Phillies Nation

PATIENT HITTING.

the phillies earned TONS of walks off Parra, who clearly had no control, our team needs to be consistently patient, players like rollins need to watch utley’s videos, and see how profesional hitters hit, and they will score 15 runs a game

What, is Rollins an amateur hitter? He gets paid doesn’t he? It’s April. Let the weather warm up yous guys.

Tim, your blurb about all of the distractions that Phils have faced so far this season is right on point. Baseball players are creatures of habit, and the Phils haven’t been able to fully get into their habits yet…Jimmy and Shane are just need to re-gain the focus of their happy zones and lay off the high heat. Thankfully, their impatience hasn’t been exhibited by the rest of the line-up. The Phils just eat up other teams’ bullpens. Being patient at the plate, a la the Red Sox, runs up the pitch count of the oppposition’s starter and gets us into the bullpen that much earlier in the game…Our starters threw game action for an entire extra month last season, their their off-season recuperations/workouts were shortened by a month. They are starting to round into form…The Marlins are starting to come back down to Earth. Two straight losses to the Pirates. One of the Marlins’ starters, Andrew Miller, was just put on the 15-day DL. And their bullpen is still very suspect!

man, i hope jamie is able to find that elusive 3rd win of the season so he can reach tim’s lofty projections for 2009!

in all seriousness good game last night, everyone chipped in and they soundly beat a solid team. let’s hope they can win a series for a change (it’d be nice to be able to PLAY the entire series too) and get some positive vibes in the clubhouse going.

What was rollins’ line from last night?

Prospect Updates:
*Iron Pig Carlos Carrasco has started 3 games this season, pitching 19 inning with 20 k’s, a 2.37 era, and only 15 baserunners allowed.

*Single A pitcher Jason Knapp strukout 14 batters yesterday over 7 shutout innings. Now with 30 k’s ove 18.1 ip with a 1.96 era.

*Everyone’s favorite bastard Antonio Bastard is pitching in relief this year and has a win, 2 saves, and a 1.23 era.

*Kyle Drabek is now 3-0 on the year with 26 k’s over 18.2 ip with a 0.96 era.

The Phils have some serious pitching talent on the way.

Ah so Moyer did NOT get the QS 4 runs over 6.,..I thought it was only 3 – so I take that back. He doesnt get another mulligan.

Thanksfully Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley are red hot.

yes, there are a bunch of really nice young starting pitchers on the way for the phillies. bastardo seems like a replacement for JC Romero eventually but at first a LH relief option for 2010. Carrasco will be up this year, but he may not be the best of those. Jason Knapp has been racking up numbers, Kyle Drabek, Tyson Brummett, Joe Savery, Michael Stutes, Carlos Monasterios (pitched CG shutout the other night).

Im not sure Myers and Blanton will be around for too many more years, even if they get an extension at all. Theyve got a couple guys coming up through low A and AA right now that can straight deal. Knapp could be a dark horse for 2010 along with Drabek.

Knapp will be in Clearwater before the year’s out and Drabek will either end the year in Lehigh or Reading depending on performance in Reading, but I don’t want to put too much into that because it could be a big change from what they’ve seen to what they will see, specially in AAA with veteran minor leaguers they’ll see even in AA I just don’t want to get my hopes up on them blowing through the system specially since it’s rare when a pitcher in our system does that, only Hamels comes to mind in recent memory. But both can straight up deal i just hope they have something other than a great fastball to get guys out.

Wow… I was wondering how Geoff would spin last night’s win into a see ya, pal” or a “heads will roll.” It’s quite obvious that Moyer is toast because he didn’t manage to get that “ever-so-important” Quality Start. Give me a break… the last time that I checked, the only stats that matter in September are wins and losses. He’s our 4th starter… if he can give us 3-4 runs and 6 innings per start, we should be thrilled and he did and we won and he’s the only Phillies starter with 2 wins so be a man and admit that you’re NOT right and this guy CAN help this team.

Yeah you know what? No. The only reason Im not really ripping into Moyer is because the offense bailed him out in his two wins. But if you ask him to hold teams to 1-2 runs he cant do that save for a few times a year. I dont rip the franchise half as much as I did before the WS. Just a few guys really…most of them are fine or don tplay big enough roles to get upset about when they dont do well.

Geoff must be a blast at parties

He’s like Costanza talkin to Keith Hernadez in Seinfeld, “all these teams flying from city to city you’d think they’re be a major plane wreck and wipe out an entire team”. Geoff I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say you are a glass half empty kind of guy.

I love how their 12 games into the season, and all “Geoff” talks about is Myers, Blanton and Moyers future with the team. Will you wait untill each starter has about 5 games under their belt before you go on your little cry baby rants?

Also, i love your predictions on when every A’ AA’ and AAA’ pitcher will make their mlb debut, because im sure you have some great intell from all the scouts down in the minors. I would rather have they all be kept down longer than expected, because that would mean your starters now, aside from Moyer would be pitching for the big league team, for a couple more years, and pitching well…solid.

I just enjoy everyone ripping on you, because, it makes me feel better to know im not like only one who comes on here and is just baffled by the things that come out of your mouth, remind me of T.O. some times..

