Pat Burrell Benefitting While Jamie Moyer Struggles In Positions

The Philadelphia Phillies 2008 is seemingly off on the right foot. At the end of the first month they appear to be at above 500 or better, their offense is leading the league in home runs, in what is usually the coldest month of the season, and their bench has stepped up big with players like Jason Werth and Eric Bruntlett in the absence of their most recent MVP and starting center fielder. There are still a few concerns though that need to be looked at and while play out sooner or later over the next month or so.

Ryan Howard struggles, Pat Burrell reaps benefits.Ryan Howard, arguably the most dangerous hitter in baseball has begun his season well below the .200 mark and with only 5 home runs in the month of April. Although most likely this is only an early season slump, it's obvious that at this point Howard is struggling mechanically and just swinging at bad pitches. Leading the league in strikeouts with 37 on the 28th of April puts him on a pace for 215 strikeouts for the season. Although if he pulls out of his slump, he might just as well hit 50 homers. Pat Burrell on the other hand is having a stellar April. Leading the National League in RBIs, only two behind fellow teammate Chase Utley for home runs with 8, and posting a .467 batting average gives him the best April of his career and potentially of any Philly. The question is, how much are these two players connected. Pat has for the past two years, obviously seen better pitches than Ryan as the National league pitchers become more and more concerned at pitching to him. This year he is sitting quietly in the 5th spot in the lineup and sucking up the RBIs that Ryan Howard would usually be getting. In 2007, Howard had 13 RBIS and 3 home runs in April/March, while Burrell had only 1 home run and 9 RBIs, well below this season. Burrell didn't peak last year until July and August when he accrued 47 of his 97 RBIs for the year, while Howard's 13 in April/March were his lowest total of the year.Looking at the numbers, as we always do in baseball, when Howard gets out of his slump, Pat's hot bat will cool.

Moyer has difficulty being playing second fiddle to Hamels.Cole has emerged as the staff ace over the last two years. With the inconsistency of Brett Myers as a starter and the lack of depth through the rest of the rotation, Jamie Moyer has been called on to be the veteran among a young group of pitchers. It appears though, that Moyer may be affected by his spot in the rotation. Moyer has landed the 3rd spot in the rotation this year, which because of a bad decision by management, Hamels was the number two guy and this puts back-to-back lefties in the rotation. Not only back-to-back lefties, but back-to-back left handed changeup pitchers. Last year, Hamels was pitching in the number one spot and like this year, settled in nicely as he appears to be this season. Moyer however has been struggling, posting a respectable 4.05 ERA, but has only managed to pitch 5 1/3 innings per game. Also, while Hamels has only given up 27 hits and struck out 30, Moyer has given up with only 11 strikeouts. This year, every team that has faced Cole Hamels the ace changeup pitcher for the Phillies has subsequently faced Moyer the following night. Same team, same pitching side, same style pitcher. The management has recently made the change of moving Adam Eaton up from the 5th spot in the rotation to the 4th. It might just serve them well to bring him up one further or at least move Myers down a spot and show some respect to the true ace of this staff.
As always, time will tell...