Phillies Nation

The Papelbon deal takes up $11 million for the Phillies in 2012.

Here is a revised look at the Phillies 2012 roster and payroll projections. The numbers for the arbitration players and players lacking service time are subject to change. They are merely educated guesses.

According to the Associated Press, it appears the MLB Luxury Tax will not be going up as it had the previous five seasons. It will remain the same as it was in 2011; $178 million. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Phillies won’t go over it, but in the past they’ve seemingly been reluctant to do it. It had gone up $8 million per season over the last five years of the old CBA. That’s no longer the case.

Included in the new CBA is a provision that will raise the minimum salary from $414,000 to $480,000. That could change some things for the Phillies with guys like Mayberry and Martinez. In the projections below, I’ve made those changes.

Continue reading Updated Roster and Payroll Projections

Pujols and Fielder have gone West. (PHOTO AP)

We know about the moves the Phillies made themselves to improve, like the additions of Jonathan Papelbon, Ty Wigginton, and Laynce Nix, but moves, or lack therof, by other teams have helped the Phillies just as much.

Albert Pujols: 10 years, 240 million. Gone. Prince Fielder: 9 years, 214 million. Gone. Both of these players now call the AL their home, which means that the Phillies will not have to deal with either of them for more than one series each year, and not in the playoffs, unless it’s the World Series.

Think about the effect this has on the overall quality of competition the Phillies pitchers will have to face.  They will play the Cardinals and Brewers a total of 14 times in 2012, and none against the Angels or Tigers.  Fielder hit an incredible .440/.533/.560 against the Phillies last year, while Pujols hit .356/.408/.533. Now that both of them are gone, the Phillies pitchers can breathe a sigh of relief.

Continue reading How This Offseason Helped the Phillies More Than You Think

Right-handed pitcher Austin Hyatt has been a bit of an underrated talent since joining the organization in 2009. Often considered old for each level he pitches in, Hyatt has simply excelled in his career and has recorded strong stats at every level. The University of Alabama graduate had another great season in 2011, proving to be the ace of the Double-A Reading Phillies’ staff.

An Eastern League All-Star, Hyatt posted an overall record of 12-6 with a 3.85 ERA and a .235 batting average against last year in 28 starts. Hyatt tallied tremendous numbers in the second half, to help his team reach the post-season. In 10 starts after the All-Star break, Hyatt posted a 5-1 record with a 2.78 ERA and a .221 batting average against. Continue reading Prospect Nation 2012: #15 RHP Austin Hyatt

(PHOTO: AP)

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com said in a series of tweets that the Phillies were attempting to unload Joe Blanton in an attempt to clear salary space to keep Roy Oswalt.

Verrrry interesting, to say the least. Who would that taker be, if they were able to find one? Undoubtedly, the Phillies would have to eat some, if not ALL, the remaining money on Blanton’s contract. Right now there does not seem to be any sort of market for Blanton, which significantly hurts the Phillies chances of re-signing Little Roy.

From 2007-10, the Phillies had a .573 overall winning percentage despite going 100-101 in eight combined Aprils and Junes. Last season, they sprinted out of the gate and neither month was a problem.

Based on the way the 2012 schedule is set up, it is imperative that the Phils start strong — perhaps even stronger than last season’s 57-34 first-half record — and avoid the familiar April malaise and June swoon.

The post-All-Star break schedule is grueling.

To start the season’s unofficial second half, the Phils play 41 consecutive games and 53 of the first 56 against teams figuring to be in contention.

Included in that stretch are nine games with the Braves and six with the Nationals and Marlins. In fact, 33 of the Phils’ 54 meetings with Atlanta, Washington and Miami come after the break.

Building a comfortable NL East lead over the season’s first three months won’t be as easy as it would have been with Ryan Howard in the lineup. Despite his well-documented inefficiencies, Howard is still capable of carrying an offense for two weeks in a way that Ty Wigginton and Laynce Nix are not.

With Howard out of the lineup until perhaps mid-to-late May, Wigginton and Nix will be much more than just role players.

Continue reading With Schedule, Howard Fill-ins Must Succeed Early

Lidge leaves for the Nats. (MLB)

Washington Nationals reliever Brad Lidge joined “The Sports Bash with Mike Gill” on 97.3 ESPN FM on Tuesday. Lidge was very candid about the Phillies not wanting him back and the team’s signing of Jonathan Papelbon over friend Ryan Madson.

“I came back to the Phillies and I said, ‘Let’s talk. My heart’s still here,” said Lidge. “It never left. Let’s see what we can do.’ Unfortunately, at that time, they had changed their mind and didn’t have a contract for me.”

Obviously, the Phillies went in another direction, going after guys like Chad Qualls and Dontrelle Willis. Lidge understood the changes. “Yeah, it’s disappointing. I’m not crying about it or nothing. I understand it’s all business and that’s part of it. But it was disappointing and unfortunate because, of course, I did want to come back to Philadelphia.”

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO LIDGE’S INTERVIEW

PHOTO AP

Roy Halladay is on the mound. Everyone in attendance at Citizens Bank Park knows he is on today–that his stuff is good stuff today. The first three batters of the game look like they’ve never swung a baseball bat in their life as they flailed in vain at the perfectly placed pitches by Halladay. The next eight innings play out in similar fashion, with maybe a few seeing eye singles and a lone run on the scoreboard.

But there’s a problem. The home team hasn’t scored, even though the opposing pitcher has an ERA in the upper stratosphere.

Sound familiar? It seemed like this happened far too often in 2011, and never more apparent in Game 5 of the NLDS, when the Phillies were incapable of scratching off just one run against Christ Carpenter–who is an elite pitcher–when their own Roy Halladay pitched his ass off for them, allowing just a single run. It was a painful way to end the season, and a microcosm of the seemingly many times that Halladay–or any of the Aces–did not get sufficient run support.

