I hoped Brett Myers injury would be a signal to the Phillies that things aren’t going to go as swimmingly as last season. It appears that it has, as the team has won 6 straight since the injury and have opened up a 3 1/2 game lead on the Mets (they lost this afternoon already, ha!). The day after the Myers injury, it seemed like we had no one we could count on in our rotation, but in the 6 starts since he’s been out, that rotation has gone 6-0 with a 3.13 ERA and all of a sudden JA Happ and Antonio Bastardo have taken (for the time being) the urgency out of finding another arm for the rotation. Life is good right now, but with the toughest stretch of the season to date coming up (at LAD, at NYM, vs. BOS), we are going to need the momentum to continue.
2009: 31-20
2008: 27-24
2007: 26-25
Player of the Series: Antonio Bastardo (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, first career W)
Goat of the Series: n/a
The Good News
- Bastardo was the news of the series, showing a much better fastball than scouting reports indicated, and dominating the Padres line-up throwing only that. 88 of his 102 pitches were fastballs. Those fastballs had an average velocity of 92.6 mph, hitting 94mph 18 times and 95mph 7 times.
- Despite Bastardo’s dominance, JA Happ actually put up a better performance yesterday, shutting out the Padres for 7 innings. I’m really impressed with his calm on the mound.
- J.C. is back! With Lidge pitching better, Madson dominating, Eyre not giving up any runs, and Condrey taking over Chad Durbin’s role, our bullpen is looking pretty good.
- In addition to the young guys, Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer both made promising starts this week. Blanton’s velocity appears to be up a little and you wonder if he was really ready to go to start the year. After an 8.41 ERA in April, Blanton is 4-1 with a 4.50 ERA since May 1st. Moyer, meanwhile, has put together 3 decent starts, with a 4.00 ERA over that span.
- Howard looks like he might be on the verge of one of his famous hot streaks.
- I want to take a quick look at Raul Ibanez’ current pace vs. his career highs…
So it’s clear that he has the potential to blow his career highs out of the water in pretty much every category. Why is he doing SO well? Here are a couple theories…
- First of all, he’s not going to finish hitting .337 with 60 HR and 165 RBI. He will slow down, and his BABIP (batting average on balls hit in play) is high, inferring he’s had some luck this year so far. He will also be pitched differently as teams see him the 2nd time around.
- First time in his career he’s been in a line-up where the pitcher wasn’t keyed in on him.
- I think he’s legitimately fired-up about playing for a team with the fan support we have. He’s previously played for the Royals and Mariners and hasn’t seen home (and road) support even close to this before.
- Moving to the NL (weaker than AL) and a hitters’ park have helped somewhat. Example of that first item is that 50 of his 202 ABs have come against the Nationals, whose pitching is much, much worse than anything he would have seen in the AL the past couple years (yes, even the Rangers). He has 6 HR and a 1.349 OPS against the Nats.
- He’s hitting .333 against lefties. He hit .305 last year, which was a career high. Either this year and a half have been an outlier, or he’s found something that has made him a better hitter against lefties.
- People will talk (and if he hits 50 HR, who can blame them) about steroids, but I don’t see it with Raul. He doesn’t have the physical signs and his work ethic has always been legendary and like Jim Thome, I really believe him.
The Bad News
- The Braves greatly improved themselves in the last two days by trading for all-star OF Nate McClouth and finally bringing up arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball, Tommy Hanson (1.49 ERA and 90 K in 66.1 IP in AAA). They are not going to fold.
- Rumors abound that we are looking at Tom Glavine and Vicente Padilla, both horrible fits for our team.
- 6 straight wins? I ain’t sayin’ anything bad ’bout nobody.
Series Preview: Phillies at L.A. Dodgers
Coming up is a 4-game series between the teams with the 2 best records in baseball. The Dodgers have been playing very well without Manny in the line-up (15-6 since the suspension) so while I was originally excited he would be suspended for both our match-ups, it doesn’t look like it’s really all that much better. This is the last time we will face the Dodgers all year. Until we whoop them in the NLCS again, of course…
Thursday: Hamels vs. Clayton Kershaw (3-3, 4.34 ERA)
Friday: Moyer vs. Eric Milton (2-0, 3.14 ERA)
Saturday: Blanton vs. Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 2.53 ERA)
Sunday: Bastardo vs. Randy Wolf (3-1, 3.21 ERA)
Three Questions for the Series
- How will Charlie manage the line-up with 3 lefties in 4 days?
- Can the starters keep their momentum going, particularly, how will Bastardo fair on national television in front of a packed Dodger Stadium?
