Phillies Nation

You should be happy with him there are not alot of pitchers out there that are better then him. Hamels is Ranked in the top 10 of all major league pitchers so who would you want to replace him?

You think its a shame we don’t have anyone better?? Yeah I heard a Cards fan say they wish they had someone better manning 1st for them…

Go be a Yanks fan dude, you clearly have no appreciation of baseball

scot, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Hamels did his job, as he almost always does.

But once again, our offense is exposed for what it is: a bunch of guys who aren’t patient and who can be outsmarted by ANY pitcher who is willing to think through the game. Any pitcher who approaches our hitters with a game plan will be able to dominate them. This kid today had no record and a 5.4 ERA. Against the Red Sox, he’d have been chased by the third or fourth inning after giving up six runs.

Our hitters are not disciplined, are not thinking about situational baseball — again. Jimmy got up in the fourth or fifth inning and lead off by swinging at and popping up the first pitch. Vic got a bunt single, but no one could do anything about moving him. Against a pitcher who is coming off his second start since Tommy John surgery, the Phils should have been taking pitches and making the guy sweat. But nope. They got up there and tried to whack 800-foot home runs as soon as they saw a pitch they liked, regardless of the count, the inning, the base running situation, the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing pitcher, etc. And when the dingers didn’t come, we lost.

This is Charlie’s problem to fix, and he has not chosen to do so.

N.B. to Brett Myers: Watch anyone with competence pitch against the Phillies, and you will see some of what you need to do to get back to the big leagues. Other pitchers study our hitters and think about the pitches they want to throw and where to put them. You should try it.

it makes no sense to blame the losses on hamels, he hasnt given up more than 2 runs in his past 5 or 6 starts, the offense was to blame and it usually is when he pitches. Its the same way with santana, they way he pitches and the way cole pitches they should both have 11-12 wins and their teams do nothing for them. Cole has the tendancy to give up some home runs, but there usually solo shots because no one gets on base when he pitches. How can u say its ashame that we have no one better than him? who the hell do you want pitching for you? any pitcher no matter how good gives up runs, what do u expect no hitters everytime ur out there? come on, if we were playing to our potential which were not u wouldnt even be talking bout those 2 homeruns .

The Phillies need to trade for some speed and OBP on offense. As mentioned earlier, why have Taguchi if you’re NOT going to use him as your defensive replacement or as a pinch hitter. He’s the last resort 99% of the time. Just release the guy already. Golson can at least pinch run and steal some bases late. Then you can use Bruntlett as he is needed.

Before everyone starts telling me I know nothing about baseball, let me point out that while the vast majority of this site was driving the Howard hate train, I pointed out that he was still the best run producer in the NL and urged everyone to calm down. And as Howard has heated up even more, I haven’t even recieved a thank you card. You cats are so ungrateful.

Onto Hamels:

Fact: In games in division which Hamels has started the Phils are 3-5.

Fact: Included in that record is a 1-3 mark for the Phils vs the Mets and Marlins when Hamels starts.

Fact: If we look at the Phils record when Hamels starts vs our main playoff rivals at this point, (Mets, Marlins, Cubs, Brewers, St Louis), the Phils record in those games stands at 2-5.

Now we could possibly say this is all the offenses fault. Or perhaps we could actually look at it and say, maybe Hamels hasn’t been good enough vs key rivals for the Phils.

Fact: In those 7 games Hamels has given up 11 home runs and 22 earned runs.

So, we can’t really blame this all on the offense. It’s an ongoing problem for Hamels in big games.

we have to look at it this way, it could be worse, the eagles could have traded for Jason Taylor today like those pathetic fix it now Redskins.

The Eagles wouldn’t get Taylor cause they’d rather pay 2nd round draftpicks cheap money to not produce than actually need to pay someone who could help the team right now.

At least throw the stat out there if you are going to through negative Hamels stats out.

He is 157th in the National League in run support.
His last four starts:

Today: 8 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs, 6 Ks ND
July 13 (Arizona) 7 IP, 11 hits, 2 runs 8 Ks ND
July 8 (stl) 7 IP 3 hits, 2 runs, 8 Ks (I wish we had Joel Piniero instead of Cole!) LOSS
July 3 (Atl) 8.2 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 run, 7 Ks (win)

In other words: 4 starts, 30.2 innings pitched, 23 hits (!), 7 runs, 29 strikeouts and a measily 1-1 record. In those games Philly scored 6 runs total while he was pitching. Yep, Cole is suck a waste. I wish we had more Kendricks.

Checking in from thelast night of my little mni-vacation, and i see they choked up a series to the marlns. nice work, douces. im glad i wasnt here to watch the series because needed a few days away from this team after the all star break.

think theyre tryng to get rid of brett myers really hard. but guys, he pitched into the 7th in high a ball. who fucking cares? that means nothing, and it tells me nothing. get this bum out of here and pacage him with shane victorino and two like B prospects for matt holliday. im all about that. hollidays numbers may be a bit fraudulent but i know hes better at the plate than victorino.

happ better be brought up when its his turn next. ill be fucking pissed off f hes not in the second half rotation.

im out ill deal with this later

Geoff, I’d love for you to come on here and read what Scot is saying about Hamels. You’d get a real laugh out of it.

