Some Phillies Links for You: May 2, 2010

by Wet Luzinski on May 2, 2010 10:55 AM EDT

Given the late starting time for tonight's game and that I've seen at least four interesting items in my Sunday papers, I'll kick us off with a Sunday open links thread. If you've seen others, feel free to join in the comments.

An Unlikely Thorn Keeps Jabbing at the Phillies

You're not paranoid; Rod Barajas really is out to get you.

End of Win Streak Hurts, and That's a Promising Sign

No, it's not. Getting the Mets numbed up to losing again aids the digestion.

Length of Deal Highlights Howard's Flaws

Dan Rosenheck just lit a flaming pile on RAJ's doorstep and rang the doorbell. Run!

Contract - plus Cox's comments - reignite comparison

Bobby Cox just lit a flaming pile on Ryan Howard's doorstep and rang the doorbell. Run! (WTG Bobby Cox for bridging the painful WIP/SABR Phillies fan divide)

Ballplayers Join Protest of New Law

This story just continues to grow legs. It will be interesting to see how far the MLBPA will go here. Arizona doesn't just have the Diamondbacks, but a lot of minor league facilities.

Phils Lost this Fan Forever

LOL Mike Cybularz. For the rest of you young bucks out there who like to trade in absolutes, take it from me, a fairly elder statesman-type on the blog. Life is long. What goes around comes around. Enjoy the good times and go see minor league games/ explore other stadiums when times are bad. As my high school track coach used to say: Keep running. You never know if lightning is going to strike the sunofabitch in front of you.

Reading wastes 8-run inning

Apparently there's some fella named Brown who can slug it.

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Comments

Okay, seriously? Gonzo must be really hurting for material. So basically Mike Cybularz was a Phillies fan for 10 years, got fed up with the team and will never root for them again?

Good riddance. Go be a Yankees fan.

by tat167 on May 2, 2010 11:19 AM EDT reply actions

Reading

sadly, blog hero Michael Schwimer took the brunt of New Hampshire’s late-inning attack.

by Wet Luzinski on May 2, 2010 11:29 AM EDT reply actions

Arizona also has the 2011 all star game.

Adrian gonzalez says he won’t go to the 2011 all star game if it’s in Arizona and wants his team out of Arizona

by jemagee on May 2, 2010 1:29 PM EDT reply actions

Not to mention that half of the teams have Spring Training in AZ, with lots and lots of very young, probably non-English speaking Latin American minor leaguers.

http://www.thegoodphight.com

by WholeCamels on May 2, 2010 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions

While it would really suck for the player in question, the best thing that could possibly happen from a societal standpoint would be for a major leaguer (preferably a popular one, and even better, a natural-born US citizen) to be arrested and jailed for a night by some punk local cop. Watch what that would do to public opinion if it happened.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I expect this will happen to a lot of not so famous natural born US Citizens…and while baseball voices are nice, I expect this to come to a head before the next spring training.

ARizona is the state that refused to recognize the MLK holiday too at one point right?

by jemagee on May 2, 2010 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions

latter day Freedom Riders?

Srsly, this is very likely to happen. Wonder if it will impact Latin signings at all. Think of it if you were the parent of a prospect…one team trains in FL, the other in AZ. I’d want my boy in FL.

by Wet Luzinski on May 2, 2010 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions

You apparently didn’t understand my comment. What I said was that if an incident like the one I described were to happen, it would present opponents of the AZ law with a story they can use to drastically move public opinion. I did not say anything about “baseball voices” being needed, nor did I say this wasn’t going to impact non-baseball players. (That it’s mostly going to impact non-famous people is kind of an obvious point. Everybody knows that.)

As for Arizona – yes it was the state that refused to recognize MLK Day back in the early 1990s or so. I remember In Living Color doing a sketch about it at the time. They lost the Super Bowl because of it. Interestingly, one of the owners who pushed hardest to do that was Norman Braman. Anyway, it’s a conservative state, but there are other states out there that are more conservative and that have more race problems. So it’s unclear to me why they seem to get into the news for this kind of thing disproportionately.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 4:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Your comment (as i read it) indicated that the best thing that could possibly happen from a societal standpoint was that a major leaguer get arrested – what i was trying to say was that I don’t think the law will last that long as I think many ‘average’ citizens who ‘look wrong’ will be arrested by some punk local cop.

