Comments on: The Nation Minute – 11.21.08

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:39:52 +0000

I’m a little worried, because part of the phillies’ pitching renaissance last season was due to a stellaer infield defense.

Yet in spite of that, I would still gamble on Donald. I think this can be an opportunity for the phillies. If Donald is successful, then that is a great spark right at the start of the season, the type of spark that can help the phillies repeat.

Also, you have to like their chances if they do compete without Utley.

Finally, it’s better that this happens at the start of a season than at the end. Regardless of who is at 2b, there will be time to catch up later if we need to.

By: NJ

NJ — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:56:58 +0000

This is the point we either trade Donald or play him, we can’t sit around and hope he can adjust to third in AAA. If we don’t deal him we open up with Donald at 2nd giving him a significant amount of time to show if he can do the business, it’s going to have to be a one step at a time test and if he’s still looking good when Utley comes back well then that’s a pretty good situation to be in with the likelyhood of him moving over to third. Really don’t like the idea of adding a guy who’ll play a month when we have someone in the system with no better time to see whether he can handle the bigs and Bruntlett’s best served spotting around the middle infield and third rather than filling in for a stretch.

Vic, Donald, Rollins, Howard, Werth, Jenkins, Dobbs, Ruiz seems the best combination but doubt it’ll fall that way.

By: Don M

Don M — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:09:18 +0000

Griffin, who can we do better with, for what might amount to 2 months of playing time for a 2b? Iguchi would be a good fit because you could just release him when Utley came back.. OR.. is Jason Donald has a good Spring, we could plug him into the lineup and see how he does. This probably hurts the lineup more than it hurts our defense.

Do you plug Jayson Werth into the #3 (with nobody to protect Howard?)
Or do you have Victorino leadoff, Rollins hit 3rd, Howard, Werth… No idea who would bat #2…

That is a bigger problem then who plays defense at 2b

By: Griffin

Griffin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:02:03 +0000

Iguchi was awful in 2008. He was a very good fill-in when Utley went down in 2007, but that was a long time ago. We can do better.

By: T Marty

T Marty — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:11:13 +0000

i remember John Mayberry Sr. when i was a kid, he had like 250 career homers, hopefully Jr. will follow in pops footsteps.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:32:19 +0000

Tim, maybe you know something I don’t. But what about Tad Iguchi at 2nd until Utley returns? I hope that Phillies fans remember what he did in 2007 when Utley went down for wrist surgery and rehab. They barely missed a beat. I’ll tell you this, without Iguchi in August, there was no September. His url on Yahoo, MLB and ESPN still connects him with the Phils although he is not on the active or 40 man rosters.