We are 7-9 on our 20-game test against some of the best teams in the majors. I’ll keep that updated record posted at the top of these, and will consider 10-10 a proper goal for this point in the season.
2011: 28-18
2010: 26-20
2009: 26-20
2008: 24-22
2007: 23-23
In match-up of two once-mighty currently-anemic offenses, the Phillies outscored the Rangers 5-4 for the entire series with a combination of solid pitching and mediocre hitting.
Series WPA
I’m going to try this out for a bit – essentially adding up the WPA for each of the games in the series to see who had the biggest impact on the series…
Top 3
1. Cliff Lee, .514
2. Roy Halladay, .255
3. Ryan Madson, .229
Bottom 3
1. Wilson Valdez, -.172
2. Domonic Brown, -.152
3. Placido Polanco, -.143
Big-4 update
Instead of a good/bad news, I’m going to take a look at how the big-4 are doing compared to my pre-season expectations.
Here is what my expectations were for the year:
And this is how they are projecting out so far this year. I used 33 starts for Halladay, Lee and Hamels and 30 for Oswalt.
So, so far Halladay is way outperforming my projections, but remember last year his first half (1.96 ERA through 13 starts) was somewhat better than his second half. That being said, it’s certainly possible he could have an even better year than last year, which would just be stupid. Obviously the biggest difference here is Oswalt’s IP due to his missed starts and the fact that he’s been mostly going just 6 IP in his starts. Lee’s WHIP is probably the most surprising number here, it’s not that it’s bad, but his 15 walks (he had 18 all of last year) weren’t expected. However, I’m confident his elite location-skills will return, if they haven’t already.
Prospect Update
- Jesse Biddle has recovered a bit after a rough start. In his last 4 starts he has a 2.86 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 23 K in 22 IP.
- 18-year old Domingo Santana has gotten hot of late as well. In 13 May games, he’s hitting .350 with 3 HR and a 1.095 OPS.
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds at Phillies
Probable Pitchers
Monday (7:05): Hamels (2.1 WAR) vs. RHP Bronson Arroyo (0.4 WAR)
Tuesday (7:05): Worley (0.9 WAR) vs. RHP Johnny Cueto (0.6 WAR)
Wednesday (7:05): Halladay (3.1 WAR) vs. LHP Travis Wood (0.1 WAR)
Thursday (1:05): Lee (1.6 WAR) vs. RHP Homer Bailey (0.8 WAR)
3 questions for the series
- Uhhhhh…..How will Chase Utley look?
- Will Domonic Brown get consistent starts? And over who?
- Will Joey Votto still be bitter (read: destroy us) after his all-star snub last year?
Series Expectations
I think that Utley’s return gives the team a mental boost and having him and Brown in the line-up help us get to the 3 righties. I think the Phils win 3 of 4, and finish this tough stretch 10-10.
Gotta hand it to you Pete, looks like we are heading for 9-11 or 10-10. nice call. I will be pleased with 2 of 4 at this point, until I see Utley and Brown actually contributing. I will assume they aren’t going to light it up quite yet and will need to see more at bats until they contribute. Good to see Oswalt appears to be moving in the right direction.
JJ on the DL really could help us out to get some distance between us and fish over the next 10 games – although Mets are playing well of late.
Hamels is 6-0, 1.07 ERA, 7 G, 50.2 I lifetime vs. Reds. Will the law of “Hollywood” or the one of averages prevail in the opener?
Cincinnati is happy to miss Roy O, statistics say. His career numbers against Reds speak to an unusual degree of comfort and mastery: 23-3, 2.81 ERA, 34 G, 218 I.
That was a heckuva suicide bunt today on a difficult pitch from which to execute.
With Chase, Dom, Vance and home crowd back to buck up forces, excuses take a back seat to a gathering ‘positive momentum’ expectation. Reds and Mets should present respectable resistance though.
suicide bunt is right, that was pretty amazing
With Chase, Dom, Vance and home crowd back to buck up forces, excuses take a back seat to a gathering ‘positive momentum’ expectation.>>
I don’t know that Iist those 3 names like they are sure fire positive forces just yet. I suspect Chase is gonna need a staeady dose of big league pitching to get into whatever groove he will. Like 50- 75 at bats. Bout the same for DB. This’ll be the Vanimals strongest lineup opposition to date. He’s capable of doing a good job, but I wouldn’t get overconfident about it.
But the mention of the crowd is real good. Maybe it had something to do with Cliff pitching last night, maybe relief that the world didn’t end, but whatever it was, that was a great, great crowd Saturday night. With the names mentioned all offering a sense of excitement to their challenges, I’d look for similar atmospheres in the 3 night games against Cincy, and that certainly won’t hurt.
<<Lee’s WHIP is probably the most surprising number here, it’s not that it’s bad, but his 15 walks (he had 18 all of last year) weren’t expected. However, I’m confident his elite location-skills will return, if they haven’t already.>>
Sorry, I’m not gonna make excuses, it was what it was, but this goes down as a good example on why strict numbers analysis holds some risk. Maybe not longer term, but if Cliff was all over the place in his next to last start against the Cards, and walked 6 off poor control, the comparison is fine. But he ran into a tight strike zone umpire that just killed him one night. I mean 40 per cent of the guys walks this year are off 1 night with that guy behind the plate. Maybe you think he had below par control that night, in which case the statement holds some merit, but I didn’t see it that way.
While watching that game, I was reminded of a comment Ashburn made from time to time: Harry, that was right down the middle for a ball.
Actually thought of Harry and Whitey some the last few days wondering how they’d have sounded during this offensive tailspin. Tough stuff to call. But that line does sound like Classic Whiteness.
You and I have talked a bit the last few days about the play-by-play and “color” commentators both in Philly and NYC, and I liked your emphasis on the utter subjectivity of it all, whether it be phrase, style or content. Although McCarthy drives me crazy, part of it is the need (at least as they see it) to be upbeat in some of the most inappropriate situations as well as the commercial necessities (“safe and secure with NY Life” on a 2 out, 9th inning double with the Phils losing 9-0.) Another is the many fans’ inevitable comparisons to HK and Whitey; those are definitely not gonna work to the Mc’s and Wheels’ advantage.
Ditto for the situation for the Yankees. Although Rizutto was certainly not universally liked., he and most of the guys he worked with were baseball guys to the core. In addition, he was the ultimate hoot. My Father and Brother loved the guy. I can hear “Hey White, ….” in my ears as I write this.
Another thing of interest is how the game is called on various stations. Personally, if I’m gonna watch the game, I prefer it on Comcast, if only because I really like Botallico after the game. He is opinionated as hell, and backs it up well. The guys on 17 are OK (though irritating), but the idiotic set-up at the casino leaves me cold. There is an obvious condescension to Buck and (particularly) Mc Carver that I despise, but the nadir for me were the ESPN telecasts with Jon Miller; I find it difficult to believe that this guy is a HOF broadcaster. I found his indolent style, and the entire booth narrative totally grating; the new guy is better though the style is similar. Maybe it is just ESPN.
Well, Jon Miller dates way, way back with a long resume. He first gained recognition as the play by play guy with the Orioles before heading over to the Giants. Someone like myself I guess is used to him. I always thought he was good, but not quite to the level of his reputation. But I can say that if most of your exposure to him is from his ESPN Sunday night work, I can see why you wouldn’t be too thrilled with him. I didn’t dislike him, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by his work. Some degree of translating, correcting and covering for Joe Morgan probably hurt his ESPN work.
