This will be short since I don’t expect a whole lot of attention on this post since it’s a holiday weekend.
That was a great series. Good pitching, good defense, and while it was bad offense, there were some clutch hits from Ryan Howard. That Pedro over Lincecum game was one of the most exciting regular season games in the past couple years. Watching Pedro mow down 9 Giants in a Phillies uniform was a treat I’d never thought I’d see in a million years.
Now that we (both fans and players) have the confidence that we can beat the Giants, we move forward to our goal of homefield advantage in the NL. Right now we stand 1 game behind the Dodgers and tied with Cardinals. We match up very evenly with both those squads and I think it’s very important to our repeat chances to get it.
2009: 77-54
2008: 72-59
2007: 69-62
Series Preview: Phillies at Houston Astros
The Phils head to Houston for a 4-game set with the Astros. The most familiar face in the Astros line-up will be Michael Bourn. Bourn has worked his butt off and turned himself into a pretty decent lead-off man. He’s hitting .296 with a .369 OBP, while swiping an NL-leading 49 bases and scoring 85 runs (on pace for 104), all while playing a good center field. We had no room for him here, I’m really happy he’s doing well there. The other Phillie in the Brad Lidge trade, Geoff Geary, is currently in the minors after sporting a 8.10 ERA to start the year.
The Astros line-up has some big time names in Carlos Lee, Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada, but they shockingly are 14th in the NL in runs scored since the all-star break. They have no depth to their line-up after those guys and Hunter Pence. So they must be getting by on pitching right? Nope. Their team ERA is 5.13 since the break, 15th in the NL. With those numbers, it is surprising that their record since the break isn’t worse than 19-26.
Friday: Lee vs. LHP Wandy Rodriguez (12-9, 2.93 ERA)
Saturday: Blanton vs. RHP Roy Oswalt (8-5, 3.80 ERA)
Sunday: Hamels vs. RHP Bud Norris (3-3, 6.61 ERA)
Monday: Happ vs. RHP Brian Moehler (8-10, 5.11 ERA)
The Astros haven’t been good, however, we do face the only 2 pitchers that have done well for them this year in Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez. I can’t pick against us in the last 2 games of the series, but I don’t think we take all four. So I say we split the first two and win the last two to take 3 of 4 from the ‘Stros.
Hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day Weekend. GO IRISH!
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Don’t forget about Coste!
I simply can’t wait until tomorrow morning so I can read in the Inquirer what is wrong with Brad Lidge now! It is something how you just know what’s coming with him. When he doesn’t have it, he really doesn’t have it and it’s only a matter of time before he gives up enough walks, hits, and, ultimately, runs to lose the game. Just brutal.
He has gone through a seemingly endless string of adjustments, compensations, overcompensations, tweaks in mechanics, and on and on this season throughout which he has been, as we all well know, less than stellar. I understand the need for a lot of it due to the knee problems he has had. In light of that, I have been forgiving of the results, until the last few weeks that is.
Lidge has said that he is 100% healthy, that he feels strong, and that he feels nothing at all in the knee. He also said that until recently he had still been using the delivery that was compensating for the knee injury, which he realized was now unnecessary. He said that he and Dubee looked at video and he has gone back to his 2008 delivery and in doing that he regained the control of his slider. It sure didn’t look that way to me tonight.
So, if it’s not the knee and it’s not his health and it’s not his strength or stamina and it’s not his mechanics or delivery and if it’s not his confidence because Manuel has been very supportive, then what the hell is it?
That was another tough one to lose. We caught a break with Oswalt leaving the game early and we capitalized on it. Sure, we could have done more, but it was a nice late-inning comeback that should have resulted in a win. Absolutely can not have that happen in the playoffs, obviously.
Myers was not sharp at all, but I’m really hoping he gets it together quickly, like by next weekend. During the next week, both Lidge and Myers should get a few more opportunities. Should Myers progress and Lidge continue to struggle, a change has got to be made. At that point there will be three weeks left in the regular season, which will allow Myers time to settle into the closer role and be comfortable in it for the playoffs.
