Utley Wins Silver Slugger

Chase Utley was chosen today for the Silver Slugger for best hitting 2B in the National League. This is his fourth straight award. Mike Schmidt holds the Phillis record with six straight. Utley this year batted .295 with 31 homers, 112 runs, and 93 RBI's. He led all two-baggers in runs and was tied with Dan Uggla of the Florida Marlins in dingers.

Here are the NL winners:

C. Brian McCann - Atlanta
1B. Albert Pujols - St. Louis
2B. Chase Utley - Philadelphia
3B. Ryan Zimmerman - Washington
SS. Hanley Ramirez - Florida
OF. Ryan Braun - Milwaukee
OF. Matt Kemp - Los Angeles
OF. Andre Ethier - Los Angeles

NL Loses Again

For the 13th year, the National League has failed to beat the American League in the mid summer classic. For the third straight year, the NL lost by one run. Curtis Granderson of the Tigers hit a triple to left in the eighth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Adam Jones of the Orioles to give the AL the 4-3 lead and win.

The NL hasn't won since 1996 at Veterans Stadium. Since then, they are 0-12-1 (the tie came in 2002 in Milwaukee. With yesterday's win, the AL will receive home field advantage once again in the World Series. I still believe that home field advantage should go to the team with the best record in baseball.

All five Phillies got to play as Chase Utley, Raul Ibanez, and Shane Victorino started and Jayson Werth replaced Victorino and Howard pinch hit. Utley had a great game in the field despite going 0-2 at the plate. Ibanez also went 0-2. Victorino made the most of his appearance, going 1-2 with a base hit and then scoring the game tying run (at two) in the second off an error. Werth came in and struck out but made a great running catch in center to ironically bail out Francisco Rodriguez of the Mets. Howard struck out on a half swing trailing by one with runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth.

Here's the official box score:

Victorino to Start in ASG

Shane Victorino won the Final Vote and now sees himself starting in center for the NL team tomorrow. The game will be at 8 PM ET on Fox tomorrow night. Watch as Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez join Victorino in the starting line up and Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth hopefully see some action in later innings.

AL line up:
RF Ichiro Suzuki - SEA
SS Derek Jeter - NYY
C Joe Mauer - MIN
1B Mark Teixeira - NYY
LF Jason Bay - BOS
CF Josh Hamilton - TEX
3B Evan Longoria - TB
2B Aaron Hill - TOR
P Roy Halladay - TOR

NL line up:
SS Hanley Ramirez - FLA
2B Chase Utley - PHI
1B Albert Pujols - STL
RF Ryan Braun - MIL
LF Raul Ibanez - PHI
3B David Wright - NYM
CF Shane Victorino - PHI
C Yadier Molina - STL
P Tim Lincecum - SFG

Bran-Torino Win Final Vote!

Brandon Inge and Shane Victorino got together to form a nick name in their co-campaign for the MLB Final Vote for the 2009 All Star Game in St. Louis. Well it worked as Inge will represent the American League and Victorino in the National League as the 33rd players on their respective squads.

Victorino edged out Pablo Sandoval for the final spot on the NL roster. Sandoval will likely make the team if Carlos Beltran is too hurt to play. With Beltran's absence, Victorino may start as he would be the only true center fielder for the NL.

Congrats to Shane and Inge and hopefully to the "Kung Foo Panda" as Giants fans affectionately call Sandoval.

FIM #4: Bunning Goes Perfect

1964 was one of the most memorable seasons in Phillies history. It was full of highs and ended in disaster. One of those special moments came on June 21 versus the Mets at Shea Stadium. It was also Father's Day (ironically this year Father's Day falls on June 21 again) and Jim Bunning would throw the greatest game any pitcher in a Phillies uniform ever threw.

Johnny Stephenson steps up to the play with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. Bunning, who already dropped the first 26 batters, makes Stephenson his next victim as he strikes him out. That's what we like to call perfection.

Bunning went 9 complete innings, striking out 10 and giving up no runs, hits, or errors. 27 men stepped to the plate and 27 men couldn't reach first base. Bunning only threw 90 pitches, 79 of them were strikes. His perfect game was the first one the National League had seen in 84 years. Basically a perfect game in the NL was like a World Series to the Cubs (ouch!).

Bunning also helped his own cause offensively as he drove in two runs with a double that game and got offensive support from Johnny Callison's solo home run.

Here is the box score of that amazing day:

Me versus a Mets fan.

