They will be raising another flag at The Bank on Opening Day next year.
We’ll find out in the next few weeks whether it will be a division flag, a pennant flag or a championship flag – but after they spanked the Astros tonight, we know “2009″ will be flying somewhere.
The 2009 Phillies are the 12th Phillies team to win a division title and the 2nd to win 3 straight (1976-78).
This year’s version was a lot less stressful than the last 2 years, which were decided in dramatic fashion on the last couple games. This year, we didn’t need a Mets collapse, but rather we grabbed the division lead from the Mets on May 30th, and didn’t give up for the rest of the year. When the season ends, we will have spent 126 of 162 games in first place, as opposed to 83 games in first the last 2 seasons combined.
I’ll have several playoff preview posts up between now and Game 1 (next Wednesday) – but there were certainly some items of note from tonight’s game alone…
- Sad to hear Jamie Moyer is out for the year. Even though he didn’t handle it with grace, he was very good in the pen for us. He’s been a huge part of this team the last 3 years, and will be remembered for the huge games he won for us (final day of 2007, Game 3 of the World Series in 2008). I’ll do some research on his injury, but it sounded serious enough that, considering his age, his status for 2010 will be in question.
- Some good injury news! Pedro pitched, and his velocity seemed OK – you have to think they took him out just to be safe. Brett Myers was activated for the game and is ready to go. Scott Eyre pitched in the top of the ninth. Ruiz played and played well. Park might be ready by the end of the week. Hopefully they can get some work in be in good shape for the playoffs.
- Gotta love how we scored tonight. Lead-off guys get on, get them in without the HR, but also an Ibanez bomb for the capper.
- Cardinals lost tonight, so our magic number to clinch the 2nd seed is 2. Dodgers are still playing, but our magic number to overtake them is 6.
- Anyone else think Lance Berkman did his buddy Lidge a favor by swinging lightly at the first pitch?
- We don’t talk about him all that much on the blog – but very nice job by Ruben Amaro Jr. in his first season.
- I wish Harry the K had made that last call.
That’s all for now – just want to bask in this for a little. A couple years ago – this was the worst time of year for Phillies fans. For several straight years, we came so close, only to choke down the stretch or come back and be eliminated on the last day. It truly felt like we were the brunt of some cosmic joke. But in the last 3 seasons, having the privilege of watching guys like Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Cole Hamels and the rest of our core bring home 3 straight NL East titles makes all the devotion and heartache that came with it, worth it. Thanks guys, we’ll be telling our disinterested grandkids about you some day.
What a great gesture from Charlie to let Lidge get the save for this big game! A class act move right there!
GO PHILLIES!! (THE QUEST FOR THE BEST IS STILL ON!!)
yeah, yeah, the ususal, am getting bored….unlike the Mets, the Phillies know how to turn it on. Didnt hurt to have a mediocre Astros team too.
now it gets interesting!!
Congratulations to the Phillies for a great accomplishment. It wasn’t that long ago that Phillies fans were happy that they just made the playoffs in 2007.
The two most important looming questions for the playoffs (Pete, I’m sure you will have some good posts about this) are: (1) Who are the 12 pitchers going to be on the roster? (2) What should the rotation order be? Believe it or not, I think the 13 position players are fairly well set (the 8 regulars plus Bako, Bruntlett, Dobbs, Stairs, and Francisco). The composition of the pitching staff is much less certain, both because of injuries (Park, Myers, Romero, Eyre, Condrey) and because of questionable recent performances (Martinez, Walker, Lidge).
The only negative from last night’s game was Lidge’s postgame quote, “I’m about to get on a roll.” (Really? He was able to ascertain that because he got one out with his team having a 7-run lead?) Let’s hope, if he’s on the postseason roster at all (I think he probably will be) that Manuel uses him judiciously.
Great to finally reach the “magic number” and clinch it. Now we need to at least stay ahead of the Cardinals for the #2 spot.
Even with our issues, I like our chances. Our experience, our knowing what it takes, our determination, and our tight-knit group of gritty players will all be factors. You’ve also got to throw Charlie Manuel in the mix. Remember how he out-managed Sveum, Torre, and Maddon on the way to the title last year? Our weaker bench, injuries, and bullpen issues will make it tougher on him this time around, but I still expect him to make a difference.