The Phillies scored 4.4 runs per game in 2011, but just 3.84 behind Cole Hamels. And 3.97 behind Cliff Lee. They scored 4.78 behind Halladay, but combined the Phils only scored 4.2 runs behind their three aces, while scoring an average of 4.69 runs per game in all other games.

I thought this was interesting, so I investigated the other two pitchers in the top five of the Cy Young Award voting, and the results were not similar. The Dodgers scored 4.33 runs in games that Clayton Kershaw started, and just 3.88 in games he didn’t, while the Diamondbacks scored 4.58 runs in games that Ian Kennedy started, and 4.5 in all other games. Since it seems to be a Phillies-only problem, I turned my attention back to them.

Going a little deeper, the Phillies averaged 8.2  hits per game behind the aces, and 8.9 hits per game in the rest. This means that the Phillies were getting about the same amount of opportunities to score runs, but couldn’t capitalize as much. You would think that this means that they left more men on base, but that’s not the case. In games started by the aces, they stranded an average of 7 runners per game, but in other games, they stranded runners a little more, averaging 7.94 per game. They even struck out less in “aces” games than in other games–6.08 behind the aces and 6.66 in others. What this tells me is that the Phils’ offense was putting the ball in play more, but not getting good enough contact.

The cause of this could be one of many things. First, I think you have to figure out why this seems to happen to only the Aces on the Phillies, and not the other pitchers. A common theory says that if a guy like Halladay, Hamels, or Lee is on the mound, the offense becomes complacent, knowing that it doesn’t have to put up a ton of runs to win the game. Imagine being at your job, knowing that the guy next to you is going to get done 80% of the project you both are contributing to. Are you not likely to do only 20% of the work, even though it should be 50/50? It’s a mental thing, and something that is very real, even though it can’t be completely explained by numbers.

Another reason for this phenomenon could simply be coincidence. The numbers are not that far off, and the data compiled is from just one season. Maybe 2012 will be different, but for now, aces on the mound means less run production from this Phillies lineup and more frustration from fans that miss the high powered offense that the Phillies used to have.

Phillies Nation’s winner for the number one Philadelphia Phillies Top Moment of 2011 is … (drum roll, please) … The 19 inning marathon against the Cincinnati Reds!

This may not come as a surprise.  We remember staying up late, refusing to turn off the television.  We remember it being one of the oddest games of recent memory. We remember Wilson Valdez taking the mound in the 19th inning and retiring the meat of the Reds’ lineup.  We remember it being one entirely awesome game.

I’ll be honest: there are some things that I forgot.  It was practically two games in one: 6 hours and 11 minutes of insanity.  With the game occurring last May, many things have exited my brain.  I thought that I’d test your knowledge in a few trivia questions:

1. Who were the starting pitchers?
2. Which Phillies homered?
3. How did the Phillies score the winning run?

No cheating. The answers are after the jump.

Continue reading Top Moment #1: Nineteen Innings of Madness

Cesar Hernandez is a Venezuelan born infielder that was signed as an amateur free agent by the Phillies at the age of 16. Since then, Hernandez has proven to be sharp on defense with some outstanding speed on the bases and a productive bat. As the 5-foot-10-inch 160-pounder has shown in recent years, he’s deserving of considerable recognition as a rising infielder in the Phillies’ system.

Hernandez made his professional debut with the Venezuelan Summer League at the age of 17. In two seasons there, he tallied a .296 batting average with 3 HR and 45 RBI in 114 games.

The current Phillies 40-man roster member played with the Gulf Coast League Phillies in 2009, where he batted .267 with 5 doubles and a triple in 41 games. Continue reading Prospect Nation 2012: #16 2B Cesar Hernandez

It started as a seed in the soil. Two seasons ago, I asked Brian Michael to put up the money for an HD Flip Cam. I though nightly/weekly reports from Citizens Bank Park would show that we were THE insider blog. The “Phillies Nation Phancast” was done from time to time (when I could find someone to hold a camera for me) and wasn’t the greatest production in the world. But with that trusty Flip Cam, I was able to get great footage from different angles of the stadium and from different events throughout the season.

Slowly, that seed morphed into a small plant. The small plant became Phillies Nation TV, which Corey Seidman and I shoot on a monthly basis. We began shooting PN TV’s late in the 2011 season and have tried to keep up with it to the best of our abilities. Our hard work and diligence has paid off.

The small plant is now larger than we ever imagined it could be.

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Service Electric’s 2 Sports in the Lehigh Valley. Phillies Nation TV will go from an 8-10 minute show into a 30 minute program that will be taped once a week and will air three times per week – with days and times to be announced soon. So, those of you in the area of Allentown, Bethlehem, Quakertown, Reading, Northampton, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and parts of Northern New Jersey will be able to see PN TV several times a week, satisfying your need for all things Phillies. You’ll also be able to get it on-demand.

Service Electric Television is a private, family owned cable business servicing over 294,000 subscribers located in approximately 250 communities in Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania and Northwestern New Jersey. 2 Sports, the channel we’ll be on, is the TV home of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs and Reading Phillies. So we’ll feel right at home covering the Phillies and their minor league affiliates while adding a new dimension to the network.

With this new partnership, we’ll be able to give you greater access to the minor leaguers we’ve come to know and love. We’ll also continue to provide the best Phillies coverage possible.

Needless to say, we’re completely stoked and can’t wait to get started on this newest project. Myself and Corey will continue the hosting duties with Ian, Jay, and all of our Phillies Nation contributors involved in some way, shape, or form. The ideas are already flowing, but of course, we’d love to hear from you. What more would you like to see out of Phillies Nation TV? Please, feel free to leave your thoughts/comments/ideas in the comments section below.