Comments on: Bad Pitching Drops Phils To 2-4

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:42:22 +0000

I noticed in reading the posts on the Phillies’ 8-2 loss, there is no mention of the outstanding pitching performance by the Red’s Edinson Volquez.

I give credit where credit is due and “Voltron” (his nickname) was
overpowering with his mid-90′s fastball and that nasty, nasty change-
up with a hard bite that resembles a curve ball (circle change?). he
had 8 K’s in 5.1 innings allowing 1 run.

Manuel was asked about the performance of Volquez and quoted as
saying… “He was throwing all the guys inside hard and getting
strikes,… plus, he was kind of overpowering.”

As for Brett Myers, obviously he hasn’t been sharp in his first two outings of this young season. He threw just 59 strikes of the 95 pitches thrown. He was hurt (2 HRs) with pitches up and over the middle of the plate. Let’s hope that he will have better command and consistent location of his pitches in his next outing.

As for Condrey coming in from the bullpen, well…. no surprise as he reverted to form of the previous season. About the only positive note for yesterday’s game is Lidge making his belated “debut” and pitching effectively in getting all 3 outs in the 9th inning. Oh… and Burrell and Utley continued their hot hitting; both hitting over .400.

What irritates me is the lost opportunities to gain ground on the Mets who have lost two straight (Atlanta’s Smoltz outpitched Santana yesterday). I know it’s early but with the Phillies’ slow start (2-4), I am reminded of a saying; a team can’t win a division in April… however, they can certainly lose it.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:33:13 +0000

Whats really irritating though is that even with a self-imposed 110 million in payroll, you can actually put together a team that can reach and maybe win the world series as long as you dont make bonehead personnel decisions. but too often you need to spend more because of bad contracts (burrell, eaton, helms, thome) and salary inflation.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:22:12 +0000

Thats because the primary goal is to make money, winning is secondary to them and to the owner of th eagles. To not spend 4 mil on lohse for one year is inexcuseable and signifies that they do not want to do what it takes to win world series titlles as long as the stadium is filled. These guys are billionaires, and its insulting when they trot out that lame budget excuse on us to explain why theyre not going to sign lohse or try to get erik bedard and so forth and so on. of course, i feed that by going to the games but who doesnt. the good news is the national league is such that even with this payroll theyll still be in the hunt.

By: bob s.

bob s. — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:51:09 +0000

I STILL CAN NOT GET OVER OUR MANAGEMENT’S POOR DECISION NOT TO SPEND $4.25 M FOR ONE YEAR FOR LOHSE. He has now pitched 12 innings and given up no earned runs.

If they spent the 4M, they would have made that up in the first quarter of the season with the added attendence.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:29:40 +0000

yeah it is. he still looks like hes in bullpen mad man mode, he needs to chill and get the patience going

By: Jake Oger

Jake Oger — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:07:19 +0000

well guys like he said myers is a fastball pitch but he needs some kind of breaking opitch because then they will time it and plus myers is still adjusting to pitched as a starter again once he finds his groove its way to eraly to panic about him

By: benjamin franklin

benjamin franklin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:18:17 +0000

Cy young canidate. that will go along nicely with pat burells MVP award (reference to earlier blogs). The phillies suffered a huge loss, almost comparable to the british loss at the battle of Saratoga

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:23:48 +0000

Myers was chasing the game the whole time, behind in most of the counts. No control, over-reacting to balls and rushing the next pitch which hangs up there and gets ripped into the outfield. Condrey was outright disgraceful. Lidge was very solid and reassuring to watch. Volquez humiliated guys like ruiz and feliz and even struck out howard twice, that guys gonna be a cy young candidate when he settles his own control issues in 2-3 years. He gets a little wild be he can throw good moving heat and good changeups that just killed the phillies today. chase utley is definitely off to a god start though i cant wait to see the type of year hell have statistically. if myers cant resolve his emotional control issues i dont know what you do with him because yo ucant put him in the bullpen again, can you?