Including the Boston series, the Phillies are in the midst of playing 4 of their 6 World Series foes consecutively. Their last series ended with them barely avoiding disaster by putting up a huge 7th inning to avoid another sweep at the hands of the Red Sox. Their next series pits them against the Blue Jays, who started the year as the hottest team in baseball, but have cooled considerably since.
I’m working on 2 stat posts, one for hitters and one for pitchers, so I don’t have enough time for my normal series recap. I was actually going to replace the recap with those posts, but felt they deserved their own space. To quickly sum up what I would have said: Joe Blanton has been great and has a very high K/9 rate on the year compared to his career, and, Bastardo and Happ’s performances (particularly Bastardo) brought us all back down to earth and showed us we do need to trade for a starter (but the market for one is already shrinking).
2009: 36-25
2008: 35-26
2007: 31-30
Player of the Series: Pedro Feliz (5 for 12, 1 HR, 5 RBI)
Goat of the Series: Antonio Bastardo (1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, L)
Pitching Probables: Toronto Blue Jays at Phillies
Tuesday: Hamels vs. LHP Ricky Romero (3-3, 3.71 ERA)
Wednesday: Moyer vs. RHP Scott Richmond (4-3, 3.90 ERA)
Thursday: Blanton vs. RHP Casey Janssen (2-3, 6.23 ERA)
Prediction
The Phillies caught a huge break when Roy Halladay left his last start with a groin strain. He was scheduled to pitch Thursday, but instead we get Casey Janssen. The Phillies are playing well enough, and have played well for several straight series, that I’d be hard pressed to start picking them to lose to lesser teams. I could see Romero or Richmond baffling us, but I think we take 2 of 3, and then hope that Halladay stays out long enough to miss our series in Toronto next week.
this is hilarious…
saw some positive news about Joe Savery on philly.com this morning. He is 8-1 in Reading.
Didn’t bother to watch Joe Buck’s show, nor will I, but I definitely enjoyed that clip.
I did watch the first episode of “The Pen” on MLB network. Anybody else catch it? I liked it. Lots of interesting little behind-the-scenes insights, although I didn’t really need to see Charlie Manuel in shorts.
Anybody know how many episodes are in the series? I think I heard there are six.
I didn’t see it. Don’t get MLB Network. I’ll have to find a way around it.
I hadn’t liked Buck since he couldn’t have a sense of humor about Randy Moss mooning the Lambeau crowd but in the years since then I once again grew appreciate him and Aikman as a broadcast team…however, the World Series made me dislike Buck again…it just seemed to me like a lot of his commentary was negative toward the Phillies as he continuously kept making negative points about them and positive ones about the Rays…because of this, i really enjoyed the clip of Artie Lang making a mockery of his show….
Jayson Stark has a long article about/career overview of/justification for the hot start by Raul Ibanez, which reasonably demonstrates that what he is doing with us this year is really not unexplainable and/or way off the charts compared to what he has done over the last few years.
Um, Rod Barajas, wtf?
He killed us last year too, Adam. As a matter of fact, Barajas only hit 11 home runs and had 49 RBI all of last year, but he hit 2 of those home runs (both in the same game) and drove in 6 of those RBI in the two games he played against us.
Interleague games played at home. What a double whammy. The futility continues on both fronts, and the frustration builds.
bski-
It’s the same story almost every single year. We just don’t play well in interleague games. I can’t wait for June to be over(again). I really thought this year would be different because we were playing very well heading in. We were hitting. Our starting pitching was coming around. It all went pffft. Hard to explain. Hard to understand. Hard to watch.
At least the Mets are banged up. I don’t expect them to make up much ground, if any, unlike last year when I believe we had a 4 game lead on the Mets heading into interleague play and came out of it tied with them.
36-27 & 3 games in front … a very lucky 6/18 weigh station, since no Phils starter is averaging 6 IP (“innings eater” Blanton leads at 5.925),
“ace” Hamels has only 4 wins (tied w/Condrey & 4 others for team honors), closer Lidge has blown 6 save opportunities & is shut down, #2 Myers may as well be in Ft. Myers, leadoff hitter Rollins is cruising at .217 BA & .253 OBA clip and bats off bench are imitating linguini. Subtract Utley, Ibanez, Ruiz, Madson, Eyres & Condrey and the hometowner’s would be residing in Nationals’ neighborhood. 13-18 home record before record crowds is puzzling and may indicate the team’s propensity to constrict in performance upon stronger expectations; could ask former manager Bowa for his opinion on that.