Your thoughts on McCarver are pretty widespread. If not yourself, it seems pretty likely that your dad and brother would vividly recall McCarver’s first broadcasting work, which was with Kalas and Ashburn. It’s been so long ago now that I couldn’t tell you why, but he struck me as real good with them. It’s unfortunate that the 30 year old crowd has such a hard time relating to work like his, and Bill Conlin because they were (opinion) very well cast in their times and place back then. Baseball is a simple game, it’s easy to understand. Despite that simplicity, McCarver’s a relative genius amongst the game’s millions of observors. He’s done a very suspect job of communicating that in a pleasing way. You have to put up with more than you want to pick up those excerpts the last however many years.
I think I’m kinda suggesting here that something, to some extent has passed Miller and McCarver by. It’s a little uncomfortable criticizing them, as long as their careers have been, and with unquestionable greatness in some ways included. Yet, somehow, guys like The Scooter, and Whitey seemed to carry that forward no matter how long they broadcast. I suppose the latter 2 should be saluted for that more than the seemingly former greats criticized.
The return of Chase Utley represents a most probable improvement oin the lineup that coincides with the conclusion of offensive production from 2B that makes 28-18 seem that much more incredible.
Truth be told. other factors have contributed to a terrific record and standing not being even better, but look at it this way.
One year ago, the club had a record that was fairly similar, and the nucleus of a 2 time League champion was in place. Roy Halladay was here, Chase was healthy.
But consider
- Cole Hamels was just starting to overcome a year of if not slump, not coming close to matching performance to ability.
- Jimmy Rollins was already entrenched in an injury riddled season.
- Ryan Madson was pitching okay, but not great, and right around now, broke his toe, and was gone for several weeks.
- Brad Lidge was the subject of a far too frequent quote, “Lidge is my closer” as he had endured on another lousy start to compound his 2009 underperformance.
-Raul Ibanez was playing like most of this year. Not well.
-The starting rotation consisted of frequent doses of Kyle Kendrick, and Jamie Moyer. And a sometimes healthy, but not effective J Happ. And they replaced an injured Joe Blanton, who was more important then than now.
Now of course the 2010 contingent had a strength in Jayson Werth, who to this point of that year was playing superbly. But if you think about it, as big a loss as Chase has been, it’s almost more remarkable that the 2010 club got within the proximity that it did of this year’s start. There won’t be any deals like last year to acquire a Roy Oswalt, but since this year’s club has had to overcome a lot less, even though Utley’s absence has been huge, and still found it’s way to a good record after 46 games, it tells you how good it’s gonna be when like its predecessor, it eventually starts clicking on all cylinders.
Some futher perspective on last year’s start v. this year (all stats thru 5/23/10):
-Ruiz was hitting .297, .429 OBP, .835 OPS (by the way, i find it awesome that his BBRef entry lists his name as “Carlos Joaquin Ruiz (Chooch)”)
-Werth was hitting .327, .401, 1.048
-Howard was hitting .292, .351. .837
-Utley was hitting .307, .429, 1.016
-Polanco was .298, .333, .778 (and about to go on a hot streak that crested on 6/13 with .319, .355, .804)
- Jimmy had missed time from 4/12-5/17, and we lost him for another month on 5/21, but as of 5/21, he had been giving us .341, .462, .1096 when in the lineup. His number started to decline quickly when he came back on 6/22.
I dont think i need to remind anyone what our lineup looks like now…
And actually, it was just at this point this year that the wheels started to come off:
-on 5/23, we lost the 2nd of 3 to boston at home, then went up to NYC & got swept in 3 at the new Shea.
-Bucked up briefly by taking 2 of three at FLA, the lost the division lead on 5/31 at ATL, and went on to get swept in the series as well. It would be some time before we regained the lead.
-We played .500 ball through June, and bottomed out at 7 games back from 7/20-7/22 (during a series where we dropped 3 of 4 at STL).
-We then mounted a steady comeback & regained the lead on 9/7, during homestand where we took 3 of 4 from FLA and 2 of 3 from MIL.
-We shared the lead for one day after that, then remained in sole possesion for the rest of the year. We never dropped below .500 ball on the season.
We played .500 ball through June, and bottomed out at 7 games back from 7/20-7/22 (during a series where we dropped 3 of 4 at STL). >>
That Cardinal series was thee bottom. We lost the first 3, and Cole pitched a strong contender for game of his life. It was 300 degrees in the shade, and he struck out 5 in a row early in the game.
Tought matchup, too, with then healthy Adam Wainright shutting us down for 6 innings before TLR decided he’d had enough f the heat. Scoreless into about the 11th inning, we pushed 2 runs across to salvage a game. Measuring now versus then is good, but my feeling is the real comp is what we do versus that recovery that saw a close of 97 wins. My contention is it will be right up there, and better because of a better roster this year. With Chase back, and DB likely to play well, Cliff completely on track by then, watch out.
I don’t really have a contention because I try not to get caught up in making predictions or setting expectations, at least not beyond the series at hand. But I will say this: Last year’s April – May offensive explosion produced 2 fewer wins than this season’s offensive implosion so far. As long as our pitching stays healthy, we should be in good shape.
People wonder about Jose Bautista’s ascent to best player in the game levels. Forget the fact that it’s off such suddenness and out of nowhere hiding. Maybe his greatest accomplishment is passing the straw that stirs the drink in the Natti these days, one Joey Votto.
A rightful MVP winner a year ago, no small achievement with the likes of Albert Pujols still in the League, there might have been some degree of legitimate question as to whether Joey could offer as effective an encore.
This guy might be Canada’s best product since Fergie Jenkins.
Some highlights of his encore year results so far.
The guy bats lefthanded. Bseball history tells us lefties don’t hit lefties. Please tell Votto that. He’s got a .513 OBP against southpaws. That’sn 17-36 batting. His 1.207 OPS is amazing in that it’s with 0 homers against the lefties.
You’d never know the Phillies are hitting at all, of course, but if you looked twice, you’d see they are hitting better at home than the road, or at least were last time I checked the digits. Normal enough, right? Not Joey Votto. Start with an ultra impressive .343 road success ratio. Comp that to a healthy .323 home effort. A road OPS of .150 higher, as in 1.07 to .920.
And as you’d expect, one of the great matchups of current day baseball, Cliff Lee versus Joey Votto for Thursday afternoon will cut Cliff no slack. Votto’s day numbers ara even as dominant and more so. .360 to .306 batting average, and 4 of his 5 homers in the daylight.
The good news is that April treated him better than May. He’s averaging .273 and OPSing at .764. His first base counterpart is at .178 and .647.
He’s 13-26 on first pitches. Tbhis will be 1 way to judge Vance Worley tomorrow night. Another early count success story Ike Davis faced Worley several weeks back. Worley threw unhittable pitches early in the count, and Davis could only smack foul balls. David Herndon, on the other hand threw a hittable pitch, and Davis smacked it. How Vance handles Votto early will tell you a lot about his success liklihood.
He’s 15-36 with RISP, and if you think leading off an inning is a break, it is, but only because cain’t nobody be driven in. 12 hits and 34 at bats in such a situations is still problematic.
Cliff Lee thinks Josh Hamilton is the best player in baseball. Hopefully, he still feels that way come Thirsday night.
Every time I watch yet another Phillie flail a yet another pitch in the dirt, usually for strike 3, and often after having watched strikes one and two go right down the pike, I am reminded of your comments about Bautista’s ability to know the strike zone and to draw walks. Without looking, I’d bet Votto has a similar ability.
