Phils hope to avoid trouble against anonymous lefty

Ryan Madson has the ball tonight when the Phillies face left-hander Billy Traber, making his first major-league start since 2003.

Tonight’s game is a great opportunity to dust off a sub and give him some work. Perhaps Abraham Nunez can spot Chase Utley at second, or maybe Shane Victorino can give Bobby Abreu the day off. Utley and Abreu have played every game.

For the Nationals (5-10), Billy Traber becomes only the second left-handed starter the Phillies have faced this season. Traber last pitched with the Cleveland Indians and went 6-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 33 games, including 18 starts. A former first-round pick of the Mets, the 27-year-old has missed the last 2 ½ years recovering from Tommy John surgery. He was called up to replace Ryan Drese in the rotation after Drese went on the DL.

He’ll face Ryan Madson (1-0, 2.77 ERA), probably the most consistent starter for the Phillies so far, but like the rest, has given up a ton of hits. As a team, the Phils have allowed 160 hits, second most in baseball.

Comments

[That Dude]

how much you wana bet this dude pitches a sho thru 5? (then hopefully the hitters have seen him a bit and pound them)

[RickSchuBlues]

Boy, has the staring pitching been brutal this year. Even Madson, who had been the exception, throws in a stinkbomb.

Start swingin' those bats, boys...

[RickSchuBlues]

That was a beautiful stroke by Burrell. If only he could swing that relaxed all the time...

[gr]

so much for charlie resting anyone.

[gr]

nobody out in the second and madson's thrown 40 pitches.

[gr]

well, nevermind the pitch counts. another one leaves the yard. 7-2.

[gr]

madson goes 1+ IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 4 BBs then gets yanked for Fultz(!). A WHIP of 11. but at least he only threw 51 pitches. he should be fresh next time around.

[RickSchuBlues]

Don't worry gr, the subs will get plenty of action after the keystone kops in the bullpen give up 7 more...

[That Dude]

mofo's disaster....time to hit reset.

[gr]

whoops, make that 9 ER. forgot about inherited runners. way to go, fultzy.

[RickSchuBlues]

Get that toll ready for the Northeast Extension, Geoff Geary.

[RickSchuBlues]

Good call, Dude. Total of 2 hits off Traber. It's things like that which really make me wonder about this team.

[Jon]

I cannot wait until Manuel is fired...

[RickSchuBlues]

What does Manuel have to do with this game? Changing the manager won't make a difference. Really, it won't. You think Gary Varsho can light a fire under them? Changing the ownership, maybe. Changing some of the players, maybe. Don't hold your breath, though.

[Jon]

I don't care what they do. Fire Manuel or make a damn trade, but something needs to be done. I can't remember being this frustrated so early on in a season. Tell me where the Phillies have excelled this season? Their offense is not clutch (what a shocker), their defense is costing them runs and games, and their pitching absolutely sucks. This, right or wrong, goes back to the coaching staff. Manuel continues to make bonehead decisions, refuses to change his line-up, never rests his regulars, and can't seem to find a way to motivate this team, especially in a time when they need a little kick in the ass. It's time the hammer falls, especially when the organization went out of the way in stressing that it was important to get off to a good start, especially with all the early home games. Bottom line, something needs to be done, sooner rather than later.

[MG]

It is still too soon to do anything like fire Manuel. As much as people have complained about the relief pitching or the bench, the real problem with this team has been the awful starting pitching.

Starting pitching on this team has been just awful so far. I am willing to let Floyd and Madson have alot more time. If the Phils demote Floyd again for the 2nd time in 2 years, he will basically may never amount to anything. Phils need to give him at least until July. Same for Madson and see if he can stick as a starter. As for Lieber and Lidle, they need to pitch alot better. Lidle has been barely adequate and Lieber has been awful.

[J. Weitzel]

It's not unusual in the least for this team to do very little offensively against a pitcher like this. Hence my headline. It's one reason I decided this afternoon I wasn't going to watch this game and rented a movie instead. Good call. Only wish the movie was a little better.

It's also one reason I thought they should mix it up a little by getting a bench player in the game. Have Victorino bat second. Get Nunez in the game somewhere. It would give the bench some work, but also freshen up the lineup. Disappointed to see Charlie Manuel went with the same lineup against a pitcher making his first start since 2003.

When Perez and Pratt were here, they used to play them in games like this and would win quite often. A lot of those games were Sunday days games.

Of course, it's not the main issue here. The boxscore tells you all you need to know. Pitchers really have to work to be as bad as Madson must have been the first two innings.

Just be patient with it. There's nothing they can do right now about starting pitching except work through it.

