Phillies Nation

Stepping into this game in the middle of the second, confounded but what I was seeing. Great game all in all.

Don’t know about KK anymore. Feel like he doesn’t belong in the Majors but still want to give him the opportunity to redeem himself. There’s potential there.

I don’t see any hope or potential for Kendrick at all. His pitches have little movement, and he can’t hit his marks for the life of himself. 2007 was his best season where he went 10-4 with a 3.87 era. After that….He fell off the face of the earth. I think that ”punk’d” incident after the 2007 season really put a lot of weight on his shoulders and put him on cloud nine, like it really made him feel like a superstar…Than he fell off the cloud, bumped his head, and came back into reality. I have a feeling that his next trade incident wont be so fabricated next time.

Am I stupid for not having given up on Kendrick yet?

1 bad start, 1 TERRIBLE start…and I still think he can do a lot better.

He’s nervous or something, but I seriously believe he’s not pitching up to his abilities.

Laugh if you like, call me crazy for all I care!

Regardless of what I think he’s capable of though, this KK guy is KKILLING(get it?) us right now, and I don’t know if we’ll be quite as fortunate to win, if he has an awful start against a GOOD team.

We are just damn lucky that our bullpen could hold things together while only giving one run up, to help stabilize things for the offense, and everyone just kept hammering away at the Nationals bullpen.

Out of everyone in our bullpen though, Herndon has impressed me the most…considering that he was a guy without ANY experience in the majors before last week, and he’s done an incredible job during every outing. Maybe i’m nuts, but I think he’s worth a try at closer if Lidge can’t hack it after returning. Oh, and I haven’t given up on trying to keep Madson in the closer role either, but there have been some teams with 2-3 alternating closers, so we could possibly try that out. Even if Lidge returns to near ’08 form, I still want there to be some other guys to grab a few saves, to keep Lidge from getting too overworked or stressed out.

Was at the game last night. It was my grandson’s first Phillies game. WOW!!!
As for KK, we will need him down the line and the way this team is scoring at this point he can make these horrible starts and still so no harm to the team. Two games do not make a season and I too think this kid has something to offer. These short starts,~5 innings, are becoming commonplace and that puts a premium on the BP. Our starters need to step up and give us 7+ innings so that by mid August we have a BP that can run deep into October. I feel the “quality start stat” is a poison pill and should be thrown out. It seems as though good enough has become job well done.
GO PHILS!!!

KK looks like a broken man out there. His pitches have so little movement and he does not pitch to contact like sinker ball pitchers should do. I am hoping they skip his next start and then maybe Blanton will be back after that.

This offense is just on fire. Utley and Howard look as sharp as ever and Polanco just continues to do his thing. I am still worried about Ibanez as he consistently has poor at bats and his bat speed looks terribly slow.

With all that said, it is hard to complain about a 7-1 start and Happ and Halladay going on consecutive days. I look for the Phillies to at worst 8-2 through their first ten games.

This is not your father’s Phillies.

I would give KK another shot, especially since Blanton is still out, and I still hope that he can replicate what he did in Spring Training.

The bullpen has been lights out! And this is all without Lidge and Romero.. but with Nelson Figueroa and a Rule 5 guy!! Sweet!

Well, Kendrick fooled me, I’ll admit it! I would send him down now. He did not look like a major league pitcher last night. They will try to eek another start out of him through. Also, I shudder to think that Moyer may start again too. They haven’t even played a good team yet and Moyer and Kendrick have gotten LIT UP already.

Eh, anyone in AAA that can be brought up thats ready?

Ugh… what a conundrum. Listening to the noise and reading the stories, I tried to convince myself that KK could duplicate his early-career success but I highly doubt it at this point. We all knew that KK won games early on with smoke and mirrors… I mean, the guy was not supposed to stick with the big league club but he gave us exactly what we needed and made believers out of many. Truth be told, he has always been a low-ceiling guy… a guy that depends on location and defense and getting the calls. He’ll win a few games by chance but he doesn’t have the stuff to win consistently at the big league level and he’s going to tax the bullpen dearly. Granted, it’s early but I just don’t see it… I’m not buying it anymore.

So if KK doesn’t have what it takes and Moyer’s running on empty, it’s pretty clear that there’s a problem on the horizon. Blanton comes back and things look great but we’re back to relying on Moyer’s treadless tires. I love Moyer… you guys know that… but I understand the importance of having a back-up plan when it comes to him. I really like Bastardo in the pen but maybe we give him another shot at starting… I guess Carpenter could get a look-see.

Spring training was not an illusion. Kendrick has something for sure but he also seems to have trouble dealing with it – I think the problems have to be mental. Listen, the seasons started with everyone at the starting line, good health, ready to jump in. He obviously is not handling starting at all well. I say give him at least one more start – see what happens and you know before long Kentucky Joe will be back to make it all better 8 >

All that being said, how about that offense? We have some stiff competition coming up before the end of the month, will the offense cool down? Will there be that inevitable slump that we have seen over the past countless summers? Chase has to slow down (right?) Poly wont hit .400 so there has to be a pause in there – this is just one incredible moment that we have all been waiting for – the entire offense is clicking at the same time –

Power, clutch hitting and the BP is standing up outstandingly.

Go Phils, I’ll be down to see Happ regain some of that 09 feeling today!

I jumped out of my seat when Werth came on the videoboard to PH. It was kind of ironic that the Flyers came ending just seconds before Victorino hit that triple. It really was a great moment ill remember forever. I chuckled when Figs went 2-for-2 with a double. whodathunkit lol

… looks like somebody (me) .. forgot about Joe Blanton coming back soon

Yeah, Blanton’s coming back, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be the only SP injury, and it’s not like Moyer is any great shake right now either.

amazing what kind of fans are you?/ A week ago kendrick was great now he is nothing after two starts fair weather fans? there are no option in the minors right now. Savery is only there because he was a first round choice, or he would have been released. carpenter is getting lit up. its either a trade or pedro coming back.

The important thing here is that the Phils won the game last night. Yeah, the Nats/Pirates of the world do win ballgames, but these are the games where you can build your cushion. They took advantage of bad pitching and made the Nats pay. That’s what you like to see.

Corey, your argument is well taken but KK faced the same batters as did Hamels, Roy, Kentucky Joe & Happ – what we saw in the spring from him was not too far from what we saw from the others – he looked decent. Me as well as others thought he looked ready.

I think we all expected something just a wee bit better than what Kyle has given us so far. He does not look ready now, but most of us thought he looked ready at the end of Spring. One more shot? Why not? It is early and as Keith mentioned earlier, there will be more moves made before the summer is over – we need starters.

I love Moyer, but when its time to move on, its time to move on (to the bullpen).

As for KK, I’m hoping third times the charm. Maybe he can dazzle us and turn people’s opinion of him around with his next start. If not I’d also like to see Carpenter and Figueroa get some starts to test the waters.

FYI: I was at this game, and they are *definitely* still playing Harry’s “Outta Here” call when a Phil gets a home run. I wasn’t sure at the opener, because the fan base EXPLODED when Utley hit that HR, and I couldn’t hear anything! At last night’s game, when Utley hit his first HR, they also exploded and I couldn’t hear it. But for Utley’s second and Victorino’s HR, I definitely heard the call. They also played High Hopes after the victory, and there were definitely a lot of people waiting around to hear it, singing along, and cheering when the song was over.

I’m glad they’re continuing those new traditions. Hey, they’re still playing the old organ recording for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and that guy’s been dead for a couple of years.