Last year, Votto walked 91 times and struck out 125 times.
This year, he’s walked 37 times, and struck out 29.
So we could say last year was pretty darn good, and this year is showing a marked improvement off that pretty darned good.
Here’s something that might seem ridiculous. And it probably is in that every player in the bigs goes through this.
But this doesn’t even date back to 2008, when we crossed an already high barrier to win a title.
But in the past year or so (comparin011 rosters, Chooch is a dad for the first time, same for Shane. Howard is now engaged, even though he was dating her for like 3-4 years now, or some lengthy period. Jimmy’s now a married man. Cole’s situation is even worse. Remember the time when Caleb Hamels was born, and how there was talk of preoccupation. Now, that kid is old enough to have dragged Ma and Pa Hamels through the ultimate test of parenthood, where parents make the fatal mistake of teaching their kids to walk and talk. I mean every team has players going through all this, and you could suggest players maybe settle down, but at the end of the day, it would seem more likely that the family additions would decrease work habits, and performance as a result.
It’s probably a very overplayed thought, but it could well carry some validity to it.
Tonight’s lineup- Rollins, Utley, polanco, Howard, Ibanez, Chooch, Brown, Mayberry, Hamels>>
Looks like 2nd in the lineup is the property of welcome back guys. Charlie looks to have priorited the righty-lefty avoidance of cluster. Chooch 6th is real interesting in doing so.
I’d have rather won the game yesterday, but did feel a sense of relief at least that Madson wasn’t used. He said he felt fine, and no dount would have done well because he’s Ryan madson, but a day off was okay. Had the situation developed, it would have been cool to see how Stutes did, but that wasn’t gonna happen.
That possibility is further remote after tonight. The Big Truck has another rehab scheduled, and they say that if all goes well, he’s on his way to the big club. So we’ll have even more bullpen depth, and with Lidge saying he could be back in as little as 3 weeks, we’ll at least have depth, with the possibility of quality depth prevailing.
RAJ said he thinks Chase will play more than people expect. The way I figure it, and I am a novice at this meidcal guessing game, the concern isn’t the knee. Chase’s had this tendonitis before, but to my awareness, it’s not been medically treated. I figure he’s got exercise and conditioning advice in his hip pocket for the knee now, and that lessens recurrence. But who knows about his body as a whole.
The way the Joe Blanton situation is evoving finally makes sense. He’s not gonna throw for about 2-3 weeks. Good. Give it rest. The well known Dr. James Andrews will offer a 2nd opinion on Wednesday. You’d have to think the 5th starter gig is the Vanimal’s for the taking. If for some reason he doesn’t continue his success, at least there’s some depth there with Kendrick. Unlike last year, at least the ball figures to be in Vance’s court this time. Kendrick’s usually a nightmare waiting to happen, but this role he’s had ranging from contender for the 7th inning to spot starter’s pretty tough, and if Worley comes up short, which I don’t expect, Kendrick at least deserves another shot at it. We’ll see if Dr. Andrews thinks rest is the cure. In the meantime, say what you want about the Ibanez contract, but the Blanton signing is gaining momo for RAJ’s worse signing.
One signing that kinda slipped under the radar was this Scott Posednik deal, on a minor league contract. It’s probably a dream to think he could ever resemble a key component to the 2005 ChiSox that he was, but the guy’s done some good things in the majors, and if he could recapture health, it’s some low risk affordable depth.
The Reds are having major problems of late, and most of it is due to poor pitching. They have no real ace starting pitcher, and the pen misses Chapman who is on the DL.
As for Votto, he has some nice numbers average-wise and also OBP, but he does not have good power numbers. He hit his first HR since April 27 yesterday, and has only 6 for the year. Rolen has been hurt, an still isn’t batting clean up since coming back recently.
Cincy is also 0-8 in Philly, and maybe shell shocked from being swept by the Indians where they blew some leads. This is a good time to face them.
When you boys, girls and its signed up as Phillies fans way back when, you agreed to watch this club from a fan’s perspective. I don’t know if you ever took the time to flip through other parts of the employee handbook, but if you look far enough, you will find that Mr. Amaro’s job description entails watching from a different perspective.
The vision of tomorrow.
Here we sit, amidst the background of recovering health, a first place standing, a once every 6 or 700 years pitching staff. Mr. Amaro sits there amidst a staff of expiring contracts, and contemplates who to sign, and with who to do an exit interview
That particular roster includes Jimmy Rollins, who we’ve all expressed guesses and opinions on what is the correct course of action. Kid Cole, who’s next contract doesn’t seem particularly controversial within a certain framework. He, above all, seems the one you have to sign. And then there’s Ryan Madson.
Rare is the free agent to be that Mr. Amaro hasn’t said we’ll handle it internally, and quietly. So to think that something is brewing internally amidst this fun year would be reasonable.
The question is, if it’s Madson that the Phils are strategizing on, or maybe even negotiating with, what is the money, and years you offer him. Is he a must sign?
Frankly, I wouldn’t know where to begin with that guy. But maybe one of the guys girls or its on board has an idea.
here’s an interview with the greatest human being that ever lived.
http://www.thefightins.com/chris/mike-sweeney-talks-philly-hugs-and-baseball-but-mainly-hugs/
Another one drunk on emotion. All that for 26 games, .231 BA and a .385 SLG? I’ll take So Taguchi for his quieter style.
from a production standpoint, i think it was Tadihito Iguchi who probably did the best job for us as a fill in in recent years (pretty sure that was when Utley got his carpal bones broken by a John Lannan fastball). But its never a bad thing to have a guy like Sweeney in your clubhouse. Tough to measure “clubhouse contributions” but we defintely needed a morale boost at that point & he gave us one.
Might have asked the question rhetorically, but yeah, all that for coming across as a hard working productive player for a long time, and appreciating at least some post season exposure last year. All that for his spirited, highly entertaining post game interview when as always, Brad Lidge got the save. All that for being ther hug king from Planet Affection. The guy was awesome, and hopefully stays connected with the Phils down the road. A brief, but compelling tenure. Thrilled he came our way.
Forget Jim Thome and Cliff Lee, the most beneficial FA signing by Phillies in the Post-Frego Era has been Citizensbank Ballpark, an unassuming talent who doesn’t know the meaning of the term ‘slump’ and who carries many a red-pinstriped teammate on his broad All-American shoulders. A truly remarkable chips-down player. Appears to be made of brick. Don’t know where the Phillies would be without him, most likely the second division. Fans can thank his cousin, Camden Yards, for steering him to Philadelphia.
I’m having some trouble of late sorting out what’s good writing, and what’s not based on standards of time, I guess. This, to me, is really good stuff, but I have a hard time thinking anyone would write this way anymore. Is that my imagination, or have I become so swamped in the likes of rumors, stats and the like that I just miss it.
I mean obviously, the old time writers still would write this way, but I’m talking about the whatever word applies to current generation. And maybe I am more than completely overanalyzing this.
Here’s some insignificant stuff on Phils-Reds tonight. Must say, it beats reading Phils haven’t scored so few runs since xxxx and all that tiring stuff.
Dateline, Philadelphia, June, 2009. Monday-Thursday 4 game set at the Bank. How do you define explosion? Last night’s 10 run thumping? Ha! That time, we scored 22 runs, thumped the Reds 22-1 in the Monday nighter. Johnny Cueto pitched. Didn’t last an inning, end of 1, 10-0, Phils. Greg Dobbs had 3 hits that night.
Next night, Reds won, 4-3. Think it was a split, or we won 3 of 4.
