Phillies Nation

A lot of the Phillies’ offseason discussion has boiled down to one question: how does Player X compare to Player Y, whom he is replacing? It is a valid and particularly useful tool when projecting wins and predicting improvement for a club. The Phillies have a particularly strong canon of historically popular players that most of the city’s fans rally around. This canon definitively includes, but is not limited to, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Richie Ashburn, and Robin Roberts and may soon make room for Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.

There are a few articles out there about how teams fared once their golden geese proverbially went South. Most teams, like the Phillies and Schmidt, struggled to find even league-average play at times to replace their superstar, even as their superstar is declining. The Phillies mixed and matched Charlie Hayes and Steve Jeltz after Schmidt retired after 172 plate appearances into 1989 before stumbling upon Dave Hollins in that offseason’s Rule 5 draft to shore up the Hot Corner for a sizable chunk of the next five seasons.

What I have not seen a whole lot of are a lot of words written about who these superstars replaced. (Note: Being a baseball reading junkie, please correct me if I am wrong because I would love to read more). Yes, the Lou Gehrig for Wally Pipp change is well documented and Mickey Mantle famously took the reigns in center field at Yankee Stadium from Joe DiMaggio after sharing time there in 1951, but there is little else, particularly about our favorite red pin-striped ballplayers.
Continue reading Replaced by a Franchise Hero: Don Money

Raul came up huge last night. (AP)

Maybe it didn’t work out the way we all wanted it to during his tenure here in Philadelphia. After all, Raul Ibanez was paid over $30 million and had his moments, but fell short of the lofty expectations that come with such a contract. Last night in the Bronx, in a most-improbable situation, Rauuuuuuul pulled through for his team, the New York Yankees.

Pinch-hitting for Alex Rodriguez, the first time that’s ever happened in a postseason game, Ibanez went yard in the ninth inning, and again in the 12th to push the Yankees past the Orioles, 3-2. Ibanez also became the first player in postseason history to hit a home run in the ninth and a home run in extra innings in the same game. It has been another up and down season for Ibanez, but one that has hit its peak at the right moment.

During the regular year, Ibanez hit .240, slugged 19 homers, knocked in 62 runs, and was your basic league-average player with a 0.3 WAR. It mirrors his contributions to the Phillies in the three seasons he was here, save for a large chunk of his first season, one in which he hit 34 home runs and knocked in 93. But for one night, even though he plays for the Evil Empire, Raul deserves some props down here in Philly.

Continue reading Old Friend Raul Deserves Props

This one stung a bit.  It was the first time the Phillies were shutout all season losing 9-0 against the Brewers and the first time this year they have lost back to back games.  Oh well, it’s just one game right?

So about that one game….

It was just one of those nights for the Phillies.  With their ace, Roy Halladay, on the mound the bats could not get going.  It is games like these that the offense gets over looked I think.  The line will have Halladay being charged with six runs in 6.2 innings.  All of which would not matter had the offense scored seven runs, which we all know they are very capable of doing.

The Phillies didn’t get the best out of Halladay tonight.  In my opinion, it looked like Doc was getting pinched a bit by the home plate umpire.  Halladay gave up a season high 10 hits and six runs.  He hadn’t given up six runs since June 15, 2010 at Yankee Stadium.  Halladay is human.

Continue reading Bats suffer Spring Break slump

Philadelphia Phillies (73-57) at Los Angeles Dodgers (67-64)

Roy Halladay (16-10, 2.22 ERA) vs. 
Hiroki Kuroda (9-11, 3.56)

Time: 10:10 p.m at Dodger Stadium
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 67
Twitter: @philliesnation

This is what sets 2010 apart for the Phillies.

Faced with a similar position the past two seasons – heading into a big road series in need of wins, the Phillies would have had one hot starting pitcher (Cole Hamels in 2008, Cliff Lee in 2009) and a grab bag (Brett Myers and Joe Blanton ’08, Hamels and Pedro Martinez in ’09) for the rest of the series.

