Phillies Nation

very happy with the split. as that is what I was realistically thinking they would do heading into the series. although the way they lost those two, man. sweeping LA, in LA (where they’ve been nearly unbeatable so far) would have really made a statement.

a sweep against the mets next and this division race could be over sooner rather than later. they could put some serious distance between themselves and a mets team which is really reeling right now and recently got swept by the pirates.

eww grammer check

I think if Bastardo can work on his Change a lil more, and have more comfort throwing it, he could stay in the rotation for a long while..

Yeah exactly 4days. I think if he can keep locating his fastballs and stay out of situations where he HAS to throw the FB and they know it’s coming, he will be okay. Like 3-2 counts against good hitters who know a FB is coming, they will get on top of it.

by the way Tim – you do great work on the site – please don’t take this as a true hit – seriously kudos to you man!

Yeah i agree with Ryan, record wise, they are the best. But the fightins came in and had a lead in the 9th of all 4 games, but sadly only 2 W to show for it.

I still say we don’t need to change anything until June 30. 5-2 in tough June is good. Could’ve been 7-0 without my guy, but it is OK. I would have given the Ashburn to Park only in case he’ll never be able to see it again LOL

So can we be excited about Bastardo yet?

I mean many on here keep saying that his stuff is not really major league ready. He handled National spot light pretty well.

Only 1 walk, 4 K’s against a very solid Dodger lineup.

I am excited!!!

All the people that knock Wheeler all the time.. how much better is he than the ESPN crew!!!!

At least ten times last night they tried to make reference to some game, or some situation.. but they couldn’t remember what year, what teams, what players, how many extra innings, etc..

Wheeler may be annoying to some, but to me.. his insight, and ability to recall old stories, as they pertain to the current scenario in a given game make him a very underrated broadcaster.. and I like him more and more, when he’s away and Sarge gets on TV ..

In addition, I would not be afraid of any one with a starting staff that includes Cole, JB, JA, Moyer, Bastardo.
And what about Chooch and Pete Happy hitting over .300
Jroll with a couple of hits and at least on out was hit hard up the middle and not popped up to outfield. Will Charlie keep him down in the line up against the Muts or will he be leading off on Tuesday.

On a side note Raul has had 2 slumps this year and they have lasted a total of 6 at bats. Even when he gets outs he hits the ball on the screws almost every time.

Tony Bastard comes after guys, I think he’s got some pretty decent stuff. Keep him in the rotation. A lot of the elite starters on everyone’s radar aren’t putting up the starts that Bastardo and Happ have been throwing up there. Consistency obviously remains to be seen, but I like how these two guys really go after hitters.

People need to back off Lidge a bit. This site is like PANICnation.com. And stop saying we could have easily swept the series, cause guess what? We didn’t. Dodgers took the season series 4-3.

Games are 9 innings whether we have a lead in the 8th or not, and the only reason we are thinking along these lines is cause the Phils went an impossible 80 something -0 last year taking leads into the 9th. You can thank Lidge for that mindset.

Personally I want the Phils to stand pat until the deadline. Give Bastardo a chance. The kid is getting people out with one pitch. I thought when he threw his CU it was excellent. Good location. -12 veleoicty. I liked it, but Ruiz would never call for it. Let the guy work mostly FB the first time thru, then mix in the CU the 2nd time thru, and the CU and SL the 3rd time thru. I think the kid can do it.

I’d be wary of counting on Bastardo all season. He has good stuff when he is able to locate his slider and changeup but he falls behind hitters and he guys hitters seem to have better at bats against him the third time around.

Let’s see how he does against the AL teams before we get too excited.

2 out of 3 at Shiti Field would be ab awesome end to an awesome road trip

Isnt that funny ??? ha ha ha

That’s funny, Don…………

Also……..I agree….I DON’T really relish the thought of facing the Dodgers in the playoffs this year. They (the Dodgers) are a better team than last season and they will be hungry for a rematch. Manny or no Manny…they are the team to beat as of now.

That sucks Don M. Life sucks sometimes.

I guess i’ll get off here for a while now… once again the lack of ability to police the site makes today a bad one on PhilliesNation ..

Gotta have a way to make people register, or have a password for their name or something..

Anyway.. have fun “the fake me” you are cool

Dave – I am sick of everyone slamming Lidge on BOTH. 2 to the Phillies – 1 to Brad Lidge and 1 to who knows who. The Phillies were ALL bad on the one. Lidge blew one no doubt – but he had lots of help on the other. Yes we want him to close it, but he would have closed it without the help.

I agree we should all log in because people come in with our names if you do it. well I woul’nt be here. Lets go mets hah ha ah aha ha lets go mtes phillies suck ha ha

don, i don’t have any reason to believe they’ll pitch significantly worse. moyer and blanton are both very good pitchers. i know some people don’t want to believe so based on a few bad starts this season, but as charlie said, these are the guys who won us a world series last season.

as for bastardo, any pitcher who can locate a low 92+ mph fastball as consistently as he has so far has big mlb upside. even the mistakes he made last night were generally good, pitches on the corners that many more experienced pitchers will have called for strikes. his slider still didn’t have good location but it helped keep hitters off balance. and i’ll need to see the analysis, but i think he once again barely used his changeup, by my count about 5 times. this is genius on his and ruiz’s part, as the longer he can protect that pitch, the more continued success he’ll have. and even when he needs to use it more often, if he keeps locating that low fastball and pounding hitters inside and on the corners, i honestly think bastardo has a bright, bright future.

oswalt is clearly on the downside of his career. penny is an injury prone scrub at this point. marquis is mediocre. halladay won’t be available. peavy probably won’t accept a trade here, and even if he does, you have to take his splits away from petco, his age, his mechanics, etc into consideration. the only realistic names thrown around so far i’d have any interest in would be bedard and duke, and considering both are lefites and happ and bastardo are showing so much promise right now, i vote firmly in the stand pat camp so far.

I hate Wheeler and so did Harry god rest his sole. If it wasn’t for volkovich he would have been fired years ago. Vok used to give him the signs before the game, so wheels knew what pitch or move on the bases they were doing. What I

The more tape that comes out on Bastardo, the easier people will hit him, especially if he’s throwing FASTBALL 80+ % of the time..

Is Chien-Ming Wang available?.. might be able to get him cheap.. throw Marson in a deal.. because when Posada went out they had to use some journeyman Catcher that caught for 4 of the 5 AL EAST teams before (can’t remember his name).. but that made me belive they didn’t have anyone close to take over for Posada.

I’m a big fan of both Moyer and Blanton.. and have so said a lot.. but they have both been way too inconsistent this year to want to have faith in looking towards the future..

Blanton would be a very nice 3rd or 4th pitcher.. but when he sets up as our #2.. its not too solid. Happ is moving up in my mind though

I basically consider Happ our number 3 guy. He fits the mold of what I expect from a 3. He is efficient and can dominate for stretches of innings. This guy could even be better than that. I really really like what Happ brings to the table.

I agree 100% that if the Phillies do trade for a pitcher, it should be a frontline starter (Peavy, Oswalt, Bedard, Cliff Lee) and NOT a Brad Penny/Doug Davis/Jason Marquis-type pitcher.

I keep making excuses for Oswalt, but he’s simply not pitching well. Peavy and Oswalt have a TON of money coming to them, so I think Bedard and Cliff Lee are more likely candidates. Hopefully they stay far, far away from Marquis and Penny.

I am going to have a sex change on friday and I will change my name to Donna. wish me luck!