Totally psyched to see how the Vanimal does tonight.
Way to get out of the jam in the 2nd. Nice.
I feel another blowout is coming, but the pen will be key.
Chooch looks like he’s finding his stroke again. When he was at his best over the last couple years, he was just taking what the defense was giving him & putting the ball where it needed to be. Big spot for brown here.
That’s a good learning experience tonight on a couple fronts. Ryan Madson, failing for the first time in a long, long time to do his job gets a reminder of how terrific his success run was, and that ya gotta just forget about tonight. Vance at least experiences some degree of non success, and learns from it. We’ll get em tomorrow. Travis pitched great last year at the Bank, but I’d guess that was some of that first time stuff.
Not a bad job by Worley to get out of a couple tight spots & limit the damage while dealing with a tighter strike zone than he’s had before, and a few not-too-well-hit balls that happened to find the outfield grass. Tough one for madson (especially the overthrow – he should have held that ball), but great to see Stutes & Bastardo have success with opportunities in big spots in the 7th & 8th.
While it could’ve been construed as requisite poise/confidence, I didn’t appreciate young Worley smilin’ after a couple early ”parachute” hits … a little too casual. Overall, poor command; was just okay. I know it was humid, but how can a 23 yr-old be gassed by the 5th inning (as he told Bystrom post-game)? If so, he’s a little out of shape, don’t care when he last pitched or in what role he was used.
Juan Samuel is no George Myatt or Dave Bristol or Vuke or Bowa.
Worley attributed his fatigue to only having thrown 2 bullpen sessions last week. I didn’t think that was it. I thought condensing 90 plus pitches into 5 innings was a principle factor.
Lot of pitches in a little time, yeah. Plus keeping him in the own for a couple weeks probably took him outo his conditioning a bit.
What can you do but smile, tip your hat , & move on if a team kees getting cheapies? I’d rather that than a younger hamels pout session. His control wasn’t as sharp as i’ve seen before, but he got none of the close ones either. The question is whether this is what he looks like on a bad day (if so, I’ll take it) or if this is what he looks like most of the time.
Correction – “keeping him in the pen”. Not sure where the “own” came from.
Carlos Quentin is 5th player to hit 3 HR in a game in last 13 days, most in a single month since July 2004.>>
Pretty interesting that this should coincide with the even further pronouncement that pitching is back as the season moves forward. Giambi, by the way, has continued his long ball ways. I believe the number is now 5 in his last 12 games, but it’s maybe slightly exaggerated to say he’s continued, because after his 3 pack here, he homered the next night afainst the Crew.
Life.com is releasing 18 new photos of Willie Mays to celebrate the 60th (wow) anniversary of his MLB debut.
http://www.life.com/gallery/60701/never-seen-photos-willie-mays#index/0
Pre-mortem: I don’t suppose many would argue that we’ve haven’t seen the best of Chase Utley.
When comparing Utley’s ‘high tide’ 5-yr block of batter’s box clout (’05-’09, ages 26-30) with HOFer Ryne Sandberg’s best 5-yr stretch (’88-’92, ages 28-32), Chase comes out on top:
AVG CU .301 RS .291
R 110.6 100.2
HR 29.2 28.2
RBI 101.4 86.4
OBP .388 .356
SLG .535 .494
OPS .923 .851
OPS+ 135 132
It’s no wonder fans Philly love #26. With a bat in his hands, he’s been great – that simple.
Ryne, the smoother/better fielder though – 8th all-time to Utley’s current 70th standing among 2nd basemen.
Sandberg’s overall body of work is more than double that of Chase’s, duration being one of the keys to the Cooperstown club.
Neither are destined to be talk show hosts, at least on this plane of existence.
I’d be curious to see how Sandberg and Joe Morgan would reply to the question of Chase Utley as a Hall candidate. I suspect both would respond affirmatively.
Ryno’s last good year was at age 33. Age 35 was the year he took off, and then was a fraction of his former self in 96 and 97.
Ryno’s road OPS was a little lower than I’d have guessed. .738.
Those extended periods of domincance seem to carry some good weight in a guy’s candidacy. It’s be nice if Chase at least closes out his career with some level of excellence after what he’s been through, and it would be helpful to his chances, but the best is definitely in the books.
Might be a little quick to short sell the talk show prospects. Duane Thomas actually hosted a talk show in Los Angeles for a period of time. Wonders never cease.
Its a shame about the broken hand a couple years back. As I recall, he was in the midst of a career year, and in the MVP conversation.
last statement above: ^ not
Travis Wood seems to typify what’s going on with Reds pitching these days. Particularly last year, this was a rotation of depth, and half decent quality, even though there was the absence of ace level consistency. Since his terrific 8 inning perfect performance against us last year, the resumes filled out, and it shows potential, but work in progress results. He doesn’t walk many, so patience might not be as productive as normally against a young pitcher. He can throw good games, but about 3-4 poor starts have resulted in an inviting 5 plus ERA. It’s kind of like their staff as a whole, you might get a good result, you might not. Nor does he seem particularly more effective against lefties than righties, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Howard, Utley or Ibanez see the ball pretty well. I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to bench Brown with this lefty, but I assume he won’t play.
This is an interesting time for the Reds. As if the Halladay, Lee 1-2 isn’t troublesome enough, they have Hudson, Hanson and Lowe the 3 after that. Tough stuff for a club just off a 6 game slide. They keep playing good competition after the Braves as well, with the likes of the Yanks and Rays coming up. So for whatever this angle’s worth, they’d do well to get out of Dodge with a split in these last 2.
Looks to me like we have a pretty good shot at winning tonight. Doc is Doc, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Madson get back out there and bury last night fast.
The Sphinx’s opening show guests: ventriliquist Tex Schramm, televangelist Tom Landry, tell-all author Pete Gent, comedian/country singer Don Meredith, rodeo star Walt Garrison, U.S. Olympian & human cannonball Bob Hayes, Cotton Bowl star & Viet Nam War veteran Roger Staubach, commercial pitchman Craig Morton, versatile dancer Preston Pearson, heavyweight boxer Ed “Too Tall” Jones.
*Didn’t know that. That he hosted a gabfest is high irony. Funny.
_____
Utley HOF question: Sandberg, probably ‘yes’ & succint. Morgan, definitely ‘maybe’ & protracted.
It’s really true that Thomas hosted a 2 way talk show, and judging by your first show guess list, it’s reasonable that you’d have thought it was in Dallas, but it was actually in Los Angeles. I think I listened once, and was shocked that he sounded so articulate (so long ago, don’t remember, just vaguely recall the reaction). Evidently wasn’t enough to guess at his speaking ability, but boy, Brookie was soooo nervous asking that question. Pretty long winded question, as I recall, maybe a sign of the nervousness. Anyway, it was a station that carried Thomas similar to WDAS, not a major talker, as you might guess. Clueless on how long it lasted, or his next or current whereabouts. One helluva running back.
Brown is getting the night off. No surprise, haven’t picked up on comments on the reason Chase is out, but I like the move. I’d think most would have thought he’d be off tomorrow, but one must remember, he wasn’t playing 9 innings a lot in Florida. Guessing it’s a conditioning thing more than knee trouble. Seems pretty smart to me. Won’t miss Gload tonight as a result with Chase, I assume healthy ready to bat as a PH.
Yo Pete,
How much would I be pushing it if I said I’d like to see this guy in the HOF?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/olivato01.shtml
Wonder how Halladay the hitter would do against Halladay the pitcher.