I am really enjoying the run we’ve been on with this group of players, especially since it’s been a while for us. Obviously I hope it lasts a while longer, but I can’t help wondering how it will compare to our last one (1975-1983) when it’s all said and done——the wins, the division titles, the world championships, the HOFers from each squad, etc…
I’m sure a bunch of you guys are to young, so I consider myself fortunate to have been around for the last run we had. I was a little leaguer/teener leaguer following his heroes through those seasons. This time around, I’m a father enjoying it with my two sons, who happen to be right around the same age I was in the glory days of ’75-’83. With any luck I’ll be able to enjoy another successful run in the future with my grandchildren.
For now though, let’s hope we’ve got enough—-or get enough out of what we’ve got—-to repeat this year.
It would be nice to take over first place in the NL for homefield throughout the playoffs, and with the way the Dodgers are playing, its a possibility. I don’t know about you guys, but I would try to get a few players a day or two before we start, even though we are in the fight for home field advantage. NOW Charlie can close out the last couple games with Lidge and see if he can get his confidence back. I think if we have our bullpen semi-healthy for the postseason we should do closer by committee. Gotta start Hamels the first postseason game, he’s been pitching really well lately, and even though he was charged with 6 runs in his last outing, there were a lot of bloopers and he sawed off plenty of bats.
Trillo Fan,
The 13 position players sound right to me.
About the 12 pitchers, I found this:
Ruben Amaro Jr. was impressed by Kyle Kendrick tonight and did not rule him out as a member of the postseason roster. The GM also said for the first time that Pedro Martinez-obviously less impressive this week than J.A. Happ, might not start in the playoffs—though nothing had been decided.
I wonder if Kendrick’s spot on the post season roster is dependent on whether or not Park is available. I’ll take a stab at it anyway.
We know we’ve got Lee, Hamels, and Blanton. Happ will be there whether he starts or relieves. Madson, of course. Lidge (more out of loyalty). Durbin. Eyre, Romero, and Myers seem to be OK, so I’d say they’re in. Gotta think that Pedro will be included even if they don’t plan on starting him, don’t you? (can’t see them taking Condrey or Kendrick over Pedro in this circumstance) If so, that gets us to 11. Maybe that’s it then. If Park is healthy, he’s #12. If not, it’s Kendrick, with Condrey as an outside possibility.
I’d say that, barring any injury-related problems over the final 4 games, at least 10 spots seem pretty certain and that one more will probably depend on Park’s availability.
For what it’s worth.
Jon Heyman’s “Daily Scoop” for today on si.com: High Payroll Teams Dominating Like Never Before. Here are the highlights:
As things stand now, an unprecedented six potential playoff teams are among baseball’s top eight spenders. Never has payroll been such a determinative factor in making the playoffs as this season, and that’s especially true if the Tigers hold off the feisty, small-market Twins in the AL Central.
Teams with payrolls No. 4 through 8 are all playoff-bound as of right now: the No. 4 Red Sox ($127 million), No. 5 Tigers ($119 million), No. 6 Angels ($116 million), No. 7 Phillies ($115 million) and No. 8 Dodgers ($103 million).
The only teams currently in playoff position that aren’t among baseball’s eight biggest spenders are the Cardinals and Rockies, who rank 13th and 18th in player payroll, respectively.
The only teams in the top eight of payroll that won’t be in the playoffs are baseball’s two most disappointing teams, the Cubs (who are second at $136 million) and the Mets (third at $135 million).
I guess it’s OK if you’re one of the high payroll teams, right? After all the lean years, I still find it hard to believe that we are one of them.
In yesterday’s “Daily Scoop”, Heyman listed what he thought was each playoff team’s biggest concern and rated it on a 10 point scale. Here is what he said about us:
Philadelphia Phillies
Closer Brad Lidge may not have made a deal with the devil, but it sure seems that way. Lidge has followed his perfect 2008 season with the worst imaginable year. “His breaking ball is flat,” said one scout, espousing one of about a thousand theories. Ryan Madson, Brett Myers, J.A. Happ and Pedro Martinez are among the closing alternatives. Madson looks decent in the ninth-inning role, but if he’s promoted to that spot, they’ll miss him as a setup man. Lidge is the man most responsible for the 2008 title. But his struggles represent the most serious concern any playoff team faces now. Several other relievers are dealing with a variety of injury issues.
