It's still August, right?

Should the Phillies falter and join the 2007 Mets and 2004 Yankees among the greatest collapses of all time, one of the first to blame will be Paul Hagen, who has penned the column that puts Philly on the edge of hubris and could give bulletin board material to the other teams chasing the Phillies:

Phillies' October rotation a tough decision for Manuel

Yes, the Phillies have it pretty much wrapped up, and a collapse is hard to fathom even though they've dropped five of six against the Diamondbacks, Giants and Rockies. But they were the class of the division before acquiring Cliff Lee and are probably once again the class of all of baseball (we'll know for sure if there's an October showdown with the Red Sox). {What do the Red Sox have to do with anything? They'll be sitting at home after Oct. 4.}

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Hagen did pose an interesting question: Who among Pedro Martinez, J.A. Happ or Jamie Moyer gets booted from the playoff rotation? I'd discuss, but it's still August, and there's no guarantee - especially with the luck the Phillies have had keeping pitchers healthy this year - that all three will be healthy come October. Or that aces Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee will be healthy. Stranger things have happened.

At least Jim Salisbury brought us back to earth today with a look at some SoxandPhils examples of teams that thought they had too much pitching:

The 2006 Red Sox had six starters, so they traded away Bronson Arroyo. But then injuries struck, and Kyle Snyder, Lenny DiNardo, Kason Gabbard, Kevin Jarvis, David Pauley and Devern Hansack combined for 34 starts that year.

The 1997 Phillies were so depleted by injuries that ace Curt Schilling was followed in the rotation by No. 2 Calvin Maduro, who went an impressive 3-7 with a 7.23 ERA in 71 innings that year.

The 2007 Phillies were so stocked coming out of spring training that Jon Lieber, who won 39 games the previous three years, was bumped to the bullpen. He was back in the rotation by April 20, and several pitchers, most of whom weren't on the team when it broke camp, made starts, including Kyle Lohse, Kyle Kendrick, J.D. Durbin, Fabio Castro, John Ennis, Zack Segovia and ... J.A. Happ.

Heck, nine pitchers have already started for the Phillies this year, and we're at least a week away from Pedro's debut.

As Salisbury quoted Terry Francona from 2007: "When you think you have enough pitching, go get more."

Current affairs: After dropping an epic 13-inning game to the Rays last night, the Red Sox trail the Rays 4-1 in the 5h tonight. It doesn't look like Brad Penny will have the lengthy outing the depleted bullpen needs. Remember, this team was seen as having a glut of pitching just weeks ago.

The Phillies are playing their best game since Cliff Lee's gem, leading the Rockies 7-0 in the 6th. With Pedro pitching in the minors today, Happ is having a strong outing in an attempt to keep his spot in the rotation over the future Hall of Famer.

***9:45 UPDATE*** What a game by Happ - a four-hit, 10-strikeout complete-game shutout. It was electric. I think he's kept his spot in the rotation safe even though Pedro pitched well in his minor league start. Cliff Lee better pitch well tomorrow afternoon or he might be headed to the pen.

And, remember what I said about pitching depth? MLB Network reports the Sox just signed former SoxandPhil roider Paul Byrd. At least he can't be worse than John Smoltz.