M-I-S-M-A-T-C-H
T1 – Fairly high pitch count, but massively excellent command. 11 strikes on 18 pitches, and the sense from the pitch tracker was that he was setting people up with balls. Nothing even close to waist high against Votto.
Course the whole focus historically tonight is last year’s playoff no-no. And that’s not wrong, maybe tired. But if I’m in Doc’s shoes and I’m distracted by history, which he doesn’t seem to have room for in his focussed mind, after the Bennie bang, I’m thinking back to the 3-0 lead I relinquished against this Reds team last year, and defying that possibility of recurring.
One of the Reds supposed problems has been an inability, or refusal to play small ball. Course the same type of people that those views have come from are the equal to those following the Phils, the fans and media. I dunno, maybe it’s not so easy sometimes, but the Reds have had runners on each of the first 2, and couldn’t get it done. They at least tried in T1, Phillips stole. But Lewis doesn’t steal, Bruce runs them out of an inning. Gotta get what you can off the Doctor.
how ya like them apples. Same bottom of the lineup that more than sucked for more than a long time just produced a run!
Time for tonight’s Pepsi (PEPSICO-NYSE, I think) trivia ? since I don’t think it’s very good. 4 players born in the state of Hawaii have played in the MLB all-star game. Can you name them starting with Shane Victorino, Ron Darling, and Sid Fernandez.
First correct answer wins a round in the batting cages against Kyle Kendrick (NYSE-YUCK), which oughta be good for any ego shortages the winner might face.
Well, let’s see. Danno and Chin Ho were all stars, but never played in the MLB all star game. That hot Hawaiin body in the open should have played in any all star game. So I’ll guess Charlie Hough.
Is that your FINAL answer, or do you maybe wanna say Benny Agbayani?
Talking to yourself is normal… It’s when you get answers that you have to start to worry…
I only gave 1 answer. It hasn’t been a lengthy conversation. After I gave the answer I was asked if I was sure that was my final answer. And I didn’t reply. So it might be a source of worry in that I replied once, but let’s not overreact until the discussion concludes. I mean there’s worry, and then there’s WORRY!
I goitta dime in hand, so it might get lost in the coin flip, being such a thin coin and all, but the flip result will determine the FINAL answer…..
and it is…..
Hough.
From the ever popular Jerry Crasnick..
<<Very half-hearted booing at CBP for Scott Rolen. #Phillies fans have become much too festive and upbeat with the team’s success.>>
That act got old the first time it happened. How many more years is that gonna happen at all. The dude ain’t JD Drew.
Have to give Wheels credit for his pre game comment about Wood running grounders out hard. He really challenedged Jimmy there. The Reds no doubt keep working hard, but they gotta feel so frustrated. Good time to hold a sign up in front of their dugout “CLIFF TOMORROW.” Psyche those boys out.
Wilson Valdez owes Mayberry more than dinner. More like real estate after that take out slide. Saved him his 212th GIDP of the young season.
Terrific small ball by Big John.
I wanna see Jimmy walk, and Bennie go deep. That’d be so totally cool.
I’m not stupid enough to say it’s the most exciting thing in baseball, but watching a guy work his way back from 0-2 like Jimmy did and at least make a solid connection is maybe when you realize you’re more than a beginning or casual fan. Nuances of the game are cool to see. Like DB working a walk off the 0-2 the other night, or Chooch, who’s so good at fighting off 0-2. Good at bat by JRoll which keeps the psyche positive. I guess WAR doesn’t measure that, but it’s pretty cool.
Cool, Dr. Andrews passed on surgery for Blanton. That’s good news for Joe, and hopefully at least a few weeks for Vance can show he can do for real.
I’d have figured Edgar would have seen more of Doc having played some in the AL, but just 11 AB before tonight. 4 hits. But Doc has him eating out of his hand tonight.
If we lose this game, I don’t care how it happens, this is the inning we lost it in. Helluva job by Wood if he finishes it, but yougotta get a run off a leadoff triple. Huge, huge inning.
Phillies rarely score after the third or fourth inning no matter who the opposing pitcher. This is gonna be a tough one.
I dunno, thqat inning is just killing me. But Utley and Brown are available, so I assume Valdez won’t bat again. Maybe Martinez would play 2nd.
Plain and simple, just have to get the mo mo back after 2 really sad half innings back to back. Wonder if Dusty will even try to get to Wood’s at bat next half inning.
As my dad used to say, “this team is looking very loserish right now”.
Just an observation.
I don’t know who I’d lead off the 9th with. Problem is you could burn 2 pinch hitters here right away. But I’d hate to see Valdez lead ff. If you use Chae or DB, and they get on, bat Martinez and have them bunt.
Pretty winnable right here. Just gotta get the first guy on by hook or crook.
scratch, forgot Mayberry
couldn’t ask for a much better setup. Even if Chase doesn’t get it done, Jimmy is good insurance.
they have to walk him. Against DB or Bennie, its a better matchup.
better odds for them, but this still is not favorable. And if Dom doesn’t get it done here, he will a month from now.
that’s alright. Let’s see them get through Polly. They do that, they earn an extra inning. This is still a tough game for the Reds.
boo
that still doesn’t bother me as much as that 6th inning fiasco. Gotta regroup here, play some defense.
Still have bastardo, but we might need to use one of the garbage guys and pray at some point..
Bruce is incredibly hot. That was probably the game.
Very curious to see who Dusty uses B10. Has to go lefty against RyHo and raul. Real interested to see if he uses Cordero, and more so, how he does.
we were lucky to be in this game. As Pete alluded to, the character of this team is to cruise and then turn it on in August. 50-48 on Aug 1 and 4 games out – here we come.
excellent KK. With a K, no less. Stopped the bleeding, and now with Cordero, we test him on his 3rd outing in 4 nights. Definitely have a shot here.
That is just outstanding. Hang, hang, hang, and make it happen. Championship calibre demonstration.’
Now get a lead.
Boom
Such a shame we had to waste Chase and DB earlier. Gotta do what ya gotta do. Maybe John sends us home.
I guess ya have to give KK the next inning, but ya gotta use JC against Votto, and then bring in herndon.
Bet your life Contreras sees time tomorrow, unless Cliff is better against this strong lineup than is fair to expect.
You won’t get two better reactions to that homer than Codero “uh-oh” almost before Ryan swung and the second basemen out in short right who never budges, doesn’t even look behind him. I love that stuff.
What a time to turn into a strikeout pitcher. HUGE!
that really hurst because you have to use Herndon this inning now. But it beats the heck out of Stubbs and Brandon getting on. Not that JC against Votto is a gimme, but it’s a better matchup.
Brandon, at the very least is distracting JC. But while Rolen could certainly go deep, Herndon against him has DP possibilities.
I don’t see this matchup working, but you never know.
What’s the over under on how many guys Romero walks before charlie takes him out?
Nice. Pulled a “werth”
can’t throw a strike for the sake of it, has to be meaningful
this Ramon Hernandez is no piece of cake. So we’ll see if herndon can throw strikes, and just take what develops.
It’s a good spot for Herndon to show his minor league stint was productive. If he doesn’t, it might be a while until he gets another chance.
stay tough now, no letup
think about what a tough, tough spot David Herndon comes into, and did he do the job, or did he do the job. Both clubs are running out of players, so there’s no advantage there, but this is now a sprint to end the game fast, and the last at bat is huge, because even if Cinncy scores, they gotta protect, and that won’t be easy.
that’s a helluva bunt by Martinez. No fault on him. Cordero shouldn’t have more than 15 pitches left, so running counts now would help.
