Starters

Cole Hamels was injury prone. Brett Myers was a headcase. Jamie Moyer was too old. Joe Blanton wasn't good enough. Adam Eaton and Kyle Kendrick do suck. They are World Champions.

Cole Hamels

I love Cole Hamels. I'm not ashamed to admit. I admired him from afar when he was putting up other wordly numbers in Clearwater and Reading as the Phillies sent scrubs to the mound. He is probably my favorite Phillie off all-time, which is saying something since he has only been here three years. He is also married to a Playboy cover girl. Cole runs good.

Much like Chase Utley, Cole Hamels is simply good at baseball. There isn’t much more to say about it than that. If the Phillies would have scored runs for him this year, he probably would have been in the running for Cy Young. He led the league in IPs and was top 10 in ERA and strikeouts. On June 5th against the Reds, Cole pitched a 3 H CG SHO, his second shutout in five starts.

Hamels’ playoff is the stuff of legend. 4-0 in 5 starts, dominating in each one. NLCS and World Series MVP. He won the first game of all three series. Personally, watching him dissect the Brewers in 8 innings of 2 hit 9 K ball in the drizzle and winning the franchise’s first playoff game in 15 years is what I will remember. That, and hearing Cole is dealing every fourth game from Rush.

Jamie Moyer

Old man Moyer pitched the second most innings for the Phillies this season, as well as posting the second best ERA amongst the starters.

He is a threat to win the division every time he pitches against the Nationals. At least in the final series of the year. September 27th, for the second consecutive season, Jamie shutdown the Nationals as the Phillies clinched the National League East. It is doubly impressive because Jamie is nearly twice my age. He also set a Phillies record by going more than 15 starts this season of at least 6 innings and no more than 3 runs. He was a consistent old man. It must have been the prunes.

Moyer struggled in October, but pitched well in Game 3 against Tampa after two days of every person in the city fretting about him having to pitch. Matt Garza, who was built up as the next Roger Clemens, was thoroughly outpitched by a man trying to pitch in 4 decades. It almost makes me forgive him for going to St. Joseph’s (PA).

Kyle Kendrick

Kyle Kendrick pitched the third most innings for the World Champions. Kyle had a knack for starting games in which the offense would score 20 runs early in the season. The spring training joke that he got traded to Japan may have actually helped the ball club in the long run, as Krazy K’s smoke and mirrors started to dissipate down the stretch.

Kyle did win double digit games for the second consecutive seasons, and even managed to win an interleague game for the Phillies. That is a true rarity for this team and he was probably worth his salary just for that. He kept the Phils from being swept by Oakland on June 25th, throwing 8 shutout innings and allowing only 4 A hits. He did not appear in the playoffs.

Brett Myers

Brett started opening day, but struggled mightily throughout the first half, eventually spending some time in the minors. After returning, Myers was about as good as could have been hoped for. On September 14th, pitching the second half of a doubleheader on short rest, Brett completed the sweep of Milwaukee and tied the wildcard race. During the 2008 debut of the rally towels, Myers threw a complete game two hitter allowing only a Prince Fielder home run to cross the plate. He was filthy. He also had an RBI single, which was a sign of things to come.

Brett was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of both the NLDS and NLCS. Against the Dodgers, the man who had 2 hits all season knocked 3 hits which scored 3 runs in the 7-5 Phillies win. None of this was Brett’s big moment in October. With two outs in the second inning of game two against CC Sabathia, Brett started fouling off pitches. 97 MPH fastball? Foul. Nasty curveball? Foul. After every pitch, CC would appear on the jumbotron, visibly shaken. The crowd got louder and louder after every pitch, and eventually Brett walked. Without question, the greatest walk by a pitcher in Phillies history. Two batters later, Victorino hit a salami. At that point, I don't think I ever had more fun at a sporting event.

Adam Eaton

Sigh. He didn’t blow the game during his 2 IP in the 10-9 win over Atlanta on July 26th. He got destroyed the next day, was sent to the minors, and didn’t pitch for the Phillies the rest of the season. No playoffs. Moving on.

Joe Blanton

I hated this trade. The Phillies traded a top 100 overall prospect for a fat kid who wasn’t even the best pitcher on the market from his own team. But in 2008, all of these seemingly questionable moves paid off as the Phillies won almost every time Cupcakes took the mound. In his third start as a Phillie August 3rd in St. Louis, he gave up one run on four hits in 7 IP sparking a Phillies win.

The Phillies went 3-0 in Blanton’s starts in the playoffs, including clinching the franchise’s first playoff series win since I was ten years old by shutting down Milwaukee to the tune of 1 run on 5 hits in 6 IP while striking out 7. He also hit that home run in Game 4 against Tampa. I enjoyed that.

JA Happ

Only seven Phillies started a game this season, which speaks to the staff’s ability to stay healthy and the team’s refusal to drop Kendrick and Eaton. JA, pronounced just J for some reason, was the seventh of those starters. In his first start of ’08, he kept the Phillies in the game against Johan Santana on the fourth of July leaving when the team trailed 2-0. Howard and Burrell would tie that game in the 6th, and Shane would walk off against Duaner Sanchez.

Happ’s moment of the year came against Atlanta September 17th. Needing a starter post Kendrick meltdown, the Phillies turned to Happ, who hadn’t started a game in two months. All he did was pitch six scoreless innings while allowing three hits in a 6-1 Phillies win.

JA was on the playoff roster, but didn’t see much action. He did pitch three solid innings in Game 3 in Los Angeles.