Some Phillies Links for You, August 4, 2010: 500 WINZ! Doc! Von Hayes! Moniker Madness! Conlin's Wrong! (Oh, and Ryan Howard is Hurt)
by Wet Luzinski on Aug 4, 2010 8:00 AM EDT
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Phillies' Halladay misses perfection, but still good enough to tame Marlins
This headline may be what Mike Schmidt meant about "the agony of having to read about it the next day."
Phillies Notebook: Phillies' Howard could miss up to 3 weeks with sprained ankle
Oh, wells. This now answers the question of what it takes to get Chooch to the middle of the lineup. Off we fly with Team Bumblebee.
Phillies' Manuel joins elite 500-win club
The mile-high club having been joined years ago while playing in Japan. Shame he can't master the double-switch
(/Eskin'd). Congrats to the man who's made us forget about Gene Mauch just a little bit more. Article is chock-full of bar-bet trivia winz for you.
Hayes is in game for the long haul
Independent League Minor League manager profile, or obituary? You make the call. Von Hayes to me has some of the saddest-looking eyes in baseball.
ESPN BBTN Minute: Phillies Injuries
For you fans of Captain Obvious. Ah, pop culture's dust mite-sized memory. This "team of pedigree" is also the losingest professional sports team...ever.
SBNation: MLB Power Rankings
I generally loathe these lockerroom-comparison-inspired postings, but for the performance of the "bubble" playoff teams like the Phillies over the last two weeks. And look who's ranked right above them!
Phillies Nation: The Resilient Replacements
I was wondering how many replacement-level ABs the Phillies were racking up this year even before Ryan Howard got hurt.
ChrisOLeary.com: Pitching Mechanics Analysis - Johan Santana
Guess I should have looked at this before that fantasy draft #welldipmeinfluff. (h/t Bill Baer, Crashburn Alley)
NL East:
Amazin Avenue: Mets 3, Braves 2: Jeff Francoeur is the winner
LOLMETS... and it looks like Ollie Perez will be sticking around a bit longer.
Federal Baseball: Washington Nationals Run Into Joe Saunders, Arizona Diamondbacks Win 6-1
Like the city itself, I used to find Federal Baseball's headline writing style bureaucratically quirky and almost charming, and now it's just perpetually annoying.
Minors:
IronPigs snap losing streak behind Brian Mazone, Melvin Dorta
With real rare exceptions, it's an empire of s**t at AAA.
Ninth-inning rally gives R-Phils split
Um, this kind of makes it sound like they won the second game. Of note: The Ryan Howard garden gnome giveaway, on same day he goes on DL. Baseball's Chuckie?
Rizzotti having a blast as R-Phils return home
Go Tuffy Gosewisch, now in the sweet 16 of MiLB.com's "Moniker Madness" contest. He's in for a tough matchup with Bubbie Buzachero. Oh, and dig it, y'all: Matt Rizzotti proved Bill Conlin wrong, now joining the Bill Baer Club.
Lakewood defeats Greenville 5-1
Trevor May again... wild first inning, but then settled down for a 3BB, 8K, 0ER win.
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Am I the only one who found this promotion utterly cringe-worthy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_jockey
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
Thumbs-Up
Amaro said the splint on Chase Utley’s sprained right thumb could be removed in the next two or three days… Without the splint, Utley can begin doing exercises to strengthen the thumb.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20100804_Phillies_Notes__Schneider_likes_Phils__mettle.html
That Gelb article also has an interesting proposition: dropping Blanton or Kendrick from the rotation:
The Phillies have six off days in the final eight weeks of the season. That could allow Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee to set their rotation so Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels start every fifth day while skipping either Joe Blanton or Kyle Kendrick at times. Manuel didn’t shoot down that idea Tuesday.
“I would say that would be good,” Manuel said.
by Boundforbeach on Aug 4, 2010 8:33 AM EDT up reply actions
saw that too, thanks for posting. As long as the Phillies are trailing the race, I’d say that’s a given.
I was just thinking that when i saw kendrick was taking the mound tonight.
