Blog Stroll 10/27/09

I figured I haven't done one of these in a long time so I might as well post some of the funnier things I read the past couple of days:

The Fightins did a hilarious post titled "The Bandwagoners Guide to the 2009 Yankees." In it they talk about some of the current and recently former players of the Yankees to just give those who are hopping back on thier bandwagon for the first time in about five years a heads up of who to watch and who to fear.

Phillies Nation did a post comparing the attractions, food, and traffic of New York and Philadelphia. They then capped it off with showing why it's easy to root for a team with 26 rings but difficult to be as passionate, if not more passionate than the Yankees fans with only seeing two rings, 10,000 losses, and Joe Carter and 1964.

Red Pinstripes Are Cooler re-bashed the New York Post for their crappy attempt at humor in depicting the "Frillies" fans and thier city as second rate and used a poorly photo-shopped picture of Shane Victorino in a skirt on thier cover. I guess desperated times call for desperate measures for the Post.

Macho Row did a nice little flash back to the 1950 World Series featuring the Whiz Kids. The Yankees swept the Phillies 4-0.

And also, don't forget to join the World Series discussion on Liberty Bell Sports, a forum for all you Philly fans.

New York Invasion

The Phillies and their fans invaded Queens this past weekend, including the Phillies Nation bus trip on Saturday where a fight was shown in their section by Comcast. After dropping the first game thanks to some poor pitching by Cole Hamels, the Phillies bats exploded as they handled the Mets to win three of four games during the series.

Thankfully Hamels has been the worst pitcher of the four who will make up the playoff rotation. He will pick his game back up when he's needed in the clutch. He hasn't been pressured all year due to a lack of competition in the division so I am confident he will be fine come October.

This series saw some great pitching, a lot of errors, a lot of pop from the Phillies line up, and even an unassisted triple play to end Sunday's game by Eric Bruntlett. Pedro Martinez earned a win in his home coming to New York and even tallied a hit.

Friday - Mets won 4-2: Hamels lasted five innings and got the loss as he surrendered four runs on 10 hits. He allowed a home run to Jeff Francoeur, who had a pretty good series versus the Phillies. Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard had two hits apiece for the Phillies.

Saturday - Phillies won 4-1: After Tim Redding dominated the Phillies, he was pulled due to a pitch count. Chase Utley capitalized with a two-run homer that gave the Phillies the lead for good. Brad Lidge earned his 24th save.

Sunday - Phillies won 9-7: This was one crazy game. After the Phillies jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first thanks to three homers by Jayson Werth and Carlos Ruiz, the Mets answered back. Martinez pitched six solid innings as the Mets stayed in it the whole game. In the bottom of the ninth with a 9-7 score and no outs, Francoeur hit a line drive with runners on first and second to Bruntlett who caught the ball, stepped on second, and tagged out Daniel Murphy for the game ending unassisted triple play. Lidge earned his 25th save.

Monday - Phillies won 6-2: There was no drama in this game but plenty of errors. The Phillies and Mets combined for five errors in the game. Cliff Lee pitched very well despite giving up two runs, none earned. He went seven innings and allowed six hits and struck out five.

Series MVP's:
Ryan Howard: 5-19, 4 R, 2 HR, 6 RBI
Chase Utley: 5-12, 4 R, 2B, HR, 2 RBI
Eric Bruntlett: 4-9, R, unassisted triple play

Next Series: Philadelphia Phillies (72-50, 40-21 on road) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (51-71, 33-28 at home)

Phillies lead series 3-0. This series is almost as predictable as the last. The Pirates will be seeing a Phillies offense that has just caught fire again. If they keep up this tear, this can be a very easy three wins as the Phillies look to expand on their seven and eight game leads on Atlanta and Florida respectively.

The Pirates offense is at a low as it is 12th in average and 13th in runs scored in the NL. The Phillies are 11th in average but climbing while they sit on top of the NL in scoring. As far as pitching, the Phillies ERA has dropped some more as they now sit sixth in the NL while the Pirates are 13th.

This should be another easy series for the Phillies as they find themselves in a race with Los Angeles for the top seed in the NL. Sports Illustrated still thinks the Dodgers are the best team in baseball and the way they Phillies are playing, they are proving them otherwise. I expect a sweep of the Pirates as the Phillies get set to come home versus Atlanta.

Pitching Probables:

Tuesday: PHI: Blanton (8-6, 3.86), PIT: Ohlendorf (11-8, 4.15)

Wednesday: PHI: Hamels (7-8, 4.78), PIT: Maholm (7-7, 4.74)

Thursday: PHI: Happ (10-2, 2.59), PIT: Morton (3-6, 5.21)

Twitter

I have my own Twitter account that I used to post on a bit but I got tired of posting personal thoughts on everything. I decided since I mainly use Twitter to follow Todd Zolecki, David Murphy, and Phillies Nation, I figured I would make a new account for this site. Follow me on Twitter @TeamToBeat. If you look in the top left hand corner of the page, you'll see my Twitter feed. I'll post thoughts during and after games, short news I hear from other places, and links to the site.

Speaking of Twitter, Zolecki reported the Phillies signed their 7th round pick, RHP Brody Colvin:

Phillies sign RHP Brody Colvin, a 7th round pick. He had committed to LSU. Phils sign each pick in the top 10 rounds.

Marlins Sweep Phillies

I am extremely frustrated at watching this Phillies team play as of late. Three rants to be had on this team after watching their performance versus Florida (or lack there of).

