Joe Blanton: The Phillies’ forgotten fifth
When the Philadelphia Phillies brought back Cliff Lee this past offseason, all of the talk around baseball was about their starting rotation, and rightly so.
On top of adding a two-time All-Star and Cy Young Award winner, the Phillies have their ace Roy Halladay, who is a seven-time All-Star and two-time Cy Young Award winner, Roy Oswalt, who has a career 3.17 ERA in 306 starts, and former World Series MVP Cole Hamels. That’s one filthy foursome to have on a pitching staff.
When talking about this star-studded Phillies rotation, though, Joe Blanton is the odd man out. After logging 175.2 innings in 28 starts last season and managing a 4.82 ERA – his worst ERA since 2005 – he is usually an afterthought to many fans. To Blanton, that’s just fine.
“It doesn’t matter to me, just because you’re a fifth guy doesn’t mean you’re a number five guy,” Blanton said. “You look at different [pitching staffs], and guys get thrown into different spots in rotations because of the other guys, and maybe guys are pitching as a two and shouldn’t really be a two.”
“I mean look at Cole [Hamels]. He’s our four-guy and is Cole a number four guy? No he’s not.”
Blanton’s performances in his first two starts of the season haven’t exactly helped his case to not be an afterthought in the Phillies’ rotation, as he surrendered 12 earned runs in 10.1 innings and opposing batters hit .378 off of him.
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It is one thing to be mentioned in the same sentence as any of the Phillies’ top four, but it’s something else to have to pitch behind them. For Blanton, he doesn’t feel any pressure to perform and just tries to pitch his game.
“No, if anything, there’s less pressure. They’re getting all that and I don’t have to do anything,” Blanton jokingly told The Good Point.
Blanton rebounded in his last start against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, allowing seven hits and two earned runs over seven innings, settling for a no decision.
Not only was it a good outing for Blanton, but it was a carbon copy of Hamels’ start the night before, when he also allowed seven hits and two earned runs over seven innings in a no decision.
Blanton downplayed the similarity between the starts and the fact that there’s a degree of friendly competition between starters to be better than the pitcher before him.
“From my point of view, if I was to go out and throw seven innings and one run, I hope everyone does better than me,” the Kentucky native said. “I feel like the other guys feel the same way too. That means we’re throwing the ball pretty damn well and we’re going to have a pretty good season.”
While baseball analysts and fans are pegging the Phillies to have a successful season, Blanton is well aware of the talent on the pitching staff that he is a part of. He realizes that he has a very unique opportunity to seek guidance from some of the best starters in the game, all under the same roof.
“We’ve got a lot of experience and we’ve all been through a lot of games, a lot of innings. If you learn one thing from each guy, you’ve learned four pretty good things. You’re not learning it all from one guy, so you can pick and choose from each different guy and try to take something different.
“That’s the fun part about having four guys on the staff that are all different and all very good at the same time.”
The attention that the Phillies’ rotation has been getting has almost made some people forget about the impressive batting order that they have.
The reigning NL East Champions boast one of the most intimidating lineups in the National League. Led by slugger Ryan Howard, three-time Gold Glover Shane Victorino, and 15-year veterans Placido Polanco and Raul Ibanez, the Phillies certainly have no shortage of offensive talent even after the loss of Jayson Werth over the offseason, and Blanton knows that on any given night, run support will usually be there to help the team pile up wins.
“If you let this lineup fly under the radar, they’re going to do some damage,” Blanton said. “I mean, they do damage even if you don’t let them fly under the radar. Even with Chase [Utley] not being healthy right now, we’ve still got two former MVPs and All-Stars left and right.”
“We’ve got a lot of weapons in our lineup.”
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