Some Phillies Links for You, May 20, 2010: Ball Girls, Bye Burrell, Roy's World

It definitely makes the fact that I spend most of my time on this site on mobile a much happier thing.

Yeah, it seems a bit weird. It’s not as if men themselves have an overwhelmingly consistent appreciation of the game, so why “tutor” women into appreciating baseball based on a fictional hegemony of fandom?

Also, I can’t help but think of this when I think about the whole business.

I do sort of find it a little insulting/condescending that they have this class. While I appreciate the sentiment behind it, it ultimately makes it seem like appreciation of the game still resides in the male mind and is somehow elusive to the female brain. I mean, it’s physics and stats and basic laws of averages with some luck thrown in…it’s not like we’re talking rocket science.

I doubt they would allow some relatively young whippersnapper like me in there because they’d probably ask me how I felt about the Abreu trade and if I said anything other than “we needed to dump that lazy good-for-nothing OF, he was afraid of the wall,” then I wouldn’t be admitted.

Can I go???? I am a girl… I am a fan… and I know enough about baseball to ask well reasoned, smart questions (in fact, I know more than most of the guys that I work with!!!!)

I don’t know… batting well in the eighth hole means that Ruiz is unlikely to see many strikes when he comes up with 2 outs… If I were the pitcher, I would walk him every time he came up with 2 outs. I would be willing to break my usual thou shalt not intentionally walk to load the bases because it invites trouble rule, to walk him and get to the pitcher because playing the numbers, that is going to work for me a lot more times than it doesn’t.

As for Ibanez…. I think the walk rate is already falling, but I am ok with it because he is hitting better, which may mean that some of the balls that he was fouling on the way to a walk before are now going into play for hits, which can be much bigger gifts than walks (I have yet to see an extra base walk issued…)

Regarding the Paul Hagen piece: Pitches per plate appearances in the last 3 games have been 3.56, 3.97, 3.95. Their season average is now 3.86, which is exactly the league average. I agree that they need to be more patient, but the last 2 games at least haven’t been especially bad.

As for the walk rate, just counting ABs and BBs for a quick-n-dirty, walks are down from 9.6% in 2009 to 9.3% this year, so not a big change. Reductions by Polanco (vs. Feliz, believe it or not), Howard, and Victorino, are largely offset by increases by Utley, Ibanez, and Ruiz.

I said what I said above on Baseball 101 before I read this comment, I swear. LOL.

I think it may be a case of addition by subtraction…. sometimes the best thing that can happen to a team is to be rid of a player that is causing negative emotions in a clubhouse… even if they do not get much in return. One of the weird things for the Phillies is how many trades they have made where what they got back did not help them, but what the move allowed them to do in terms of space created on the field was immense— trading Polanco for what they got back was not a win for them… but the big open space it left for Chase Utley to play second base every day was more than worth it. Trading away Thome to allow room for Ryan Howard may not have yielded great players, but it gave Howard space to play, again making the deal a win for the Phillies… sometimes addition truly is by subtraction.

If you put it in your garden, it repels evil spirits, but only righthanded ones.

It’s his birthday? He hasn’t looked so good at the plate last few days—maybe they are just resting him?

Hopefully, it’s because they want to avoid any of his trademark day-game adventures…

Assuming Francisco gets the nod instead, I like this. Francisco’s had splinters up his butt this year and has consequently been useless when he’s pinch hit; on the flip side, it’s a good idea to give all three outfielders a day off at least once every other week or so.

more speculation, but remember he hit a ball off his ankle late Monday night, then followed it up with only his second 0fer of the season last night. I’ll bet he’s hurt.

Yeah that’s incorrect. I did think, however, that he was booed less harshly than other players might have been booed under similar circumstances.

Already six questions about Francisco’s alleged suckiness! There are a lot of incredibly stupid people out there.

Aha – my question is on the board!

typical day game after night game stuff, plus I think Chollie wants to be careful given Chooch was hurt last week, and a bit of a reward to Hoover, who will go back to LV next week.