Lots of time left, but slipping trends need to be halted.
Postscript: unfortunately, Ibanez has been subtracted for 15 days due to injury according to just-heard radio report.
I’ll apologize in advance if this comes across as harsh or out of step with the times or the petulant whining of an old-timer (at 42 I feel like I should include myself in that category), but David Murphy’s article on Joe Blanton, which is supposed to be a positive, feel-good piece, rubs me entirely the wrong way.
Just the fact that Murphy could actually write, in all seriousness, that Joe Blanton is an innings-eater is laughable. Each attempt at justification in his article only serves to further demonstrate the deterioration of this aspect of the game. Such as:
“Joe Blanton eats innings……..that is what he has done this season, leading the team with 71 1/3 innings in 12 starts.”
“Blanton, who has averaged 5 2/3 innings per start since joining the Phillies last season.”
“Blanton, 28, is in his fifth season. He started at least 31 games and threw at least 194 innings in each of his four full seasons in the major leagues, averaging about 6 1/3 innings per start.”
I don’t know about anyone else, but 6 innings per start doesn’t qualify him as an innings-eater in my book. The fact that he is viewed this way throughout the league speaks more about the league (and how it has changed for the worse, IMO) than it does about Joe Blanton and his supposed durability and/or consistency. Apparently we are at the point where making 31 starts and pitching 194 innings a season is notable……..and commendable! Heck, a 200-inning season is seen as almost unattainable; a far off notion that only the most stout of heart would even consider; the ultimate, herculean achievement.
Not only that, we just keep on going backwards in this area. You’d think that with all the advanced training techniques, among other things, employed that we would be heading in the other direction, that pitchers would be getting stronger and throwing more innings. The fact that this is not happening does not appear to have anyone questioning and/or changing current methods. If anything, teams are being continually more cautious and protective of their pitchers, resulting in the steady decline we are witnessing. Very sad.
Look, I know the game has changed. I know it is more offense-centered. I’m not blaming Joe Blanton, or any other pitcher for that matter. They are all a product of the times and the system for “developing” starting pitchers that is currently in vogue. To me, the system is badly flawed and getting worse.
I can only hope that Nolan Ryan institutes significant, meaningful change in Texas, that he has success, and that it filters through the rest of the league, becoming the new paradigm (meet the new boss, same as the old boss) and restoring the lost discipline of pitching——–and building arm strength——– we sorely lack in today’s game.
jjg-
I guess we’ll see what John Mayberry can do. I love how Mets fans constantly use the “all our players are injured” excuse – and we have just as many injuries with Myers, Lidge, Ibanez, Eyre all out.
bski -
2007 gave Blanton the “innings eater” title when he averaged 6.76 IP/S, pitching into the 7th inning almost every time.
In 2008, he averaged 5.99 IP/S, this year, it is 5.94.
Hasn’t been an innings eater for 1 1/2 years. Strange – Murphy is usually pretty smart.
That could certainly explain Ibanez’ recent struggles. At least the Phils brought Mayberry up. Some of their recent personnel moves really had me scratching my head to the point where I actually thought that they might just try and make due with Bruntlett while Ibanez was out. (I’m only half-kidding.)
Fair enough, Pete, but 2007 was a little bit ago and one season isn’t enough from which to earn a reputation, IMO.
As I said before, I’m not blaming Blanton or any other starting pitcher. It is what it is. That said, I don’t like it one bit. It’s a hot-button issue with me. I have seen starting pitching, as a whole, steadily and continually deteriorate———predominantly because less is asked of today’s starters right from their first day in the minors and the less you ask for the less you will get, as we currently see——–throughout my lifetime and it disturbs me. I fully expect that within the next few years we will be reading an article by Murphy (or his successor) stating that Carlos Carrasco is a horse because he has gone 5 innings in 12 consecutive starts.
Call me crazy if you want, but that is exactly where we are headed if every organiztion conitinues to overprotect every high-priced, Faberge Egg pitching prospect they draft and “develop”.