As much as Manuel doesn’t want to jerk Lidge around and risk hurting his confidence, I’m pretty sure that winning games is still his top priority. While it’s admirable to have each individual player’s back, it is foolhardy to remain squarely behind one guy, to the detriment of the other twenty four on the roster. That has me thinking that when it comes down to brass tacks, Manuel will make the change. I sure hope so anyway, because I really can’t take this anymore.
I was so ticked off about Lidge last night that I forgot to voice my concern about Utley and, to a lesser extent, Victorino.
Victorino has had a couple tweaks this season that have forced him to miss a few games here and there, so hopefully the swelling in his knee is minor and he’ll be back in a couple days.
Utley, on the other hand, fouled a ball of the same foot that was injured earlier this year when he was hit with a pitch. The first time around he proceeded to struggle at the plate for a few weeks. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen this time, although having it happen now is better than if it were to happen a month from now. Cairo did a nice job filling in last night (which means that, thankfully, we should see a lot less of Bruntlett), so there appears to be no need to rush Utley back. At least he has a few weeks to heal and get his swing back for the playoffs.
Not much you can say about what just went down in Houston. Actually, there is not much that I want to say about it. It’s too irritating to dwell on it. If I did I’d probably end up throwing things and straining an oblique. I’m day-to-day as it is, so I’d rather not risk it.
As a way of staying positive, I found a nice article about Utley on fangraphs.com I thought I’d share: Give Chase His Due
In all likelihood, the National League MVP is going to Albert Pujols for the second consecutive season, and probably rightly so. He’s at or near the top in many of the traditional and non-traditional stats and is 2nd behind Tim Lincecum in wins above replacement with 7.5.
But right there with Pujols and Lincecum is Chase Utley, with 7.2 WAR. Last year, Utley was 2nd in WAR with 8.1 and yet somehow managed to finish just 14th in the MVP voting. What will the voters do with Chase this year?
I knew Chase Utley has been underrated by the mainstream media, but I’m not sure I realized by how much. Consider this: In the past five years (including this season), Utley has been worth 37.5 wins above replacement, 2nd only to Albert Pujols, who has 39.5. That’s just freakishly impressive, and yet Utley has never finished above 7th in the MVP voting in his career. It is also worth noting that Utley has been good for a whopping 72.2 runs in UZR in the last five years, and yet has never won a Gold Glove.
While I know it’s too premature to start lumping Utley together with Hall of Famers, writers and fans have no qualms about doing the same with Pujols, so please just indulge me for a moment. Utley clearly is playing at his peak right now, and will certainly face some decline later on in his career. But if Utley were to retire after this season, he would have about 40 WAR. It took Hall of Famer second baseman Red Schoendienst 19 seasons to get to do the same. Utley has done it in eight. Alright, so that’s a little cherry-picking on my part, as we know Red was helped into the Hall by his managerial record, but Tom Tango recently looked at all position players born between 1874 and 1958 and found that 34% of players with a career WAR in the 40’s made it into the Hall of Fame. Those are some fair odds.
Looking at it from a different angle, Utley is averaging 6.9 WAR per 150 games. For a frame of reference, Jackie Robinson averaged 6.8 WAR per 150 games, the second highest among 2nd baseman in the Hall of Fame behind Rogers Hornsby, who was worth an astonishing 8.5. The great Eddie Collins is next with 6.7.
I’m not nuts enough to say that Utley is going to go on and have a career anything quite like Robinson’s or Collins’; my point is that casual fans have failed to realize just how good Utley really has been. He has been consistently brilliant now for quite a stretch.
Watch him and appreciate him, folks. I believe he’s the type of player you’ll one day be telling your grandchildren about one day.
I guessing I’m not the only one who would rather forget this series against the Astros. What can you say? I’d prefer to let it go rather than to dwell on it because to rehash it would only serve to irritate me further. I’d probably end up throwing things and straining an oblique as a result. Since I’m day-to-day as it is, I’d rather avoid the risk.
