The set-up: The 50-60 Phillies visit the 47-61 Padres in San Diego for a three-games series, as both clubs play out the 2016 season. San Diego continues its nine-game homestand after splitting six contests with Milwaukee and Cincinnati. Philadelphia continues with an eye toward the future and San Diego has joined them. The Padres traded Matt Kemp prior to the deadline plus had already dumped high-priced free agents James Shields and Justin Upton earlier this season. The Padres decided to "go for it" prior to the 2015 season but now executive chairman Ron Fowler told reporters the Padres are beginning to rebuild. "The chemistry wasn't there. But we took a run at it. It was a bad experiment," he told those reporters.

Jeremy Hellickson (8-7, 3.70 ERA) will start for the Phillies and Christian Friedrich (4-6, 4.72 ERA) gets the nod for the Padres. Phillies GM Matt Klentak decided having a veteran on a young staff was better than acquiring another prospect and in the end, Philadelphia to not move at the trade deadline. "There's a huge value in having a veteran starter who can give us six and seven innings every start on a staff of young pitchers," said Klentak of Hellickson's value as the trading deadline passed Monday. Added Hellickson, "I'm glad to still be with the Phillies." He's made 22 starts in 2016 and the Phillies are 12-10. Friedrich settled for a no-decision after allowing one run and five hits in six innings of the Padres' 2-1 victory over Cincinnati on Saturday. However, it was his quality start in eight outings.

The pick: Friedrich hasn't won since June 23 and in his seven straight non-quality starts (prior to his last outing), posted a 7.86 ERA. In contrast, the Phillies are 12-10 in Hellickson's starts this year (plus-$709 vs. the moneyline). Hellickson is 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA over his last seven starts (team is 6-1 ) and that leaves us with a 10* play on the Phillies.