Tom Gordon picked up the save today in Philadelphia's 4-2 win over the Marlins. I didn't expect a good year from Tom; he seemed to be on the decline to me and at age 38 I figured that would continue. But he struck out all three men he faced today and he's recorded a total of 13 in 7 2/3 innings so far and converted all five save opportunities. The Phillies can't ask much more from their closer.
re: Tom Gordon
From what we've seen of Tom Gordon this year, he appears to be a much more INTELLIGENT closer than Billy Wagner.
Whereas Wagner had basically one pitch, the fastball, that he tried to overpower hitters with, and occasionally would try to sneak a slider or curve over which the hitter , waiting on, would bash somewhere for a hit, Gordon throws a mix of cutters, curves, changes and a very fast fastball in the mid-90s, and has an excellent command of the strike zone as to all of the pitches, and is unafraid to use any of them.
The problems I've seen in the Phils pen this year are setting up Gordon. Last year they used Madsen in the 7th, Urbina in the 8th, and occasionally mixed in Cormier or Fultz when they needed to get out lefties. This was a good bullpen.
This year, they did nothing to assist Urbina with his legal problems in Venezuela, which means the Phils remain with nothing from the Polanco trade with the Tigers. Polanco is starting at 2B for the Tigers and he will probably accumulate 10-15 win shares for them there. He continues to be an excellent defensive infielders and a good hitter. The Phils could have used him at 3B now. Trading him now appears short sighted.
Second, moving Madsen to the rotation to replace Padilla appears silly also, since Padilla was traded to the Rangers for a player who was cut. Padilla could have started and Madsen could have been the setup man.
Baseball history is littered with mistakes of making starters out of excellent bullpen-relief men, the classic case being Paul Richards trying to make a starter out of Goose Gossage in Chicago (AL) in the 70s.
Madsen doesn't have an overpowering fastball and therefore he would be best in relief relying on control and change of pace to fool batters for a brief inning.
Another point about Gordon--he has that intangible desire to win which he derives from being with the Yanks. Lofton had it last year as well.
A lot of the Phils don't know or want to know what it takes to close out an opponent in late innings and to win close games or to summon the energy on a bleak night to win a ballgame.
Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Tom Gordon, along with Aaron Roward, seem to have the winning intangibles you want in a winning ballclub.
Howard again won a game yesterday with a 2R HR when the game was tied after already hitting a HR to even up the game.
His HRs and hits are often key in winning Phils games.
His comparables to Dick Allen are like 99 out of 100, except he doesn't drink smoke or hang out at the track.
--arthur john kyriazis
--philly