Phillies Nation

Thats the most accurate trade idea ive ever heard about rollins, mike: trade him to anyone dumb enough to give you good players for him while his career declines as it is doing and will continue to do. i dont think hell ever come close to his mvp season again, like not even remotely close.

somebody gives you a good deal that improves the team now or for the near future? ill do it. no specific people, just, tahts the framework. if it improves the team, ill do it.

im even keeping howard for his whole time under team control. id keep burrell because in this market you cant get anyone better than him. shortstops are dime a dozen in modern day baseball because its a hyped position and there are LOTS of good, young shortstops both in our system and in other teams systems. you can easily replace rollins. if donald cant do it, then you deal with it for 2 years uintil freddy galvis is ready.

jimmy rollins is definitely never, EVER going to be half as good as he was last year. if youre a smart GM. you see that and take care of it.

Rollins bat over .290 for every month last season except May.

It’s obvious that he’s the problem this year. Everything else is practically the same, if not better, right? (Sans Ruiz)

Rollins had a career year last year and it carried us into the playoffs. If he hits like that this year, what are we? Like 20 games over .500?

But this is the real Jimmy Rollins.

How many of the three games did Rollins lead-off the first inning by getting on base? Just curious?

BTW – I’m not an advocate of trading J-Roll. I do find Geoff’s trade proposals entertaining, though. When Jimmy scores, the Phils win and that’s the bottom line! He’s an integral part of the team, but he’s not a leadoff hitter.

That being said, I do think he has an attitude problem this year and I do think he needs to get his act together. He’s supposed to be the outspoken leader of this team and this year he just hasn’t been the leading. He has been outspoken!

i will be supportive of shane leading off. its his turn to be allowed to lead this lineup. jimmy has failed this time.

I agree with all of the lineup changes we propose son here.

Who would argue against this lineup? (other than Charlie)

Victorino
Rollins
Utley
Burrell
Howard

Or put Werth 2 and Rollins 6.

the phillies are told to stare at first pitch meatballs. they ALL do it except hamels. who actually knows how to hit better than jimmy rollins does half the time

Geoff.. somebody made a point in the other post.. if you are a 21 year old prospect.. and you pitch in the bullpen at A-ball.. and you aren’t in the top-30 in your own organization… how valuable can you be??

Thats not worth grabbing another experienced Lefty for your team??

its worth it for nothing. but the cubs know were stupid so they made up give a prospect.

look at some other waiver-guys who are salary dumps, which is what eyre is to the cubs, theyre usually traded for nothing.

I really don’t know how many times he got on base in the first inning, but I’d venture to guess it was probably 0-3.

I’ll definitely give you that he is hardly the reason they lost. He actually hit well the first two games. But he also isn’t doing them any favors by making the first out in every game.

He just needs to step up! Only Jimmy can spark this team, and the only way he can do that is to go out there the next 2 months and hit the cover off the ball. He needs to bat about .400 the next two months to give this team that spark!

He’s the only player in the order capable of hitting .300 or better. When he’s on base good things typically happen.

i hope eyre does well, if he does ill be happy. i just dont buy it yet.

if scott eyre gets one person out in a big game with the division on the line, they ill say it was a decent move.

giving up nothing for a guy that may or may not help.. can’t be considered a terrible move unless this guy personally makes us lose games.

he is like the 5th guy in the bullpen now.. not really something worth getting worked up about

some of these guys, like jimmy, couldnt hit a beach ball with a tennis racket right now. im totally serious. theyre that screwed up in the head.

How about a lineup where Rollins hits 8th? If we get one hit in the first two innings (a likely scenario), that means he leads off the 3rd.

Who wouldn’t like to see a scenario where Rollins gets on and is either sacrificed down to 2nd or steals second and is sacrificed over to 3rd. Either way, we have Rollins in scoring position with the top of our lineup coming to the plate and 1 out.

That way, it makes more sense to shift power to earlier in the lineup too. Something like Victorino, Utley, Burrell, Howard, Werth as the 1-5 guys.

