Phillies Nation

Chase Utley is the leading All-Star Game vote-getter for the National League with 537,788 votes. That’s more than 100,000 more than the next-highest player, Chipper Jones of the Braves. Utley is third among all Major Leaguers in votes, behind David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox.

The big story of the voting is how much Cubs players are ruling the ballots. They have a position player in every top-five, with leaders at catcher and outfield (two). Travesty alert: Ryan Theriot is beating Jimmy Rollins at shortstop (same kind of travesty as how Mark DeRosa is beating Dan Uggla … and Kaz Matsui is beating both of them, too). Of course, this might have to do with long homestands for both the Cubs and Astros during the first weeks of voting. Hopefully.

Here are the leaders, with how Phillies are faring:

First Base
1. Lance Berkman (HOU) – 329,473
5. Ryan Howard – 140,683

Second Base
1. Chase Utley – 537,788

Third Base
1. Chipper Jones (ATL) – 420,664

Shortstop
1. Hanley Ramirez (FLA) – 268,386
5. Jimmy Rollins – 156,620

Catcher
1. Geovany Soto (CHC) – 343,427

Outfield
1. Alfonso Soriano (CHC) – 352,267
2. Kosuke Fukudome (CHC) – 325,456
3. Ken Griffey Jr. (CIN) – 300,230
6. Pat Burrell – 220,596

Prospect: Lou Marson
Position: Catcher
Birthday: June 26, 1986
Dimensions: 6-1/195 pounds
Level: AA Reading

Marson has been talk of the town lately. So far this season he’s been one of the major keys to the Reading offense:

41 G, 22 R, 2 HR, 31 RBI, 32 BB, 31 K, .345 AVG, .462 OBP, .460 SLG

The second-leading hitter in the Eastern League, Marson finds the bases. He’s been on base 50 percent of the time in May, according to Baseball America’s weekly Ten Pack. The report also says he’s thrown out 39 percent of would-be base stealers. Very impressive.

The right-handed-hitting Marson, a fourth-round draft pick in 2004, has made the standard climb of the ladder, starting at age 18 in the Gulf Coast League and moving each year to a new venue. In Clearwater he finished with a .288 average and .373 OBP. Not bad. This year he has broken out and is starting to project as an everyday catcher along the lines of Mike Lieberthal. Meanwhile, he’s been handling the same big-prospect pitchers (Carlos Carrasco, Josh Outman) for the past few years, and they’ve been consistently good. He seems to have found his all-around game.

Estimation: Marson is probably a full year away from contributing to the Phillies. Looking at the Phils’ situation, Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste are both arbitration eligible after this season. It’s possible one will be here next year, one won’t. If so, it’s likely the Phils would bring Jason Jaramillo up as a backup for a short while, before Marson is ready. Then again, Marson could be ready by Opening Day 2009. No matter what, he should be up for good by midseason ’09.

Judging by the first two innings last night, it seemed possible the Phillies would break a franchise record for runs scored in three games. But the offense cooled as the game progressed; no worries, Kyle Kendrick pitched maybe his best Major League game and the Phils won, 7-4.

Kendrick went a career-high 7.1 innings, giving up just two earned runs on seven hits while striking out five and walking one. And he looked dominant at times, effectively mixing a fastball (topping at 94 at one point) with his changeup and a breaking ball. He induced 10 ground outs and generally kept the Rockies off balance all night.

The offense got to work early, getting their runs by the second inning. It looked like another blowout — Greg Dobbs drove home two with a single, Pedro Feliz drove in two with a double, Chase Utley collected another RBI and continued his consecutive games on-base streak. (Victorino continued his hit streak, as well.) It was all clicking again, and off Ubaldo Jimenez, who had good-looking stuff. The Rockies bullpen was able to shut down the Phils (one hit in four innings).

The Phils bullpen, meanwhile, gave up some runs in garbage time. Tom Gordon, getting his first work in a few days, let an inherited runner score on a two-run Ryan Spilborghs home run. He’s been the only Rockie who’s hit the Phils in this series. Brad Lidge also surrendered a run, but he was up by four and had to deal with the hour-and-a-half rain delay, which probably didn’t need to happen. They could’ve called the game in the eighth.

But the game wasn’t as close as the final score, mainly because Kendrick was dealing. When you get starting pitching like that, you don’t need to score 20 runs.