Worry Meter: 10
We were the only team to rate a 10 on the worry meter. The next closest was the Tigers’s offense with a 7.
bski - thanks for the thoughts on the pitching staff. Actually, David Murphy at High Cheese had some extended thoughts on this, and he had everyone you did except he put in Condrey instead of Durbin. I would have the same staff except I would put Kendrick in the last spot instead of either Condrey or Durbin. I’ve never really trusted Durbin (career ERA 5.21, exactly one season below 4.50 in his career, and over 6 walks per 9 innings this year). And Condrey is redundant if Myers and Park are okay. Kendrick, on the other hand, is capable of long relief in case a starter gets hurt or knocked out. The only problem is that he doesn’t have good career numbers against Colorado (as Murphy points out), though one could argue that this version of Kendrick is better than the one that faced them in 2007.
Unfortunately, I don’t see a good role for Lidge. They will probably keep him on the roster out of loyalty, as you say, but he’s pitched so horribly recently that I can’t imagine they would put him into any crucial situations. Maybe he’s there to get the last out when they’re up 7 runs
.
The rotation is another interesting question. Murphy argues Lee, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, because that would keep Lee and Hamels on their regular rest. I would rather go Hamels, Blanton, Lee, Happ and give Lee his first playoff start on the road. Though Hamels has been inconsistent this year, we know he’ll at least handle the pressure of starting Game 1 (and it won’t be against Jeff Francis, who is out of baseball this year).
TF,
I wish I knew about Murphy’s thoughts. Would have saved myself some brain power. I have never read High Cheese. Don’t know why though, because I check in regularly with Andy Martino’s Phillies Zone for info.
I read an article yesterday about Pedro. It talked about how the Phils felt it was important for him to make the start last night because then Lee will have 5 days off before game 1 of the NLDS and Hamels will have 5 days off before game 2. They don’t want either one of them to have too many days between starts and risk being stale/not sharp. It also said that by setting up the rotation that way it would give us the option of pitching either Lee or Hamels in a game 5 on regular rest. Sounds to me like Lee-Hamels-Blanton is what we will see.
Thanks for the scoop, bski!
Assuming Myers is healthy, I’d lean towards using him and Madson in the 8th and 9th innings.
Happ remains a wild card for the bullpen but I’m sure he’s wondering “what does a guy gotta do around here to earn a starting spot?” If we went by players numbers instead of names, here’s how the four-man playoff rotation would be based on ERA:
1. Happ (2.85)
2. Lee (3.28)
3. Martinez (3.63)
4. Blanton (3.95)
Hamels and his 4.25 ERA would go to the bullpen. If you want to go by WHIP, then we have:
1. Lee (1.11)
2. Happ (1.22)
3. Martinez (1.25)
4. Hamels (1.28)
Blanton and his 1.30 WHIP would go to the bullpen.
I’m confident that Blanton and Hamels will be prime-time playoff pitchers like they were last year. Nonetheless I nominate Happ for the Rodney Dangerfield Award because he’s been The Man in our rotation all year long and he’s still in limbo regarding his role in the playoffs.
And hey, how about Kendrick? I never felt comfortable with him on the mound, not even in 2007 when he racked up all those wins. But lately he actually seems to have a presence on the mound. When he came into the game yesterday you could just feel it, you knew he was going to shut the other team down. Got to give him props for busting his butt in AAA.
Anyone going to tonight’s game? My family will be on the field singing the national anthem. Actually, signing it. We’re with a group doing the anthem in ASL as part of Deaf Awareness Night. If anyone’s at the game, I’m the 40-something guy on the field telling his two boys to quit fooling around during the song. My wife will be the lady wearing the paper bag over her head and insisting she doesn’t know us. Should be a fun evening
bski - FYI, if you go to http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/, all the blogs are linked from that main page. Murphy’s is the lead story right now.
Drolz - good luck tonight!
Good luck from me too, Drolz!
Interesting way to decide who our 4 starters should be by looking at the different stats. Funny you should mention moving Blanton to the bullpen. A few days ago I read a quote from either Manuel or Dubee (I think it was Dubee) about how Blanton could be an option at closer. I could see that. Can’t imagine Hamels in the pen though, lol.
TF,
Thanks for the link. I should avail myself of all the access and info each beat writer can provide.
BTW, forgot to mention that Condrey does make more sense than Durbin. Don’t know what I was thinking. In that case, it could come down to either Kendrick or Durbin for the 12th spot.
drolz – thats awesome! good luck!
I see that the Cards pasted the Reds 13-0 earlier today. Gotta win to stay in front then.
Not good news on the injury front – both Park and Romero had setbacks yesterday – I wouldn’t count on either for the playoffs.
