Predicting All-Star Break Win Totals for Each of Philadelphia Phillies’ Starters

The Philadelphia Phillies‘ starting pitching rotation has been similar to that of a revolving door with squeaky hinges.

Injuries and inconsistency have riddled the Phillies’ staff while Kyle Kendrick has performed as Philadelphia’s ace in the hole.

The 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game is to be played on July 16 at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. That’s 64 days away for those keeping track at home.

That is an ample amount of time for Phillies starting pitchers to rack up some wins and keep the team in contention.

According to Matt Gelb at Philly.com, the Phillies don’t need a fifth starter until May 21. That fifth starter could be anyone so it seemed appropriate to exclude that spot in this piece rather than speculate.

Following are predictions of the win totals for all four current and healthy Phillies starting pitchers by the Midsummer Classic.

Each pitcher should get about 12 more starts before the All-Star break, give or take a couple starts.

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Grading Each Philadelphia Phillies Regular Up to This Point

The Philadelphia Phillies are coming off a series in San Francisco which saw the resilient Philadelphia squad win two of three games and nearly steal the third game to complete the sweep.

This team is in desperate need of a hot stretch, and maybe this is the beginning.

Or maybe, this team is toying with fans; hence a series split with Miami at home followed by a series win in San Francisco against the defending world champs.

This is inconsistency at its finest.

That inconsistency is modeled perfectly by some of the regular day players while others continue to produce at a steady rate.

Let’s take a look at each Phillies’ regular and quantitatively assess his play with a letter grade.

 

*All statistics from MLB.com.

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Changes Philadelphia Phillies Must Make to Spark a Winning Streak

The Philadelphia Phillies will finish in the bottom half of the division if they continue to play disinterested and uninspired baseball.

While the team is lacking those two intangible qualities, there are plenty of areas in the physical realm of the game of baseball which are visibly lacking also.

Phillies fans shouldn’t fret just yet, however.

The good news is there are 143 games left in the young season.

For this team, though, these following changes must be made sooner rather than later in order to compete in the tough National League East before they fall out of contention.

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Most Critical Takeaways from Philadelphia Phillies’ Opening Week

It hasn’t been the start to this season that anybody with the Philadelphia Phillies had been hoping for or expecting, including their front office, manager Charlie Manuel, his players and their fans.

The Phillies currently stand at 2-5, thanks to Kevin Frandsen’s base-clearing walk-off game-winner  in the middle game of their series against the Kansas City Royals.

While there have been a few areas of hope for this team, most facets of the squad have been out of sync and unproductive.

Let’s take a look at a few takeaways from the Phillies’ first seven games. No need to hit the panic button yet Phillies fans, but keep it close, as always. 

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Hitter-by-Hitter Breakdown of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Lineup

Phillies fans have to be rejoicing at the sight of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the same lineup to begin the season.

While they don’t pack as much punch as they used to, they will lead a lineup that is not exactly intimidating, but has the potential to be efficient and successful.

With the back end of their pitching rotation shaky at best, it is up to the Phillies’ lineup to keep them in games and turn uncertainty into consistent run production up and down the lineup.

However, for this current lineup, the ceiling is as high as the floor is low. Where they end up in that middle ground comes down to one thing: execution.

I’ll breakdown the Phillies’ lineup that was used in their 7-5 Opening Day loss to the Atlanta Braves and should remain close to the same for the beginning part of the season barring injury (Knock on wood, Phillies fans).   

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Expectations for the Philadelphia Phillies Coming out of Spring Training

After a disappointing campaign in 2012 riddled with injury, a beleaguered bullpen and a win-less Cliff Lee until July, the Philadelphia Phillies come into the 2013 season focused and, most importantly, healthy.

Spring training is a chance to get back in the groove of things, iron out the kinks and both mentally and physically prepare for the upcoming grueling season. Some players certainly went above and beyond that calling this spring, turning heads and opening eyes league-wide. Let’s just hope they save some magic for the regular season. Manager Charlie Manuel would certainly agree.

This slideshow highlights some major expectations out of this Phillies team coming out of spring training. 

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