Phillies Nation

Lidge is a beast, and can get almost anyone out…Except Pujols. Pujols definately has his number, but hey, who cares if Lidge gives up a one run HR and get the rest out if you are up by 3 or 4. Lets keep this going!

It was kind of an ugly win for the Phils but will take it of course. To use Tim’s words..” boneheaded plays in the field and on the bases” and Myers reminded us (after yesterday’s fine outing by Blanton) that problems still exist in the rotation (worst ERA in NL). However, the offense continues to percolate and bailing out the starters. That is the obvious reason for the 14-10 record. My concern now is that when the offense eventually have struggles that goes with a slump, will the pitching (starters in particular) bailout the offense? IMO, Hamels is the obvious key for stabilizing the rotation. His success can have a positive domino effect for the rest of the starters. The sooner Hamels is fully healthy and back in rotation, the better for all.

Phils are living on the unsustainable…poor pitiching…sooner or later it will either spell our doom, or will need to be rectified.
However, no one is pitching consistently well…all are pithcing poorly in the rotation. It is not if we can demote one, leaving the good behind…I suspect, while the hitting is functioning well, we need to demote one of the cruddy starters…bringing up one of our AAA pitchers…to hopefully allow them to be brought in while the bats are hot…

otherwise, this ship is taking on too much water, at a far to faast a pace

The Phils win 7 of 10, sit in 1st place on May 5 and the underlying tone here is doom! This is a good team all around and after 162 games we’ll be back in the playoffs.
@Tom G; we’re not taking on water
@Bruce; offense is carrying the team right now, just as it was built to do. This team was not built to win games by a 3-2 final.
Lastly the new parks in the NL are all hitters parks and guess which team has the best power. The Phils!!!
ps: a thank you to all the goofy architects designing these bandboxes

This should be Park’s last shot as a starter. He has shown us nothing to date. Also, Brett Myers is not earning his keep with hot/cold performances like last night. He just “falls off the mountain” from good pitching to bad pitching, from one good inning followed by a sinker. He earns too much to be pitching like a rookie.

myers looked better than his stat line indicated. both home run pitches were good pitches that got jacked. ludwicks was a low curveball and molina who is not known for his power jacked a high and

Im glad theyre in first place despite their pitching woes. Myers did look decent but he has control problems and is not very efficient at all – which is the problem with most of their starters minus the few good starts blanton and myers have had and the good starts hamels had. too many pitches thrown early in teh game. not efficient enough.

the team ERA is pushing 7, which is dog dirt terrible. somehow theyre still winning (offense). Theyve gotta straighten the pitching situation out soon though, this cant continue.

Myers starts to get himself in trouble when his body opens up to the 1st-base side, instead of throwing through home plate..

that takes all the bite off his pitches, and has them tail back over the heart of the plate..

last nite watching the game i noticed when the camera panned to myers in the dugout he was wincing. i wonder if he got hurt running the bases or something early in the game and thats why he fell off a cliff in the 3rd or 4th inning which ever one it was? i didn’t think he look to bad up to that point. even the pitches that he threw to molina and ludwick weren’t that bad.

It’s not Dubee’s fault… Myers wasn’t doing that to start the game.. I think when he starts to get tired.. his shoulders fly open and he fades towards 1st base when the throws..

They know that, they’ve drawn lines to home plate in the bullpen and made him step on the line and stuff to stay square.

What I noticed was his left foot was going towards home, his upper-half was opening towards 1st.. They’ll see all that on the tape

I blame Dubee for all of this. At some point the pitching coach needs to take some heat. Brett is a good pitcher, he just needs it to be coaxed out of him.

Also, the Lidge vs. Pujols emnity is probably my favorite storyline in baseball.

there isn’t a team in the big leagues that wouldn’t LOVE to have a red light clutch player like Shane Victorino on their team and patrolling center field every day. I’d take Shane over an overpaid primadonna prettyboy like Carlos Beltran any day of the week. Shane is a true gamer, and a winner.