Oh the fun continues as I got bashed by a Mets fan for my Whit Article run in the this weeks issue. Well some wonderful Mets fan decided to post his wonderful opinions on why he thinks the Mets are a better baseball team than the Phillies. There may be more to come but this is the meat and potatoes of the argument.Here's a look at the growing debate:

mike says:
April 2,
2009 at 1:23 pm
First of all, their infield is good, but not even close
to the best. Howard is a terrible fielder, and you’re joking if you think Feliz
is a good hitter. The Mets infield is about as good as it gets, with Delgado,
Luis Castillo , Reyes and Wright, the last 2 of which are ranked in the top 4
players in fantasy baseball, meaning their offensive statistics are phenomenal
in all categories. Sure, Castillo isn’t the hitter he was with Florida, but he’s
still a very good fielder. And theres no way you can argue that the Phils
infield is better than the Yanks. I’d take Tiexiera, Cano, Jeter, and A-Rod any
day of the week.

Next off, Peflrey and Ollie Perez both have very promising upsides, and
you completely forgot to mention John Maine, who has the potential to be a great
#2 guy. I dont find much attractive about the Phillies staff beyond Hamels, and
he’s no guarantee at this point.

Continuing on, before I start refuting more of your points, I’d like to
say that any team with a very solid first 5 hitters in the line up has a shot at
going places. The Mets have that, so theres no reason you should even say that
they only have a shot at a wild card spot. In addition to the first five, Ryan
Church has the potential to be a top tier outfielder, in addition to Dave
Murphy, granted he gets playing time. No, Brian Schneider isnt much of a hitter
at all, but that leaves us with 7 quality hitters in our line up, not
5.

The Braves have a great shot, and should not be counted out whatsoever.
If they get hot at the right time, much like the Phils did last year, they can
easily take everyone by surprise too. The Marlins will likely be a streaky team,
but they cant be counted out either. They have a lot of talent in the middle of
the infield that could take them to the playoffs.
The rest of the National
League doesnt really matter, because I have no doubt that whatever team makes it
out of the East will be the NL’s World Series team. Before finishing the first
paragraph, I could easily tell how biased your opinion is about your favorite
team, and how quick you were to overlook everyone else in the division.


John Russo says:
April 2,
2009 at 1:38 pm
If I didn’t have a world limit, I would obviously go
into WAAAYY more detail as to why the Mets are (in my unbiased opion) a very
inferior team to the City of Brotherly Love.
Thanks for the comment, Mike,
and I wish the choke artists good luck this season. Please read my AL Preview
next week.


mike says:
April 2,
2009 at 3:02 pm
Inferior must mean better hitters, fielders, starters,
and closers. I wish somebody had told me about the change in meaning.
Choke
must have been redefined as well, in that a couple seasons of not making the
playoffs far outweighs a 2 for 125 history in attempts to Win a National
Championship/World Series.


John Russo says:
April 2,
2009 at 6:17 pm
OK Mr. Met, I think I have to let you know that history
is not a factor at all in this debate, especially when one team has been more
successful during our lifetimes (or when we knew what a baseball was) than the
other.


Since 1988, the Mets have been in 1 World Series, losing to the New
York Yankees and the Phillies have been in 2, winning a championship against a
very good Rays team, that will compete this year and only due to the offseasons
the Yankees and Sox had, will not make the playoffs.


Now back to our little debate. I’ll start with the catchers. Brian
Schneider is not good at all, especially as a hitter. Carlos Ruiz is no super
star either but I would definately take him over Schneider. Now let’s go to the
infield. You’re going to tell me that your cast of four is better than the
Phillies? Feliz doesn’t need to be a great hitter but he is clutch and is the
best fielding 3rd basemen in the league. Now you say Howard is bad? He only led
the league in HRs and RBIs and it doesn’t matter what your average is when you
put up power numbers like that. I will agree that Reyes and Wright are better
than J-Roll and Feliz but Utly is the best player in the division. Also Carlos
Delgado is pretty old, beat up, and not as good as the young Howard.
Now to
the outfield. Beltran is washed up and Church is ok. Victorino, Ibanez, and
Werth are all also ok players but I would rather have 3 solid/good outfielders
than 2. Daniel Murphy? Please. 131 ABs is not a good enough sample to deem a
player to be good.


Your pitching rotation is not good behind Santana. Perez and Pelfrey
good? Please, Mike. You don’t know a good pitcher if he struck you out. I’m glad
you think Perez’s 4.22 ERA last season was good to go with his 1.40 WHIP. and
Pelfrey’s 1.36 WHIP. Or do you even know what that is? How about the bull pen or
I suppose a closer who blew 7 saves is better than a pitcher who was perfect.
And don’t tell me he had more oppurtunities. The Phillies offense was so good
that it won games by more than 3 runs. The Angels’ offense is nothing compared
to Philadelphia’s. 100% is 100%. And stamima would not be a factor because Lidge
actually threw 1 more inning than K-Rod and posted an ERA .30 lower than
Rodriguez. Rodriguez also struck out 77 while Mr. Perfect rung up 92.


Michael, Michael, Michael. The Mets were inferior last year and still are
this year. I’ll be going to the Phillies game next Wednesday when they hand out
their shiny new World Series rings. It’s nice rooting for a championship team
while you watch your team drown in the wake of the S.S. WFC.

mike says:
April 2,
2009 at 8:25 pm
I cant argue against the fact that the Phils have won a
World Series, but I will say that they were lucky to play the Rays. You and I
both know that the Angels were the best team in the AL last year and choked
badly in the playoffs, and Boston would have easily beaten the Phils as
well.
If you took some time to read my argument, you would have seen that I
also bashed Schneider, so there’s no point of trying to argue against me, when
you agreed with me in the first place. However, I’d take Schneider .257 over
Ruiz’s .219 avg. last year.

Moving right along, lets talk about Feliz. Seems like more of the
same to me, where I only talked about his bad hitting, and said nothing about
his fielding, which I agree with you when you say it is very good. Just for
kicks, A-Rod started 25 more games than Feliz, and made only 2 more errors. And
how about Troy Glaus?? Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter to you if his fielding
percentage is .982, which by the way is 8 points higher than Feliz, who played a
third as much time, as long as he’s not playing in Philadelphia……

Again with the reading on Ryan Howard. I said his fielding was bad. You
cant argue with 48 home runs, which I did not argue against. And average
obviously does matter, because he’s hurting his team hitting that low. And go
figure you wouldn’t mention the 199 strike outs, 2 years in a row either. It’s
easy to hit home runs like he does when you’re that big and all you do is swing
for the fences.

Next of all, Utley is a phenomenal player, and I never argued against
that either. However, there is no question in my mind, nor should there be in
yours, that Hanley Ramirez is the best player in the division, NL, and MLB. The
guy hit as many homers as Utley out of the leadoff spot. He hit for a higher
average, stole more than twice the bases, scored more (with a much worse
lineup), walked more, and had a higher slugging percentage. Cant argue with
facts my friend.

Delgado is old, but it clearly isnt much of a factor as he hit 38
homers.

As for outfield, Beltran is clearly still good, unless 172 hits, 40
doubles, 27 homers, 112 RBI, and 25 SB are suddenly bad statistics… In addition,
you also failed to mention our 3rd starter, Fernando Tatis, who in 92 games with
the Mets, posted, if nothing else, at least as good stats as any Phils
outfielder last season.

Pitching follows the same common theme: you don’t read what I’ve
already posted. I said Perez and Pelfrey had promising upsides, not that both
were “good”. However, his 25 wins in the last 2 seasons as a starter are, wow
look at that, better than Brett Myers last 2 years as a starter.
Moreover, I
never argued against the bullpen either. I do think, however, with the additions
we made in the offseason, our bullpen is better off than yours. You can’t be
serious in arguing that one more inning is truly a significant statistic.

Clearly the Mets benefited from the offseason much more than the
Phillies. If I remember correctly, the Mets were the best team in the NL East
for 150 games last year, which is significantly more than the remaining 12
games. I’m glad you’re still stuck on last year though. It’ll definitely help
you out in 2009. If you need more proof, please look up ESPN magazine’s World
Series pick for ‘09. There you can see a completely unbiased editorial about the
2009 season, which is the only season that matters at this point.

John Russo says:
April 2,
2009 at 10:23 pm
Lucky to play the Rays? The Rays were bested Boston. You
can’t get anymore higher than that. The Angels were a very good team but the
best team last year was the team who played the Phillies in the World Series.
Despite a team BA less than .280, they knew how to win games and that is why
they will again compete this year. See winning isn’t about stats or who has the
bigger names. It’s about how well these guys play together and both WS
combatants were the most deserving in the league last year despite not being the
house-hold names.

One of the big keys to maintaining a winning formula is to keep that
formula intact. Yes the Phillies only real loss was Pat Burrell but they added
Raul Ibanez, who despite being another left-handed, strike out machine and
fielding liability, is still a good pick up and will fill most of the hole Pat
left.

I never said Feliz is a good hitter but he has come through numerous
times for Philly in the clutch, both behind the plate and in the field. And the
main reason I attacked your criticism of Howard is you can’t argue against an
infield when you focus on the only 2 weaknesses in the group: Howard’s glove and
Feliz’s bat.

When I made the Utley statement, I had to think about it because Hanley
is in the same league as Utley. If it wasn’t for Delgado’s late surge, those
numbers wouldn’t be inflated.

As far as pitcing. Remember Kyle Kendrick? Everyone said he had
“promising upside.” That doesn’t mean a thing because with these young pitchers,
the best they pitch is what they do when they come out because no one has seen
them before. Once they get film on them and know their stuff, they become
ineffective unless they are truly something special. With the K-Rod vs Lidge, I
was only using the 1 inning to eliminate any counter you would have to the
oppurtunities and breaking down, kinda like defending against any possible
argument.