- Will the idiot Dodgers’ fans hold a grudge against the Phils and Shane Victorino after the hoopla during the NLCS last season? Or will they show up too late for the game and mellowed out on valium to care?
Prediction
It’s hard to go for anything other than a 2-2 split considering how both these teams are playing. But when I look at the pitching match-ups, I actually like what I see. We’ve already gotten to Kershaw this year, and Hamels, despite his last start, is still our ace. Eric Milton needs to be brought back to earth and Kuroda is making only his 2nd start after coming back from injury. And in the Sunday game, until I see someone hit Bastardo, I’ve got confidence in him. I say the Phillies take 3 of 4 here and continue their hot streak.
Loading ...
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
some good “we hate the Mets” news….
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So yeah, who needs a trade?
that’s one of the easiest looking shutouts you’ll see…. didn’t even need 100 pitches.
Carrasco continues to turn it around in AAA…
With all the young, promising pitching we have, now is definitely the time to take a patient approach and let everything develop and progress.
By all appearances, if we do that it seems pretty likely that we could be sitting pretty for years to come. If these homegrown guys can continue to fill our rotation (and/or bullpen), they could provide us with a good measure of stability at the most important position in the game(both on the field and financially). This, in turn, can free up resources (read: money) for us to address needs at other positions and keep this run going through our 3-year “window” and quite possibly beyond.
It’s odd to feel this good about the Phils (at least for me). I feel good that we won last year(obviously), that we’ve kept a good group together and are winning this year, and that our farm system looks like they’ve got a good shot at keeping us winning in the near future. Long live “Gillickball”!
In the course of surfing around this morning I came across this on foxsports.com: Ask Ryan Howard Anything
Ryan Howard will be Chris Rose’s guest on the Fox pregame show tomorrow. The link I gave is to a page where you can submit a question for Ryan Howard to Chris Rose via e-mail. I sent one in. Who knows, maybe one of our questions will be selected.
I don’t recall the Phillies having many rainouts so why have they played 4 fewer games than the Dodgers and less games than other teams?
How about this nugget from the LA Times:
“Chan Ho Park was back at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, this time as a member of the Phillies’ bullpen.
Park acknowledged that he was disappointed that the Dodgers made no effort to sign him last winter. He excelled as a middle reliever for them last season, when he was 4-4 with a 3.40 earned-run average in 54 games.
“They didn’t talk to me or anything,” Park said. “I don’t understand why.”
Would he have liked to stay with the Dodgers?
“Why not?” he asked. “This is the most comfortable city for me.”
Part of the reason the Dodgers didn’t pursue Park was that he made clear his desire to start, something he got a chance to do with the Phillies, who signed him to a one-year, $2.5-million deal.
Park was the Phillies’ fifth starter when the season opened but was demoted to the bullpen after posting a 1-1 record with a 7.29 ERA in seven starts. He hasn’t pitched any better out of the bullpen.
“Better than not playing, right?” said Park, who has been sidelined by injuries for much of his career.
Park, who turns 36 years old this month, said that he often ponders his retirement these days but that he intends to pitch until no team offers him work.”
Uh, I have an idea. How about we decline to offer him work, starting now! I’m sorry but I’ve had enough of this guy already. He has done nothing but whine—–and pitch poorly——since he came to us.
We were the only team that would give him a chance to be a starter, right? How many lousy starts did he think he was going to be allowed to make before he lost his spot in the rotation?
Instead of being stand up about the whole thing, thanking the Phils for giving him a shot, admitting that he didn’t do a good job and he understands why he lost the 5th spot, and committing to doing the best job he can out of the pen, he has done nothing but sulk, mope, and complain——oh yeah, and continue to pitch poorly. It’d be one thing if he were an immature young kid, but he’s been in the league what, 15 years? I’d like to see a little more understanding and/or respect for the game and/or personal responsibility from a veteran like him, especially one who is at the tail end of his career.
It’s time to part ways with Park and his piss-poor attitude, IMO. Any way you look at it, he’s bringing nothing to the team. We’ve already lost Koplove but we’ve still got Majewski (if we want to replace Park with a rightie, that is). I’m sure Majewski woul’d be highly motivated and have a great team-oriented attitude if he were called up. I’d much rather that, thank you very much.