Cordero, 23 pitches, and 3 outings in 4 days
are we having fun yet?
Free baseball as Skip Carey used to say, until b.ski came along and said Skip Carey used to say that, so now it’s proper to say free baseball as b.ski says.
I cannot wait to see if Charlie uses Baez before he uses Oswalt.
All I can say is Kendrick and Herndon have done wonderful work tonight. Kendrick gets a pass for hitting Phillips. had him at 2 strikes, after K’ing 2. Herndon, fine. Will Charlie be forced to use the 3rd leg of the reputed worst pitchers in baseball history? A run here would be something.
the Dbacks are now in 2nd place, and the Rox 24-24. Nice work by Gibson and company.
alright, here we go, Joey Votto to cap off a terrific performance.
way too easy an inning going on here, even though Dusty still has I think 2 guys left in his pen
Well, push to shove, there are just no other options here. I hate thinking in defeatist terms, and I’m sure a loss would sting, but we’ve given em a helluva run after we lost control of the game.
The absolute best I have ever seen from Hernden! The “offense” however…. And HERE’Ssssssss Danny
have to respect Herndon’s 7 Ks in 8 innings on his trip down or vice versa as a sign he had straightened out a mchanical flaw. See if there’s any consistency to tonight, but a great job.
Agreed!
I tell ya what, Howard is not a great defender, but the next time somebody criticizes his defense, consider the question have you ever seen him scoop on the table. Man can pick em.
Howard’s D has improved a lot over the last years. Not that he’s in the running for a gold glove or anything, but he carries his own weight and occasionally comes up with a good play. Had a few just in this series.
Kendrick, Herndon and Baez have outpitshed Halladay tonight. This was fully xpected nd no surprise at all.
DANYIS!
Just saw some updated Vegas odds. 3-1 the game ends before Wal Mart closes.
Play the underdog side, if you ask me.
I am not too familiar with who the Reds have left or who they are going to trot out here (or later if it comes to that), but win or lose this, the pen has been outstanding
they are out of position players and have 1 reliever left.
I think. Don’t quote me on it, but pretty sure.
Reds still have LeCure, Maloney.
Both are pitchers, I think.
this game is an example of another record that will never be broken. Brooklyn and Boston played 26 innings, tied at 1. With today’s bullpen usage, you cannot possibly play that many innings, even though Clearwater almost did 2 nights ago or so (23 innings). We’re out of pitchers in the 14th, so how could it go 26? Impossible.
It’s almost as if they don’t think it is worth exhausting the team to continue past the 13th or 14th .Better to lose than extend the game and possibly hurt the team in the near future. Seems that way to me anyway.
I remember watching a Cardinals game (was it last year?) when TLR had his left fielder pitching the 15th and 16th (as I recall when he lost. )
yeah, you weigh that against things like the potential importance of 1 game in the standings. No easy answer to it.
Prior to tonight’s bullpen effort, the world record for miracles in a day was the last time octuplets were born.
Realistically, how much longer can baez be effective, considering stamina. Maybe 2 more innings?
And of course just by working counts here, the Reds push baez’s arm to the diminishing poibnt of return in a battle of attrition.
It’s gonna take a lot of help from the Reds to win this game if we don’t score here. Something like them taking a lead, and then giving it away. Hopefully, this is it right here. I make it sound so simple, but you just never know, but that sure seems logical.
RyHo with as really terrific at bat there. Cmon Raul.
Baez against Votto coming up is about the 7th or 8th biggest at bat of the game chapter.
Boy, oh boy. And we’re just gettin started
I’l tell you a scenario where one of the club’s might have sacrificed this game which we discussed about 15 minutes ago. If it was getaway day, but Dusty’s attitude is hey, we’re just goin back to the hotel, and Charlie’s just thinking the longer we play, the less I have to talk to the press.
I promise not to say anything nasty about Baez for a couple of weeks. A TRULY outstanding effort!
Ditto Hernden and KK.
high risk, putting that in writing.
I’ll make it a month. Promise.
Agreed.
Wilson did crank 4 homers last year, including a DN home run payoff blast.
Well, now Baez at least has the advantage of not facing the heart of the order. Match that against the pitch count, and it’s prbably a wash, maybe slight edge to the Reds.
Wheels, going bilingual on the color commentary.
I’m on the video feed, and I’m not real big on listening to a 7 second delay, but I can only imagine what the Franzke-LA broadcast must sound like. I figure some of LA’s best work in life is done after 1 AM, so the longer we play, the more entertaining LA should be.
Lets play some more hardball!
So tomorrow, Baez and Stutes are definitely unavailable, and Herndon. Probably Madson. Kendrick could pitch, and Jose will be back. Homer Bailey should be hittable if the offense can open it’s eyes, but we might still need some pen help to wrap it.
Couple weeks ago, Angels and Red Sox played real deep into the night, and then a day game. Angels were on the road and reacted to the short turnaround much better. Just seems like a road team has an edge on a short turnaround like this will be since they can prolly concentrate on the task at hand by having no ditractions when they get home. Then again, the late hour might be prime time for the groupies.
Mc and Wheels’ contention about the equality of great pitching from the two pens is not quite accurate. The Phillies pen has done a much more remarkable job in shutting down a truly excellent offense, whereas the Reds have had to blank one of the worst offenses to play the game in a long, long time.
pretty fair comment. But between RyHo, Raul, and Polly, the former 2 of whom have had big hits tonight, the Reds have really controlled them.
Starting to gain confidence in a prediction I made in the 14th. The NFL strike will be over by game’s end.
Damn Baez might be losing it….
have you watched the whole game jurnee?
yep
Maybe the Reds walk Baez intentionally and force him to run the bases. Nothing else is working.
Man am I going to be tired tomorrow.
What a job by Baez. Wow. Too bad our hitters can’t do anything.
Tomorrow’s only the 6th of 20 games in 20 days. Long road.
Unreal, Baez at 73 pitches.
It would have to be Oswalt. I assume Cliff went home already, and that’d be nuts anyway. Unless Dane slams one.
I’m thinking if we get to the 22nd inning, jjg will pitch. That could be interesting.
Valdez is one helluva player once you get to the 14th inning. We just need to be patient with him.
they just said on ESPN broadcast that Valdez will pitch 19th, against Votto, Rolen, and Bruce…this could be it….
we all thought this could be it many innings ago.
You are smack dab in the middle of baseball lore.
cmon Mike, be a hitter now
Matt Gelb just tweeted that Chooch will play 3rd….
he also tweeted that Dom Brown was a pitcher in high school and apparently Valdez has never pitched before…not sure about this….
Wow. This should be interesting ‘).
I cant believe how many pitchers the reds have on their roster. This is definitely a game of attrition
Looks like Charlie is pretty much throwing in the towel. Many, many kudos to Baez for an amazing effort.
this is both the most ridiculous and exciting inning in club history.
+1
damn, Wilson is a better pitcher than 2B. Dude can bring it.
Pedro Gomez just said Charlie did not go to Valdez, but Valdez went to Charlie and said he could pitch
damn that was close
So many lifetime passes to guys that were bums a few hours ago.
If Wilson gets 1 more out, the ovation will dwarf Chase the other night.
Lifetime pass for Valdez!
Who pitches next inning (assuming the phils dont score)?
Valdez would go 1 more I’d guess
I’m bored.
kidding aside, I can’t believe we won’t end it here
If we win this, Valdez will have problems paying for his meals in Philly.
Officially in Phils Folklore.
I stopped watching the game after the 10th. Do the reds have numerous pitchers left?
