Thursday, September 9, 2010

To Keep 5 or Keep 4, That's the Question

I have mixed feelings right now about what the Phillies should do. If I were Charlie Manuel, I'm not sure if I would go to a four man rotation right now, or if I would keep Kyle Kendrick in the rotation. Proponents of keeping the five man rotation would say that they would not want to wear out the front four. I totally understand this, but I also know that we have every Thursday off for the rest of the year. Because of this, each starter would only need to pitch on short rest once while every other start would be at full rest. Dropping Kyle from the rotation would be a tough call because even though he has had some great starts throughout the year, he has had a lot of trouble lately getting outs and getting very deep into games. Another consideration is how well Kendrick may pitch out of the bullpen. Some pitchers just can't do it, so maybe he does not have the proper mindset for the bullpen. I'm not sure about this though, so he may be very good and have no problem adapting to a different role. If I were Charlie, I would probably drop down to the four man rotation right now. That would give Kendrick to adapt to a new role while it will also get our aces out there more often.
Photo by redjar on Flickr

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