Offense Blanked Again; Slip Continues
Posted by Tim Malcolm, Wed, July 09, 2008 08:54 AM | Comments: 74
Posts
And the groaning continues.
The Phillies offense failed to show up again, getting shut out by Joel Piniero and the Cardinals, 2-0. Piniero lasted 6.1 innings, striking out three and walking three. He wasn’t overly dominant by any stretch, but he made Phils hitters swing weakly at a lot of things. Nothing looked particularly hard-hit, unless it was coming off Pat Burrell’s bat. Burrell went 2-for-3, including a huge double in the second inning. After a Jayson Werth strike out, Pedro Feliz walked to load the bases. Next up was Carlos Ruiz. Anyone who didn’t see this game should know what happened. 6-4-3. Inning over. Threat over. Momentum murdered.
That was the big chance for the Phils to stomp Piniero and give Cole Hamels a nice lead. Instead it was the usual outcome. When outcomes become so usual that you can predict it in the beginning of an inning, it’s time for a change. Starting with “Chooch” wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Hamels pitched well aside from two mistakes that were drilled into the seats. Professional power hitters Ryan Ludwick and Rick Ankiel did the deeds. But Hamels struck out eight while walking zippo — he should’ve been granted a win, but this offense plain stinks right now.
Back to that offense — I questioned why Charlie Manuel favored Jayson Werth against a right-handed pitcher. Wasn’t this the right spot for Geoff Jenkins? Piniero is a low-ball pitcher and Jenkins is coming off a huge pinch-hit home run. What the heck was that, Charlie? Was there a scout in the crowd watching Werth? Is Jenkins hurt? What’s the reason? Anyone? By the way, Werth went 1-for-4 and left four on base.
Whatever the case, it’s just another night of questions about this offense. Meanwhile the Mets creamed the Giants. Here they come, just 1.5 back with the Marlins.
Associated Press photo
Posts: 0 Griffin
I just read this on Baseball Prospectus:
* The Phillies have been on the outside looking in, passing on Harden due to their assessment of his medical risk. They have the same concerns about both A.J. Burnett and Randy Wolf which is tempering their pursuit of both despite a clear need. Yet somehow, it seems like they’re not quite as concerned about Erik Bedard. Sources say that Pat Gillick’s comfort level with both Lee Pelekoudas and the medical staff he knows from his days in Seattle is making this deal possible, though Gillick seems to want Bedard at a significant discount to what the Mariners paid in the off-season.
Posted: 10:57 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 NEPA
I think the biggest single reason for our struggles is Jimmy Rollins. He’s the motor four our team. When he’s getting on and playing loose, it seems to just diffuse through the whole team and everyone starts playing better. He needs to start getting on base more, taking more pitches and overall just start playing with a little fire under his ass. Maybe its just me, but he seems to have a very lazy attitude this year, and I’m not only looking at the benching for not running the fly ball out. I’m looking at his entire season as a whole.
Posted: 11:02 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Rational Met Fan
It’s hard to blame your catcher for not coming through with big hits. The reason the focus is on him is because the rest of the lineup is not producing and he is getting exposed. Rollins needs to turn his season around and then things will click again. The .313 batting Ryan Howard of 2006 is missing as well. What is it that he’s doing so differently that caused him to take such a nosedive in terms of putting the ball in play for hits?
Posted: 11:07 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Geoff
Ruiz should be fixed by a acall up which can be done at any time, indeed, the more emergent issue would be pitching and an outfielder
Posted: 11:09 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 NEPA
Rational – who knows what he’s done. He’s an extremely wild swinger and seems to have no perception of the strike zone at times. Pitchers throw him high fastballs and low/away breaking balls and he just swings away, almost never making contact.
Posted: 11:10 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 NEPA
Geoff, this is of course correct. Ruiz is certainly a problem, but by no means the main one. Just one of many. If Rollins/Victorino we’re playing better, we wouldn’t be worrying about Ruiz because his GIDP would be happening when we up by 5 runs, instead of down by 2. That said, you always have to look to improve your team. Even if the big guns are playing tremendous, you still should look to improve your weak points, a.k.a Ruiz. They need to fix their major weaknesses first, but if they want to DFA Ruiz in the process, I have no problem with that.
Posted: 11:14 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 chris m
Production from the bottom of lineups makes a good team good escpescially when the middle is struggling. Thats probaly why we struggle agianst the A.L., they count on the bottom of the lineup to drive in runs. We consider it a bonus when the bottom of the lineup does something good which makes sense but thats why were an average team right now, no bonus from the bottom leaves us average
Posted: 11:26 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Geoff
Theres a lot of media chatter about bedard so i think taht theyll go with him. but i wholly agree that in the midst of that media storm if carlos ruiz just sort of “happened” to be cut adrift then id be ok with that.
