Just a Few Phillies Links For You, May 5, 2010: Non-Taser Edition
by WholeCamels on May 5, 2010 8:11 AM EDT
Email
PrintSo I went onto the Web with the goal of putting together a timely, non-Taser set of links for this morning. On principle, I'm done talking about it: 1. I think obsessing over it and continuing the discussion is just giving encouragement to other ghouls to do the same thing (i.e., 9th inning on Tuesday); and 2. There's really nothing else to say. I want to talk about baseball, and I want to talk about Cole Hamels looking like an ace last night, about Jose Contreras and Brad Lidge being absolutely sick out of the bullpen, and Carlos Ruiz becoming a stout offensive force.
But the rest of the Internet disagrees. Virtually nothing Phillies related not involving the fan-on-the-field issue. Sigh. Here's a few things for you to read.
Phillies beat Cardinals on Ruiz walkoff homer in 10th inning | Philadelphia Daily News
JOSE CONTRERAS walked to the mound with a packed house around him, a tie game on the scoreboard above him, nine innings of drama behind him, and one thought on his mind. "I have to do this," he said to himself. "My mother is actually here."
Modesta Camejo attended her first baseball game last night. She watched her 38-year-old son play a boy's game for the first time in her life. And, thanks to a game-winning home run by Carlos Ruiz and a spectacular eight-inning pitching performance by Cole Hamels, she watched both him and his teammates record a much-needed victory.
Absolutely awesome.
Phillies Notebook: Phillies kicking around options with Madson out 2 months | Philadelphia Daily News
Phillies declining to punish Ryan Madson for his, um, idiocy in the Chair Kick of 2010.
Wheels & T-Mac Get Awkward - Chicks Dig The Long Ball
A strange and touching moment in the booth last night between Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler.
Crashburn Alley - Carlos Ruiz Walking the Walk
Good timing on this piece by Bill. It's getting to the point where you want to capture more of the benefit of his high OBP by moving him up in the order.
Bill Conlin: Exposing the hazards of long-tossing | Philadelphia Daily News
Wherein Bill Conlin fancies himself an exercise physiologist, and determines that none of the prospects in the Cliff Lee/Roy Halladay deals will ever be as good as the stars for whom they were traded. Well, yeah. And way to base that on less than a month's worth of data.
Minor Leagues: IronPigs take out Indianapolis, 3-1 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Good stuff in the minors yesterday.
Stephen Strasburg moves one step from majors, called up to Class AAA Syracuse
Harrisburg weeps.
99 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I’m usually carefully cynical about human interest stories in sports, but I can’t deny the Contreras’ mom story. Not to be political, but it’s friggin tragic that the two were separated for this long; that she could be reunited with him and watch him really excel is pretty touching.
That is great that she was able to watch. That’s a really neat P.S. to this game. Another nugget from that article:
""He’s a very underrated clutch hitter, and I think he shows that when he hits in the postseason," Lidge said of Ruiz."
I guess Lidge might also believe in psychics, homeopathy, and a heliocentric universe.
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 8:50 AM EDT up reply actions
Not going to argue clutchness, but Ruiz does have some quirky stats, some due to small sample size, others just bizarre. For his career, he has a 94% success rate on sacrifice hits, compared to the MLB average of 68%. His productive out percentage is 38%, higher than the 32% average. His swinging strike percentage is ridiculously low, at 8% (compared to the league average of 15%). None of that is clutch, and he does also have a tendency to see strikes go by and to GIDP, but his high contact rate and productive out rate could certainly give an appearance of clutchiness.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I shall clutch those statistics next to my heart and think warmly of Charles.
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions
It's a better view than geocentric
but it’s the belief is that the sun is the center of the “universe.” That’s not true either, the sun is just one of many stars.
by Screen Name 20 on May 5, 2010 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions
While we can feel free to spin the propellers on our hats and wax philosophical about the indubitable lack of veracity inherent in the concept of “clutch”…….
I think it’s only reasonable to cut players slack when it comes to ideas like this one. Our lives are by and large anecdote-driven, not data-driven, and these guys see more than enough instances to justify their opinions. By all accounts, Brad Lidge is a fairly intelligent guy and he’s just talking about what he sees every day. Can’t really fault him for not running the STATA analysis on Carlos’s supposed “clutch” ability. The World Series ring on his dresser is probably proof enough for him.