[RickSchuBlues]

It's the pitching that's gotten the Phillies to their 6-9 start, not Manuel. Continuing to play Bell is frustrating everyone, but I doubt it's made all that much of a difference compared to the rotten pitching. What needs to be done is simply for these players to step up because any changes from this point through the end of the season will be incidental, like it or not. I seriously doubt the Phils would fire Manuel unless they're in last place halfway through.

[Tim]

i have a feeling that when gillick starts with the overhaul it's going to be pretty comprehensive. a ton of guys could go real fast. lidle, cormier, delluchi, rhodes - all guys with expiring contracts - could all get something decent in return. gillick should decide about lieber as well. even if he is struggling he'd be valuable to a contender at the deadline. same with rowand. (both guys are up after 07 that's why i mention them in particular)

[Theragtopguy]

They need to do something to shake things up.

How about picking 2 guys from the pen (Geary, Santana) and sending them down to AAA and bringing up Brito and that Yoel what's his name. At least then the rest would see that mediocrity won't be tolerated.

How about Elmer pulling a Gene Mauch and flipping over the post-game food spread?

Something, anything, please!!!!

[Tim]

Ok we need $424,000,000 to fix this mess. I will start taking donations in the morning.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/33/335119.html

[That Dude]

"I seriously doubt the Phils would fire Manuel unless they're in last place halfway through."

Well, dont look now, we are 1 game out of last and thats to a team that has a payroll thats 62million LESS than us.

[Lake Fred]

I guess I can skip the sports page when reading the morning paper tomorrow with breakfast. This Phillies team is a real heartbreaker! Maybe I should start handicapping the NFL draft and wait until next year...and next year....

[RickSchuBlues]

I don't think you can put any kind of stock in the standings on April 21. The Mets aren't going to keep that pace up. (I stand by my assessment: they aren't that good.) The Astros were dead last in June with a terrible record, and went on to win the pennant. I'm not what you'd consider an optimist, but it's way too soon for people to be sounding this desperate.

[IUP Philly Fan]

what an awful night to have ryan madson on my fantasy team...

[Carson Book]

I love reading all these posts about how the pitching is the reason the Phillies are off to the 6-9 start this season. Yes, the pitching is horrible, but let's not place all the blame on them. The Phillies "offense" (if you can really even refer to it as that) has scored the least amount of runs in the National League. Come on! With players like Burrell, Utley, Howard, Abreu, Rowand, and Rollins, there is no way they should be ranked in the basement like that. And as bad as the offense and pitching has been, the managing has been just as bad. Manuel has made his typical made decisions yet again to start this season. So, the Phillies are collectively losing the games as a team...pretty much they all suck right now. A change needs to be made. I'm not the GM or the manager, but gosh darnit, I'm a die-hard fan who is in need of some sort of reprieve!

[Tom Goodman]

"anonymous lefty" or world-reknown, it makes no difference as long as the Phillies keeps trotting out their own pitchers.

[Billy Mac]

Relax everyone. It is only 15 games. This is not football. I wish they started off better too, but this is a team that won 88 games last year. They will be fine.

[gr]

they will be fine in the sense that they could win 88 games again if they get it together. but honestly, look at this team and answer this question: what is it they do well? the pitching is always a step away from imploding, they score on HRs mostly and can't hit lefties AS A TEAM, and the defense has been subpar. the bench isn't used properly and opposing pitchers are hitting better than our pinch-hitters. this is everything the team needed to not to do contend from the beginning.

[TD]

The fact that they're always playing from behind effects the hitting. When you're losing 9-2 the opposing pitcher can be more agressive and go after guys. And every game our guys probably go into it thinking they have to score 7 runs to be in the game. That's a lot of pressure.

By the way, the pitching is absolutely atrocious.

[gr]

they had 3 hits last night against a guy who hadn't pitched in three years.

[gr]

whoops, my bad. 2 hits.

[Carson Book]

This is funny. People keep posting "it's only 13 games", now two days later it's "it's only 15 games". At the end of the season are you going to say "It's only the end of September"? Come on! Every game matters just as much in April as it does on the final game of the season. Last year's team missing the playoffs by one game!

[That Dude]

I want heads to roll. Manuel, Dancy, Dubee, Arbuckle. OFF WITH THEIR FRICKIN HEADS. When you have a young team sometimes you have to SCARE THE F OUT OF THEM.

[RickSchuBlues]

Jeez. This isn't a particularly young team. No one's going to be coerce into playing better if the coaching staff's heads are placed on spears in the clubhouse.

I understand that every game counts equally and that no one wants to hear 'it's early', but it *is* extremely early and 6-9 is not 1-14. This team is just as capable of getting hot and having it all come together.

Now, if it's a month later and they're still performing like this, there's trouble.

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