Philadelphia Phillies' Remedy: Good, Young Pitching Means More Wins

It's a common consensus here in Philadelphia. Everyone knows about it, and everyone in the Major Leagues always wants the same thing. Everyone wants pitching.

Those who have it feel like they have the world on a string. Those who don't look for it desperately around the trading deadline and over the offseason, or in the form of prospects.

The Philadelphia Phillies have done the former two, by looking around at the trading deadline a lot like everyone else in baseball and over the offseason. They haven't seemed to have made any sort of extraordinary effort towards acquiring good pitching.

They signed Adam Eaton before the start of last season for three years, and traded away Gavin Floyd, the former top pitching prospect in the Phillies' system who is now flourishing in Chicago. They signed Kris Benson over the offseason, who has already been injured twice now in the minor leagues.

So, now the Phillies have tried to look for pitching at the trading deadline, and been left trying to compete with teams offering good minor leaguers. Over the offseason, it seems as if the Phillies are outspent by the other teams for the good pitching, and spend too much on the not-so-good options like Adam Eaton or Kris Benson.

At the end of this season, they will be free of Pat Burrell's ridiculous $55 million contract. However, the Phillies will undoubtedly resign Burrell to a two or three year deal, probably worth around $20 million, which would leave $35 Million for their other issues. What the Phillies desperately need if they want to win more games, is pitching.

This cannot be made more evident by the two series they have had against the San Francisco Giants, where the Phillies have been in one-run games with the Giants in four of the six games. The other two games, the Phillies won by three in one and lost by six in the other.

How have the Phillies, the offense that has scored the fourth most runs in the league, been kept to one-run games with one of the worst offenses in the leagues? The answer is simple: pitching.

The Giants have a good, young pitching trio of Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Jonathan Sanchez. They faced Lincecum twice, and both times Lincecum pitched very well against them.

They faced Cain once, and he pitched pretty well. By the time Jonathan Sanchez was removed in today's game, he had pitched decently.  It is this type of a group of good, young pitching that the Phillies lack, a group similar to the one the Giants boast and the one that the Cincinnati Reds have in progress.

The Phillies have a guy in Carlos Carrasco who could be a decent No. 3 starter, but as of right now, the Phillies lack a good rotation, let alone a good top three.

Though the Phillies do have a guy in Cole Hamels that is a legitimate number one starter. Brett Myers has been anything but consistent thus far as the No. 2 starter so far this year. Jamie Moyer does not get hit very hard, but still gets hit. His career is very close to being over. The back of the rotation, with Kyle Kendrick and Adam Eaton, sees Kendrick gets hit often, while Eaton is just a huge mistake.

Nevertheless, it is still possible for the Phillies to acquire pitching, though at the cost of some Major League talent. Financially speaking, the Phillies will have some big issues and decisions to make. 

The Phillies still have to think about whether they will offer a big contract to Ryan Howard or to Cole Hamels. If Burrell is not re-signed, the Phillies have $55 million to work on locking up either Howard or Hamels, with the type of a contract that Jimmy Rollins or Chase Utley received.

They lack the funds to lock both Hamels and Howard up, even if Burrell is not re-signed. In that case, they should re-sign Hamels because the Phillies need pitching more than offense, especially because the Phillies play in a pinball yard known as Citizens Bank Park. Whichever one they cannot or do not lock up, they should try and trade away for prospects, or pitching or even better: pitching prospects.

Ideally, they trade away Howard because it is much easier to find a power hitting first baseman than a good pitcher. They could look at trading Howard to a team like the Angels, who have been and are still looking for a big bat to protect Vladimir Guerrero. They could also look at trying to trade Howard possibly to the Texas Rangers, who lack a big bat and could use a first baseman.

In either scenario, they could receive multiple players in return, whether they be pitchers or not. If not, they can use those prospects to try and trade for some pitching, as they will be in either process stocking up their farm system.

There is another good reason to pursue good young pitching: look at the past few World Series champions. The Angels in 2002, the Marlins in 2003, the White Sox in 2005, the Cardinals in 2006, and the Red Sox in 2007 all had good young pitching and good young position players.

In addition, looking at the teams that are in the top ten in Baseball America's farm system rankings for this season, over 50 percent of the teams are currently fighting for playoff spots and all of them have good shots at making the playoffs.

Despite the fact that the Phillies made the playoffs last year, they lost to a Colorado Rockies team that was all about good, young pitching with the likes of Jeff Francis, Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales and Manny Corpas and young position players like Troy Tulowitzki, Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe all on their way to the World Series. 

Clearly the Phillies have missed the memo about how good young pitching can lead to a strong future for a team, and never has this been made more evident than Saturday’s loss to the Giants, whose starter Tim Lincecum, just 24 years old, went eight innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs on two solo home runs, while walking just one and striking out eight.

So what are the Phillies waiting for? They need to jump on the bandwagon that the Major Leagues have been jumping on for the past few years, and go get some pitching. If they do, they will not have to count on another late-season collapse by the New York Mets or by the good looking Atlanta Braves to get into the playoffs.