Regarding CHP, if he does seem ineffective, they could place him back on the DL and get KK back on the roster – it wouldn’t be completely unbelievable to say that his hamstring didn’t fully recover. He wouldn’t be eligible for the WS roster, but the Phils probably wouldn’t use him at that point.

-But I would still drop one of them for KK/Condrey. It’s a coin toss. But I say Matt Stairs because his swing appears to be 2x as fast as Dobbs’ is right now. And pitchers fear Stairs’ more. Again, maybe that leads to a walk. Better than a K and it’s as good as a hit.

-Who knows how effective Chan Ho Park is going to be in his 1st app/s since coming off the DL. The xtra pitcher would give the Phillies a little protection.

i hope park is good to go because there is one less pitcher on the team…pedro needs to be sharp, chase needs to go at least 7 innings…

Tall white guys play basketball too.. I even know a few of them personally. What is with the racist tone there?

so, uhm maybe relax.. you seem a little worked up over a blog post.

The ONE skill that Mayberry has is the ability to randomly connect with a fastball and hit it a long way.. but more often than not.. he won’t do anything to help the team ..

What Karma do the Phillies have working against them?

-Everyone said the same thing (not the basketball part as far as I know) about Ryan Howard. Howard would come up for a cup coffe and then they would send him right back to the minors. Some of you said Howard was a bum during this season. Amazingly, some Phillies fans still think Ryan Howard is not clutch.

-I said Mayberry Jr has a ways to go as a hitter. But he can run and he plays pretty good defense. Besides pinch running, Bruntlett could’nt hit the ball out of the infield this season. At least Mayberry Jr has the potential to pop one. What does Matt Stairs or Greg Dobbs bring to the table against the Dodgers lefties in the Pen? Absolutely nothing. Plus karma’s a b*tch. To expt. the same magic from Stairs or Bruntlett this post season is fool’s gold.
-Charlie can’t even give Stairs or Dobbs a start in the OF/3rd against a tough right handed pitcher because they both stink so bad right now. Both their bat and their defense.

-I would’nt feel very comfortable using Pedro out of the pen. Charlie Manuel, this isn’t 1999 anymore. Has struggled badly in the first two inns or so in almost every one of his starts since joining the Phillies. Not just hits, but the longball. Can’t afford that in October unless it’s blowout city, which I think is rather unlikely. KK and his sinker has more value. Truthfully, I wouldn’t use Pedro at all unless one of our top four starters where to go down.

-Respond to a post or don’t respond. But don’t spit out redneck
ignorance.

While I agree with you about Dobb’s effectiveness, what are Charlie’s options at this point? Dobbs is in there to face a Billingsley or Belisario while Stairs is there to match up with Broxton.

-The Dodgers are the favorites again just as they were last year because they’re the “prettier” team on paper.. Why do you think the Mets is always everyone’s spring training pick to win the N.L. East?

-I could careless about predictions…. The winner will be determined by the results on the field(and maybe the umps). Not by the commentary spewed from pundits…

-On the Phils rotation: On paper this is the Phillies greatest advantage. But Charlie seems to be over-managing it again…. With Ciff Lee, Cole Hamels, JA Happ and Joe Blanton, this rotation has the potential to lead us to the promise land. Again!

I hate the last min announ./s by Charlie on his decision/s regarding our rotation… Sometimes you just have to trust the rotaion that helped get you here…. Having JA Happ and Blanton make relief apps and then expecting them to pitch as well as a starter that they did during the regular season is just asking for a disaster…

-Charlie just make a commt with them as starters or relief pitchers and stick with your choices unless there’s an injury or/a desp. situation arrives… This back and forth from relf to starter/last minute bs will blow up in Chuck’s face eventally and it may lead to injuries…

-Brett Myers has a right to be upset(although not publicly) … Bar fight aside, Myers is struggling now because Charlie over used him when he 1st came off the DL. Charlie’s over use of Chan Ho Park too may have contr. to Park’s injury as well.

-This October Charlie has over used his BP just as much as Torre has…

-Pending Lidge, the Phils BP is not all that bad…. I liked KK on the post season roster because he can be the long relief guy out of the Pen that JA Happ was during last year’s NLCS. And it may help Charlie to not over use Park right away.

- I do not agree with Charlie Manuel’s decision to include both Dobbs and Stairs on the NLCS roster. It has to be one or the other. Dobbs looks lost and he also looks 40 years old…And with that brace, he’s not pinch running. His D at third is no better than Cairo’s and I do not trust Dobbs in the OF either… Stairs’ potential postive contribution in the NLCS is barely above Dobbs’… After last year, he won’t see a fastball if he gets a pinch hit opp. in a tight game. If he draws a walk Charlie would have to pinch run for him. Just as they did in Game 2 against the Rockies… Needless to say, but Stairs’ D is nothing to brag about either.