I find it amazing that of all of the starters Moyer has the most wins. And yet Geoff continues to burry him. I have no problem admitting Moyer is not the best pitcher on the team (he might not be in the top 5) but the guy puts his team in a position to succeed – does it really matter how? And moreover, Moyer is a great asset to the TEAM (for more clarification of that term please refer to Brain’s comments abover)

I am pretty sure in the standings is it just Ws and Ls NOT Ws, Ls, Ws (when the pitcher was bailed out by bullpen, offence, etc.)

Actually, Blantons and Myers havent been bad…the general issue about that is with all this talent coming up there might be a logjam. Which means a few of these yougn arms will be packaged to fit other team needs but there will still be some who will make the rotation.

Im not a glass half empty person either, the Phillies are better than all of these teams int heir division and in the NL providing they play up to their talents. If they do that again, liek they did last year, they will repeat.

The Flyers are one of the top 3 most talented teams in the NHL in terms of scoring depth, but they do not play up to their potential and they play down to their competition routintely – which is why tehyre down 3-1 to a team with not nearly as much depth.

If you take a look around the NL, the Phillies are better than all of those teams if they play like we know they can. Theres no excuse for this team to fail to return to the WS barring injuries.

But like I said yesterday – youre only really as good as your record – so its all about execution and focus with this team. We KNOW they have the talent.

that baseball is team game fits into my argument. wins are a team stat and everyone points to moyers wins. The team won, but Moyer still did not put up a QS. Its nitpicking because the team still won but every start now from Moyer – 4 runs a pop. What is that? tahts 5th starter material. But so is Park, so the Phillies have a 1-2-3 and two 5th starters.

Moyers great season last year was because his ERA was in the low 3′s, and the team helped him get to 16 wins by scoring runs and holding leads. This year its back up to a little below where it was in 2007 ( in terms of runs per start).

Most importantly, with all of the young pitching talent the Phillies have if Moyer really was that bad would it be so unlikely to assume that Phillies would continue to run him out there every 5th day? I know we are talking about an organization that has not made the best pitching decision over the years but come on, why would we have not traded or signed someone to fill that void, or given Happ / Corrasco the job?

I think the team feels that Moyer is an acceptable 4th guy who can help coach Hamels, Happ, and others.

PS I think we all need catch phrases – Mine – KAPOWWWWW

My thinking here is that happ is on the way in place of park very soon. I can only pray that Moyer holds up until carrasco is ready…

also, Hamels needs to get it going tomorrow…definitely need a good outing from him to ease the pressure off of him. Blanton I think will have a good outing tonight.

as an extravert – i feel compelled to side with geoff simply for the sake of going against the grain… but alas, my logic drive and common sense will not allow me to do so… our boys or back at .500, the rest of the nl east are ‘starting’ (i don’t know how to italicise so i’m quoting instead lol) to come back down to earth… if we can resemble a contending team by mid-may then we should be fine barring any injuries… i love our depth at pitching throughout the minors and, similarly to jvr-sbisa-giroux for the flyguys, i can’t wait to see what the future holds… but now is now, and then will be then, so i will continue to moniter those guys at a distance and focus my attention to the bigs as per usual… great showing last night and lets hope this wave is big enough to ride…

I said this earlier, and now I’m going to say it again because I want to know how people respond to our SPs giving up dingers in the first innings.

I’m wondering if there are any teams that give up more first inning homeruns than the Phillies. Throughout the past few seasons, with Brett Myers giving up more than a few long balls in the first inning, and that of Cole and Jamie, they always have to play some sort of catch up.

There were 34 Starting Pitcher in the NL with ERA’s under 4.50

(If a Quality Start is 3 Runs in 6 Innings, that is 1.5 per 3 Innings = 4.5 over 9)

16 Teams in the National League.. 34 Starting Pitchers with 4.50 ERAs.. translates to about 2 per team..

meaning that for you to EXPECT your #4 or #5 Starter to give you a Quality Start all the time is insane..

Once again, Don, chumps the hell outta Geoff

in actuality, he did us all a favor with that stat, proving how insane these general managers are to keep below average pitchers around (i mean generally speakling) and pay them so much (Carlos Silva) just because theyve “been in the league a few years” or they “eat innings”. well dont you have kids in teh minor leagues that can do that for cheaper and NOT be that much worse?

haha geoff is in rare form lately. as always i can’t help but just shake my head and laugh at his antics… as someone said, i can’t imagine what he’s like at parties. i’d be morbidly curious to check it out.

I haven’t been able to catch too many games by way of radio, Phils games don’t come in clear from where I am but I would supposed he’s taking HK’s death a lot like HK took Whitey’s death, but because he wears his emotions on his sleeve you’re hearing it more now because he lost the fun of calling games.

That means the problem is league-wide. I knwo an awful lot about baseball, especially that this is a recent problem – probably due to the increased steroid testing. Everyone focused ont he hitters and on Clemens and Pettite, but Im willing to get starting pitchers were probably the worst in terms of juicing. So you combine the lack of juicing with the lack of CONDITIONED athletes (able to pitch in 3 or 4 man rotations and pitch 30 CG’s a year, etc that you hear from the glory days of baseball) at that position then you get stuff like this. where you all sit there and WORSHIP a guy who gives you 4 runs in 6 innings like its some herculean feat. granted, on TODAYS game that appears to be significant. But just because thats good for todays game doesnt mean its what you should expect from your starters.

I should thank you, Don, because its even clearer than before. After reading all that, Id blow Moyer and Park outta there TODAY and throw Happ and Carrasco in their places because they CANT be worse because most of the starting pitching in baseball SUCKS!!!! AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!