The Blueprint: Pirates 3, Phillies 2

i thought it was “ricky don’t lose that number”.

How wonderful and special the last three years really were. We were lucky and privileged to enjoy the most talented Phillies teams since the early 80s and possibly ever. It was wonderful— so good in fact that it started to make me, and I think even us as a whole, believe that this team was in it for the long haul— that we could contend for a long time, to the point where maybe things have started to be taken for granted— winning not just appreciated, but expected out of this team. This season has been a rude awakening to a basic truth— 162 games is a long time, and talent on paper does not always translate to talent on the field. It is just not their year. But we have been blessed with some truly good baseball.

We need to overpay and hire the entire Atlanta Braves minor league system, scouts, GM, all of it.

What I am starting to hope is that this year is just a hiccup, and that with many of the same players returning next year, and maybe a piece or two (since the idea of Ibañez continuing full time in left field does not thrill me), maybe it is just a brief field trip back to the dark ages— not another 10-15 years of alternating mediocrity and suckitude waiting for the next young core to come up and vie for a championship.

Winning three straight division titles is pretty amazing, not to mention the success in October the last two years. I remember the anticipation of going for four straight titles the only other time it happened in Philadelphia: 1979. Much like the preseason sentiment was strongly behind the Phillies this year after they acquired Roy Halladay, in 1979 there was a lot of buzz that adding Pete Rose to the three-time division champs would get them over the hurdle and into the World Series. Didn’t happen. After a great start (24-10) the team rapidly dropped in the standings, finishing fourth with a record of 84-78. The pitching was bad and manager Danny Ozark was fired at the end of August. No major injuries that I recall; the team was just dysfunctional as far as winning with the core that had done so well earlier.
Maybe that bad season removed some of the pressure the next year, because that was the year that all the bad karma and years of suffering finally ended. It didn’t matter that the Phillies hadn’t won four straight division titles. They won the one title that mattered most. I’m not writing off 2010 yet, but even if it is a lost season that doesn’t mean that the future has to be bleak. But it does underscore how hard it is to accomplish what the Phillies have done since 2007. And for that we should be thankful.

I don’t think J-Roll has hit very well in either spot since coming back, so I went through the box scores from the past 10 games, nine of which he played in.

He went 5 for 24 (.208) as a leadoff hitter with one homerun. In the three spot, he has batted 2 for 13 (.154), a difference of about one hit. So while he has played better in the leadoff spot, the difference is not as big as I thought, a difference of merely one hit in the three spot that he did not have would make him a .230 hitter, so I am not ready to give up on him in the three spot just yet. From a standpoint of protecting his calf, it may be better to leave him there than in the more speed craving leadoff position.

kind of where my thinking is. Short term, maybe he can pull a rabbit out of his hat this month. Long-term, lessons ought to be learned next off-season.

The ultimate irony is that the Moyer albatross may well turn out to be this year’s greatest asset. Wow.

At first I did not think so, as thechatter seemed to be more about trying first to survive with what they had, although that may be looking less viable in the cold light of how long it is going to be before Utley (and even Polanco really, as chronic tendinitis almost sounds like an injury that is going to require him to have more rest to get through the season without continued re-aggravation) returns. That being said, I am not sure how viable any of the options are, or what it would cost to get one of them. Wigginton’s name seems to be a favorite one being thrown around, but I find myself asking (particularly with his reputation as being defensively weak) whether any gains we make off of having him instead of Exxon/ Dobbs at the plate does not get offset by the downgrade (if there is one) in the field. As shallow as the farm system is, I think the Phillies also need to think about how many pieces of their long term future they are giving up to give this team a slightly better chance of doing well this year. I just don’t know that he is a fit.

I guess he would give the team more versatility since he can play both second and third, but I wonder if he’s worth the price. I also saw mention of Garrett Atkins and wonder if he could make a comeback to anything approaching the numbers he put up for Colorado not so long ago. This year he was bad but his previous output was better than Wigginton’s. And I doubt that he would cost the team much, although he would probably be limited to third base (or first). As a backup he might be better than Dobbs had been.