Phillies Nation

Chan Ho with the Vote for Victorino sign on himself after the game was classic. Chan Ho’s recent successful attempt at a beard is leading me to call him the beard instead of Bruntlett. I’ll just call bruntlett the turd or something.

Great win, despite another feeble offensive night. The lack of pinch hitters that we have on the bench right now is really starting to show. No matter what the matchup is, we are almost always getting dominated.

I am going to bed tonight with dreams of Roy Halladay in red pinstripes and Shane in the all-star game.

Our pitching even though its been good of late, ala Mets, Reds. We need starters. We need a bench. Also Werth is a much better player the Howard. I am tired of Ryan. Just does not get the job done.

Great win! Better go vote for Victorino again.

Bad news about Lopez though, he’s been pleasant surprise so far. So if he’s out, who will get the call? Carasco or Carpenter?

Our pinch hitting will improve once Raul gets back. Bruntlett and Coste haven’t been hitting lately, and that’s trouble since they’re our right handed options.

Mayberry, I think he needs more ABs with the IronPigs cause he didn’t look ready to hit major league breaking balls tonight.

I actually thought Mayberry had a good eye for those breaking balls tonight. Sure he was checking his swing on everyone and he did have a bad swing at one of them, but for the most part he was seeing them well. I didn’t like the call when he got rung up.

Alex – I agree. It was a rather generous strike zone this evening particularly when it came to 3rd strikes…there were at least 14 called 3rd strike outs this evening…I fully support a more generous strike zone but that generosity should apply more so to 1 and 2 strikes. I think this is why Shane fouled off so many pitches against A.Rhodes…I think these 3rd strike outs forced him to swing at so many 3-2 questionable pitches until he Rhodes threw something so in arguably a ball . I think its hard for any pinch hitter to know the nusiances of the ump’s strike zone espcially one like tonight. Although, I wouldn’t mind having this guy call tomorrow’s game with Moyer pitching. This ump’s strike zone would have worked well in Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz era where Moyer is right at home.

Obviously each at bat in that inning was huge, but Jimmy being able to draw a walk with that gigantic strike zone speaks volumes in how far he has come in the past week.

Keep it up J Roll !!!

Can Amaro please fix our bench? Having Bruntlett pinch hitting in key situations late in the game is embarrassing. The guy is a lifetime .230 hitter for crying out loud! And don’t get me started on Paul Bako.

I also agree with the bench comments. Why do the Phils have 3 catchers on the roster? And Bruntlett? I think Donald could come up and hit higher than .140.

Was that Lt. Frank Drebin behind the plate last night? He was calling everything a strike. that’s the reason the score was so low. But I can’t stand when I see that. Nobody is paying money to see the umpire. They want to see the players decide the game.

Eric Bruntlett- The baseball equivalent of a punt. I have long been a proponent of the theory that the more you curse Eric Bruntlett- the better he hits. I was at both games last year when he came up with huge 9th inning hits- against the Astros and the Mets. And both times I was cursing him out. The problem this year is that most people just change the channel when he comes up to bat, and I don’t blame them. So you need to watch him and curse him out when he is batting. Either that or Amaro has to find a righthanded hitter playing independent ball or something. Can we steal Kevin Mench away from the Hanshin Tigers?

It’s nice to see Dobbs back to where he was. Didn’t he get regular ABs when Ryan Howard’s Corpse played first base last April and May?

And Don M, where have you been? I haven’t seen you post here in awhile.

Dobbs was hitting in the .100s two months ago, then in the .200s a month ago, and now he’s hitting in the .300s

The guy needed playing time, plain and simple. At least something good came out of RAUUUUUUL’s injury.

And vote for Shane Victorino… voting ends at 4

Manny.. you hit it dead-on. and I think we can expect his average to dip again though when his playing time decreases .. with Ibanez back in the lineup

that is why I hardly ever get on the Miguel Cairo’s, Chris Coste’s and Eric Bruntlett’s of the world.. because if we’re counting on them to hit .300 and to win games for us.. than we really have bigger problems to worry about

That one Rollins play.. I think it was Lance Nix at 1st base… Nix was definitely safe.. he beat the throw, and Howard’s foot was off the bag.

but I’ll take it..

yea, the home plate ump really, really struggled last night.. but they get graded, and i’m sure that will get noted, and he won’t get to work playoff games.

We dont even know what they asked for or what Ruben offered yet, so lets take it easy with Halalday. Its all guesswork until we hear real names surface in leaked discussions.

There were a couple of close plays…… being at the park, you don’t have the benefit of instant replay. The best play that he made was the one where he fielded a groundball, almost falling over forward, 10-15 feet behind second base, and made a strong throw across his body to get the guy running to first. The fact that he stopped the ball, which was hit pretty hard, before it got to the outfield was remarkable and then to make the throw… I was in awe.

I think a very underrated part of that 9th inning was Rollins. We keep talking about his inability to be patient at the plate, but he was money in the 9th last night, taking every pitch and working a walk to put Feliz in scoring position for Victorino. Obviously Victorino’s hit was the big play, but after Bako’s embarrassing bunt attempt, and Bruntlett’s predictable weak fly ball, Rollins’ walk was huge.

Yeah, that Ryan Howard totally stinks. No team would ever want him playing for them. Rico Brogna for President!

In all the talk about Halladay, who we would or wouldn’t give up to get him, etc., there’s still one unanswered question: Does he WANT to come here at all? He’s got a no-trade clause in his contract. It may not make a bit of difference who we offer or how much he would cost. I’m in my 50′s and remember a time when the big-league team and the farm system were both total garbage, and I don’t want to wipe out our farm system ever again. It would be just our Philly luck to get this guy and then have him fall down the steps in the dugout and break his arm!