“How many lousy starts did he think he was going to be allowed to make before he lost his spot in the rotation?” – well said. We just won the f-ing World Series and this guy thinks we are going to keep parading him out there with 7.00 ERA when he’s perfectly suited for the bullpen (unlike Moyer)
bski-
I would count on one of those promising pitcher prospects to fall flat on his face. It never works out that everyone meets their potential. But we have a lot of options.
meanwhile, we are getting close to a Ryan Howard / Jim Thome situation with Michael Taylor, who is hitting .351 and slugging .615 in AA. Dudes got 10 HR, 40 RBI, 10 2B and 3 3B and only 23 K’s in 174 ABs. He’s even stealing bases (9) at 6′6”, 250. He’s 23, and clearly is ready for AAA. But if they promote him and he keeps it up, what do you do with him? If that happens, wouldn’t surprise me to see Jayson Werth on the market in the winter.
That Seven Game Win Streak is a perfect example of playing defense in Baseball! GO PHILS!!
TRR-
Not for one minute do I think that every one of those promising pitchers will reach his potential, nor that each of them will do it here, Pete. I’m more optimistic in that, with the sheer number of guys we have, we can weather one or two coming up short and still make out well for ourselves.
Having followed this organization through many lean years when the dearth of prospects in the minors made losing even one of them to unfulfilled promise was devastating, I’m liking our current situation a whole lot better. Here’s to hoping that my optimism is rewarded.
As soon as I began to read your last paragraph, bye-bye Jason Werth popped into my head. As I read further, I saw that you are thinking the same thing. He really is the most logical choice to move.
We also need a 4th outfielder. No offense but Dobbs and Bruntlett ain’t cutting it for me and Stairs is limited. At a minimum, Stairs’ contract is up after this year, which should create a spot for a second outfield prospect to come up.
That’s why I’ve been loving Ryan Howard all year, Rob. His markedly improved defense (1/3 through the season with only 1 error) gives us a fantastic infield. Victorino and Werth cover a lot of ground and throw well in the outfield. Ibanez is an upgrade from Burrell. Can’t forget Ruiz, either. Bottom line, our defense has certainly helped to keep us winning while we’ve waited for our starting pitchers to come around
What a tough game. Arguably the best defensive 3rd baseman in the league misplays a routine ground ball. We blow one of Moyer’s best starts of the year. This is a hard one to swallow….
Yeah, that’s a tough one to take all right. Didn’t see the game. I’m just going off what I’ve read this morning, so correct me if I’m off in any of my perceptions.
Lidge, I don’t know. Was he just not sharp? I see that he got the first two guys to start the 9th. Was that luck? Was he battling the whole time? Was he pretty solid and the lost it? Did he just run into some tough luck at the end? Not seeing it, I don’t know whether or not to be concerned. He seemed to be finally getting very close to all the way back, so was this just a blip? I hope.
Everyone is going to blow a play once in a while, so I have a hard time blaming Feliz for the loss, especially when so much more went into it (or maybe it should be looked at like not enough went into getting the win).
Just yesterday I said that we needed a 4th outfielder. It would have been a big help if we did. With his play in the outfield and his non-contributing bat(I know he had 2 hits last night though), I’d say that Eric Bruntlett is in the lead to win the “So Taguchi, useless 26th man, Award” for 2009. Unfortunately for us, Dobbs is also in the running.
This is one reason, second to the fact that I doubt we’d get much from him which makes giving up anything in return a waste, why we should not even consider trading Jason Donald for Brad Penny. I’m thinking that while Donald probably will not/should not replace Feliz at 3rd base next year, he certainly could be a solid replacement for Bruntlett as our utility infielder. Then we can also have an actual 4th outfielder by bringing up one of our prospects. Those two moves should provide a lot more for us than what we are getting from sticking Bruntlett all over the place (Jose Oquendo he ain’t).
I’m reading LOTS of frustration being vented on Jimmy Rollins, and rightly so. He is reminding me more and more of Ron Gant, who also popped up/flied out at least 3 times a game while with the Phils, every day. I realize that Rollins wasn’t alone in leaving men on base—-Ibanez and Howard each left a few—-however he has been doing it pretty much all season. Now it’s to the point where a pinch-hitter, Stairs, is being intentionally walked to get to him. Can’t have that at the top of the lineup. Time for him to be dropped to the bottom of the order for more than just a couple games, IMO.
On the plus side, we got a very good start from Moyer which, since it did not come against the Marlins or the Nationals, means something to me.
Today we need Blanton to continue our string of good starts, we need Victorino to play (and be healthy), and we need Rollins to give us SOMETHING on offense.
bski -
Thanks for the info, Pete. It absolutely kills me that the Phils are blacked out in my area, even on MLB Extra Innings. I have to suffer through big gaps in my tv viewing. I’ll get to see them today on Fox and tomorrow on ESPN, though.