But not this year. This is why they got Roy Halladay and then added Roy Oswalt. Not to slight Kyle Kendrick, a serviceable fifth starter, but with the ability to hand the ball to Halladay and Oswalt heading into a key series – whether it’s at Dodger Stadium or Yankee Stadium – you have to like the Phillies’ chances.

Tonight it’s Halladay’s turn, and if anyone can maintain the staff’s momentum after an overpowering series against the first-place Padres, it’s Halladay. He’s been so dominant since his Sunday night clunker against at Wrigley Field in mid-July, until last week it seemed he might not lose the rest of the season. But then a bloop single and the Phillies’ inability to score in the Astros series ended that bid (Amazing bonus stat: Halladay has failed to pitched at least seven innings only four times this season).

But no matter how well Halladay pitches, the offense has to score runs. And before their five-run “explosion” yesterday, the Phillies hadn’t scored that many runs in a week. The struggles of Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino from the left side of the plate – and from Ryan Howard and Chase Utley in general – are a major threat to the Phillies’ playoff hopes with each day they continue.

Your Gameday Beer – Philadelphia Original Lager

Brewed by Red Bell Brewery out of the Brewerytown neighborhood of Philadelphia, this beer is a classic microbrew lager. It’s a bit heavier than Yuengling, with more of a roasted malt flavor and some sweet coffee and caramel hints. Its supreme drinkability coupled with a pour that looks like iced tea means you can sneakily house several of these bad boys. Have your favorite pasta with some marinara sauce and a few Philly Lagers. – By Brian

GO PHILLIES!

-Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com has just minutes ago tweeted that the Phillies are interested in Diamondbacks ace Dan Haren. He also says that Arizona is scouting the Phillies farm system for a possible match.

Haren is having an off year by his standards (7-6, 4.56 ERA, 1.35 WHIP) but he’s also stuck in an unenviable situation with an Arizona team that is plodding along at the bottom of the standings. Haren is still one of the premier strikeout guys in all of baseball and would make the Halladay/Hamels duo an incredible trio. His contract is for $8.25 million this season, and comes very cheap for the next three. He’s set to make $12.75 million in 2011 and 2012 with a $15.5 million option for 2013. That is pennies compared to some other contracts for starting pitchers recently (see: Zambrano, Burnett). Money here shouldn’t be an option.

-When the news broke that the Phillies had a scout planted at Yankee Stadium for Cliff Lee’s last start, ears perked. For good reason, too. Everyone in Philadelphia wants this guy back, in the worst way. Could it be that the Phillies were merely scouting other players?

According to Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times, the Phils could have been looking at infielder Jose Lopez, a possible insurance policy for the battered infield. Lopez can play multiple positions and isn’t owed much money this year ($3 million in 2010) or next ($5 million club option with a $25k buyout in ’11). Defensively, he’s not nearly on par with Utley or Polanco, and this season his bat has failed him. Lopez is hitting just .244 with 30 RBI and a sad .607 OPS. If you look at the team around him in Seattle, you’ll realize those numbers may be skewed a bit because of how awful everyone is in that lineup.

Would Lopez be welcomed here? Baker says that it wouldn’t take much, perhaps just a mid-tiered prospect, for the Mariners to unload him.

-Now back to Lee. There’s no doubt that Charlie Kerfield, the Phillies top scout in the organization, had an eye on Cliff Lee. Everyone knows what he’s capable of and you can be sure that the Phils will inquire about him – maybe they already have. There are two major factors that would hold up such a deal.

1. Prospects: Do the Phillies have more than the Mets, Yankees, Braves, Rangers, etc.? They aren’t giving up Domonic Brown, who we’ll get to later, and their second level guys don’t appear to be on par with some other teams.  Can they persuade Seattle to give him back?

