Pitching less than promising, but save the worrying for the season

The Phils played the Yankees yesterday and today, losing the former 9-3 and splitting the latter 7-7. Adam Eaton started yesterday, pitching 2 innings and allowing 3 earned runs. His brief outing served only to reinforce the suspicion in many Phillies fans that his leaving-off from the playoff roster is a good permanent decision.

He was relieved by Chad Durbin who achieved the same ERA as Eaton, despite putting Alex Rodriguez down on a series of well-placed off-speed pitches. Madson also pitched his second inning this pre-season, still with an ERA of zero despite letting up two hits.

In Today's game, we got our first look at Cole Hamels as he took on the Yanks. He, unfortunately, allowed 4 runs in only 2 innings pitched. He was relieved by Fabio Castro, who did no better, allowing 2 more runs in the next two innings. Fortunately, my favorite young Phillie, Carlos Carrasco came in in the fifth and pitched through the 7th, allowing no runs and three hits.

Carrasco is building a resume that must be increasingly irresistible to Dubee and Manuel. In his outings so far this pre-season, he has not allowed any runs and only three hits. He, along with Travis Blackley, are the most interesting young pitchers and those who I suspect most to see later in the season. If they can continue their promising performances, they will make nice additions to a relief staff I think will be dependent on the injury-prone Madson, Romero, Condrey and perhaps Happ if he can make the team. As discussed before, they represent a back-up plan going into the season which I am very pleased to have. They add depth to a team who will most certainly need it come summer. I will be traveling later next week to Clearwater and am particularly excited to see the duo throw.

Offensively, our bouts with the Yankees featured notable showings from Carlos Ruiz (who is now 4-6 in the pre-season with two doubles) and Ryan Howard, who continues to show the same brutality in his swing but perhaps now with more poise, having only one strikeout thus far.

Perhaps the biggest concern for any fan at this point is Tom Gordon, who is now the closer-pro-temp for the Phils due to Lidge's injury/surgery. He has made an effort to convey to the press/fans that he feels especially good this year and is, perhaps for the first time in years, without pain in his throwing arm. Yesterday, Gordon got his first pitches in and, frankly, I am a little uneasy. He let up two hits, two runs and a walk in only two-thirds of an inning. In addition, this collapse took place in just the place he will be expected to dominate come opening-day, the ninth-inning. But, its just one game.

Tom Gordon illustrates well a lesson that seems to be resurfacing frequently in the drive towards the season-start: what happens off the field, despite its implications, does not ever win games. Tom Gordon reassured us that he was ready to relieve Brad Lidge for however long he was asked to, but his performance against the Yankees was pitiful. Similarly, Carlos Beltran has claimed that the Mets are the "team to beat" in the NL East, echoing Jimmy Rollins' prediction from last year, despite Santana (Carlos' impetus for the statement) being anything but dominant in his first start. The difference is that Rollins followed up his statement by nearly single-handedly leading us to an NL East title.

This is not to say that Santana will not be a dominant force in the NL-East, which he most probably will be, it is only to note that all of this doesn't matter; not a word, walk or win will mean anything until the end of March.

So pay attention, but don't waste a bit of energy worrying about professional baseball just yet, because you and I and at least everyone in Queens and Philly (and hopefully Atlanta) will need all the energy we've got to make it through this season, the most contested in years for the NL-East.