Pete, Based on his varied and various minor league travels, not much: 1 K every 4 AB, 1 HR every 21.2 AB. Big frame, big daddy (was in his 7th ML season at 25); big fill-in. Amaro & Stanford connection, big reason he’s around. This is a chance, though, to make a big impression, to provide “late-bloomer” indicia in the bigs.
Well, I doubt that our innings-eater will go as “deep” in this game as he usually does (6 innings), as he’s thrown 50 pitches through 2 innings today. 150 pitches in 6 innings? Not likely.
OK, I promise I’m done now. Just got lathered up about the whole thing.
Scutaro takes second after a walk as nobody pays attention, leading to a gift run that we can’t afford to surrender. Lots of sloppy play on this home stand. Time for Charlie to get the team’s attention, IMO.
Yay, another blown game!
this is horrendous.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
They blew this one twice
Want to see an amazing stat:
Rod Barajas, entire season as a Phillie:
4 HR, 10 RBI
Rod Barajas, 5 games against the Phillies:
4 HR, 10 RBI
While I’m pissed the Phils choked in this series and even more furious that Rod Barajas continues to kill us (Adam, that stat you posted above almost made my head explode) it does make me feel a little better that K-Rod blew it tonight…still 3 up on the Mets….
The Phils should be embarrassed by how they are playing. There were still more bad plays——–Mayberry cruising and Rolen taking advantage by turning a single into a double, Feliz’ error——–after I said how sloppy they have been and called for Manuel to rip into them, yet Manuel says he doesn’t think it’s time for that now:
“I’ve been thinking about that for 2 or 3 days if you want to know the truth,”……..”But at the same time, I think that with the way things are, we are kind of beat up, and we have guys out, and we come back in the game like we did today, and where we are at with the injuries and working people and things like that, I don’t know if that’s the right time to go in there and start screaming and hollering and cussing and throwing things.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m headed that way, I guess. But I ain’t quite there yet. Maybe somebody ought to push me into it.”
Somebody should definitely push him into it because it needs to be done now. I can understand what he’s talking about with the injuries and having other guys filling in. However, it was Utley and Rollins who fell asleep on Scutaro which lead to a gift run and Feliz is the one who made another late-inning error which lead to two gift runs. None of these guys are young or inexperienced. They gave away 3 runs in a 1-run loss. No need to take it easy on them.
Mayberry is another story, but it seems to me that now, immediately after he made a mental mistake, is really the best time to get on him/correct him/hold him accountable. I mean, what is Charlie going to do, wait a while and then say, “Hey, John, remember two weeks ago when you were lazy going after a ball and Rolen took second on you? That wasn’t a good play. You’ve got to keep your head in the game.” I’m sure that somebody said something to Mayberry about it, though.
We are sliding badly and the blame cannot be placed entirely on our injuries or the guys who are filling in. Our regular, everyday, core players have shown an alarming lack of focus lately, more than just the occasional lapse, and it is costing us games, as in several. This needs to stop right now because the damage is adding up quickly.
Yeah, Pete, making a deal for a top starting pitcher needs to be on the front burner and at full boil!
We’ve been saying all along that the bullpen would not be able to withstand the workload they are getting and remain successful. I kept saying that they would be fried by August, but the injuries to Lidge and Eyre, coupled with the fact that our starters still can’t give us even 6 innings consistently, have apparently accelerated the timetable of the breakdown.
Also, wanting to use specific guys——Condrey, Romero, Durbin in certain situations, which, by extension, means staying away from specific guys—–Park, Taschner, and now Walker as well——in those situations only serves to place even more strain on the pen.
The cracks are out in the open for all to see now. If Romero can settle in and Lidge comes back healthy, that would obviously go a long way toward strengthening the pen. Even with that, if the rotation doesn’t turn around, and soon, it will all be for naught, as it is highly unlikely that we can be a serious contender while using our bullpen 4 innings per game.
While we are waiting for our starting pitching needs to be addressed, doesn’t it make sense to add another reliever to the roster? We really need the help and carrying Bako is ridiculous, IMO. Might as well use that spot on a position of serious need and where we could actually get a real benefit for the club.