Phillies Nation

I agree, Chooch batting 7th is awesome, though I do really appreciate his ability to turn over a line up and prevent pitchers from leading off the following inning. Chooch might be my 2nd favorite current Phillie and maybe 4rd all time. He is just so under rated.

Burrell
Eisenreich
Utley
Chooch

Yeah, plus it always seems like the Phils come out flat in the first game of a road trip….especially ones that involve long plane rides and time zone changes.

I guess Werth hates his mother.

Whatever… he hit a dinger with that black bat :)

I don’t think we should be so hard on Lidge for those first two outs. Lets give the guy some credit and assume that he realized the wind situation and knew he had a bit extra to work with when it came to fly balls because of it. I don’t think he pitches that way if the wind was not how it was.

Well the damage from yesterday was undone with the Mets losing so its all good. Wow, the Mets and Nats tied for second, who would have guessed that?

Dallas Braden (Oakland) just threw a perfect game!

I’m feeling pretty good about Lidge — despite the warning-track fly outs.

Those pitches were up to the first two batters and sure he got lucky with the wind. But it’s still a perfect inning. And the velocity of his fastball will get better.

I was just glad he wasn’t walking people. He seems to have better control with the fastball this year. And the slider looked downright filthy again today.

So there’s definitely some positives for Lidge. I think he’ll be pretty good this year.

Lidge has lost the physical edge that allows a pitcher to be a winner. He has permanently lost 5 to 7 mph off all of his pitches, and he does not have the intelligence or the talent to adjust to finesse pitching in the same fashion as a Pops Moyer. I still sweat bullets every time he enters a game.

Never underestimate your enemies such as the Nats and Mets. For the moment, it’s anybody’s race in the NL east.

Werth looks confidently comfortable and zoned in all aspects of the game, especially hitting. It must be the caveman look that makes the difference.

Also, Ashburn needs updating.

Either way, its going to suck next year without Werth. Maybe Im the only one here, but as much as I think RAJ has done a pretty darn good job, I think we will lose Werth. Ruben has said on multiple occasions when asked about keeping Werth, and he been very consistant about having a negative tone about it. In the off season Ruben said something about not being able to have an entire Roster of 15 Mil players, that was in direct reference to Werth. Most recently, (I believe it was Last week) asked about keeping Werth after giving Howard that INSANE contract, and he quickly came back with he would love to keep him, “BUT, keeping this team competitive for years to come is my (Ruben’s) job, and we just dont have that much money…” Does tghat sound like Ruben is interested in keeping him? Sure, if could all be a front, and he has every intention to TRY to keep Werth, but I dont see it happening. Werth’s numbers are getting better every year, and this season so far, he is hitting .349, 7 Home Runs, more than 25 RBI’s, and is leading the league with XBH’s! He will no doubt sign a contract worth AT LEAST 15 Mil, probably more like 18 – 20 Mil since Howard sign a contract worth 25 a year. Will Werth give a “home town discount”? I sure hope so. I tend to think he is gone. I am starting to think Ruben got the contract for Howard down this early knowing full well, that he wouldnt keep Werth around. Why else would he get a contract extension done for Howard this early, if he was NOT set to be a free agent this year? I hope I am wrong, and I liked the Howard signing overall, even though he hasnt hit his groove yet as far as power is concerned. To early to be concerned about Howard I would think, but I just hope that Werth does NOT sign with the Mets. Any other team, just not them. Sadly, I have a REALLY BAD gut feeling that the Mets will throw so much money at him (similar to Bay money). I sure hope I am wrong. I have never wanted to be so wrong. If we lose Werth, who possibly could take his place? Sure other players will play RF, but who in the organization could replace his numbers?

Agreed Heather! Hamels has 2 good starts out of 7 so far. I think we’ve lowered our standards to the point where yesterday’s start against Atlanta “shows promise.” Please. Everyone says get rid of Jamie, but his WHIP and ERA are better than Hamels. In only 4 less innings of work he has 11 less walks too. I’m not saying Jamie’s a better pitcher than Cole, but their stats are neck and neck this year. Plus, Jamie’s 938 years older. A guy his age shouldn’t be outperforming three fifth’s of your rotation. Hamels needs to do a heck of a lot better than yesterday’s slop fest to get my confidence back. Let him put a string of 4 or 5 quality starts together before we start talking positive about this head case.

“If Werth keeps this up…”

–> he’d become the best player in baseball automatically.

Not gonna happen. He’ll hit a slump or two on the way.. finish with an avg under .300, and there will be a point in the season when people will jump off the bearded bandwagon… that’s when we gotta make the move and resign him!

… and the Phillies org and Ruben Amaro, Jr. would be flatout stupid to lose Jayson Werth, especially since he’s made it clear he wants to stay here. As often as RAJ has been negative Werth has been nice in return about being in, and hopefully staying in Phila. He has also openly acknowleged that he doesn’t have the solid full yrs under him that Holliday and Bay both had when they signed. So he’s on a mission now, and who can blame him? RAJ just needs to stop playing games and try to work something out. I think more than anything Werth wants to be on a winning team, not w/the BoSox or the Muts or w/any of the teams that cut him before like LA or Toronto, all of whom could use him. But it means something to be w/a team that understands his talents & to be in a place that appreciates you. When he jogged back to RF the other day his RF peeps gave him a standing-O. That can not be bought, esp here and he knows it. I don’t care what you say about $$. He’s happy here. The Phils need to take advantage of that and stop being jerks. This can be done. Just DO IT.

Heather, I completely agree with you regarding Cole, he was WAYYYYY off yesterday. I’m hoping it was the wind, or the cold weather, or his hair wasn’t laying right….I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean that last one. His inconsistency is concerning though, I was beginning to think he might be hurt, but I guess not. Maybe there’s a problem with his preparation, as in lack of? I don’t know, we seem to be the only ones who are worried about him, but I still say something’s off.