Philadelphia Phillies: The rich getting richer?

Are the rich – the Philadelphia Phillies – getting richer, or what?

Don’t forget that these guys are already the defending World Series champions. And don’t forget that they already have World Series MVP Cole Hamels at the top of their pitching rotation.

Now that they didn't get Roy Halladay from Toronto, they have traded for 2008 American League Cy Young winner Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians. (And this, without giving up top young pitching prospects A.J. Happ or Kyle Drabek.)

Can you imagine Hamels and Lee, both left-handers, at the top of your rotation? Wow! Add lefties Jamie Moyer and Happ to this rotation and you truly have a top starting four for the playoffs.

And that’s not to mention Pedro Martinez pitching in the minor leagues for the Phils. If he turns out to be half the Pedro he used to be, what an exclamation point that would be.

Then there’s the Phillies lineup that leads off with Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez and Jason Werth. Nobody other than the Los Angeles Dodgers comes close to have a better top-six batters in the NL.

Already, the Phillies have a major-league best record of 19-5 in July. And that’s without the pitching help that is on the way.

Now that Lee has wound up in Philadelphia, that could seal the deal on a second straight World Series title.

MLB pitchers not built like they used to be

Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched a complete game shutout in deciding Game 7 on two days rest in the 1965 World Series.

Mark Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers pitched 24 complete games in 29 starts in 1976.

Randy Jones of the San Diego Padres pitched 25 complete games in the same season.

Yes, it used to be that a starting pitcher was considered to have a successful outing if he pitched a complete game every four days.

Then why is it that now, a pitcher is believed to have done his job if he works six innings every fifth day?

And on top of that, why do so many starting pitchers get injured nowadays?

Consider the staff aces that couldn’t even make it through the second week of the 2009 season without going on the disabled list:

Among them are Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox, Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Hiroki Kuroda of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Then there is World Series MVP Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies, whose first start was pushed back five days due to injury and hasn’t exactly been lighting things up since.

Lone gone are the days of players signing one-year contracts.

But one has to wonder: Would pitchers (and many hitters for that matter) be much more productive if they were paid year-by-year based on what they did the previous season?

Just asking …

Fighting Phillies are in town

These types of pitching match-ups don’t come along that often.

It’s All-Star Cole Hamels for Philadelphia vs. All-Star Chris Young for the Padres tonight at Petco Park.

What makes the showdown even more intriguing is that Hamels is a local product from Rancho Bernardo High.

Hamels will be pitching in Petco Park for the second time. He gave up three runs in 5 2-3 innings with no decision in San Diego on July 17, 2006.

“My heart was definitely beating the whole time,” Hamels said afterwards. “I haven't had that excitement in a long time. It was great to pitch in my hometown.”

Hamels (11-4, 3.83 ERA) is one win behind National League leader Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs.

Young (8-3, 1.97), meanwhile, has virtually taken over from Jake Peavy as ace of the Padres.

He leads the majors in ERA and has held the opposition scoreless in five of his last eight starts.

According to the latest odds, the Padres are a 13-10 favorite to win tonight.

Advantage, Young.

Peavy looking like an All-Star

You heard it here first: Jake Peavy will be the National League’s starting pitcher in the 2007 All-Star Game.

Peavy is on fire now for the San Diego Padres.

In his last start, he tied a team record (his own) with 16 strikeouts against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Only a questionable call on a check-swing kept Peavy from tying Tom Seaver’s all-time Major League Baseball record of 10 consecutive strikeouts, set against the Padres in 1970.

Peavy is no one-game wonder in 2007. He definitely has a trend going.

In four of his five starts, he has allowed just two runs total in 27 innings. During the other start, he gave up five runs (four earned) in 5 1/3 innings of an 11-5 win over Arizona. Peavy had a shutout through four innings, and then ran out of gas after running the bases on a triple with a head-first slide. He also doubled in the game.

His record thus far? Three wins, no losses and an ERA of 1.67. His 36 strikeouts are second in the NL to Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels, who has 37.

Peavy, an All-Star is 2005, is coming off a sub-par 2006 season when he went 11-14 with a 4.09 ERA. He was never completely right physically last season after pushing himself too hard in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

If Peavy has a fault, it is forcing himself to go harder than the situation dictates. That’s certainly what happened in the 2006 World Baseball Classic; and it cost him earlier this year with the unnecessary head-first slide into third base.

All Peavy has to do is keep himself under control through early July. If so, don’t be surprised to see No. 44 start on the mound during the All-Star game in San Francisco.