Phillies Nation

March is quickly coming to an end.  The Phillies play one more game in Clearwater before returning north for an exhibition series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  April 5th will be here before we know it.  There was plenty of Phillies news to end the third month of the year:

• The Phillies lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2.

Roy Halladay surrendered four runs in the first inning.  He would settle down by striking out the side in the second, and retiring the side in order in the third.  In the three innings he worked, he struck out five.

Placido Polanco and Ben Francisco provided the Phillies with their only two runs.  They each hit solo shots.

• Brad Lidge received a Cortisone shot.

Lidge is having elbow troubles once again.  Lidge has inflammation on the outer part of his elbow.  His off-season surgery was on the inner part.  No MRI will be required for this injury, as there is no structural damage.

Michael Ciccotti, the team physician, said that the injury is due to “[Lidge's] reconditioning routine.”  Lidge’s goal is to return by mid-April, although it could be later.

• Joe Blanton injured his left oblique muscle.

The Phillies will not know more about the injury until tomorrow, when Blanton is examined by the team doctor.  Blanton, who was scheduled to pitch on Saturday, felt the injury when throwing a bullpen session today.

Blanton has never been placed on the disabled list in his career.  If Blanton were to miss time during the season, Kyle Kendrick would likely be the one to fill his shoes.

If the Blanton and Lidge injuries weren’t bad enough, Carlos Ruiz was kept out of today’s lineup after being hit by a pitch on the arm yesterday.  The move was just cautionary though.

• The Phillies signed right handed pitchers Josh Fogg and Ty Taubenheim to minor league contracts.

Both pitchers will report to minor league camp.  These moves could kick Brandon Duckworth out of Triple-A.

Fogg was recently released by the New York Mets.  He has a career 62-69 record, and 5.03 ERA.   Taubenheim has only pitched in 46 major league innings, and also has an ERA over five.

Pittsburgh Pirates: (62-99, 6th place in the N.L. Central in 2009)

Ah, the Pirates. The team of perpetual rebuilding, or so they’ve come to be known over the last two decades. Few stretches of futility compare with the Pirates’ postseason-less run. Last year, their seventeenth straight without an October run, at least showed a bit of promise to cap an otherwise dreary decade. Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen emerged as a solid offensive producer with plenty of potential yet to realize, and Garrett Jones highlighted a bunch of unheralded players who showed flashes of promise, but the team clearly needed to relieve itself of more dead weight and finished with a sickly 63-99 record.

Only McCutchen, Jones and Nyjer Morgan posted OBPs above .350 among the Pirates’ regular starters, and Morgan ended up being traded to Washington mid-season. In fact, four Opening Day starters ended up being dealt at some point last year, with Morgan, Adam LaRoche, Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson all being sent packing. It was another tumultuous season filled with losses and turnover, overshadowing the few bright spots found within.

Of the 16 N.L. teams, the Pirates ranked 14th or worse in runs scored, hits, home runs, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and total bases. Of those same teams on the pitching side, the Bucs ranked 14th or worse in ERA and runs allowed and 13th in hits allowed. Optimism was, needless to say, in short supply.

2010 Season

Some in Pittsburgh are not without hope, though. McCutchen shows the promise of becoming a core player, someone the Pirates can build around to, hopefully, form a contending team in the near future. Prospect Pedro Alvarez seems likely to break into the M.L. lineup sometime this summer, and he should join with McCutchen to form a nice one-two punch in the middle of the order.

The pitching staff leaves a little bit to be desired. Zach Duke and Paul Maholm provided serviceable innings, and even Ross Ohlendorf submitted a decent season’s work (albeit with a bit of luck, holding batters to a .265 BABIP, the third lowest in the Majors last year). None of those is really a number one starter, though, and the bullpen isn’t exactly fraught with talent, either. All of the hope for the future of the Pirates – McCutchen excepted – lies deep in the minor leagues. Two-thousand ten likely won’t be a year of reckoning, where the Pirates rise in a 2008 Rays-like fashion to stun the baseball world, but at least 2012 is looking all right.

Hey, when your team has been as disappointing as the Pirates have been over the past two decades, you take what you can get. Honestly, I do see the Pirates winning more games, but for reasons neither I, nor their currently assembled roster, could rationally explain. But you know, I did hear this crazy story the other day about genetically modified pigs sprouting wings…

Prediction: 71-91

Folks, if you missed out on the party, here’s your chance to be involved in the Phillies Nation Opening Day trip to Washington D.C.  Phillies Nation, along with our partner radio station 97.3 ESPN FM in South Jersey, is giving away two tickets, including a ride on the bus and a spot at the tailgate.  Here’s how to win:

Up until we give the tickets away on April 1st, listen in to the Sports Bash with Mike Gill from 3-7 Monday through Friday on 97.3 ESPN FM or 973ESPN.com. Mike will ask Phillies trivia questions to callers at a specific time in the show (listen in, he’ll tell you when), and if you answer the question correctly, you’ll be entered to win the two spots on the DC Bus trip.

