“I love Raul Ibanez’s attitude and work ethic, but does anything about him really scream “blue collar”?"

He’s not the prima-donna Burrell/Abreu?

Sports writers must have a cut and paste function. Like a team? Use terms like “chemistry” and “destiny.” Like a player? Use terms like “grit,” “hustle,” and “blue collar.” Don’t like a team? Use terms like “doesn’t hit with runners in scoring position” or “too reliant on the long ball.” Don’t like a player? Use terms like “aloof” or “strikes out too much.”

So, in order to get past the “Steroid Era,” baseball needs a World Series featuring Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez. Gotcha, New York Times. This is why no one buys your miserable rag anymore.

This made me laugh… priceless

I read that yesterday and the whole way he’s talking about how every advantage goes to the dodgers, and then he picks the Phils in 7?

what What WHAT?

Here’s a question I have for the writers who are know on the ‘lidge is healed’ kick.

In todays major league baseball – the closer comes into a save situation to start the 9th and is counted on to get all 3 outs. That’s how it works, that’s how joe nathan blew that game against the yankees and houston street blew game 4 against the phillies…cause they were the ‘closer’ so they pitch the 9th.

In game 4 brad lidge faced one batter to get his ‘save – he didn’t pitch the 9th – he didn’t fan 3 – he came in for a match up appearance, which shows maybe manuel thinking better, but I’m not sure how that one out combined with the shaky pitching on Sunday qualifies Lidge as anything as not sucking as much as he had at some points but he’s not exactly ‘right’…the death of journalism is not the internet – it’s the journalists itself.

Just read the Bowa piece. Always liked Bowa. Appreciate the effort he gave while here. I think his failure was that he just cared TOO much about the Phillies.

Larry Bowa coaching the Phillies is the reason that none of us could ever be the Phillies manager. Everything ate him up too quick. It took all of us a while to warm to Chollie from Mayberry, but he stays calm and erupts when needed.

Can you imagine how Bowa would’ve handled Lidge this year? (and in some fashions THAT might have actually been better….guarandamntee you Lidge wouldn’t have blown 11 saves with Bowa as manager!)

Giants’ Bochy, Sabean Rewarded With Extensions Despite Inept Offense

That made me laugh -

There’s a couple of decisions that need to be made. If Park’s in, who’s out? Will we (wrongly, IMO) stick with a 5-man bench? Does Bastardo stick on the roster to pitch to Ethier in a big spot? What is Kyle Kendrick here for?

I appreciate the caption and all – very funny – but Torre’s evil grin looking back at me when i open up the site is kind of scary

I love the NYTimes burn!

Also, just to play Devil’s Advocate here:

Yes, because two games upends an entire season’s worth of performance.

Sometimes it does…just ask Huston Street.

The points about which pitcher would have been better in the 9th inning Monday brought to mind a thought I had after the game – during the excitement I wasn’t thinking strategies the Rockies might employ. Tracy gets some credit, at least for not being a wimp, for having Street challenge both Utley and Howard rather than pitching around them. And for that we Phillies fans should be grateful. After there were two outs and one man on first, what if the strategy had been to look at the lineup ahead and the two-run lead and say, okay, fire strikes at Utley, don’t walk him, if he hits it out okay, but there’s an excellent chance he doesn’t. If he gets on and there’s still a lead you could have pitched around Howard, not give him anything to hit and probably walk him – or he strikes out going for bad pitches. So, if the bases are loaded and the lead is still two runs, why would you give Werth anything good to hit, the same as with Howard, when the guy on deck is either Cairo or Stairs or Bako (batting for Madson). Wouldn’t it have made more sense then to semi-intentionally walk Werth, even if it brought in the third run, if it got to a final matchup between Street and Stairs – and then they could bring in Beimel and you probably end the inning with the game on the line between Beimel and Cairo. Instead, the game was on the line to varying degrees with Utley, Howard and Werth. I realize any time you fill the bases you’re running a risk but the one weak spot offensively for the Phillies is their bench: the four bench players (Bako didn’t get up) went 0-8 with one walk in the series. The team as a whole hit .296. Sometimes the best way to beat a good team is to figure out how to avoid getting beat by their best hitters. Tracy didn’t do that.