Cole Hamels is a sissy:

If there is anyone out their that has no heart, it's Cole Hamels. He has been a disgrace to watch on the mound and it can be said that all Philly fans are tired of his approach to each game this year. I am in no way saying he is a bad pitcher but this year it seems that he has been lazy and shown no will to win.

Phillies Nation had a post on him just being unlucky. I call BS on that as this is just Hamels not being good. He is showing no command of his change up or his fastball and his curveball is a joke. He knows that pitch sucks but he shows no signs of improving it. Ace's can not be two-pitch guys. Thank God for Cliff Lee or this season could be in serious jeopardy.

Offensive Inconsistency:

After a torrid July, the bats have officially died. With the exception of Jimmy Rollins, no one has shown any consistent run support. They strand runners and they don't hit with runners in scoring position.

Ryan Howard is awful. He hasn't homered since July 27. Chase Utley is batting .148 in August with one extra base hit (2B). Shane Victorino is also struggling with his .227 average for the month.

Raul Ibanez's lack of support:

Don't get me wrong, he's had plenty of hits. He just isn't driving anyone in. This does have something to do with Utley and Howard's struggles but he's not bringing guys home. He only has one RBI since July 28.

It's about time for another behind-closed-doors meeting where there is a lot of hollering from Uncle Chollie. This is his team and he has to tell his team that in order to win, they have to straighten their crap out.

Friday - Marlins win 3-2: Ricky Nolasco out pitched the steady Joe Blanton as the Phillies wasted another quality start by Big Joe. The only offense for the Phillies came from Ben Francisco's two run homer, his first as a Phillie and 11th of the year.

Saturday - Marlins win 6-4: Hamels gave up a pair of homers including four runs in 5.1 IP. Howard went 4-4 with two doubles.

Sunday - Marlins win 12-3: This was just an ugly game. The Phillies went up 1-0 and it all fell apart after that. Moyer pitched okay, giving up three runs, two earned, in five innings. He gave up 11 hits and a walk as well, throwing 97 pitches. Rodrigo Lopez was destroyed for six runs in .2 IP. Pedro Feliz hit a two run homer.

Series MVP's:

No one. I'm not even going to put forth the effort for Florida's players.

Next Series: Philadelphia Phillies (61-48; 32-19 on road) @ Chicago Cubs (58-51; 33-19 at home)

The Phillies lead the series 2-1 after playing the Cubs a few weeks ago. The Cubs, much like the Phillies, have been playing some inconsistent baseball, allowing the Cardinals to make some room in the Central standings.

The Cubs offense has still been struggling as they are 14th in average in the league while the Phillies are 8th. The Cubs are also 10th in runs scored while the Phillies still have first in hand. Chicago's 3.83 team ERA is 5th in the league while the Phillies are 11th.

The Phillies are off tomorrow, a great time for Charlie Manuel to close the doors and sit his team down. Hopefully the Phillies will wake up in time to prepare them for the real late season run that will lead into the post season. They match up well in the pitching category so we shall see if the offense shows up.

Pitching Probables:

Tuesday - Happ (8-2, 2.74) vs Harden (7-7, 4.41)

Wednesday - Lee (9-9, 2.95) vs Marshall (3-7, 3.93)

Thursday - Blanton (7-6, 4.02) vs Dempster (6-5, 4.04)

Farewell Timmy

Tim Malcolm left the Phillies Nation blog today. Here is his fare well post. He was a good writer and I enjoyed reading everything he posted daily. Keep reading the Nation. It's still a good site and source for Phillies news, recaps, and previews.

Phillies Nation Likes Halladay

So the Phillies need a big-time pitcher. Who would sell and has valuable pitching?

The Indians, Orioles and Mariners figure to be sellers in the American League. The National League is harder to gauge, but I’ll predict Ed Wade’s Astros will at least think about it. As will the Rockies, Padres, Pirates and Reds. The Nationals, obviously, will be in selling mode, but have no pitching to sell. The Marlins do have pitching to sell, but likely want to hold onto their young staff.

Add the already-known quotients of Roy Halladay and Brad Penny, and we have some names with which to work. They are:

Roy Halladay, Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt, Erik Bedard, Cliff Lee, Aaron Harang, Jarrod Washburn, Jeremy Guthrie, Wandy Rodriguez, Chris Young, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Aaron Cook, Jason Marquis, Bronson Arroyo and Brad Penny.

Let’s look at this list quickly. If I’m general manager of the Phillies, I need an arm that can pitch at the expected level of Cole Hamels. As we know, Ruben Amaro Jr. even said that — he wants a top-level arm. So say goodbye to Penny, Arroyo, Marquis, Cook, Maholm, Duke and Young. The latter three were a tough elimination, but to me, Maholm is comparable to Joe Blanton, Duke’s success is of a short sample and Young hasn’t been very effective in a few years.

To be short, the Phillies need a big-time performer. Here’s who remains:

Read the rest here.

I agree with everything Tim Malcolm said. With the sudden falter of the Blue Jays (despite beating Philadelphia last night) I see them losing faith in this season and wanting to retool for a serious run in a few years. I don't see the Yankees and Red Sox keeping up their dominance with the age of their teams for more than a few more years.

Halladay is my favorite choice with Oswalt and Harang my second and third choices. Peavy just won't cut it here in Philadelphia because he's a fly ball pitcher and CBP is a hitter-friendly park.