For readers of the site, here’s the added bonus:  Below are the questions we will be asking today.  Each day we will ask a new set of 10 questions and they will be posted here on Phillies Nation.  Be sure to listen in and give yourself a chance to hang with hundreds of Phillies fans as Roy Halladay takes the mound for the first time in DC.

Good luck and remember, the only way to win is to tune into 97.3 ESPN FM or 973ESPN.com from 3-7 today up until the giveaway on April 1st!

Today’s 10 Phillies Trivia Questions:

DAY 5:

• Name 3 of the 4 Phillies who have been named NLCS MVP:
• This former Phillie is the oldest player in MLB history to hit a home run.
• This TOP 20 Phillie of all-time has led the team in stolen bases in a season more times than any other player in franchise history?
• Who were the last 2 Phillies to lead off a game with back-to-back home runs.  Hint: they still play together:
• Name the only 2 Phillies to hit for the Cycle since 1980:
• In the 2007 NLDS in which the Phillies were swept by the Rockies, the Phils only managed to score 8 runs.  Who was the only Phillie to cross the plate more than once in that series?
• Name 2 of the 3 former Phillies that played on the Florida Marlins 1997 World Series team:
• In the epic NLCS Game 4 comeback last season (the one in which J-Roll hit a 2-run double to win it off Jon Broxton) who was the pinch runner that scored the tying run in the 9^th before Carlos Ruiz came around to score the winning run?
• Name 3 of the 5 players in the infamous 5-for-1 deal that brought Von Hayes to Philadelphia.
• In 1997, this huge free agent signing managed just 7 at-bats before missing the season after fouling a ball off his foot and breaking it. He had over 200 career home runs before his time in Philly, but couldn’t manage a hit during his quick stint here.   Who was this masher ?

By: Nick “The Beerman” Staskin

MILWAUKEE BREWERS (80-82, third place in NL Central in 2009)

While some teams do it with pitching, that just isn’t the Milwaukee Brewers recipe for success. Dual-MVP candidates, Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun did all they could to try to take the BrewCrew to the top of the NL Central last year, falling short.

In 2009, Fielder put together a line of 46 home runs, 141 RBI while batting a clip of .299 and an OPS of 1.014. He is on the very short list of power bats I’d take over our own first base slugger. Their other bomber, Braun, saw his average jump from .285 to .320 in his second full season while pounding out 32 homers and 114 RBI.

However, as stated near the top there just wasn’t any pitching aside from young ace, Yovani Gallardo. And to be honest, not much has changed since last year.

2010 Season

Last year, part of the Brewers struggles could be put on the head of J.J. Hardy who failed to find the success that he had earlier in his young career. He was sent packing, hoping that any production Milwaukee can get out of the short stop position will be better than what they received from Hardy.

This year, they hand over the reins to Alcides Esocobar, a rookie with a lot of promise.  If Rickie Weeks can rebound from injury and third baseman Casey McGehee continues to improve off a decent rookie season their bats are set, when you include Fielder, Braun and former All-Star Corey Hart.

The only acquisition the Brewers really made in the offseason was bringing in former Phillie, Randy Wolf to step behind Gallardo in the rotation. While it doesn’t sound like much, compared to the rotation from last year, the words leaps and bounds come to mind.

PREDICTION: 89-73

Between last year’s participants and this year’s new signups we have had a tremendous amount of entries into the Phillies Nation fantasy baseball leagues.

However, ESPN will not let any drafts happen until the league is full and all people who were invited have accepted. If you have not accepted your invitation by 9 p.m. tonight, we will have to delete your invite in order for the leagues to be filled. Drafts well be held throughout the day on Saturday.

Good luck this season!

St. Louis Cardinals (91-71, first place in NL Central)

Back when when we were at The Phrontiersman, Paul and I did a playoff projection pool with our friends and families (his Yankee-fan girlfriend predicted the outcome of every single series and won). I got in trouble when my predicted NL champion, the Cardinals, got swept in the first round. Since then, not much has changed. They’ve ditched Joel Pineiro and Mark DeRosa’s medical history, but the core remains.

I don’t know how a team with so few quality players can be any better than the 2009-10 Cardinals. They manage it because they’ve got two of the five best starting pitchers in the National League, two quality outfielders (including one, Colby Rasmus, who’s getting a lot of love for a breakout 2010 on the heels of his 16-homer rookie season), the best defensive catcher in baseball, and that dude Pujols.