I agree re: the Human Interest thing. Especially when it’s a confluence of human tragedy-turned-joy, international politics, and sports.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
Ruiz
Agreed on moving Ruiz up in the order. Victorino has had some big home runs, but a leadoff hitter he ain’t. Ruiz may clog the bases (see out at 3rd last night), but I think that would be more than made up by his being on base a lot more. Related fanpost: http://www.thegoodphight.com/2010/5/5/1458836/carlos-ruiz-keeps-rolling
First innings would be much longer, at least with the lineup below, but why even think about it? Charlie would never do it. Only because going L/R/L/R makes bullpen decisions harder, or else I’d make it Utley/Ruiz/Werth at the top:
1. Ruiz
2. Utley
3. Werth
4. Howard
5. Polanco
6. Victorino
7. Ibanez
8. Pitcher/Castro
9. Pitcher/Castro
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 8:55 AM EDT up reply actions
The only thing I might change would be to swap Victorino and Ibanez. Raul’s actually been slightly better at getting on base, and Shane has better power numbers (.232/.347/.378 for Raul, .243/.274/.441 for Shane). It also makes the lineup R/L/R/L/R/L/S for those seven slots, which keeps with the idea of making bullpen decisions difficult and prevents LOOGYs from facing multiple lefthanders in a row.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I’m not normally a big believer in lineup “protection”, but dont’ you think a portion of Ruiz’s OBP comes from getting pitched around to get to the pitcher? I’m curious if there is any way to measure that.
by EJL on May 5, 2010 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions
I was actually wondering the same thing. I guess my feeling is that he might be pitched around — see Santana’s approach to Ruiz before Moyer’s epic at bat — but that, if he weren’t pitched around, he’d not lose any of his selectivity. In other words, I think his pitch selection skills wouldn’t be counteracted entirely even if he was getting better pitches overall.
He does see somewhat fewer strikes (60%, compared to 63% for the MLB average), but I don’t think it’s that significant. However, his hitting style looks to have shifted somewhat. Last year, his GB/FB ratio was the lowest it’s ever been, at 0.75, and his groundout/flyout ratio was 0.91; it had never been below 1.15 until then. 44% of his hits were XBH. He had both a jump in power and was hitting more stuff in the air instead of on the ground. His walk rate did increase, but it’s gone up every year in the majors, from 6.4 to 9.8 to 11.8 to 12.4. His 21.2% walk rate this year is probably unsustainable, but a 12-13% walk rate would be in line with what he’s done.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
EJL, from Bill’s piece above…
…Some of Ruiz’s non-intentional walks (16 of 18) are those "unintentional intentional walks" as he bats in front of a weak-hitting pitcher. 8 of his 18 walks have come in 22 plate appearances (36%) with two outs. 5 of his 18 walks have come in 13 plate appearances (38%) with two outs and runners in scoring position. There’s no doubt that Ruiz’s high walk rate is due to managers telling their pitchers to pitch around him to get to the pitcher.
Ruiz still has to draw the walks, though. Houston’s Humberto Quintero, also a catcher who hits eighth, has drawn exactly one walk in 33 PA in front of the pitcher. Washington’s Wil Nieves has drawn zero walks hitting eighth…
On the other hand, those two guys suck so bad that they probably don’t get pitched around to begin with.
Don’t you think they are due? haha. One of my favorite Family Guy moments.
And I agree, Carlos does have a good eye, I was just saying I wouldn’t expect his OBP to stay where its at hitting higher in the order.
by EJL on May 5, 2010 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Madson should be respectable and at least punish himself….maybe donate his salary for the 8 weeks to a Phillies Charity like ALS. When was the last time a player or team did something like that.
Anger management, perhaps?
Perhaps this volatility prevents Madson from closing. Maybe there is something to the “closing mindset” that we all ignore in discussions of “high leverage” and “an out is an out”. The 27th out may be much harder than the 24th out.
Perhaps the volatility was a calculated prophylactic 1 spin measure from Madson designed to affect the perceptions of the fans/team. (“I’m mad about losing, too! Mad Dog! I’m a Mad Dog! I’m foaming! I’m fiery and stuff! Don’t be mean to me because I’m breaking things and that shows that I care! Don’t make me out to be all relaxed and Abreu-ish! Plus, I’m white!”).
1 Jest away, but it’s a valid use there. Japers.
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 9:01 AM EDT up reply actions
Conlin Story.......
