Phillies Keeping Same Rotation for NLCS

It's time for a time-honored tradition in baseball; teams are going to start announcing their rotations for the League Championship Series and fans and sportswriters are going to second guess them. The Phillies announced today that they're not going to change their NLCS rotation from the NLDS incarnation. That means Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, and Joe Blanton will pitch for them, in that order.

There's not really a whole lot to question here. Hamels and Myers make perfect sense to start the first two games at home. I do think that Manuel is making a mistake not flipping Blanton and Moyer, though. Moyer's been great this year, but I didn't think he looked particularly strong in his start against the Brewers whereas Joe Blanton did. The trouble doesn't come in who starts Game 3 and who starts Game 4, but rather that whoever starts Game 3 likely starts Game 7 if the series goes that long, while whoever starts Game 4 only gets one start.

In the end, it's only a big deal if the series goes seven games, at which point I'd guess that Blanton would be ready to go if Moyer gets in to trouble. And if Moyer is really bad in Game 3, Blanton could start on short rest in Game 7 if necessary. Of course, the goal is to make sure things don't get that far and worry about them when they happen, so maybe I shouldn't spend so much time nit-picking.