, Hector Neris, and Juan Nicasio have been, for the most part, very solid. They have allowed only five earned runs over 20 2/3 innings for an ERA of 2.21.
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On the flip side, the back end of the bullpen has been horrible. David Robertson has early season struggles and was admittedly “rusty and terrible.” After a couple of solid outings, he LOWERED his ERA to 7.71. Jose Alvarez has allowed ten hits in just 4 1/3 innings with a lofty 12.46 ERA. Seranthony Dominguez and Edubray Ramos both have an ERA of nine. The group has an ERA of over nine and all told the bullpen has an ERA of 5.23.
Too early to worry?
Examining the situation with the staff, clearly, there has been an issue with consistency. However, the two games against the Nationals that the Phillies lost by a combined score of 25-7, the Phillies gave up 23 earned runs in 19 innings. Eliminating those debacles leads to a team ERA of 3.44. Of course, one cannot “eliminate” those two games and two horrible pitching performances out of every 12 games, should the trend continue, would be a huge problem moving forward.
Putting everything in perspective, the pitching issues after 12 games, is being concerned about 7.4% of the season. It is the equivalent of about five quarters of a football season or slightly more than one game.
Re-evaluating Phillies pitching after rough start. dark. Next
While the pitching is something that needs to be more consistent over the long haul, getting overly concerned after only 12 games is an overreaction.