Hey Dez, it's 2am do you know where your mother is?
by sowhatifitisasportste on Aug 4, 2010 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions
I’m glad someone else found that Chris O’Leary website. I’ve been checking that out for a few years now.
I don’t know how much I buy his arguments, but at the very least, it’s cool to look at frame by frame analyses of pitching mechanics.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
I’ve always liked that site too, though I admit I don’t read it a ton. Definitely agreed that some skepticism is necessary; pitching mechanics are such a weird (and wholly unnatural) thing that I feel like a lot of people rush to conform their understanding of them based solely on hindsight (Mark Prior’s mechanics are perfect… no, they’re awful!).
What I still want to see are Josh Outman’s old mechanics in action. Have you heard about that?
by PhillyFriar on Aug 4, 2010 9:24 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Yeah, I have heard about it, but have only read descriptions of it—never seen it. Apparently his father developed it. When written about it sounds like some weird contortionist routine.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
And here’s a page full of different pitchers’ mechanics. The link is for Josh Outman pitching for the A’s. But he isn’t pitching the the funky mechanics in this clip. I think his brother Zach’s mechanics are what your looking for. Scroll to the bottom of the the page for Zach Outman’s mechanics
No, he used to have the funky mechanics but the Phillies forced him to change them.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
I thought he changed them before the draft in order to attract more interest from teams. That could be wrong though.
Dunn
Defensive claim? Adam Dunn is on revocable waivers. He’s a FA at the end of the year. NL teams have first crack at him. If there are multiple claims, the claiming team with the worst record gets him. The Giants are rumored to want him, and we’re 3.5 games behind them in wildcard. What if we put a claim in for him to stop him going to the Giants? The Nationals would have to deal with us and likely could not work out a trade since they are still hoping to get value in return. That likely puts him back in Washington. At worst, we would get him for no trade compensation, and have to pay him around $4mil til the end of the year. He could sub in for Howard until he returns from the DL.
Definitely. My mindset with these kinds of claims is risk aversity, but for a pure rental of a good player like Dunn, the worst case scenario is that you have to pay his remaining salary (while getting an awesome hitter). Plus, as you say, there’s the added bonus of keeping him from going to a team like the Giants. Definitely claim.
by PhillyFriar on Aug 4, 2010 9:28 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
wouldn’t the actual worst case scenario be you have to pay his remaining salary and give up something else to get him?
If you successfully pick him up (which I’m not against) who do you remove from the roster once Howard comes back? Oh wait…Dobbs. Duh.
Well, you wouldn’t have to offer the Nats anything if you didn’t want to. Truth be told, I can’t see Rizzo dealing him at this point anyway.
by PhillyFriar on Aug 4, 2010 10:38 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I love the photo caption though: “Krystle Campbell is photographed leaving the Rothman Institute Tuesday with Ryan Howard and looking at the phone that she did not use to return our call or e-mail.”
by David S. Cohen on Aug 4, 2010 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions
Hamels
Dash at the Fightins wrote a defense of Cole this morning. It is amazing that the guy has to be defended, but the first comment indicates that he still does.
"It was almost like if Harry didn't call it, it wasn't real." - Jayson Stark
SB Nation
Yeah, but Cole leads the league in DSUHA.
by PhillyFriar on Aug 4, 2010 9:51 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I thought the article was well written, but the first commenter has the same obstinacy that my brother has when it comes to discussing any kind of advanced stats. He never wants to hear about luck, BABIP, or FIP. And worst of all, my brother doesn’t even watch the games…he just judges from boxscores. ARGHH.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 4, 2010 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions
You should tell him to get MLB.tv asap. Then, maybe he can have a tame argument instead of shoving the Roy Oswalt trade in our face after one game. Anyways, why doesn’t he like BABIP or FIP, is he just arrogant of them as he was with the trade?
by phillyphan9208 on Aug 4, 2010 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions
He has the same attitude as the surfer dude in the first Endless Debate video – he doesn’t understand how it is relevant, therefore he is afraid and mocks it and those of us who use it as nerds and losers.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 4, 2010 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Hey, you can always just tell him he’s dead to you until he smartens up – that might work
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 4, 2010 12:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Never happen. As in him smartening up on that front. He’s a smart guy, but as obstinate as the Pharaoh.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 4, 2010 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
95% of the commenters at thefightins.com can’t be taken seriously. I appreciate what Dash does over there, but for better or for worse, it’s a humor website. When it comes to actually evaluating players objectively, the site can’t be expected to operate at a level any higher than the average Phillies fan is capable of.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
This.
