Happ can finally be Happ-y

His name is J.A. Happ and he is a proud member of the Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation. His record is 8-2 with a 2.74 ERA and he has had to prove himself time and time again this season. Here is a time line of how he got to where he currently is. First, it was at the beginning of the year when he lost out the 5th spot in the rotation to Chan Ho Park in Spring Training. Park pitched poorly though and proved to be the wrong choice (surprisingly). After a poor outing on May 17th, where he gave up five runs in 1.1 IP, Park was sent to the bullpen, where he pitched in 49 out of his 54 games last season. I can't really blame them for choosing Park originally though as they were probably afraid he might side kick them. Here is a video of what I mean.

Whatever you do, don't mess with the Koreans. I know first hand not to as I roomed with one for two years of my life.

Anyway back to my point. Happ was put into the rotation and pitched very well, but there was trouble on the horizon. Next there was the issue of when he was in the trade talks regarding Roy Halladay. He wouldn't have lost his job in Toronto as a starting pitcher, but he certainly would have been going to a worse team and probably a team that would rarely make the playoffs, if ever, as opposed to a team that may currently be the front-runners for the World Series.

Then was the issue of when the Phillies got Cliff Lee. People were again concerned that Happ would be included in that trade, but, yet again, Happ was safe.

Before Cliff Lee came to the Phillies though, they had signed the once great and future HOF pitcher, Pedro Martinez, who had pitched well in the WBC; Or at least good enough for the Phillies to notice. This left the Phillies with a six man rotation down the road when Martinez was ready to pitch again, something that major league teams do not do; another move must be made. They would now have to decide who was going to give up their spot in the rotation. It was not an issue that Charlie Manuel wanted to deal with. As he would continually say “Let me answer that later on,” he said. “I don’t feel like getting into that.”

In what could have been Happ's last appearance as a starter last Wednesday, he ended up pitching one of the best games of his career tossing a shutout against the Colorado Rockies in Philadelphia. As he threw his last pitch of the night the crowd was on their feet, as if they were sending a message to the organization that they wanted Happ to stay where he is. Well, as of last night the Phillies decided to keep Happ in the rotation and moved the almost 47 year old pitcher, Jamie Moyer to the bullpen. Moyer pitched well last year going 16-7 with a 3.71 ERA, which was his best season since 2003, when he won 21 games. Looking at this year though, things were quite different for Mr. Moyer. He has posted a 5.47 ERA and was allowing a HR per game. He does have ten wins though, which leads the team, but that was probably more a factor of his teams offense then it was of his pitching performance. In five of those wins, he allowed 4 runs or more and has only two games where he pitched 7 innings. My guess is his 7.20 ERA and 2 losses in 10 innings in the month of August didn't help his cause any.

I love this move for the simple fact that the Phillies finally did something most teams today refuse to do. If a player has been playing great all year and is getting paid nothing and is competing against a player getting paid millions more and playing badly, the player getting paid more will almost always get the playing time. Just look at what the Yankees did when Jason Giambi was hitting .170. I do understand why they do this, but I think it is the wrong way to go about it. Happ has proven himself a dozen times and is always in the spotlight if someone else needs a spot in the rotation. In fact, I'm sure his name will come up again when Brett Myers comes back into the picture.

Speaking of pictures, that’s J.A. Happ as a Roman Soldier and Kyle Kendrick looking dominatrix-y in his chaps, cod piece, chest thingee, cap, mask, and whip.







As always this has been, Corey Sobel, with a special report.