2. Will Ruben Amaro and the organization admit failure if they attempt to bring him back? My thought is, yes. And for a general manager, and front office as a whole, to concede that would look and smell bad. In this town, you can lose a lot of backers quickly for mistakes of this caliber. Amaro seems like a very prideful man, so would he be willing to bite the bullet personally to try and wrangle Cliff Lee once again? It could be a PR nightmare coupled with a joyous celebration by Phillies fans who wanted Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay together from the start.

-More good news for Domonic Brown. Not only did he smash his second home run in as many games at Triple-A Lehigh Valley last night, he was named the #1 prospect in baseball by Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus. Brown raked all season with AA-Reading, so the promotion to the Iron Pigs wasn’t much of a surprise. Now, we all wait with bated breath for Brown’s tour in the majors to begin.

Philadelphia Phillies (33-30) at New York Yankees (41-24)

Kyle Kendrick, RHP (3-2, 4.80 ERA) vs. Andy Pettitte (8-1, 2.46 ERA)

Time: 7:05, Yankee Stadium
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 73
TV: WPHL
Twitter: @philliesnation

Now we conclude the much-anticipated 2009 World Series rematch, in which the Yankees throw the same three starters, in the same order, that pitched last fall, while the Phillies counter with three starters who weren’t even on last year’s postseason roster. So far, it’s gone OK, with the offshore bombardment of Roy Halladay being followed by a quality showing from the offense last night in a 6-3 win. Tonight, we get Andy Pettitte, one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, whose ERA and WHIP are the lowest they’ve been in five years.

We also get another puzzling lineup decision in a series full of them. First, the Utley/Polanco swap from Tuesday (repeated tonight), then putting Greg Dobbs at DH last night, a move that was met with much heckling in the Twitterverse (Dobbs had a RBI single and run scored in 2 at-bats last night). Tonight, we get Ben Francisco, a capable, if not spectacular, outfielder, in the DH role while Raul Ibanez, who is continuing his rapid and disturbing transition into a statue, mans left field. It’s difficult to know what Uncle Cholly’s thinking, but if it ends up with the Phils taking two of three from the Bronx Bombers in the New Yankee Workshop, I won’t ask questions.

Tonight’s Lineup:Victorino (CF), Utley (2B), Polanco (3B), Howard (1B), Werth (RF), Ibanez (LF), Francisco (DH), Schneider (C), Valdez (SS), Moyer P.

Your gameday beer: Samuel Adams Latitude 48

Credit where credit’s due–those dudes up in Massachusetts are quite creative. One of this summer’s seasonal offerings from the boys who brought craft brewing to the American masses is an IPA called Latitude 48. Essentially, the people up at Sam identified the 48th parallel in the northern hemisphere as the “hop belt”–the ideal place for those selfsame plant products to grow. So they took a bunch of hops from the 48th parallel around the world (American, German, and English hops), stuck ‘em in a barrel, and out comes this pleasant, somewhat hoppy IPA, the Boston Brewing Co.’s first since it retired the English IPA. Enjoy.

Go Phillies!

Philadelphia Phillies (32-30) at New York Yankees (41-23)

Jamie Moyer, LHP (6-6, 5.03 ERA) vs. A.J Burnett, RHP (6-3, 3.86 ERA)

Time: 7:05, Yankee Stadium
Weather: Thunderstorms, 75
TV: Comcast Sportsnet/ ESPN
Twitter: @philliesnation

The losing ways continue.  With last night’s 8-3 loss to the Yankees, the Phillies dropped to 8-17 in their last 25 games.  Not only is that the second worst record in the majors, but they’ve only averaged 2.6 runs per game.

The offense has been pathetic, but the Phillies are still more than capable of putting up crooked numbers, especially at Yankee Stadium.  Just 314 down the right field line, the Phillies left-handed power bats could use a short-porch, like Mark Teixeria’s homer last night.

The Phillies will have to get to A.J Burnett in order to for them to do anything offensively.  Burnett is 5-8 with a 4.75 ERA in his career against the Phillies.  In the 2009 World Series, he went 1-1; he was terrific in his 3-1 victory, but was lit up in his 8-6 loss.