Another thing you’d like to see, Scot. How many losses/ND Hamels got where he pitched a great game.

8 innings 1 ER (L)
7 innings 0 ER 11 k (ND)
8 innings 2 ER 13 ks (ND)
7 innings 3 ER (L)
7 innings 2 ER 8 ks (L)
7 innings 2 ER 8 ks (ND)
8 innings 2 ER (ND)

Si-tu-a-tion-al HITTING.

Brett Myers is a piece of trash on and off the field – get him off my team, and do ANYTHING it takes to get Matt Holliday here.

Get – it – done.

I’m tired of this team.

Phil, in that list you put up, look at the losses, and look at Hamels HR’s.

Dude needs to a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark. It’s simple. A solo HR still counts as a run. You can’t do that in close games, and Hamels does it often in close games. To let the team tie, or to let the team ahead. The longball has killed him in those games.

Keep. The. Ball. In. The. Park.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the_phantom_five/

Here’s an article I want you all to read, or Tim maybe you can make a summary of it for the nation.

Phil, if you aren’t discourged by the habit of seeing hamels give up go ahead or tying homeruns several times throughout the season, then you are just a delusional fanboy. I don’t place the blame fully on Hamels or the offense. But I’m sure as hell not gonna lay back and enjoy Hamels giving up these homeruns, and say he’s blameless like you. He made more mistakes today than Johnson. This just in. It’s okay to say Hamels makes mistakes. He’s a grown man. He’ll probably take it better than you’re taking it right now.

Believe me, if Mets fans are laughing, they were laughing more when the Mets put 4 past Hamels in the one start Hamels faced them this season.

Johnson gave up tons of mistakes. The Phillies offense just couldn’t capitalize on them because they’re pathetic. So, if Hamels gave up 3 runs a game on 8 hits but no home runs would that make him better? The point is W/L is a team stat, and Hamels gets no run support. You are probably a troll Muts fan in disguise.

And this is coming from a guy whos dogs hide during Phillies, Flyer Eagle and Gator games due to the extreme changes in moods. If I am staying positive, Scot u can stay positive.

Scot is too dumb to realize it’s the offenses fault. This is why the Padres are in last place.

7. Ryan Howard:

“A DH with a glove”

-Keith Law.

Ya, 10 million reasons. Even Boston won’t eat that salary. Plus they don’t have a viable prospect to replace him, or even an adequate back-up. Carlos Ruiz doesn’t have nearly the track record that Varitek does. Also, I wasn’t saying Howard is a problem per-say, I was merely pointing out the hypocrisy in Charlie benching Pat while keeping Howard in the field late in games. He is much worse than Pat could ever be in the field.

Carlos Ruiz’s OPS+ is 50. Do you realize how bad that is? By comparison, Varitek is having by far the worst year in his 12-year career (101 OPS+ avg.) and yet his is still 69 this year, while topping 100 6 times. Carlos Ruiz, by comparison hasn’t topped 90 ONCE.

If you really want to pretend he’s not a problem, fine. I look at it another way: he is the single worst hitter in the league who plays everyday (regular). I mean he is Jose Vidro bad.

Kyle, all very good points. For me, there may not be a much better solution at catcher out there. The defensive replacement, especially with a backup shortstop who cannot hit, drives me nuts. Condrey and his .300 opp ba kills whether we notice it or not. Myers needs to and can step it up.

As far as eaton, i know the phils will not eat his salary and cut ties. He has no use in the bullpen unless he unlearns the 89 mph straightpitch. I remember being at a Phils-Tigers spring training game in lakeland this year. Eaton got shelled, and I booed him. Some half heart phils fan said to me “That is obnoxious, its spring training”. My only response to her (after quite a few) was whats obnoxious is that we are paying him 7.5 mill a year to stink. He pitched well at times, but seems to let down mentally after the phils score. Maybe give him some beers and let him relax. Wild thing claims its something with his fingers.

Actually, look at yesterday’s game with Kendrick. Look at Hamels game last weekend against the D-Backs. He had 11 hits against him against one of the worst offenses in the NL. Yes, Ruiz helps our Hamels and Kendrick. Moyer probably not because Moyer probably calls his own game. All of our pitchers request Ruiz to start. Let me find the interview I read about it. I read it a couple of months ago. Oh yeah, we have a better record with Ruiz starting for a reason.

I don’t know how much of the game calling comes from Ruiz. It could be the Pitching Coach, Catcher & Pitcher. If the catcher calls a pitch half the time he Pitcher will call it off unless he agrees with the catcher. How much responsibility do you think Ruiz has? If Utley got behind the plate for Cole I think Hamels will still be the Pitcher he is.