Instead of reviewing another horrible Phillies series (save the recent performance of Cole Hamels), I wanted to look at some interesting stats courtesy of fangraphs. Here is one observation for each everyday-eight player, except our short-stop position. I'll do the pitchers in a later post. Only Brett Gardner (43.2%), Bobby Abreu (49.6%), Elvis Andrus (50.1%) and Scott Podsednik (50.9%) swing at less strikes than Carlos Ruiz (51.4%). Ryan Howard continues to see less and less fastballs. … [Read more...]

Yes! We scored 10 runs! We might be coming out of it! Cue rain-out. Cue Josh Johnson. Cue 7th shut-out of the season. Of all things that could possibly happen to this team, hitting an offensive slump of these proportions was not on the radar. I don't think Halladay was thinking he would much rather be playing with the Blue Jays offense when mid-June rolled around. Hopefully playing Boston and the Yankees back-to-back can wake this team up. If it doesn't, this might be the slump that costs … [Read more...]

I know I just did a big prospect update, but right now the MLB club is so un-watchable that I am incapable of writing an entire post about them with going into an expletive-laden rant. What am I supposed to say? They suck right now. All of them. I detailed it in the last series preview and don't feel like rehashing it, so I'm just going to do an expanded prospect update with an unofficial top-25 (the official one will come at mid-season). Oh, and I'm only focusing on the positives. See if any … [Read more...]

The MLB Draft is tonight at 7pm, and while the lead-up to the draft doesn't compare to the NBA or NFL, the importance is just as great. A "first-rounder" in the MLB draft doesn't mean the same thing that it does in other drafts. You really have to look at the bonus money a player receives to see who the most important picks in the draft were. For instance, last year Brody Colvin, the team's 7th round pick, received the most bonus money of any Phillies' pick ($900K). He dropped to the 7th … [Read more...]

1986 Steve Jeltz. That is the last Phillies player to go through a season of at least 488 plate appearances with an OPS under .600. He hit .219 with 0 HR and only 15 extra base hits for the entire season. He didn't hit a single home-run. Why is this relevant? Because for the last 15 games, and the last 488 plate appearances by position players, the Phillies as a whole, have been 1986 Steve Jeltz. They aspire to be 1998 Desi Relaford. They dream of being 1991 Dickie Thon. But alas, … [Read more...]

In an effort to try to keeps things positive around here when there is almost nothing to be positive about, it's about time for an update to the Roy Halladay Greatness Watch. His last performance will probably go down as the greatest of his career as he became only the 5th Cy Young award winner to throw a perfect game, and only the 20th pitcher ever to do so. Through his first eleven starts, Halladay is on pace for the following season (assuming 34 starts): 21-9 record (would be most … [Read more...]