Everybody's a Winner!

Well the 5th starter battled ended as predicted, with Jamie Moyer getting the nod on Tuesday, and Kyle Kendrick going to the bullpen. Everyone said all the right things and the team looked ready to start the season with a fairly set roster. But wait! Faster than you can say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis, Joe Blanton decided to help out Kyle Kendrick by getting himself a mild oblique strain while throwing in the bullpen, so Kendrick gets to be in the rotation after all! Everyone wins! Except for the Phillies who just lost a reliable no. 3 starter who had never spent a day on the DL before now. It appears he'll be out for 3-6 weeks.

You may remember our friend, the oblique strain, from Clay Condrey's three month absence last year. Team doctors are assuring everyone that Blanton's injury is far milder and more localized than Condrey's, but it seems that they want to be safe by not risking an aggravation to the injury. Am I the only one who thinks "mild oblique strain" doesn't really sound all that bad? I don't doubt that it's serious and good reason to sideline Blanton, but maybe that injury needs some rebranding.

Say it ain't so, Joe

(Photo courtesy of David Swanson / Daily News Staff Photographer)

Assuming Blanton is out for a while, we can continue the battle for the 5th starter just a little longer and see what Kendrick and Moyer do in the regular season. I think they'll both make fairly strong cases out of the gate. Kendrick's move to the rotation does create a hole in a bullpen that's already cause for concern, and it will be interesting to see if Ruben picks up anyone to fill that void or promotes from within. For now, signs point to Drew Carpenter being promoted from within. BJ Rosenberg is also with the team for this weekend's exhibition game, and he's a player I think could make a big league contribution sooner than people expect.

Back to good news, the countdown is now down to less than four days until Roy Halladay pitches against the Nationals in DC, after someone fairly important throws out the first pitch. Now, I don't mind our President being a White Sox fans, but if he starts rooting for the Nats then we'll have to talk.

I just got the baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated, and might have drooled a bit over the cover:

I learned from Tom Verducci that Roy Halladay might just be the greatest thing to hit Philadelphia since Ben Franklin. Halladay is "the Lance Armstrong of pitchers...the Peyton Manning of pitchers...the Babe Ruth of pitchers...the Cy Young of pitching..." Wow. And here I thought I was getting overexcited by this guy. I hope Tom Verducci didn't hyperventilate from excitement while writing this article. Not that I can blame him. Did you know Roy Halladay has thrown nine complete games in a season more times than all other active pitchers combined? You do now. Did you know Roy Halladay both struck out over 200 batters and had fewer walks than starts in his 2003 Cy Young season? You do now. I'll paraphrase what I've previously said: if you are a Phillies fan and not excited by this guy, you clearly have no capacity for human emotion and may be dead.

Looking ahead, the Grapefruit League is now finished, and of course there were ups and downs. I'm more happy with the ups (Polanco, the starting rotation, to name a few) than I am concerned with the downs (the bullpen, Ibanez, to name a few). Maybe that's holding a double standard on my part, but I'll wait for the regular season to confirm any conclusions I could draw from spring training. All I know is that it's going to be a fun year and I can't wait for Monday.