Thanks for linking that, I really needed a good laugh. I will never understand how people so out of touch with reality can do the things that they do. If you are talking about long tossing during this time of year when everything in the sports world is going on, you really are reaching. Phil’s had 4 remarkable wins in the last week. Eagles are “rebuilding”, Flyers are in the playoffs with one leg, and the 76ers have enough issues to write an entire sports section on what they are doing wrong. LOL, that is classic.
To connect this fan-on-the-field stuff to a more relevant topic, the WIP morning show was livid at yesterday’s idiot – to the point that it was actually driving them into a position of sympathy for Hamels. They were angry for him. It’s probably too much to hope that this might be a small turning point in the city’s relationship with Cole, but who knows?
And rightfully so. Monday’s kid did a stupid thing, but I found it to be more sweetly stupid, sort of like something Lloyd Christmas or Homer Simpson might do. (In fact, I’m pretty sure Homer actually did it in an episode.) Yesterday’s garbage was no-imagination copycat bulls**t. And to do it at that moment! What an idiot.
Well stated. Was discussing with a buddy last night how the two incidents were both wrong, but that the second was far more egregious.
classic
@robmaaddi from AP reports that narcotics were found on the fan tonight who messed with Hamels’ mojo in the ninth.
http://twitter.com/ToddZolecki/status/13403852081
So he intentionally ran into certain arrest, and he had drugs in his pocket. Unlike the kid, who just did one stupid thing, I think we can probably conclude that this guy really is flat-out stupid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTmIzjkw
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Homer: It’s my lifelong dream!
Marge: Your lifelong dream was to run onto the field during a baseball game, and you did it last year, remember?
(Cut to newspaper reading: “Idiot Ruins Game – Springfield Forfeits Pennant”)
by ThinMountainAir on May 5, 2010 1:42 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Speaking of the walks – I noticed yesterday that Raul Ibanez is also on pace for over 100 walks this year. I doubt that his plate discipline suddenly improved at age 37, so maybe this is a sign that no one’s giving him anything to hit this year. Which could be explained by the fact that Castro’s behind him, although that only started two weeks into the season.
By the way, Jose Contreras… WTF? 98 mph? WTF?
Where did that come from? There were commenters here who wanted to cut him during spring training!
I know he’s been awesome all year, but he seemed even nastier last night. We need his mom to come to every game from now on. Give her a luxury box, Monty!
Also, those three sliders that Lidge threw to Brendan Ryan were unhittable.
Oh for sure. I can only think of one time off the top of my head, but it’s not something totally unbelievable like Jamie Moyer throwing 85.
From the Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers:
When Moyer won 12 games in 1987 his fastball was in the high 80s. By the time he emerged with Seattle almost ten years later, it was in the low to mid 80s
Honor is no substitute for victory.
what was his change clocking in at? if gun’s are off is it linear?
by P. Incaviglia on May 5, 2010 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions
Only tangentially related to previous discussions here
The phoenix suns will wear their ‘spanish’ jerseys tonight and have openly indicated that this is partially because of the new law in Arizona…as steve nash points out, the suns (and spurs) have a lot of foreigners on their teams.
The Phoenix San Antonio game is the focus of the NBA world tonight, it’s the only game on.
I know there was debate as to whether baseball should get involved, well the NBA team of Arizona has decided to make a statement.
by jemagee on May 5, 2010 9:58 AM EDT reply actions
It’s also telling that the Spurs tried to get in on that with their ‘Los Spurs’ unis but couldn’t get approval in time.
Although I think part of doing it is Cinco de Mayo as well.
Berries are nice, but Graham crackers taste pretty good too.
by alcatraz0109 on May 5, 2010 12:39 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Yes it is cinco de mayo – but the suns have made it clear that they are motivated by the new law in arizona – steve nash on the radio said it (iheard it on espn this morning) pointing out that the suns are a team of a lot of nationalities themselves.
I mean sure it would suck for the diamondbacks, but i think it would cause more of a stir in arizona if it was a suns player who was detained because, well, they care more about the suns than the d-backs :)
by jemagee on May 5, 2010 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions
I got a kick out of the movement to boycott Diamondbacks road games. Ha, like anyone actually goes to see the Diamondbacks.
And Nash is a fairly outspoken guy politically, so it didn’t surprise me when he made statements about the immigration law.