I think they have 1, at most. out of position players
Can we get a WHIP update on Valdez?
I’m worried about him going into the 20th, the scouting report may have been updated.
On the plus side, he has not shown his move to first base yet.
gotta add a comment for this game – i think the phils win it here in the bottom of the 19th
glad to finally have company on that. I’ve said that each of the last 19 innings.
Last time i checked. they used about 6, and had about 9 available (not including 5 starters)
come on phils, i need to start doing my homework
Ok, so the reds have one reliever left
I don’t think they do – otherwise this dude would be out of there. Something HAS to be wrong with that pitcher.
I thought so, but you’d think he’d be in by now.
this game is so over
how about a bunt for the sac fly?
This game is outstanding.
ken, if i’m right, i get a lifetime pass
no, an afterlife pass. lifetime’s already covered.
what do you get a lifetime pass for, being correct when with Ken B proved you wrong? ‘)
If we don’t score, look for Valdez to throw a doubleplay next inning. valdez likes doubleplays.
Dont like that bunt call – takes bat out of Howard’s hands and sets up DP for Raul
Raul: this ends here NOW!
Valdez get some ice on that arm.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wow
wow, that was so awesome, wow wow wow
That pitcher only threw 3 innings throughout may
far as I’m concerned, Valdez grounds into a triple play tomorrow, he’s still my all time hero.
Damn
and I (announcers) thought Sardinha would be the pitcher
joof, just guffaw-ing around with the lifetime pass crack
it was an easy call, after that wilson valdez inning
I was kidding too, Zack
Wilson Valdez is hereby absolved of all GIDP’s hereto. In nomini patri, fili, et spiritu sacti.
lost in the drama; Baez.
If anything will endear Danys Baez in the minds of Phils fans, it’ll probably be this performance.
5 strong shut out innings. no cakewalk. pitches were sharp, even by the 16th, he was still doling out the sharp breaking ball and hitting 92/93 on the outside.
For a player that I have grown to rue; Kudos. Season pass from me.
and now, we separate the men from the boys. Giants and Fish offering even more free basbeall as we roll into the top of the 10th.
its nights like these that being a college student in summer school with only online classes is great when your are a baseball fan
semi true. An actual definitioon of a great night is one where baseball is being played.
I just realized the last comment of mine didn’t totally make sense…chalk it up to the late night…..
<<LeCure and Maloney were not available. LeCure tried to get loose and couldn’t>>
Clears up that reds did not have anyone available, and the reason. Like we care now.
Joel Youngblood once got a hit in a day game for the Expos against the Cubs in a day game. Got traded, flew to the Vet, and banged out a single that same night for the Mets.
What we need now is for Ruben to trade Valdez to the Giants, and he can fly out right away, and pich the 20th inning for the G men.
Top 12, 6-6.
Thank you, Mr. Doubleday. You done quite good.
WIlson Valdez > JC Romero
Anyone knows an ant can’t
move a rubber tree plant.
Brain Farts, Bullpen & Horizon Eek Out Win
B9: Nursing a 4-3 lead, Cincinnati closer Francisco Cordero threw a grooved 1-0 fastball to dead fastball hitter, Ryan Howard (who handles off-speed pitches like Carter handled Iran), only to have it climb the concrete stairs beyond the centerfield wall and return to the field of play for an encore. (Arnold Schwarzenegger, an avid Reds fan since his Austrian childhood days, immediately lambasted the reliever with invective from his Ketchum, Idaho kitchen/refuge, saying, like only he and
thousands of imitators can say it, he’s never seen anything so stupid in his entire life.)
T11: Not to be outdone, socialite Brandon Phillips, representing the go-ahead run, prioritizes
butterfly jabber with co-jabberer SS Rollins over careful baserunning, and is resultantly picked off by pirouetting ballerina, J.C. Romero (Vitamin Shoppe bonus cardholder), on a 3-0 count to embryonic walker Scott Rolen. Atta boy, Brandon! There goes your future Queen City mayoral candidacy.
T11-T19: The always dependable relieving quartet of Kendick, Herndon, Baez and Valdez hurl a back-end shutout. The 4-pronged hammer nailed down the win like union roofers about to vacate for a Memorial Day Weekend bash. Was there ever really a doubt? Not from this angle, after daily interim manager Ken Bland pre-announced flamethrower Juice Jaws Gablonski’s 22nd inning assignment, weakening Reds resolve for battle.
admit it; it was fun.
I really like Jimmy Carter and I take offense to that.
Admit it, you submit little.
Go suck a peanut.
There are rumors circulating that today’s Phils game might be cancelled due to lack of interest. But, if the apathy is shoved aside, Charlie lines em up this way.
Martinez, Brown, Utley, Howard, Ibanez, Mayberry, Valdez, Sardinha, Lee
That’s pretty cool that Valdez is in the lineup. A hero’s welcome awaits.
Jose was activated. David Herndon was sent back to Triple A. He did an outstanding job last night. Next time Charlie says he’ll be back soon, I’ll know what he’s talking about.
And for Dusty
Stubbs 8
Phillips 4
Votto 3
Cairo 5
Bruce 9
Heisey 7
Hanigan 2
Janish 6
Bailey 1.
Today is Lifetime Pass Day at the Old Ballpark. After last night’s you’ll recall many details for many years instant classic, a ceremony saluting the passholders would take longer than a Cardinal Dougherty graduation ceremony. This assume of course that they still make Cardinal Dougherty graduation classes as they used to back when I think it was Pope Paul the 6th spent about 20 minutes in office. Actually, Pope Paul the 6th was the high school Hyski used to do record hops at, but wh’s scoring at home anyway. Pope Something or other, and 20 minutes was more like 23 days, but who cares about details in a short story.
While it’s already a lengthier list than previous performances would have allowed for projecting, one more name gets added to the list.
Tom McCarthy. Tom, popular Phillies broadcaster, with the popularity extending as far as the McCarthy family, has this game by game television responsibility of voicing the open to set the stage for the game. Usually, he comes on with this ridiculous oversell mode of enthusiasm that just sounds ridiculously phony. This just in, a lot of times, simple voice inflection might seem more authentic where the circumstances themselves easily tell the story. In his several years of Phillies TV work, and the continued roll of Phillies Golden Age of Baseball, Chapter 2, there have definitely been several instances where it was actually okay to sound orgasmic during the open. Today is such an example. Crank it up, Tommy boy. No degree of excitement could even approach the level of fireupedness that the viewership could feel for today’s production.
never seen so many misguided peeps in my life.
Everyone says if we stay healthy.
Try it’s about staying healthier.
Looks like Buster Posey is out for the year with his bsuetd ankle and damaged knee ligaments in last night’s game with the Fish.
The Battle of Attrition rolls on.
just wanted to chime in on a recent post I read postulating that Chase utley is a hall of famer. I think he would be the first player to get in on the stregth of 3 good-great seasons. Longevity and durability is an imporrtant criteria. Even Sandy Koufax, known as an exception to that rule, had 8-9 great seasons. chase has to put together at least 3 more 290+/20+/90+ to even sniff the hall. seems far-fetched at this point that he will even play one full season (145+ games) for the rest of his career.
known as an exception to that rule, had 8-9 great seasons>>
Math, even at single digit levels is way over your head.
Early impressions…
This game is already over. T2. Cliff is on, and only gonna get stronger. ERA will drop below 3 today if he goes 7 (guesstimate). Figuring on knocking Bailey out by the 6th. Hord’s going deep.