Albert Pujols is mind-bendingly good, as I’m sure you know. He just turned 30 in January, and has already hit 366 major league home runs. His WAR of 8.5 last year was as good as Ichiro and Shane Victorino combined. He’s literally two all-stars in one. He’s third all-time in career OPS, up with Babe Ruth and Ted Williams and Barry Bonds. At one point late last summer (I don’t know if this held up until October), he was twice as likely to hit a homer with the bases loaded than he was to swing and miss at a pitch. He’s a truly transcendent player, and I don’t know that we’ll ever see the like of him again.

But after Pujols, there’s a huge drop-off to Matt Holliday, and from him, a huge drop in quality to Brendan Ryan, Rasmus, and Yadier Molina, and after that, who knows?

Essentially, the Cardinals won 90 games last year on the strength of Pujols, their top two starting pitchers, and tremendous good fortune. Ryan Franklin held up as a dominant closer for most of the year. Pineiro developed a bowling ball sinker. Zombie John Smoltz turned into a solid No. 4 starter.

Perhaps most ridiculously, Skip Schumaker acquitted himself quite well after converting to second base from the outfield. While infielders move to the outfield quite often with great success (Mickey Mantle, for instance, was originally a shortstop), the opposite almost never happens. But Schumaker, while he didn’t light the world on fire, continued to hit .300 and walk some while not killing the Cards at the keystone. That’s the kind of break the Cardinals always seem to get, and it’s what put them into a position to mount a serious challenge for the pennant.

2010 Season

The good news for Cardinals fans is that the rest of the NL Central is in such a state that they don’t need all the same breaks to get back into the playoffs. I’m going to contradict my esteemed colleague Pat Gallen here, but the NL Central, apart from St. Louis is like a Dane Cook TV special–just one terrible joke after another.

I can’t name more than four Pittsburgh Pirates without using Google. The Reds don’t have any proven star-quality players and are toiling under the leadership of the only manager in baseball whom I’d describe as an albatross–Dusty Baker. In Houston, Ed Wade is trying to win by reassembling the 2003 Phillies. Lou Piniella’s Flying Circus is just getting older and more dysfunctional. That leaves the Brewers, a team that could steal the division, but needs even more lucky breaks than the Cardinals to do so.

St. Louis would be the third-best team (at best) in four of the other five divisions in baseball, but due to fortunate geographical circumstances, they’re in a division where having two good starters and one monster position player is good enough to win 90 games.

Of course, once they win the division, Wainwright and Carpenter go from pitching 40 percent of the time to 2/3 of the time. I’m not saying that’s enough for me to pick them to win the pennant again, but they scare me.

Prediction: 90-72

Some breaking news coming down the Twitter line, via all the Phillies beat guys – Jamie Moyer has officially been named the 5th starter in the rotation by Charlie Manuel.

Kyle Kendrick, who started today against Houston and pitched just two frames, will head to the bullpen.  Both men have pitched very well throughout this spring, but the 47-year-old Moyer will get the nod as the season begins in less than one week.

It’s likely at some point we will see Kendrick on the hill to start a game, however, the Phillies feel Moyer and his albatross of a contract deserve one more shot in 2010.  Thoughts??

Houston Astros (74-88, fifth place in NL Central in 2009)

Five years ago, the Houston Astros painfully knocked the Phillies out of playoff contention.  Time flies.  No more Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, or Roger Clemens.  Despite having an entirely different core, the Astros have plenty of experienced players.  In 2009, the Astros relied on Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, and Carlos Lee.

Although they had power hitters like Berkman and Lee, the Astros finished towards the bottom in runs scored.  Their pitching was not much better, collecting a 4.54 team earned run average.  Roy Oswalt, who was once a Cy Young candidate, had a poor year that was plagued with injuries.  The only consistent pitcher was Wandy Rodriguez, who surprised us all with 14 wins and a 3.02 ERA.

2010 Season

The Astros made several moves this off-season, giving them a familiar look.  Ed Wade, the Phillies former general manager, signed Pedro Feliz and Brett Myers, who join former teammates Michael Bourn and Jason Michaels.

The Astros weren’t done.  With the departure of Jose Valverde, the Astros traded for Matt Lindstrom and found a new closer in Brandon Lyon.  Lyon was given a very pricey three-year, $15 million contract.

The Astros made a significant amount of changes, but still have plenty of question marks.  Does anybody know who Tommy Manzella is?  He’s their shortstop.   J.R Towels was once a highly touted prospect and will be given the opportunity to catch everyday.  However, the 25-year old’s hasn’t been able to reach the Mendoza line during his time in the majors.