To Mike T ~ it seems from the first day of the season you’ve been down on the Phillies. What that suggests is what you don’t want to read so I’ll be kind and merely correct your daily proclamation. The first place and defending division champions, Phillies are a good and talented team struggling/underachieving. It is fortunate that other contenders in their division shared the same kind of problems. The injuries overwhelmed Atlanta’s chances and bowed out of the race. The Phillies are more fortunate (not having lost a starter to the DL). The Mets have shown perseverence with talent and determination despite their rash of injuries (Maine, Wagner, Church, etc.) Like other contenders (Mets & Marlins), the Phillies obviously have a need for improvements in key areas (rotation, bullpen and bench). It’s August and with the exception of waiver wire and September callups, the Phillies will contend with the hand they’re dealt with for the remaining 48 games. The recent quality starts by Myers and Blanton hopefully will stabilize the rotation. The bullpen has probably been the most pleasant surprise this season and solidified by a premier closer in Lidge (one of Gillick’s best aquisition). Minor tweaks with mix and match (by “committee”) for setup man is probable solution in the bullpen. The bench obviously leaves more to desire but we are not the only contender with that problem. Having Werth, Dobbs, Bruntlett, Coste waiting on the bench is not exactly chopped liver (chuckle). You could do worst and certainly no sense of urgency for additional help is shown by the Phillies.

It’s redundant to rationalize Rollins’ season compared to his 2007 MVP year. 2007 is no doubt his career year and can’t be duplicated. His current numbers suggest his performance is more true to his career stats. If only Rollins can come close to his play of last season as the key offensive catalyst (and in effect, improves situational hitting), the Phillies’ task of repeating as division champions could be far less difficult. If Rollins can step up, it can have a ripple effect throughout the lineup starting with Victorino and Utley. That’s what made last September so SPECIAL.

Let’s go PHILLIES!

I like where you’re coming from doug, but I don’t think you put a guy with as much talent as Jimmy Rollins in the 8-hole.. OBP is good, but Werth is not as good a baserunner, or basestealer as Rollins.. Slugging% for a guy like Rollins shouldn’t even be mentioned since he’s5’8 and 112 lbs.

He overperformed last year.. and in doing so, carried this team on his back to the NL East crown.. Now that he isn’t overperforming again, people are calling for his head.

Im sure that he is frustrated with his lower numbers, and that is probably the reason for his poor body language.. but as long as he keeps playing solid defense, and getting himself on base in big games.. I still want him on my team, and I’d still rather have him with extra chances to make something happen than Jayson Werth.

Werth COULD be a good leadoff man.. because he takes a lot of pitches.. but the object isn’t to take pitches, its to try to make something happen.

People were jumping on Greg Dobbs lately for swinging at the first pitch.. we’ll if your job is to go hit the ball, and the first pitch is often a fastball.. why not jump at it if you like it… it is usually the only time in the count where you know what you might get.. unless the count goes 3-1 or something, but if you’re job is to pinch-HIT.. you go looking to hit, not to pinch-SEE A BUNCH OF PITCHES

Hit Rollins 9th, hit the pitcher 8th. Leadoff Vic

1Vic
2Werth
3Utley
4Burrell
5Howard
6?
7?
8Pitcher
9Rollins

Double leadoff BOOM!

This is the Tony LaRussa strategy. It only works if you want to give more at-bats to your pitcher than your #9 hitter (never) or if you’re willing to pull your pitcher preemptively should his at-bat arise in a situation that warrants a double-switch.

Otherwise, you’re just giving more at-bats to your pitcher than your supposedly good hitters. Although, the way Hamels is hitting in comparison to the rest of this team, we might want to consider him in the cleanup spot!

Are people REALLY sitting here today and thinking that a team with a 62-52 record is going to start batting their pitcher #8 ??

because jimmy rollins isnt jimmy rollins anymore. i wouldnt do taht either thuogh. i would hit him 6th or 7th depending on ho whes playing. i might hit himi 9th 4 or 5 times though to humiliate and punish him for being an asshole.

By the way, this is not the Tony La Russa method, he’s just the only guy with balls enough to do it (good or bad that’s up to you) and it’s not like it’s unheard of in the majors. How often are pitchers hitting in the 6th 7th 8th 9th innings anyway? Not often and if they are, chances are you have a lead.

I mean, obviously I wouldn’t do this permanently, but if (as I’ve been reading all day) a message needs to be sent to spark J Roll and perhaps get him going, this wouldn’t be that stupid because you’d still have him in line with the heart of their order and would give him both the opportunity to start and cleanup rallys.

The aim of hitting your pitcher 8th is to get another guy potentially on base in front of your 3 hitter if the pitcher can handle the bat, remember the Brewers tried it and abandoned it because their pitchers couldn’t hit. Who would we bat 9th who can be that extra lead-off guy? (considering he has to be able to run as well)

Again..

Jimmy was 4-11 in the series and got on base 8 times in 15 plate apperances…

If a guy does something specific to cost you a game, or goes 0-for 15 in a series… rip him… but when your leadoff man is on base more than half the time in a crucial series (.364 batting avg. .533 OBP%), and plays great defense.. . its not justified to burry him

Man when you guys get the wheels in motion on a bad idea.. you really have a tough time stopping…