Frankly, I expected to more or less decimate Homer Bailey. Don’t know that I’d go as far as matter of time, but first trip through the lineup, about 5-6 hard hit balls. Have to take that as a good indicator.
here’s a bit of a shocker. Looks like the Texas club should have gone hard after Franzke after all. Not even June yet, and John Rhadigan, who’d never done baseball is out as Rangers TV voice. Iffy choice to begin with, but deserving of a chance.
If Picasso walks anybody today, they should send the guy’s bat to the Hall of Fame. We continue sub 3 bound.
cause we got high hopes, we got high hopes
we got high apple pie in the sky hopes.
here we go. 2-0. this could be it
The Groundhog, off to an impossible to come back from lead for the first time since ages ago will be dropping his ERA to 3.18 when we go to a commercial break after 3.5 innings. That reminds me a little bit of my grade point average back in academic days. A very little bit, but a little bit. At least the .18 part.
Cliff Lee, ours forever more.
I’ll admit i was starting to wonder if Raul was washed up a couple weeks ago, but its looking like he was just being his usual streaky self at this point.
well, lets stop the bleeding at least. Disappointing inning. keep it at 2, and pound some more.
That janish hit broke an 0-21, no less. man. This game can just kill ya sometimes.
I know this is ridiculously nuts, but with posey going down, and de la Rosa the day before, it opesns the door for the Dbacks to at least contend in the NL West. It’s unbelievable that a team with that pitching could do so, but no more so than Ian kennedy being 6-1. He’s a decent enough pitcher, but with him as your ace, it just redefines the word overachiever.
Well, naturally, this game isn’t as over as it felt. I figure Cliff’s probably okay to get through his part, but it’s still annoying to be letting the Reds hang around. Oh well. 4-2 T6
immeasurable frustration.
Today’s unsponsored trivia question is when’s the last time you rooted this hard for a game not to go extra innings, and felt like the future of the world was at stake as early as the bottom of the 6th?
Lee’s pitching…boooo. Lee’s hitting…yehhhhh
no reason to keep Cliff in there now
Looks like today’s game should close us out at 10-10 on this 20 game venture that pitted us against “tougher clubs.” Not too bad. Did’nt get too expensive in ths standings, and seem to be well positioned out of it health wise. Definitely saw some terrific baseball within the time as I can’t rtemember 1 game that we were out of (could have been), Oswalt’s on the way back, Vic will be back, Chase is back. State of the franchise is lookin good.
and Contreras, not to mention valuble experience and contributuions from several guys.
oh boy. oh boy oh boy. Chase with some deep icing. boy, is that great
Any fool votes us anything less than number 1 in next week’s power polls should have their computers revoked. And I can’t wait to see how high the Red Sox are after completing their regrouping.
To me, this 9th for Jose is more than just getting work. Getting hit but feeling good at rehab was okay, but I’d like to see that he is at a point where he can control batters. If not, at least he’ll be a step closer.
I cannot think of one player on the roster that shouldn’t be feeling good about themselves as we head to the Apple. Every guy on the club is contributing. You could get picky and question how much in rare cases, but overall, things are looking really, really good right now. That is a tremendously uplifting feeling.
for all the analysis and breakdown of each of players’ individual slumps and coming-arounds, if you look at the whole body of work, it might just come down to the weather.
a week ago, Phils were sporting miserable team BAs and even more miserable totals on the scoreboard. It warms up suddenly and the Phils bats are magically warm too. Coincidence?
For all his simple talk, I think Manuel gets it when he says; it’s hitting weather.
phillyfan: 10-4 mashfest today; is this brand of baseball better?
jkay – indeed….it is winning baseball.
Wow – Pete nice job on the 10-10.
Gotta really hand it to the Fish. They get news JJ is lost for awhile and what do they do but go out west and sweep the Gints. I have a feeling they will be hanging around all year and wouldn’t be surprised if they steal the division or WC.
Looking ahead to the next series, Phils get to miss RA Dickey AGAIN.
Good call, Pete, on the 10-10. You anticipate Valdez getting the W and Lee knocking in 3 yesterday? Let me know when you are going to Vegas, cause I am in.
10-10 call? 20-1 roll of dice to a blind man in Belarus. And those odds are decreased by baseball’s known 30%-70% performance swing, worst teams to best. Great work though, Pete! Have you considered setting up an advice stand like Lucy of “Peanuts” fame?
Pete strikes me as a very fundamentally good writer. He writes something, it’s pretty clear what he means. When he talked of 10-10 as a goal throughout the whole process, that didn’t sound like a prediction. Perhaps he did, but I’ll add a 3rd dimension to the dialogue that now includes congrats, and big deal because it was no big deal. A lot of adieu about a lot of nothing. A goal is a goal, a prediction is a prediction. As different as Babe Ruth, and Wilson Valdez. Except for 1 time.
I am guessing you picked up on it, but I was saying it tongue-in-cheek. I did not read it as a call as much as a realistic goal at this point in the season. Either way, I was impressed.
I believe you have seniority on me in this part of the universe. So I’d be out of line to tell you the rules. But I will anyway. We/they/whoever doesn’t/don’t/didn’t allow posts that are all toungue in cheek in entirety. Thus, having claimed the 10-10 portion to be toungue in cheek, I can only conclude that you asked Pete if he expected Valdez to become a Cy Young nominee, and Clfton Lee to become an offensive machine with the utmost of sincerity.
And the correct answer to that is we all did.
It’s funny how the schedule has worked out. There’s no such thing as a perfectly defined regular season schedule.Any generalization contains some subjectivity, and sometimes, a club seen one way can look stronger or weaker not too far past that point.
But utilizing generalizations, the first 31 games were what they were, and the competition from the last 20, advertised as strong pretty much lived up to billing.
Lo and behold, here comes another very similar pattern that will take us through June. The next 16 games are against relative softies (banged up Mets, groping Nats (witness the Werth MASN piece this week), curious Pirates, Divorcing Dodgers all for 3 game sets, and then 4 with the Chicubs. A potent field, but not your basic count on tough games contingent. And all are indeed sub .500 clubs, a half decent barometer, not to be confused with good. Then, again using some subjectivity, a string of games against a relative oy vey collection. Four with the Fish, right into 3 at the Mariners (quality eligible with thie 2 excellent starters at the top), 3 in St. Louis, where one assumes the starters will still be holding up, and then 6 home games against the A’s, possessive of excellent starting pitching, and the need I say more Red Sox.
Sure nuff seems to break out pretty consistently with minimal subjectivity applied.
The first 16 include 3 game sets against the Mets, Nats, Bucs and Dodgers. This, as opposed to the latter might be where the record is more important. It’s where separation becomes more feasible. The general level of pitching the Phils will see isn’t going to prove they can hit, or answer most any question, few as they are that exsist with this club. Those questions get answered against the relative big boys in the next phase of the schedule, particularly since finally good health is presumed, and Messers Brown and Utley will have completed the reacquaintanceship portions of the back playing program.You don’t wanna lose groung in that segment. You wanna gain ground in what’s coming next.
How much? Who cares. Just do your part. Win, baby, win. To win 11 of 16, and wrap the segment at 42-24, you have to go 2 of 3 against the Mets, Nats, Bucs and Dodgers. Then you have to clip the Cubs 3 of 4. No small task. On the other hand, if the club plays like it can, and is in blitz mode, they could go 13-3, maybe 14-2. Realistically, considering the difficulty of winning series all the time, even 11-5 might wind up too much. But 10-6 seems extrmely doable. That’d be fairly decent as a minimum good record for the next 16.