Even if the Phillies can put up big numbers, Jamie Moyer will have to keep the Yankees’ bats under wraps.  Moyer is coming off a start in which he could not get an out in the second inning.   Against the Yankees, Moyer is 4-3 with a 5.37 ERA in his career.

Tonight’s Lineup:Victorino (CF), Polanco (3B), Utley (2B), Howard (1B), Werth (RF), Ibanez (LF), Dobbs (DH), Schneider (C), Valdez (SS), Moyer P.

Your gameday beer: In the spirit of the Yankees’ biggest rivals, here’s Harpoon Celtic Ale from the Harpoon Brewery. And in the spirit of the Irish, this beer is a dry but complex drink — hints of toffee and various spices make this a good catch. And if you’re gonna eat Irish with it, go with bangers and mash. It’s St. Paddy’s Day … in June! – By Tim

Go Phillies!

How about we stop calling it a slump? Let’s just call it how we see it. These are the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies. Forget April and early May, the thought of that quick start is long gone in the rear view mirror. It’s now June and the Phillies are a third place club.  After tonight’s 8-3 loss to the New York Yankees on a night in which Roy Halladay was very hittable, this season is on its way to being a very, very long one.

Halladay went six innings and allowed six earned runs, but he also gave up three home runs, something he’s done only nine times in his career.  One of those homers -Mark Teixeira’s solo shot in the fifth inning – would be a long fly out in many other ballparks. Not tonight. Not at Yankee Stadium. Not against the Phillies. On this evening, against one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, Tex got that ball inside the foul pole and over the 314-foot wall. Nick Swisher’s broken bat home run sums it up as well. The Phillies are in full snowball mode.

Offensively speaking, the frustrations continue to run deep.  All three Phillies runs, and four of their five hits, came in the fourth inning against C.C. Sabathia. In that inning, they were able to string together a bunch of singles and turn them into a crooked number. Still, they left the bases loaded as Raul Ibanez softly grounded out to second base.  Once again, they were unable to build on a successful inning.

Following that outburst, if you will, the Phillies managed one more hit; a Chase Utley single in the fifth.

In previous seasons, that three run inning would have been a six or seven run inning, perhaps with a long-ball thrown in. That six or seven would become 12 or 13 by games end.  That’s no longer the case with this team. Soft ground balls have become the norm while explosive innings filled with home runs and rallies are a distant memory.

As we long for the days of yore – when scoring runs in bunches was in fashion, when slapping the opponent into submission was chic, when Roy Halladay actually won games (wasn’t that long ago, really) – understand that this might be the year in a nutshell. Hope and pray for better days, but brace for more of the same.

Philadelphia Phillies (32-29) at New York Yankees (40-23)

Roy Halladay, RHP (8-4, 1.96 ERA) vs. CC Sabathia, RHP (6-3, 4.01 ERA)

Time: 7:10, Yankee Stadium
Weather: Clear, 70
TV: MyPHL 17/MLB Network
Twitter: @philliesnation

World Series re-match? Check. All-World pitching duel? Check. Two of the best teams in baseball going head-to-head? Wait…

We all believe in our heart of hearts that the Phillies are one of the elite teams in all of baseball. Now’s the time to show it. What better way to do so than to send Roy Halladay out there to slap the Yanks around.  After all, Doc owns the Bronx Bombers over his career. In 35 career starts as part of the Blue Jays, Halladay has an 18-6 record with a 2.84 ERA.  He’s worked his magic over NYY in 247 career innings. But as we all know, shutting down the opposition hasn’t really been a problem.