Berkman and Oswalt have both been bothered with injuries this spring.  In addition, Wandy Rodriguez will have to prove that 2009 was not a fluke.

The outfield is set with Lee, Bourn, and the emerging star Pence, but they will not be enough to carry the Astros towards playoff contention.

Prediction: 79-83

Cincinnati Reds: (78-84, 4th place – NL Central in 2009)

Same old, same old for the Cincinnati Reds. It’s been a decade of mediocrity, and nothing was done a year ago to change that same old, same old mentality.  True, they aren’t the Pirates, but they are close.  The Reds have averaged just 74 wins over the past nine seasons, or, since their last winning season.  That was in 2000 when they won 85 games. It go so bad, the Phillies managed to run up a 22-1 victory over Cincy in June.  Just that kind of year.

In 2009, Dusty Baker’s crew was slightly unlucky.  Injuries ravaged the club from top to bottom.  Joey Votto, their young, slugging first baseman appeared in only 131 games, yet somehow managed a .322 average with 25 home runs. His .981 ranked third best in the National League behind only Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.  Votto is in some serious company.  Now, if only the rest of his team could catch up.

Other injuries included ace pitcher Edinson Volquez undergoing Tommy John surgery after just nine starts.  Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion was walking wounded throughout his Reds career and ’09 was no different as he missed two months with a broken wrist, then was traded to Toronto for Scott Rolen. Their lineup was a merry-go-round of players, as only two regulars (Votto and second baseman Brandon Phillips) reached 500 plate appearances.  Yikes.

2010 Season:

How will it get better for the Reds?  Well, there are several “What-if’s”.  What if the Reds get some pitching? Of course, it’s always about the arms race and a year ago they were just plain awful.  Bronson Arroyo was the best tosser of the bunch, going 15-13 with a 3.84 ERA, his best stat line in four years.  Johnny Cueto needs to do a 180 back to his sizzling rookie year and Homer Bailey finally needs to take a step toward becoming a major league pitcher.  An Aaron Harang comeback couldn’t hurt either.  He won 32 games in 2006 and 2007, then just 12 in ’08 and ’09 .  They need him.

As for phenom rookie Aroldis Chapman; it’s a harsh reality that Dusty Baker might be handling him this year.  Baker has been known to overwork his young pitching and wear out their arms, just as he did with Mark Prior in Chicago. Let’s hope he’s easier on Chapman.

Offensively, will anyone hit?  It’s a basic question, but the answer is one that has eluded this Reds ballclub. As a unit, they managed a .247/.318/.394 split line, which was near the bottom in the NL for each category. They are led by Votto and Phillips and will need to be once again.  However, Jay Bruce, Rolen, and new shortstop Orlando Cabrera need to make this a feared lineup.  Easier said than done.  Because it hasn’t been done since the turn of this century.

With the Central strong at the top with St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, it’ll be tough for Cincinnati to make a move up.

PREDICTION: 75-87

-The Phillies cut 11 minor leaguers today, including Joe Bisenius who had a cup of coffee with the Phils in 2007.  He, along with Brad Wilkerson, the former Expo, were let go.  Wilkerson was attempting to make a comeback with the Phillies, but it appears he’ll have to latch on somewhere else.  He was brought in for no other reason than to give the minors some depth, but they have parted ways today.

Other than that, no real shockers of those who were released. Here is the list: Pitchers Spencer Arroyo, Freddy Ballestas, Ryan Bergh, Sean Grieve, Jordan Meeker, Todd Van Steensel and Rick Guttormson. Infielder Jeremy Hamilton and outfielders Gus Milner and Arlon Quiroz.

-Is Jayson Werth being courted deviously by the Yankees? Werth had lunch with Yankees great Reggie Jackson yesterday, and although it is not considered tampering, it certainly looks suspicious.

Werth called Jackson a long-time friend and said he’s known him since he was seven years old. Whatever the case may be, it looks fishy to those on the outside.  It’s going to be talking about all year long, this impending Werth free-agency at the end of the season.  So, unfortunately, this is the news of the day.

What are your thoughts on a possible Yankee/Werth marriage down the line?  I think it would sting so much more if the Yankees or Mets were involved, strictly from a fans perspective.

-Buster Olney of ESPN.com wrote an interesting piece today about getting rid of divisions in MLB.  While he brings up some solid points (namely that the Yankees and Red Sox are jerks…kidding…maybe) I just don’t see Major League Baseball messing with this too much.  Now, adding another Wild Card team could be beneficial, but this rabid realignment seems overblown to me.