-This may sound crazy, but I would’ve left them both off. With the lefties in the Dodgers pen, both are nearly completely worthless to the Phillies bench late in ball games.

- I would add Mayberry Jr. and drop Dobbs… I beg to differ with the commt. saying that Mayberry Jr. wouldn’t be able to handle the “bright lights” of post season play.. He hit a 3 run homer in his first ML game/second ab.. And it was a nationally televised game in Yankee Stadium II at that..

-This kid has speed and power, he can play 2 OF postions LF/RF. He can run the bases, he is always smiling and having fun in the dug out, including down the stretch in Sept. and he has gotten a little better at hitting off speed pitches( we knowthat he still has a ways to go obviously)

-Since we know Charlie would have to include either Stairs or Dobbs, I would keep Stairs. At least he’ll make contact and his home run last year may induce the Dodgers to pinch around him… Just as the Rockies did in Game 2 and he drew a walk…. That’s better than nothing.. Which is what Dobbs is if he continues to play the way he has so far.

-Last but not least. Charlie seems to have taken to the old Andy Reid theory when it comes to rookies(except Happ).. We all know Reid never liked using rookies on offense. But Reid he has changed in recent years…

-MLB playoffs is a magical universe and anything can happen. It is also a time when a rookie can surprisingly shine with the pose of a post season veteran. Look at K-Rod in 2002. Or Happ last year/this year potentially… Bast. pitched great in Game 2… So why not use him again, and what about Clay Condrey? Is this guy hurt or something. If he’s not then why in the bleep isn’t he on the NLCS roster….. I’d rather have him over Greg Dobbs. Or even KK over Dobbs…

-We are more likely to lose this series in the long-relief or back-end portitions of our BP…. And that theory is true for any team in the playoffs. Look at what happened to the Rockies. But it is even more likely for the Phillies.

-Our O is potent enough to score what ever number of runs needed to win this series… And our BP is just shaky enough to throw our chances out the window. That’s why I would rather have the extra pitcher….

-I would have a better feel for this series if I knew the Phils rotation at least for the 1st 2-3 games. I think it would be foolish to waste Joe Blanton’s talent and exp as a starter. Ditto with Happ. The Dodgers have not faced Cliff Lee or JA Happ. They did see Happ out of the Pen in the NLCS last year as we all know (3.0inns/1er).

-As of right now, I’ll say Phillies in 5 games/6 tops… The Phillies great comeback in Game 4 against the Rockies put this team on another planet. This a cliche, but all the pressure is on the Dodgers. The Dodgers will find out that the Phillies are not the Cardinals. This O does not live and die by the production of one player. And the Phillies don’t melt-down when things don’t go their way. i.e. Eyre’s injury, Raul’s error and Happ’s shaky start.

J-Roll has been the worst lead-off guy in MLB for most of the season and we’re still here. Chase struggled over the last 7 weeks of the reg season and we’re still here. Raul disappered in the 2nd half and we’re still here. Lidge was the worst closer in MLB this year, and yet we are still here.

-This team is relaxed. They’re also confident and they perform brillantly under pressure. Especially on the road.

-I thought they were done when Eyre went down(I thought he was for the season) in Game 3… But not only did they win Game 3. They also had a come back win the next night and Eyre pitched in the 9th inn.

-I will never count this team out again.

-

G 21

AB 64

H 20

R 11

2B 5

3B 0

HR 1

RBI 6

BB 4

SO 12

SB 2

CS 1

OBP .397

SLG .438

AVG .313

Maybe they don’t blow you away … but a .313 average in 64 ABs … and 11 runs scored in 21 games (especially considering he got three ABs in two games in the DS) … he definitely deserves a roster spot and can be valuable to this team.

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG

21 64 11 20 5 0 1 6 4 12 2 1 .397 .438 .313

Maybe they don’t blow you away … but a .313 average in 64 ABs … and 11 runs scored in 21 games (especially considering he got three ABs in two games in the DS) … he definitely deserves a roster spot and can be valuable to this team.

You made my point in ur post, whether or not u realize that. Yes, Furcal may have 7 at-bats against Hamels, and Ethier may have 12, but as a COLLECTIVE UNIT THEY HAVE 110 at-bats, and a horrible history against Hamels. That is much different than “Utley being 1-8 off of a pitcher.”

The same can be said for Kershaw. Yes, obviously each hitter only has 10 or fewer at-bats off of him…the guys 21 years old and plays in a different division! But once again, as a collective unit, the Phillies have tattooed Kershaw. Once again, not a small sample size.

I think you just misunderstood what I commented in that last article. I was saying that, yes, a 1-8 is a small sample size. But a history of six dominant starts against a team (Hamels vs. the Dodgers) is not.