You can’t predict a thing in baseball. This time last year, I wouldn’t
have thought my team would be champions. I also wouldn’t think the Rays would
own the AL Pennant. We shall see what this season brings.

The Whit's NL Preview

As I stated earlier, I was going to post a link to my NL and AL Preview when they got run. Well the NL went up first and here is the link from the Whit. Next week will feature the AL Preview and I'll have a link up for that.

Read the comment. I already got one angry poster who is obviously a Mets fan. I guess he thinks the choke artists will pull it off again..... NOT!

National League Preview

The Philadelphia Phillies will have a lot of work to do if they want to repeat as NL champions. In order to do that, they will have to get past NL East rivals New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. The competition doesn’t stop there as the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in the Central and the Los Angeles Dodgers will take the West but may see some competition. Here’s an in-depth look at the key teams in the National League.

In the East, the Phillies are still the favorite in the division. They have the best infield in the NL and probably all of baseball with Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Pedro Feliz. Their outfield is nothing short of good either with Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, and newly added Raul Ibanez to fill the hole Pat Burrell had left. Pitching will have to play like it did last season to defend that pennant successfully. Cole Hamels is an elite pitcher in the league. He may miss opening day with elbow problems. Brett Myers is his second man with 46-year old Jamie Moyer taking up the third spot in the rotation. Joe Blanton is the guy to keep your eyes on this year. He pitched well after making the move to the NL and should keep up that pace this year. Their bench is deep and their bull pen is strong, being led by closer Brad Lidge and set up man Ryan Madson. They will receive and instant boost once JC Romero is back from his 50-game suspension. Not many holes in this team at all.

The Mets are sick of blowing the season the past two years. They are also sick of blowing saves. So they went out and spent money to bring in closer Francisco Rodriguez, who broke the single season saves record last year. He will definitely rack up saves barring the opportunities he gets but he will blow his fair share too; not my idea of an improvement. There is nothing stellar once you get past ace Johan Santana in the rotation but Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez are decent pitchers. They do have a solid offense led by David Wright and Jose Reyes. Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado are still both dangerous hitters but after you get past the first five, their depth is very shallow. They are lucky because they are one of the better Wild Card teams.

The Braves bolstered their rotation with the signing of Derek Lowe. He will be supported by Javier Vazquez and Jair Jurrjens. Chipper Jones leads the offense and he is supported by Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson, Garrett Anderson and Jeff Francoeur. The Braves are young but always stay in the mix. The Florida Marlins have some young talent in Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez but that’s really about it. The pitching is very weak. The Washington National aren’t any better and will not be a factor at all this season.

In the Central, the Chicago Cubs are sticking by the motto, “Maybe This Year,” once again. They certainly have a good team but always fall very short in the playoffs. Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano are the spark plugs of this offense. Kosuke Fukudome really came into his own last season and should still be a key to their offense this season. They also sport one of the best young catchers in the league in Geovany Soto. Jeff Samardzija really turned into a good reliever last year and should see his role increased in the pen. Kevin Gregg and Carlos Marmal are the two leading candidates to be the Cubs closer this season.

The Cardinals may very well surprise us this year. Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball and he is healthy. He may be the only super star on that team but he is supported by guys who can play. They got Khalil Green in a trade in the offseason and have Troy Glaus at third still. Ryan Ludwick and Yadier Molino really played well last year and should continue to play well this season. The big story though is the pitching staff. Adam Wainwright will be the staff’s ace and he will be followed up by Kyle Lohse and Todd Wellemeyer. The Cardinals had no true closer last season but expect Ryan Franklin to take the role again. The rest of the division is very weak once you get past the Milwaukee Brewers. They lost CC Sabathia to the Yankees and I don’t see them getting that 2nd half magic they got last season. They have offensive talent but no pitching at all. The Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros do not pose a threat at all and the Pittsburgh Pirates are just awful.

In the West, the Dodgers seem to have things under control over there. They got Manny Ramirez to finally sign. He was the hottest player in the second half last season and the only Dodger who could figure out the Phillies pitching in the post season. Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Russell Martin will all contribute to the sturdy offense they have. They lost Lowe and Brad Penny in the pitching staff but added Randy Wolfe. They will look for Hiroki Kuroda and Chad Billingsley to step up and take control of the pitching. The Diamond backs will have to rely heavily on Brandon Webb’s arm if they want to compete. The San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, and Colorado Rockies won’t be too much of a factor.

The Phillies will take the East and will have the best record in the National League. The Cubs will take the Central in a close race and the Dodgers will easily win the West. The Cardinals should take the Wild Card over the Mets.