It does surprise me to see the team back him up – and openly admit that while yes it is cinqo de mayo – that’s not the only reason – they could have just said nothing and let people make asssumptions as they want.
by jemagee on May 5, 2010 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Kind of sucks for Arizona, I don’t agree with the law, but they do have a serious problem with drug smuggling along the border. Because California seriously stepped up border security, it seems to have pushed a lot of that activity into AZ.
Border security is all federally run, so I don’t think California did anything to step it up as such. They may have stepped up their regular anti-drug police work, but that’s neither a border issue nor an immigration issue generally.
I didn’t really mean California, as in the state Govt. more so just that the CA state border, by many accounts I’ve seen, seems to have been significantly beefed up.
Gotcha. Could be the case. Of course, like you indicated, the AZ law won’t improve that situation at all. The main people it will hurt are 1. Latinos who are here legally, followed by 2. the majority of illegals who are entirely harmless.
Can we find a word besides “illegals”? How about “undocumented”?
Not that I would ever mistake you for Lou Dobbs, Taco ; )
I can’t help but to think if they were Canadian crackers and not Latinos there’d be little to no complaints at all.
that's stinky grammar it should be
I can’t help but to think if they were Canadian crackers and not Latinos there’d be little to no complaints.
To me that’s the huge problem 30% of AZ residents are legal American Citizens who happen to be latino, then there’s also the large Native American population, who could be mistaken for latinos. Frankly, the latinos have probably been there longer than most of the other residents of the state who moved there from elsewhere.
If it pisses off rush limbaugh, i tend to favor whatever it is…you’d think being addicted to hillbilly heroin would have modified him a bit
by jemagee on May 6, 2010 9:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Here’s the Jon Stewart clip WL mentioned in the other thread:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-may-4-2010/nashville-flooding
I have never understood why people look at a couple bad outings by a 20ish player and say “he’ll never be (insert famous player’s name)”. Since Conlin actually mentions Roy Halladay by name you would think he could actually show some patience for these prospects. Doc still holds the record for worst ERA for any pitcher who has gone 50innings or more in a season. Alot of people then thought Halladay would amount to nothing at all. I’m not saying any of these guys will be superstars, I just think people need to give it time.
I agree wholeheartedly, except I don’t know if Bill Conlin qualifies as “people” – he seems to live outside of the normal boundaries of…. logic? reason? personal hygiene? that we all dwell within.
The difference is Doc had Mel Queen a good pitching coach, Hamels has himself because Dubee is as useless as tits on a nun. According to Wikipedia:
During the 2000 season, Halladay sported a 10.64 ERA in 19 games, 13 of which he started. At the beginning of the 2001 season, Halladay was optioned to Class A Dunedin Blue Jays to rebuild his delivery.
Halladay’s fastball was clocked up to 95 miles per hour (153 km/h), but it had little movement, and his pitches were up in the strike zone, which was ultimately the reason why his 2000 season was so unsuccessful. He worked with former Blue Jays pitching coach Mel Queen. The problem, Queen realized, was Halladay’s total reliance on his strength—his attempt to overpower batters with straight-ahead pitches. Within two weeks, Halladay had altered his arm angle for a more deceptive delivery, and added pitches that sank and careened.4 Instead of throwing over the top, he chose to use a three-quarters delivery (the middle point between throwing overhand and sidearm). Originally a fastball pitcher, he became reliant on keeping his pitches low across the plate, regardless of the type of pitch thrown. The adjustments proved successful. After a month and a half, he was promoted to class AA Tennessee, and a month later, to class AAA Syracuse. By mid-season, he was back in the Blue Jays’ rotation. He posted a 5–3 win–loss record with a 3.19 ERA for the Blue Jays in 16 starts in 2001
Posted in FanShots
But I’ll share it here too.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.971718,-75.184411&spn=0.050977,0.077162&t=e&z=14&ecpose=39.90573198,-75.16656051,14.17,-11.712,90.019,0
Install the plugin. Experience the Awesome.
Wow. That took like an hour to render, but it is really cool. Can it give me a nail gun, too? I’m betting Pujols is a boss battle.
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on May 5, 2010 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Probably not…he’d see it as a pansy solution – not enough pain – not enough bone splintering
by jemagee on May 6, 2010 9:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Hot dog in alley this morning, tire tread on burst casing. This Park is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The concourses are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"… and I’ll look down and whisper "No."
http://www.thegoodphight.com
by WholeCamels on May 6, 2010 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
