While the Philadelphia Phillies are yet to clinch the NL East title, a seven-game lead over Atlanta with ten left to play should be good enough to get the defending champs back into the playoffs. Barring some kind of epic Brad Lidge explosion in which he figures out how to blow eight games at once, anyway.Speaking of Lidge, his inability to close out games for the Phillies this season has manager Charlie Manuel mulling over his options in the bullpen for the postseason. Since the format of the playoffs allows teams to use a three or four-man starting rotation that means it's likely one of Philly's starters will be going to the bullpen, and it's looking like that person could be the young lefty J.A. Happ.
"Happ really has improved as the season has gone on," Charlie Manuel said after the game. "I like Happ as a starter. I always have. But at the same time, I also see the way our pitching looks. There would be a chance that he could wind up in the back end of our bullpen if we don't get some things straightened out and (J.C.) Romero doesn't come back or something. I'm not going to say we're going to do that, but we're going to talk about it if we don't have any lefties."
Asked if he could see Happ as a ninth-inning guy, Manuel said, "Yeah, probably. You know one of the big things about Happ is? He's not afraid to throw his secondary pitches. He's really improved a whole lot. He's still got a little ways to go yet, but he has really improved as the season goes along."
If Happ were to go to the bullpen that would leave Philadelphia with a starting rotation of Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton and Pedro Martinez. Pitching out of the bullpen wouldn't be that much of an adjustment for Happ since he started the season out there.
Still, this is a pretty good indication of what Charlie Manuel's confidence in Lidge and the rest of his bullpen right now seeing as how he's considering a rookie to help finish out games in the most pressure-packed of situations.
