Phillies sweep Brewers; Tie for Wild Card lead

by WholeCamels on Sep 14, 2008 10:30 PM EDT Comment 19 comments

Take your best-case scenario last Thursday and, well, it couldn't have played out much better for the Phillies. After the final out of Brett Myers' two-hit masterpiece on Sunday night, the Phillies found themselves tied with Milwaukee for the lead in the National League Wild Card race, and just one game back of the New York Mets, who fell to the Atlanta Braves after yet another Mets bullpen meltdown.

Suddenly South Philly doesn't smell so funny anymore. The path to the playoffs is now clear. It's there. Correction: TWO paths to the playoffs.

Burrell appears to be emerging from his slump. Utley's hitting nicely. Rollins and Howard have been excellent lately. Myers, Hamels, Moyer... no complaints there.

This is good. I'm guardedly optimistic.

They can do this.

Right?

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I think guardedly optimistic is a very good representation of my feelings as well… They CAN do this… Let’s see if they WILL… We still do need some help from other teams though…

by foos05 on Sep 15, 2008 7:50 AM EDT reply actions

So who should start on Wednesday?

Link. I guess I vote for Happ by default.

The one negative point about this last series is that before Friday’s rainout, we would have needed to use our #5 starter only once the rest of the year while keeping everybody else on regular rest. Now we can’t do that. The options were either to pitch Hamels AND Blanton on short rest on Wednesday and Thursday, or use the #5 twice (both times vs. Jair Jurrjens). The Phillies seem to have chosen Door Number Two, which I guess is the right call.

The second game with the #5 will replace what would have been a third game from Joe Blanton. This is, I think, a real detriment to the team. I was (and still am) as skeptical about the Blanton acquisition as anyone, and he’s obviously very frustrating to watch in real time. That said, from an objective standpoint he’s no worse than average as a starter and he at least gives you even odds of winning any given ballgame. The comparisons to Eaton that have been floating around lately are clearly out of line.

by taco pal on Sep 15, 2008 10:22 AM EDT reply actions

I’m almost at the point where I think one or both of those “starter #5” games should be given to the bullpen. Hope for 2-3 innings each from among Madson, Durbin, Happ and Kendrick until you get to the 7th, then hope Condrey, Romero, Eyre and Lidge can finish it.

What terrifies me about Kendrick facing the Braves is that they’ve got so many good lefty bats, and as we know he’s totally helpless against lefties.

by dajafi on Sep 15, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions

Strangely enough, Kendrick did pretty well against the Braves earlier this year, and that was when they had Teixeira. 2-1, 3.47 in 4 GS, 23.1 IP. Of course, those numbers can pretty much go out the window now.

In other news, anybody read Bill Conlin’s column today? Among other things, apparently Adrian Cardenas is a “nobody outfielder.”

by taco pal on Sep 15, 2008 11:36 AM EDT reply actions

He might have been referring to Matt Spencer… though that just raises the question of why One-Chair (which really should read “Love Seat”) would ignore Cardenas.

The organization is indictable for how they mishandled Floyd… and definitely for the Outman screwup, which many called at the time (Phuturephillies.com was all over it, for one). But in the case of Floyd, I’m not sure he wasn’t the classic “needs a change of scenery” guy. If so, he wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.

It’s overlooked in the run of big acquisitions they’ve made the last three or four years, but one of the best things the Mets did was wait out Mike Pelfrey, who went through something similar to Floyd. They now have a bona fide #2 at a low low price, while we’re hoping for Blanton and waiting for Carrasco.

by dajafi on Sep 15, 2008 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Totally forgot about Spencer, but like you said that doesn’t make the column any better. I agree with you about Floyd. The main thing that irks me about Conlin’s piece, actually, is that when Floyd was here, Conlin was his #1 critic – lots of columns questioning his “toughness”, his “guts”, etc etc, going all the way back to when Floyd was in Reading. Unfortunately, the philly.com archives aren’t easily searchable so naturally, take my off-the-cuff recollections with a grain of salt, but what I recall is that Conlin’s view back then was that there was something wrong with Floyd, not just with the way the Phillies developed him. I don’t remember Conlin criticizing the Garcia trade when it was made.

by taco pal on Sep 15, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m sure if you e-mail him, he’ll be happy to engage you in a civil, fact-based discussion in response to your concern.

;)

by dajafi on Sep 15, 2008 5:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Heh. Yeah I’ll do that right after I schedule my colonoscopy.

Hmm, I see that on December 14, 2006, Conlin wrote a column titled “Nobody and Nobodier Got Phils Stud Like Garcia.” You can only read the first two paragraphs online, but that sounds promising….

by taco pal on Sep 15, 2008 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m not defending the Phillies handling of Floyd, but I do think he’s having an incredibly fluky year and is not nearly as good as his 3.77 ERA.

Floyd’s FIP and xFIP have him pegged at a 4.84 and 4.72 ERA respectively. His K/BB is under 2 and he’s given up a Myers-esque 26 HR. Floyd is still only 25 and has room to improve, but there’s no way he turns in another year like this one without significantly improving his peripherals.

by christonabike on Sep 15, 2008 7:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Pshaw. You probably thought Kyle Kendrick was a fluke too!

Oh. Wait.

by dajafi on Sep 15, 2008 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Yost

Nice to see Yost fired today for his awful managing yesterday!

by David S. Cohen on Sep 15, 2008 4:26 PM EDT reply actions

We should have a game thread for Mets-Nationals tonight.

by taco pal on Sep 15, 2008 6:41 PM EDT reply actions

Personally I’ll be watching the Eagles, though probably Mets-Nats will be stop #1 when that game’s on commercial.

I don’t know if it’s FM-style psychological self-defense or what, but I just can’t get myself to believe that the Mets are going to blow it again.

by dajafi on Sep 15, 2008 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks Daj…now you are thinking!

by FuquaManuel on Sep 16, 2008 12:16 AM EDT up reply actions

That’s a good thing you’ve got going there. So thank you.

by dajafi on Sep 16, 2008 12:27 AM EDT up reply actions

Floyd’s handling doesn’t bother me any more than Endy Chavez for Marlon Byrd.
Floyd was given plenty of chances and couldn’t get it done here.
I will be irrirated if Kendrick is treated that way however. Provided he’s optionable….he should be sent down to work on his stuff. I still have faith he can be a serviceable #3 or #4, with some help.
I would prefer to see Happ start as the #5. He’s not horrible. I don’t think that Atlanta has faced him yet, and that should count for something. At that point, Happ should be facing a marginally Triple-A lineup also.

by Bilzo on Sep 15, 2008 10:08 PM EDT reply actions

Unless Kendrick can develop a good out pitch and can get lefties out at even a bad clip (compared to the super-embarrassing line he currently puts up against them) I don’t see him ever being a serviceable #4 or #5—let alone a #3.

Carrasco is projected to be a #3…Carrasco! Now compare Kendrick to Carrasco…Yeah.

by FuquaManuel on Sep 16, 2008 12:20 AM EDT up reply actions