Pat Burrell was scratched from tonight’s game against the Rockies because of a stiff neck. Harry Kalas reported Burrell is day-to-day.

Yesterday the Phillies scored their most single-game runs in almost a decade. The offense is heating up now, so hopefully they can continue the pain when Ubaldo Jimenez lines up against the good guys tonight. He has fared well in his past three starts, going into the seventh in each. Kyle Kendrick, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched much in the past two weeks (5 IP his last start, a rain-shortened inning and change before that).

Pedro Feliz has raised his average 50 points in a week. Ryan Howard and So Taguchi are the last Phillies to climb over the Mendoza Line, with Taguchi doing so last night with a 3-for-5 effort. Geoff Jenkins returns to the lineup tonight, and Greg Dobbs starts in left field for Pat Burrell, however, as a right-hander takes the hill.

Phillies: Kyle Kendrick (3-2) 5.19 ERA
Rockies: Ubaldo Jimenez (1-4) 4.61 ERA

Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EST
Weather: 76 degrees, possible storms
Lineup: Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Howard, Dobbs, Jenkins, Feliz, Ruiz, Kendrick

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Your gameday beer: Truly one of the best beers in the world, Rodenbach Grand Cru, a Flanders red ale, is an absolute treat. Brewed with aged malt and yeast and then mixed with other old ales, it’s a fine collection of flavors — all natural flavors. Has a distinct cherry taste. You can get it at Monk’s in Philly. I suggest it. Drink it with some smoked halibut.

Go Phillies!

Jim Salisbury reported the Reading Phillies have lined up Antonio Bastardo’s starts with Adam Eaton’s. Salisbury points out that this could mean Bastardo is the first on the list of possible replacements for Eaton, who hasn’t exactly been awesome this season.

Bastardo started the season in A+ Clearwater, and climbed out quickly after five starts (30.2 IP, 20 H, 4 ER, 47 K, 10 BB). He’s been in Reading since, and after five starts, has come down to Earth a bit (28 IP, 24 H, 11 ER, 22 K, 14 BB).

If the Phils were to promote Bastardo to the Majors, comparisons to Kyle Kendrick would then be made. With Reading last season, Kendrick went 4-7 (81.1 IP, 82 H, 29 ER, 50 K, 18 BB). His K/BB ratio was good, but his K/9 ratio wasn’t. Bastardo is on close to the same path this year.

At 22, Bastardo is the right age for Reading, and the same age as Kendrick when he was promoted.

It seems Bastardo will need a bunch more starts in Reading to solidify himself as Major League-ready. He needs to improve his K ratios a bit. Why the Phils wouldn’t go with the more established JA Happ makes little sense to me.

The Rockies were up 3-0 to start the Memorial Day contest against the Phillies, but then the home team got to hitting: 20 runs, 19 hits. The Phils won 20-5. It was the most runs scored by the Phils in a game since July 3, 1999, and they have scored 35 runs in the past two days.

Everyone did their share tonight, but the star was Chase Utley, who went 3-for-6 with 6 RBI, a career high. He knocked a game-tying homer in the first inning, then drove in a couple more thanks to singles and a sacrifice fly. The bottom of the order was tremendous — Pedro Feliz had four hits and four RBI; Chris Coste had three hits including a three-run smash; and So Taguchi, getting his first start in a while, had three hits (two doubles).

For the second-consecutive game the Phils had two big innings, scoring six in the fourth and six in the sixth. Including a four-run eighth, they batted around three times. They were clutch, they were merciless. They knocked around starter Jorge De La Rosa (6 ER in 3.1 IP), relievers Jason Grilli (3 ER in 1.2 IP), Josh Newman (6 ER in 0.2 IP) and Matt Herges (4 ER in 0.1 IP). Basically, an all-out throttling.

Jamie Moyer gave up four early runs but hung in to strike out seven in seven innings. He was effective at keeping a young, inexperienced Rockies lineup off balance. Credit the offense for keeping Moyer in the game, too. Once they began bashing away at De La Rosa and grabbed a nice lead, Rockies’ hitters became impatient and swung at everything Moyer was throwing. Deception took over and the veteran outpaced the kids.

Kudos to Feliz, who has raised his average from .227 to .271 in one week. His slick hitting has helped the Phils grab more runs at the bottom of the order. Glancing at his gamelogs quickly, it seems when Feliz plates a batter the Phils almost always win. And kudos to Victorino, who has raised his OPS from .630 to above .700 in a week. Glancing at his gamelogs, when Vic scores the Phils almost always win. Two easy recipes for success — tonight was the most delicious of meals.

