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.

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.

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.

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.
 

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.

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.

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.

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.