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Philadelphia Phillies News


Meeting exactly in the middle between Pence's demand of $11.8 million and the Phillies offer of $9 million.

Cost certainty.

8 minutes ago Wholecamels_tiny WholeCamels 2 comments

Phillies Stat Notes: Playoff Success, Brown, Howard, and more

Bright House Field
(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Random thoughts from a contentious offseason (I can only imagine what it's been like in Boston). Some of these have been touched on in separate posts, or warrant that separate posts address them, but in any case here they are...

The Phillies and Postseason Success

Lofty expectations and the disappointment of the 2011 NLDS have caused a portion of the fanbase (maybe even the majority) to view the current team as failures in the postseason.

Some of that is simply a recency effect -- if they had reached the World Series in 2011 instead of 2009, for example, I think the reaction would have been very different.

But it's worth reviewing how the Phillies' current playoff run over the past five years compares to other teams' last five playoff appearances...

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3 comments  | 

Best Phillies Games of 2011: The Dom Brown Timeline of Futility (June 14)

This is Dom Brown right after he hit a home run. He's so awesome. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

The June 14 baseball game against the Marlins had all the elements that make up an entertaining game. A lopsided score. A home run extravaganza. Great pitching. An opponent that was mired in a slump so horrible and so long that it had gone from funny to sad and all the way back around to funny again. It was a great game. But those elements alone weren't enough to get it on this list. One thing -- or two, actually -- elevated it from "great" to "best."

Let me back up. Cole Hamels was trying to get to nine wins, a mark only two other pitchers had reached to that point. The poor Marlins had lost 10 of 11 games on their just completed home stand. Chris Volstad, perpetual Phillies punching bag, was on the mound for the Marlins. Just how badly did the Phillies beat up on Volstad in 2010? Over his four starts against the Phillies he pitched 21 innings and racked up a 6.43 ERA -- 15 hits and five home runs. What I'm saying is that Volstad wasn't going to be the one to lead the Marlins out of their tragically hilarious (hilariously tragic?) slump. At least not that night.

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3 comments  |  1 recs | 

Brad Lidge, the erstwhile Phillies closer who famously got the final out of the 2008 World Series, and almost as famously produced one of the worst seasons in relief pitching history the next year, has reportedly agreed to terms with the Washington Nationals.

Light your candles below. Good luck, Brad.

1 day ago Wholecamels_tiny WholeCamels 202 comments

highlights:

25. Travis d'Arnaud
44. Jonathan Singleton
54. Trevor May
57. Anthony Gose
61. Jarred Cosart
78. Jesse Biddle (9th LHP)
80. Brody Colvin

Cesar Hernandez misses the top 100, but is number 5 on the second baseman list.

1 day ago 31668_127968670553578_100000213381931_332614_1775181_n_tiny topherstarr 50 comments

More on this as it develops, but the Phillies have traded away the greatest 19th inning pitcher in the history of the franchise. It's a sad day for fans of bizarre extra innings games and strangely bleached goatees.

2 days ago Dsc04697_tiny David S. Cohen 152 comments

Don't Be Shocked If John Mayberry Falls Flat on His Face

This picture isn't terribly relevant to the post, but at least Mayberry's in it.

Nobody reading this needs to be reminded of what a pleasant surprise John Mayberry Jr. was in 2011. He had a great year, which went something like this: After reportedly showing up in Clearwater in great shape, Mayberry had a strong spring training, going 20 for 68 with 5 HR, 6 BB, 12 K, and 4/4 SB, earning himself a bench spot on the Opening Day roster. Then on Opening Day itself, he came up with a game-winning walk-off RBI pinch single. He stayed hot through April but then started to struggle in May, especially after being forced into the starting lineup for 18 games (68 PA) beginning on May 15 due to a Shane Victorino injury (.194/.265/.323). When Victorino returned, Mayberry was optioned to Lehigh Valley. But then he returned on July 5 and went buck wild as a part-time starter for the rest of the season. His wRC+s for July, August, and September were 158, 175, and 146, respectively. In total, he hit 12 HR and .301/.358/.607 over his last 179 PA and ended the season with 2.5 fWAR in only 296 PA.

It was tremendous, and he deserves a lot of praise for it. But that doesn't mean he'll be able to repeat it over a full season in 2012 -- or ever. Mayberry was 27 in 2011 and it's common for players to get a lot better around that age. But the degree to which Mayberry appeared to improve last year has got to raise a healthy amount of suspicion that maybe what we saw was too good to be true. While Mayberry was once a first-round draft pick and therefore isn't completely without a prospect pedigree, he was a pretty pedestrian hitter for his entire career prior to 2011, and that isn't something we can just throw out the window just because of one season of great stats in part-time duty. And especially since in Mayberry's case, he didn't even really put up one season of great stats -- he really only put up three months of super-awesome stats. Below the jump is a chart (italicized numbers are back-of-the-envelope ballpark estimates).

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83 comments  | 

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NL East Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
Atlanta 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Miami 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
New York 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Philadelphia 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Washington 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0

(updated 1.27.2012 at 1:46 PM EST)

National League Wild Card Standings

W L PCT GB STRK
Cincinnati 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Houston 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Milwaukee 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Pittsburgh 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
St. Louis 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Miami 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
New York 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Philadelphia 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Washington 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Colorado 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
Los Angeles 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
San Diego 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0
San Francisco 0 0 .000 0 Lost 0

(updated 1.26.2012 at 9:48 PM EST)

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