Associated Press photo

For the first time since they eliminated the Phillies in the 2007 NLDS, the Rockies are in town. But this is a different team than the one that brutalized the Phils in October. This time there’s no Matt Holliday (DL), no Clint Barmes (DL), no Troy Tulowitzki (DL), no Brad Hawpe (DL). The Rockies are 20-30, carrying a team ERA of 4.56 (14th, NL) and are scoring just 4.20 runs per game (13th, NL). The Phils, meanwhile, carry a team ERA of 4.02 (6th, NL) and are scoring 5 runs per game (3rd, NL).

As it’s Memorial Day, it’s only fitting the Phils trot the Majors’ greatest veteran player, Jamie Moyer, out onto the hill. The Rockies respond with Jorge De La Rosa. He had a horrible first start this season (9 ER against Los Angeles), but has since settled with a somewhat respectable last three starts.

Phillies: Jamie Moyer (4-3) 4.37 ERA
Rockies: Jorge De La Rosa (1-2) 7.78 ERA

Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EST
Weather: 77 degrees, partly cloudy
Lineup: Rollins, Victorino, Utley, Howard, Burrell, Feliz, Coste, Taguchi, Moyer

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Your gameday beer: Happy Memorial Day! It’s gorgeous outside, the barbecues will be pumping, the beer will be flowing, the Phils will be playing. It’s great to be alive, so today, remember the troops and kick-start your summer with Liberty Ale from Anchor Steam Brewery. A very good beer, it represents everything our great country is about. What to eat? Get out of here — it better be on the grill. A burger, a dog, a steak, whatever. Have it, enjoy it, and happy Memorial Day.

Go Phillies!

We all asked how Jimmy Rollins would respond from his MVP campaign of 2007, one of the best all-around seasons for a shortstop in recent memory. That season he reached career highs in home runs (30), runs batted in (94), batting average (.296), runs scored (139), hits (212) and triples (20), among other things. At 29, Rollins seemed to be at his absolute peak, and most predicted statistical analysis of 2008 had Rollins dovetailing from his MVP numbers.

While an ankle injury sidelined Rollins and likely ruined his chances to duplicate or surpass those numbers, running his current numbers over a 162-game season shows 2008 would’ve been shaping up to be pretty good, as well:

G – 162
AVG – .321
H – 208
R – 93
HR – 17
RBI – 93
SB – 40

Like most predictions, the power numbers regress; however, his contact hitting would be at career-high levels. And these numbers are all either right on or well over career averages. Moreover, he’s slugging .527 (close to last season’s .531) and getting on base almost 37 percent of the time, a little better than anytime in his career.

Best of all, Rollins is hitting .409 with runners in scoring position, and .571 in late-and-close situations. Those are the numbers that make MVPs.

All seemed doomed for the Phillies in the final game of their four-game series against the Houston Astros. Cole Hamels, usually reliable, had one of his worst professional starts, giving up six runs in five innings. The offense was dragging a little — better than the past two nights, but nothing to write home about.

Then in the sixth inning, the offense went wild.

Pat Burrell started the festivities with his 13th home run of the season. Hits followed, and RBI for Carlos Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino got the Phils a five-spot and a 9-6 lead. They weren’t done. In the seventh, Pedro Feliz, Greg Dobbs, Victorino and Chase Utley (a homer) got them a six-spot and a 15-6 blowout lead. The bullpen effectively nailed it down and left Houston with a split and a season win (4-3).

Hamels gets one or two mulligans per season as the ace — hopefully this was the only one. Luckily the offense picked him up, and it was as if they flipped a switch once the Astros turned to their bullpen — a pretty bad one. Like I wrote before, this series was one where the bullpens would decide things. Today the Phils bullpen (5 IP, 3 H, 2 BB) was spectacular while the Astros ‘pen (4 IP, 11 H, 11 ER) was awful.

It was also refreshing to see Victorino hit, and with runners in scoring position in key times. Consider yesterday’s recap his “open letter.” It was also nice to see Geoff Jenkins homer and get three hits. Feliz went 2-for-5 and is having a nice last couple games. Finally, great move by Charlie Manuel not to go to Dobbs in the sixth inning with a lefty ready to come in. Dobbs instead came in against right-handed Dave Borkowski and laced a two-run triple.

Associated Press photo