Perhaps the Phils have a case of run-scoring amnesia. They’ve straight-up forgotten how to cross home plate.  They’d better un-forget quickly or this could be another lost series, just as the Boston set was.  New York can score with the best of ‘em.  The three teams at the top of the AL East lead the Majors in runs scored (NYY-355, BOS-353, TB-333). The Phils rank (GASP!) 20th in all of baseball. I know we all keep talking about them breaking out of this slump, but this is seriously getting rather old.

CC Sabathia will be the man in charge of making the Phillies look foolish. Can they buck the trend against their old foe? Sabathia is familiar with the Phils, but it’s Chase Utley who has given him nightmares.  In Utley’s 5-homer World Series against New York, three came off of Sabathia. It’s not a dream matchup for Chase, however, his track record speaks for itself against the Yankees ace.

He’ll get to prove he’s the same guy from the World Series last year in the second spot of the Phils lineup. Charlie Manuel has shifted the order a bit, check it out below:

LINEUP: Victorino CF, Utley 2B, Polanco 3B, Howard 1B, Werth RF, Ibanez LF, Francisco DH, Castro SS, Ruiz C (Halladay P)

Your Gameday Beer: Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

This is odd, yet kind of cool at the same time. It was once a drink for lactating mothers way, waaay back when.  Sam Smith makes a damn good beer and this one an has a nice, silky texture, with a bittersweet finish. A four pack of this stuff will run you about $10-12 but it’s well worth it.  It shouldn’t be served too cold either – the temp should be about 55 degrees.  Eat it with Italian food or a nice Tuna Steak and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. – By Pat

Go Phillies!

You’d have to go back a long time to find a pitcher in Phillies pinstripes who had a better career resume than Pedro Martinez. In his day, he was as dominant as any right-handed pitcher ever to play the game.

So even though he would turn 38 during the playoffs, and even though his previous three seasons could best be described as “injury-riddled” or “mediocre,” the Phillies, in a scene straight out of a thousand movies, talked him into giving it one last spin.

And you know what? In 12 starts, counting the postseason, he wasn’t too bad. It was obvious that this wasn’t the turn-of-the-century Pedro who was so dominant he looked bored half the time. But he maintained his impeccable control (4.63 K/BB ratio for the regular season), changed arm angles, and could still reach back for a low-90s fastball a couple times a game.

All in all, what turned out to be a low-risk deal for $1 million plus incentives paid off quite well. By the time he signed in mid-July, the Phillies had, for months, trotted out a finally over-the-hill Jamie Moyer and a parade of fringe veterans and AAA kids who might not have quite been ready. Pedro stepped into the fifth starter’s spot and pitched well enough that he warranted three outings in the playoffs. And that’s where this gets complicated.

In his first start, Game 2 of the NLCS, Pedro looked like he had been cryogenically frozen after the 1999 season and the Phillies had decided to decant him for the occasion. Seven shutout innings, only two baserunners allowed, 23 batters faced, only 87 pitches thrown. Of course, the Phillies eventually lost when Chase Utley started throwing to an imaginary fifteen-foot high first baseman.

But Uncle Cholly was impressed enough to throw Pedro back into the fray for Game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. He didn’t pitch badly, even amid a chorus of “Who’s Your Daddy?” chants. He struck out eight Yankees in six innings, but he took the loss when either A.J. Burnett had the game of his life, or the Phillies hitters just forgot to show up.

Game 6 was a different story. All I’ll say about that game is that Andy Pettitte didn’t pitch that great either, and while Pedro could have saved the series by throwing a three-hit shutout, I don’t know if it was reasonable to expect him to do that.

So for a good half-season, an up-and-down playoff run, and the best Jheri curl since Michael Jackson’s Thriller album cover, I thank you, Pedro Martinez, and wish you well.

2009 numbers: 5-1, 3.63 ERA, 44.2 IP, 37 K, .276 BAA, 1.25 WHIP, 4 HBP

Grade: 5.5/10—Let’s face it, he was an average pitcher for half a season, and that World Series Game 6 was something of a stinker. But an effective and entertaining starter in July on a “Why not?” signing is worth at least a golf clap.