Pedro Feliz has only 11 less RBI than Utley and Ibanez…. what a tremendous year he’s been having for us.
All that brain power I used yesterday talking about who would be in the bullpen for the playoffs…wasted, and I don’t have much to spare. Really though, looks like the bullpen will be in tough shape, especially if Myers and Eyre are iffy.
With Romero out and a questionable Eyre, you’ve got to figure that Happ will be used in relief (heck, we may even need Escalona), which would mean that Pedro is the 4th starter. Park being out probably means that Kendrick is in (we might need Walker too). I’m doing it again. I’d better stop. No way to know who will still be standing by next Monday.
Hangover game last night? I hope so because now we only have a 1 game lead over the Cardinals for the 2nd spot. The other thing is that we are only 1 game behind the Dodgers for the best record in the NL. The Dodgers have lost 4 games in a row and they are playing the Rockies, who are only 2 games behind them in their division, so we’ve got a shot at catching them with a couple wins this weekend.
At this point, I think I’d rather play the Dodgers in the 1st round… Their starting pitching is not good at all right now.
Yeah, me too. I mean, Randy Wolf is now their top starter, right? At least I think I saw where he will probably be their game 1 starter next week. Then Kershaw. Then it’s a mess of a toss-up between Kuroda, Billingsley, and Garland.
It would be interesting to see how it would play out. Our starters are better than the Dodgers, but their bullpen is better than ours. I guess we’d have to put a lot of runs on the board early and hope that our pen could hold the lead.
Tim Marchman from si.com has an article today where ranks each playoff team’s pitching. He has it as 1) Cardinals, 2) Yankees/Red Sox (tie), 4) Tigers, 5) Rockies, 6) Angels, 7) Dodgers/Phillies (tie).
Uh, just realized that I contradicted myself. I was thinking that if we finished 3rd we’d be playing the Cardinals in the first round. I forgot that the Dodgers and Rockies cannot play each other. DUH!
So, if things stay the way they are and we finish 2nd we get the Rockies and if we finish 3rd we get the Dodgers. Even if we move up to 1st we still get the Rockies, so no advantage to moving up then, right?
I apologize for being so slow today!
Sweet Old School reference!
Found this in Tom Verducci’s article today on si.com:
Don’t expect much offense in a Phillies-Rockies series. The way the playoff matchups stand as of Friday, the Phillies are likely to get two 3:07 p.m. starts to open the NLDS next week. (Hard to imagine the Yankees will get the daytime slot on Wednesday, or the Angels or Dodgers, which would mean a noon start local time, getting it on Thursday.) That means shadows and rough lighting conditions.
The Phillies have hosted three 3:07 p.m. postseason starts in the previous two seasons. In those three games the Phillies and their opponents, the Rockies in 2007 and the Brewers last year, combined to hit .203 with 55 strikeouts in 53 innings. So how do you hit Ubaldo Jimenez and his power stuff in the fall twilight? Pray for serious cloud cover.
Also, on an unrelated note, I just noticed something today. We are 159 games into the season and nobody in the AL has hit 40 homers yet. Carlos Pena from the Rays and Mark Teixeira from the Yankees each have 39 (in the NL, 5 players have surpassed 40, plus Adam Dunn has 38). Maybe Tex will yet reach the mark. Still, it’s difficult to believe, isn’t it?
Were I a cynic, I might be inclined to at least entertain the thought that it could be the result of decreased steroid usage.
Disappointing, yet understandable in the games the Phils have played since clinching their division.
The Good News though in Philly is that the Flyers beat the Hurricanes 2-0 in their season opener!!
GO PHILLY TEAMS!!
Yeah, sure looks like we’ve shut it down since the clincher. I doubt I’ll even watch an inning today or tomorrow. Don’t need to see them sleepwalk to the finish.
The offense is one thing but I’m more concerned with the pitching, especially the starters. Instead of using their final start as a tune-up, both Lee and Blanton have instead gotten tuned up (at least to a degree). I sure hope they can “flip the switch” next week because with our bullpen we need everything we can get from each starter.
bski: don’t close your eyes on facing the Dodgers. Rockies could sweep, Cardinals lost and the Phillies are staggering. Its like musical chairs right now, could end up with 3 tied in 1st or 2nd place.
I can believe theyre giving that 3pm start to us. The defending Champions! cmon some respect. It’ll be even worse if its the Rockies.
if its any solace, we are not the only ones struggling towards the finish. I still dont think we’re better off facing the Dodgers yet.