But don’t count on the federal government, I heard congress is ‘too tired’ to handle this issue

by jemagee on May 2, 2010 4:46 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t think your logic follows, but whatever.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Somehow you think that major league ball players being treated shabbily due to their race is worth more recognition than if it happened to, say, FM?

by jemagee on May 2, 2010 4:56 PM EDT up reply actions

No I do not, and I did not say that I did. What I said was that it would be a more effective tool in influencing public opinion.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions

Brown

Wow, you weren’t kidding. In eight games since coming back from his head injury, he’s .346/.419/.808. Yeah, that’ll work.

Tyson Gillies has been hitting better lately too.

Sadly, it looks like Aumont got smacked around this afternoon.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 2:50 PM EDT reply actions

And Brown homered again today.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions

So I was taking a quick look at Jamie Moyer’s fangraphs page and noticed that there’s a really huge difference between his FIP (5.58) and xFIP (4.30) this year. Turns out that his HR/FB rate in his first four starts has been an astounding 20.0%. I don’t know what to think about this. Maybe once you get past 45, your HR/FB rate stops being so much about luck, but still, 20.0%? Surely there’s got to be at least some bad luck in there. That xFIP actually looks pretty solid.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 3:03 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, I noticed that the other day. The HR/FB rate is way out of whack like Cole’s. Still, while Cole’s BABIP is ridiculously high, Jamie’s is down around normal levels. One thing that seems true about Jamie, though, is that when people hit him they hit him really hard. So it’s possible that his HR/FB could stay pretty high as it reflects the fact that when he misses his spots, he is more prone to give up homers than other pitchers because of the velocity of his pitches…on, the other hand, he has always throw pretty slow, and has never had a 20% HR/FB rate.

by FuquaManuel on May 2, 2010 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions

I really like this Hardball Times article on Moyer from a couple of years ago. The author says that when Moyer does start to lose it, his control (which was really, really excellent throughout his “prime”) will probably be the first thing to go, and this could lead to more balls finding the middle of the plate.

But on the other hand, the stats he says we should keep our eyes on are his LD% and his IFB%, not his HR/FB. His LD% is up a shade this year, but only by a shade, and his IFB% is actually crazy-good this year. (Almost one third of all the fly balls he’s given up this year are either homers or infield pop-ups, which is really weird.) So who knows.

by taco pal on May 2, 2010 5:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Joe Morgan on the Ryan Howard contract, it’s not about statistics, it’s about the locker room
He also thinks Howard is one of the elite players in the game – i’m not sure how he defines elite

by jemagee on May 2, 2010 7:17 PM EDT reply actions

I’m not sure how Joe Morgan still has a job as an analyst.

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on May 2, 2010 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, we’ll just see what Mr. Morgan has to say about one of the elite players in the game after he strikes out 3 times against Santana. Probably that he is still one of the elite players in the game.

by FuquaManuel on May 2, 2010 7:47 PM EDT up reply actions

I seem to recall Howard has been OK (as in not brutal) against Santana. I remember a few HR’s, so maybe it’s a feast and famine thing. Of course, I’m too lazy to look up the numbers. Johan has that changeup, not unlike Cole’s, that if it’s not perfectly located, winds up in a power-hitting lefty’s wheelhouse. Cole + Delgado = pain. So much pain. Glad he’s gone.

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on May 2, 2010 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions

True, and Howard won’t see enough pitches to K against Johan. It’s entirely possible that he will see fewer than 10 pitches in the entire game though.

by FuquaManuel on May 2, 2010 8:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, so long as one of them is a grooved fastball that Howard places in the left field bleachers, color me happy!

"Tortorella’s got it all wrong ... Gaborik shouldn’t be messing with our skilled player." -Peter Luuko

by doubleh on May 2, 2010 8:07 PM EDT up reply actions

ummm...

how can ryan howard not be known as an elite player? man, I thought the fans on this board respected ryan howard and really liked the big guy. sure, he has some flaws, but his strengths make him an elite player

by PhilsForever on May 3, 2010 2:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Well see, you judge a player by his strengths and his flaws, and not just his strengths…so his flaws matter…and his flaws drop him from being one of the 20/30 best players in the league.

by jemagee on May 3, 2010 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions