Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of you. I want to thank those who have read my blog and I hope you continue to read it. As the All Star break nears and the second half of the season gets underway, things will heat up and get a bit more exciting. Don't expect the Phillies struggles to last too long as they tend to tear up the second half.

So grill up some burgers, dogs, sausage and peppers, or whatever you can get your hands on. Drink some beer, play some horse shoes, and enjoy the family until 7 PM when the fire works begin at Citizens Bank Park as the Phillies will take on the Mets.

Go Phils and Happy Birthday America.

MLB News 6/13/09

Peavy out for month:

Well this could hurt the Phillies chances at trading for Jake Peavy. He will be out for a month with a strained tendon in his right ankle he sustained on June 8th. His injury occurred while he ran the bases.

The Phillies were seriously considering trading for Peavy, who originally refused to wave his no-trade clause due to Citizen's Bank Park not being pitcher-friendly. Not only does this hinder his value for the season for the Phillies but could also hinder his confidence. If he was fully healthy, he would have considered a trade to Philadelphia but with a possible return to pitching before the trade deadline, he may not have the confidence in his ankle if he were to move to a hitter's park in Philly. Peavy is a fly ball pitcher and could get shelled here as opposed to the spacious Petco Field.

Peavy is 6-6 with a 3.97 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 13 starts.

Castillo gets sympathy:

Boo hoo. Louis Castillo dropped a pop fly that would have ended the game for the Mets. Instead, the Yankees, who were trailing by one, scored two runners to earn the walk-off win. I laughed while reading this. Players were giving him sympathy and he lost sleep over it. Grow up, man. You made a mistake, life goes on.

Kendrick sent down, Escalona up:

This is what the Phillies should have originally done as Kyle Kendrick was sent back down to AAA (via Todd Zolecki's Twitter). In return, the Phillies brought up Sergio Escalona. Kendrick gave up three runs in his season debut in the 13th inning, costing the Phillies the game versus the Red Sox.

Ibanez Angry at Accusations

Raul Ibanez is not happy at all right now.

I saw this today on ESPN and it just really got to me. There was a column in the Philly Inquirer about a blogger who claimed Ibanez could be using some sort of performance enhancing drug.

"I'll come after people who defame or slander me."

"Unfortunately, I understand the environment we're in and the events that have led us to this era of speculation," he said. "At the same time, you can't just walk down the street and accuse somebody of being a thief because they didn't have a nice car yesterday and they do today. You can't say that guy is a thief."

"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test," Ibanez said. "I'll give you back every dime I've ever made."

"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff," he said. "Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."

Are you kidding me? First I just want to say that Ibanez is playing half of his games in the hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as opposed to the spacious SafeCo Field. Before coming to Philadelphia, Ibanez has been a 20 home run guy who bats in the .290's and has averaged 85 RBI's. He has had one year where he hit 33 homers and has topped 100 RBI's 5 times.

Yea we're in an era where players are getting caught using performance enhancers such as Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, and the Mitchell Report list but that still doesn't justify speculating every single player who has a good season. Should Ibanez be pissed? I think yes. But all you have to do is just show up every day and play the game hard and just say that "If I'm clean, then screw the critics."