You know, I was just thinking that we could do something about our lack of a 4th outfielder right now. Jack Taschner has not pitched since May 27th. Prior to that, he last appeared in a game on May 20th. Manuel appeared to lose confidence in him a month ago and I doubt he’s going to get anything more than spot mop-up duty, for which we can use Park, now that Romero is back and Eyre is pitching well. Why bother to keep his unused, unproductive spot on the roster? Wouldn’t we be better served by bringing up an outfield prospect? I think so. I mean, defensively there is no question it’s the way to go and even if they’re not up to par offensively(read: not as productive as they’ve been in the minors), I think it would still be an upgrade over what we’re getting from Bruntlett.
just when we thought lidge was turning it around…
Yeah, are you kidding me? Rafael Furcal comes off the bench and knocks a slider out of the park? Don’t give me any of that down and in to a leftie crap either. We’re talking Rafael Furcal hitting a slider for a home run, come on.
Tough to lose a 12-inning game on 3 solo home runs. Blanton pitched well. Madson pitched well. I thought Durbin pitched very well. Durbin was really sharp, except for that 3-2 fastball the Ethier of course. Still, you can’t blame this loss on the pitching.
I’ll give credit to the Dodgers’ pitching, but our bats have to do better. Kuroda, Broxton, and Wade kept us in check. It turned into one of those games where it is only a matter of time before somebody does something. Unfortunately for us, they did something before we did.
Let’s hope Bastardo can baffle them tomorrow, our bats wake up, and we can at least salvage a split.
jjg………Sorry this took so long. We went to the Phils game last Sunday. We got to see Moyer get win #250. Then we went to Caselli’s in Roxborough for dinner. It was very good. We will definitely go back. In fact, we plan on stopping there after our next game on 6/21. I meant to thank you all week but it kept slipping my mind.
bski, You’re quite welcome. Glad to hear you enjoyed Caselli’s, the little restaurant that could. It’s a gem, isn’t it? … great food, friendly atmosphere, reasonable prices. I only hope it never gets too popular. Am happy you & your family enjoyed.
jjg.….Yeah, I was expecting it to be an average local neighborhood restaurant, but I was pleasantly surprised. Nice place, nice menu, great service, great food. In light of the fact that it was nicer than I thought it would be (they were all wearing black pants and white tuxedo shirts and there was a piano player), I actually apologized to our waiter, Joe, because we felt underdressed in t-shirts and shorts, not to mention sweaty from being in the sun all day. No worries, though. They were all very friendly and welcoming. I would much prefer going to a place like that over a chain like an Olive Garden or something. Hope that Caselli’s, and other places just like it, are always around. Thanks again.
The young pitching does look decent for Philly but the question is how will they do at home. The ball park can be intimidating to young pitchers since it is a hitters ballpark. I still think they need to make a trade especially with the Braves making moves.
Love your site and will add a link to mine if you don’t mind.
thanks,
~Matt
OK, got to see Bastardo’s start last night. Comparing what I saw to what I read about his first start, I’d say that his control was better and that he used more offspeed stuff last night than he did on Tuesday. That said, I agree with Manuel, he’s got a ways to go.
Even though his control was better, he kept falling behind hitters. Also, even though he did throw more offspeed pitches, he could have used still more along with better command of them.
There were many times last night where I was looking for/hoping he would throw something offspeed, either because he had the hitter set up for it or because he just had to get away from his fastball. I was very nervous during several at-bats where he just threw one fastball after another and they kept getting fouled off. Sometimes he was able to “get away with it” when some hard hit balls——-deep fly balls, the hot shot that backed Rollins up onto the outfield grass——-were turned into outs by our defense. Sometimes he was not, as he started to give up some hits.
While part of me wants to give Bastardo credit for doing what he has done so far, there is another part of me that wonders how much is due to him and how much is due to the fact that he is an unknown quantity. I say that because the Dodgers hit him better in start #2 than the Padres did in start #1. Also, the Dodgers kept hitting him better each time through the lineup. Bastardo breezed the first time through, gave up a run in the 4th the second time through, and most likely would have given up even more than that the third time through were he left in any longer in the 6th.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m hammering the kid because I’m not. I’m actually encouraged. The Phils know where he’s at and what he will need to do to remain successful in the bigs and seem to have made some progress toward that end already. It will be up to him to develop quicker than the hitters can figure him out.
In the meantime, he’s got the stuff to get over on guys who have never seen him before, at least for a little while, and buy us some time to make a deal for a top of the rotation starter. This is not to mention the experience he is getting now will hopefully accelerate his development and get him ready to become a solid member of our starting rotation in the near future.
Even without Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers have held the top spot in the power rankings for practically the entire season. They have to keep going coz; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB.