Phillies Nation

please no mention of magic numbers

It wouldn’t hurt if Second Half Ryan Howard showed up any day now.

JoeFan, rosters expand to 40 in 4 weeks so I don’t think the Phils think it is a huge concern.

joe my thoughts are you have to make way too many assumptions to get to the point you’re talking about. while i’d like to see pedro do well, i have no faith at this point he’ll ever make a start for the phils. the issues regarding health, like you said with condrey, are vague at best. let’s just let things play out and see where the chips fall, the speculation at this point is futile.

Moving Happ to the pen would flat-line his ROY candidacy.

I can’t help but feel the Phillies need to take some more bad losses in the coming weeks, to me there’s a worry complacency will be an issue especially going into the short play-off series which looks like it’ll be against either the Cards, Giants or Rockies. This team is so used to making up ground to get into the play-offs and haven’t been in a position where they’ve had to prepare themselves mentally going into the last couple of weeks of the regular season, this is going to be new ground. We’ve just got to hope that lynchpins of this team like Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels start to find the peak of their game when it matters, as much as I’d love to see MVP contention and glossy numbers the only thing we have to worry about is whether this team can get themselves ready to be a play-off team and that won’t show up in the win loss column or the individual stats.

Chuck – a 5 game lead in August is huge. If I would have offered you a 5 game lead in August at the beginning of the season, you would have taken it. As hot as the Marlins have been, we have a 5 game lead… the Marlins are putting pressure on themselves, proclaiming that the division is within reach. That’s bulletin board material… shouldn’t they be focusing on the wild card first? I think that we take 4 of six from the Rox/Fish…

I liked our 7 game lead much better. Huge 6 game home stand with the fish playing the Nats. I agree that I’ll be happy up 5 with 2 in hand after this week.

We end the season with 10 of 13 on the road. This lead is far from commanding, IMO. Other than Ibanez none of our top guys have been able to take games off(Ok, Rollins was benched for 4). The lack of rest concerns me down the stretch.

Original Chuck P…..we’ll see. Next Monday I could be saying to you that things look very bleak or…..eating my words. Honestly, I will be happy with a split of these 6 games. 4 of 6 would be awesome.

Our 32 road wins is more than any other team in baseball… 32-19 on the road is remarkable. That tells me that a.) we’re not playing as well as we should at home and b.) we are probaly going to drop some of those road series’ down the stretch. Law of averages… hopefully, this 6 game homestand is a good one.

4 out of 6 is expected…

Gotta take it one series and one game at a time and tonight we have to get the bats going against Jason Hammel. It looks like it’s going to be a great night for baseball (high 70′s to low 80′s with less humidity) so cheers to all!

Can we please stop sending Happ to the pen and Pedro to the rotation? Two things need to happen BEFORE that takes place:
1) Pedro needs to be very good in the minors. So far, not so good.
2) Happ needs to start blowing up. So far, he’s still our best pitcher.

Why are we taking these two things for granted, especially the first one (Pedro looked like Carrasco (09 version) in his last outing)??

Cole’s last start wasn’t that bad. If Howard makes that ten foot toss we still have the 3-1 lead. Don’t underestimate those Giants either.
Let’s all enjoy this critical part of the season–we are on the cusp of greatness.

paul garrett says~ “Cole’s last start wasn’t that bad.” Huh? You must be looking through rose-colored glasses. (chuckles)

When Howard attempted a foolish toss to Hamels, the game was already tied at 3 apiece. Before that error, F. Sanchez had doubled off Hamels to center, B. Zito and E. Velez scored. As noted in my post for another thread, it was Hamel’s ineffectiveness that the Giants took advantage for 10 hits and 7 runs in 5+ innings. When he couldn’t get an out with first four batters in the 6th inning, Manuel had enough and yanked him out of the game. Simply put, Hamels stunk and has become a growing concern as his ERA rose to 4.68. All eyes on Hamels for his next start.

Bruce,
Sorry, man, but did you watch the game on Sunday or just read the box score?

Hamels didn’t stink.

He was straight dealing for 4.2 innings. He’d allowed one run on just three hits and no walks, was leading 3-1 and was cruising. He had retired 10 straight batters.

Pitchers who retire 10 straight batters aren’t getting lit up.

Then came the broken bat single by Zito (!), the bloop hit and the error. Next thing you know it’s 4-3. The Phils offense has a quick inning, and Hamels goes right back out there and fell apart in the sixth.

That fifth inning was a fluke. Cole made three really good pitches that should have gotten him out of the inning — one each to Zito, Velez and on the error.

Fluky innings happen in baseball and Cole should have responded better.

So if you want to jump on Hamels for getting too frustrated and losing his command or for not bearing down at a critical time, I’m right there with you.

But don’t tell me he stunk or got lit up because that’s just not true.

His stuff is still there. He’s showed prolonged stints of the 2008 Hamels in his last few starts. And there’s still a good chance he’ll pull it together for the stretch run.

Yea the problem with Hamels is that as soon as something doesn’t go the way he planned it… he loses his cool … and when you normally get by on being “Ultra-Cool Hollywood Hamels” .. you have to keep your head in the game

That is why I said earlier this season that I was more confident with Happ on the mound than I was with Hamels … outside of his Playoff run last year (which is historic, amazing, unreal.. and whatever other great words we can think of)

Has Hamels lived up his his “ACE” billing?

Giving up 10 hits (bloops, rockets, broken-bats or otherwise) isn’t good… Moyer gets ripped on here when he gives up 8 hits, and more often than not, they are bloops …

Hamels needs to get in gear and start pitching like he’s capable… his arm is probably SHOT from throwing 6,789 innings last year.. but if that’s the case, skip a start or two and get set for September and beyond

Cole since the All-star break:

He was good in that 5 inning -rain delayed game, good again in his 7inning, 3ER performance against SD, then really good in his next outing (8 innings, 9Ks 1ER), and was very good also in the first 4 innings of the last game…

To me, this shows that he’s already turning it around… he still needs to remember how to keep his cool when things go bad… but his pitching is coming back and most signs are that he’ll keep getting better.

–

The one player that really concerns me at this point is Lidge… Think about this hypothetical scenario: Cliff Lee goes 8 innings, and Lidge comes in for the 1-run save in an NLDS game… I’d rather not watch.
I remember watching him shut down the Mets beautifully in back-to-back games at CBP, not letting anyone get on base. If he could only regain the form he had for those two games… he looked flat-out dominant.

I have to agree the Happ thing to the pen is outrageous, he has one kind of bad game in what 8 starts or 9. The guy can pitch, and he will remain in the rotation, Moyer is not going away either, which I feel is good, despite the haters in here. Pedro probably will not pitch on the phillies, unless he agrees to go to the pen to be called up. If they struggle during this weeks homestand I might worry a little. But the last week does not bother me they have not had a day off in a what two weeks. And were do to struggle on the road a little bit eventually.
And despite his average, which is down from last year even, Brutlett got on base a couple of times last year in the post season if I am not mistaking so cut the guy some slack, he is not on the team to hit. That is why the Lee trade was so awesome cause they also go a right handed bench bat that can play all three out field positions.
The lack of real work for the pen is what concerns me, did I miss something or has Mad Dog not pitched in like a week. But I have faith and think the pen will come around in Sept Oct. and Nov.

so we should ignore cole falling apart in the 6th because the 5th inning wasn’t entirely his fault? pretend the runs he was responsible for in the 6th inning didn’t happen because he was “straight dealing” a few innings previous? who cares? he stunk against a mediocre offense. people need to stop making excuses for him. he needs to get this season back on track and fast.