Another Halladay for the Phillies Bullpen

The Phillies closer situation is in flux.

Ryan Madson broke his toe in a temper tantrum and will be replaced by Brad Lidge, who had arguably the worst season for any closer on a team that went to the World Series.

(Yes, I am including Calvin Schraldi in that assessment.)

One solution?
Have Roy Halladay throw a complete game every 5 days.

It’s not a bad strategy. And with yesterday’s complete game shutout against the Mets, he is serving notice that he is not conceding the Cy Young to Lincecum, Jimenez or anyone else.

He also showed Mike Pelfrey that contending for a Cy Young is a little harder than having a damn good April.

The Mets got creamed today. It is safe to say Jaime Fallon forgot to chant today!

THE GIANTS (COULD) WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS (COULD) WIN THE PENNANT!

The Giants won a big game today.

Oh Sully, you say, there ARE no big games yet. It’s early. It’s May 1.
Nope… they won a big game. They beat the Rockies.
They took the first two from the Rockies and later today can go for the sweep.

Why is it so important? Because it could turn out that the Rockies will probably be the Giants biggest competition for the NL West title… and winning games head to head NOW are games they won’t have to catch up and win later.

Yeah, I know the Padres are in first place. That won’t last. Remember how the Blue Jays were in first place at this point last year? Exactly.

The Dodgers are a bit of a mess and won’t be able to get reinforcements provided the divorce heard round the world plods on.

And Arizona just isn’t clicking yet.

The Giants and the Rockies will probably be the class of the NL West.
And guess what? The Giants have one thing that virtually no other team has:
4 kick butt starters.

As of now, Lincecum, Cain, Zito and Sanchez is the best 1-2-3-4 in the game.

And in a short playoff series, Lincecum could neutralize any other ace in the game (including Halladay or Wainwright) and have the better pitchers in the other games.

In other words… and bear with me… the Giants could find themselves in a great position to possibly… dare we say it?… win the National League Pennant.

But in order to do that, they need to bring in two players:

An outfielder and a reliever.

They don’t need a superstar outfielder… just one who isn’t an automatic out and can get on base for Sandoval to knock in.

And they don’t need an All Star closer… just an effective arm to give Bochy another option late in games.

Most teams are searching for solid starters or a big bat.
The Giants have all of that.

They need a little bit of depth and to avoid injuries.

But they should make those moves NOW.

Try out a few guys from Fresno, see if Jermaine Dye is available… and then see who can be traded for.

This is a strange situation where the division is winnable, the league has a lot of parity and the Giants are holding 4 Aces. Fill in the holes now and go for it big time.

You’ll never know when things will align in the Giants favor quite like this again.

You couldn’t just get beat, could you?

Seriously Red Sox… you couldn’t just take the beating… get blown out… and call it an all around horrible day where you sink 2 games under .500 and lose a series to the worst team in baseball.

You HAD to find some fight in you.

Big Papi HAD to hit 2 homers…

You HAD to pound out 9 runs and make it a save situation, didn’t you?

You HAD to bring the tying run to the plate in the 9th only to fall short.

Dice-K looked awful.
Wakefield looked worse…

And the Red Sox picked a bad time to find their power stroke.

The only good thing was the Yankees and Rays both lost so they didn’t GAIN ground… but you don’t face Baltimore to tread water. These should be 2 easy wins and possibly 3.

I’d rather lose 12-0 than 12-9. If for not other reason that I won’t be obsessively listening to the 9th inning of a 12-0 loss.

Tally time…

DODGED A BULLET GAMES – 10

April 4 – 9-7 win against Yankees (On Opening Night, the Red Sox overcome a 5-1 Yankee lead with a game tying HR by Pedroia and a go ahead passed ball.)
April 10 – 8-3 win against Kansas City (Beckett out pitches Zack Greinke and nearly gets decapitated by a line drive.)
April 14 – 6-3 win in Minnesota. (Okajima gets Morneau to pop up with the bases loaded in the 7th and Papelbon wiggled out of a 9th inning jam.)
April 20 – 7-6 win against Texas. (Darnell McDonald introduces himself to Boston with an 8th inning game tying homer and a walk off hit in the 9th.)
April 21 – 8-7 win against Texas. (The Red Sox were down 4-0 early only to win it on Youk’s 2 out 11th inning double.)
April 23 – 4-3 win against Baltimore. (The Sox blow a 3-0 lead but win it on Adrian Beltre’s bases loaded walk.)

April 24 – 7-6 win against Baltimore. (The Red Sox score 6 in the 7th and hold off a late Baltimore comeback attempt.)
April 26 – 13-12 win at Toronto. (The Sox blow an early 5-0 lead but hang on for dear life in a slugfest.)
April 27 – 2-1 win at Toronto. (Buchholz holds the Jays down for 8 but it takes a bases loaded walk in the 8th to go ahead.)
April 28 – 2-0 win at Toronto. (Daniel Bard wiggles out of trouble in the 8th to help Lester shut down the Blue Jays and finish the sweep.)

TEETH GRINDER GAMES – 8

April 6 – 6-4 loss against the Yankees. (Scutaro’s error leads to the winning run.)
April 7 – 3-1 loss against the Yankees. (Sox leave the winning run on in the 9th only to lose on Granderson’s 10th inning homer)
April 9 – 4-3 loss in Kansas City. (Bard coughs up the lead, denying Wakefield a win.)
April 17 – 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay. (The Sox can’t score with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 11th… lost it in the 12th.)
April 17 – 6-5 loss to Tampa Bay. (The Red Sox comeback falls a run short, leaving two on in the 8th)
April 25 – 7-6 loss to Baltimore. (The Sox blow a 4-1 lead, leave the winning run on second in the 9th, let up 3 in the 10th and could only score 2 in the bottom of the 10th)
April 30 – 5-4 loss in Baltimore. (Tejada ties the game with a 2 out 8th inning homer and wins it with a bloop in the 10th)
May 1 – 12-9 loss in Baltimore. (Dice-K and Wakes get pounded, wasting 2 homers from Ortiz and an early 4-1 lead.)

+2 in the tally and 2 games under .500

It’s early… but not THAT early