In the interest of trying to remain positive, I’ll share a nice article from fangraphs.com about Chase Utley. Chins up, Phils’ fans!
In all likelihood, the National League MVP is going to Albert Pujols for the second consecutive season, and probably rightly so. He’s at or near the top in many of the traditional and non-traditional stats and is 2nd behind Tim Lincecum in wins above replacement with 7.5.
But right there with Pujols and Lincecum is Chase Utley, with 7.2 WAR. Last year, Utley was 2nd in WAR with 8.1 and yet somehow managed to finish just 14th in the MVP voting. What will the voters do with Chase this year?
I knew Chase Utley has been underrated by the mainstream media, but I’m not sure I realized by how much. Consider this: In the past five years (including this season), Utley has been worth 37.5 wins above replacement, 2nd only to Albert Pujols, who has 39.5. That’s just freakishly impressive, and yet Utley has never finished above 7th in the MVP voting in his career. It is also worth noting that Utley has been good for a whopping 72.2 runs in UZR in the last five years, and yet has never won a Gold Glove.
While I know it’s too premature to start lumping Utley together with Hall of Famers, writers and fans have no qualms about doing the same with Pujols, so please just indulge me for a moment. Utley clearly is playing at his peak right now, and will certainly face some decline later on in his career. But if Utley were to retire after this season, he would have about 40 WAR. It took Hall of Famer second baseman Red Schoendienst 19 seasons to get to do the same. Utley has done it in eight. Alright, so that’s a little cherry-picking on my part, as we know Red was helped into the Hall by his managerial record, but Tom Tango recently looked at all position players born between 1874 and 1958 and found that 34% of players with a career WAR in the 40’s made it into the Hall of Fame. Those are some fair odds.
Looking at it from a different angle, Utley is averaging 6.9 WAR per 150 games. For a frame of reference, Jackie Robinson averaged 6.8 WAR per 150 games, the second highest among 2nd baseman in the Hall of Fame behind Rogers Hornsby, who was worth an astonishing 8.5. The great Eddie Collins is next with 6.7.
I’m not nuts enough to say that Utley is going to go on and have a career anything quite like Robinson’s or Collins’; my point is that casual fans have failed to realize just how good Utley really has been. He has been consistently brilliant now for quite a stretch.
Watch him and appreciate him, folks. I believe he’s the type of player you’ll one day be telling your grandchildren about one day.
Hey, what happened? Was my comment stuck in the spam filter again, Pete? I didn’t see it post earlier. I figured I’d try again later when I got a chance. When my second attempt posted I noticed that my first try from a few hours ago appeared as well. If you released the earlier one, thanks. Sorry for the double-post then.
BSKI – I unblocked your comment. I figured out why many of your longer comments get blocked…
When you copy and paste something from another site like ESPN or fangraphs.com they have a lot of embedding links on player names that takes you to the players page. So your comment above for example has 11 links in it and comes off as spam to our system.
Going forward when you copy and paste just unlink all the player names that aren’t really relevant to the point. If there is a link in the copied text that you want others to follow feel free to leave it in. But just be more conscious of links in your comments that don’t really have much purpose and you should see less of your comments being blocked.
Thanks Dannie. Sorry for the trouble. I’ll be more careful from now on.
Well, the solo home run remains our predominant means of scoring, but we’ve got 4 of them so far, 3 in the 7th inning alone. Werth has one, Ruiz has one, and Ibanez, who is 3-3 so far, has two (which makes 3 in 2 games for him).
Just maybe Ibanez is coming around. It might be difficult to tell how much is him and how much is the opposition because he hammers the Nats. A smoking series against Washington could be a start and then we’ll see where it goes from there.
Pedro just got knocked out in the 7th. He got hit around a bit and threw a lot of pitches, but he hung in there pretty good. I wondered how he’d be tonight coming off his last start. Plus, he was pitching without a net (i.e. Moyer) for the first time. Not that he cares any. I was just hoping it wouldn’t rain again and catch us short.