Posted: 11:27 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 chris m
Ruiz is a minor problem but shouldnt be one….too many solutions for hhin that he shouldnt be one but chuck keeps sendiing him out there. Tooo many solutions for him to be a problem but like taguchi we seem hesitant to do anything
Posted: 11:30 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 NEPA
Haha, we’re on the same page there Geoff
Posted: 11:30 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Don M
no question that having a lineup that- from top to bottom can drive in runs would be awesome. But when you have Rollins (30 HR last year) Utley, Howard, and even Feliz with some pop… what you want out of your catcher.. is to be a good catcher.. and help your pitching staff, which he is doing.
Jaramillo was always thought to be the guy that might take over.. Marson just really came into the picture as a legit mlb-prospect. so for them to rush him up because Ruiz, the defensive catcher/ 8 hitter, isn’t hitting the ball… that wouldn’t help Marson, or the team as a whole… It would probably add offensive production from the Cather position… but I’d rather have my pitchers maximize their effectiveness
Posted: 11:31 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Geoff
Don brings up a good point. they would give jaramillo the shotfirst because hes the senior man in the catching prospect pecking order. we get so excited about marsons potential we forget
Posted: 11:33 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Don M
I think at this point they might be higher on Marson… BUT.. my point is that he came out of nowhere.. and now everybody wants them to call him up. When really, how does anyone know he’ll hit above .200 up here, and he’s def not as good as Ruiz at every other aspect of catching…
Again. I’d like to have McCann or someone awesome at catcher too…. but Ruiz is LOW on the list of problems this team has right now.
1. Hamels…then what
2. Rollins
3. Victorino not being dangerous offensively
4. Too Many Strikeouts
5. NO situational hitting
5a. Brett Myers
6. A suspect bullpen that had a GREAT first-half
7. Jenkins
8. Ruiz
9. Taguchi
Posted: 11:41 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 chris m
i think ruiz is a bigger problem then jennkins bc he get more playing time….1-5 are all huge issues… situational hitting should be higher then 5 but i cant puit it any higher bc the others are so important…too many problems to adress midseason so its up to the players if they want it or not
Posted: 11:56 AM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Phil
Victorino is much less of a concern then every other thing you have listed and as for Moyer and Kendrick…they’ve been pitching well this season. I wouldn’t bash them. What an awesome #4 and #5 if you can get a #2 and #3. Maybe Myers can come back and pitch effectively and be our #3.
Posted: 12:04 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Don M
yea i was just listing things off the top of my head… but I really think that the top 2 guys not being on base is killing this team.. they are wasting good outing by hamels.. I think like 5 of his losses, they have only scored 7 total runs or something crazy like that. He’s an ACE and the MVP isn’t helping him at all..
Posted: 12:10 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Bruce
I don’t know if it’s Don M or someone else here who pointed out a growing concern with Rollins’ numbers being substantially below last year’s comparable totals. It may be that he will never come close to his MVP year again and instead stay true to his career stats. Nevertheless, we need Rollins and Victorino to be the offensive catalysts at the top of the line-up if the Phillies are to show any consistency with their offense. It is that formula that inspired and triggered the rest of the line-up’s offense (particulary the 3-4-5 hitters) enroute to great success last season.
Posted: 12:55 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Lewisauce
I agree with Don M’s list, except that I’d put situational hitting at No. 3 and Victorino at No. 5a (with Myers No. 5).
Ruiz sucks, but if two or three of those others were fixed, we’d barely notice.
Posted: 01:40 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Geoff
I started to make a long prioritized list, but it was 15 items long. just, whatever. they just need to get off their ass and start fixing things. theyve got 3 weeks to completely fix like 7 or 8 serious personnel problems.
Posted: 01:53 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Don M
That list could really go in whatever order you want.. and it could be generalized.. Like…
TOP OF THE ORDER OBP%
STARTING PITCHING UPGRADE
LEARN TO PLAY SMALL BALL (we are the national league afterall….)
Posted: 02:06 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Tyler - Mets Fan!
WOOHOO! METS BABY! PHILLIE IT’S OK IF YOUR A BIT SCARED.
Posted: 04:04 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Phil
Tyler…are all Mets fans uneducated tools or is it juts you and pimp daddy?
Posted: 04:12 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Tyler
Probably just me and pump daddy.
Posted: 06:31 PM on July 9, 2008
Posts: 0 Tyler - Mets Fan!
Hey, who used my name? It’s all of us if being uneducated is talking shit on a Phillies board.
Posted: 06:51 PM on July 9, 2008