I like the site and the guys who run it, but it’s not for serious analysis.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
+1
It is always an entertaining read, but I never read the comments there.
On the other hand, I ONLY read a site like ProFootballTalk for the commenters.
Strange little world we have.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 4, 2010 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t think I would start skipping anyone in the rotation anytime soon, but if they do it, they should skip Kendrick not Blanton. Fat Joe is the better pitcher.
Oh incidentally, on a related note – I had told someone in one of yesterday’s threads that we were not scheduled to face R.A. Dickey in the Mets series this weekend. As it turns out, that is incorrect. Jerry Manuel, in his infinite wisdom, decided to skip Hisanori Takahashi since they have an off-day on Thursday, so instead of Takahashi, Niese, Santana, we’ll be facing Niese, Santana, Dickey.
This is really aggravating. It’s not that I’m scared of Dickey (eff that knuckleball curse myth). And it’s not that I blame Manuel for trying to get Dickey more starts – Dickey really has been pitching well, if not as well as his ERA suggests. But he’s probably hurting his own team more than he’s hurting us here, which makes it seem totally gratuitous. Takahashi has been good this year too! He definitely hasn’t been their worst starting pitcher, not even close. It makes no sense.
Let’s hope C.B. Fuckhole isn’t behind the plate for the game R.A. Dickey starts.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
reminds me of the game a couple years back when the Mets called a game for rain that they could’ve easily played so that Santana would face us and not some scrub AAA call-up. Don’t think that one ended up working out for them either.
I don’t blame the Mets for doing that. If they think that’s what gives them the best chance to win, than they should do it. They’re chasing the Phils in the WC and the division, it’d be arrogant to expect them to roll over and play dead, and if I was the Braves I’d be ticked at them for NOT trying to win against us.
That’s the whole point. It may be what they think gives them the best chance to win, but it isn’t. They are morons.
I’m confused here….
1) You’re not afraid of Dickey
2) It makes no sense
3) You’re aggravated by the decision
If it doesn’t give them a better chance to beat the Phils, why does it aggravate you?
It gives them a better chance to beat the Phillies in that one particular game. It doesn’t maximize their chances of winning the most games overall, so by hurting us they’re not even helping themselves.
If you compete against someone, you expect your opponents to try to win at your expense. But if your opponent just prevents you from winning without even benefiting from those actions himself, then it’s aggravating. It would be like a runner interfering with you in a race to his own detriment, just to allow a third runner to benefit from it.
Frankly, if they’re going to drop anyone from the series, it should be Santana. I understand that no manager would actually do this, but at least it would make sense.
By skipping his #3, yes it will increase the number of starts from his #1 and #2, but it will also increase the number of starts from his #4 and #5. So it doesn’t help his team at all. It just happens to hurt us a bit, gratuitously. If we were the only team they were chasing for the playoffs, that still might make sense, but we aren’t. In fact, the team they play next (the Rockies) is another team they’re competing with, in the WC race.
so by hurting us they’re not even helping themselves.
But they’re chasing us in the standings, so hurting us does help them.
I’m not trying to nit-pick you here, but it seems like you’re saying they’re moving around equivalent pitchers in the rotation to ensure that we face RA Dickey, which doesn’t bother you because you have no belief in the knuckleball induced slump.
If I were the Mets I’d do the same damn thing because it’s a minimal risk with a potential boon reward. Flip my pitchers and maybe Dickey will screw up their offense again (like what happened before), and that’s one team we could catch in the standings.
We’re a rival of theirs. Even if it didn’t help them and it hurt us, I’d expect them to do it.
Let me try to explain this yet another way. If our situations were exactly reversed (our places in the standings and our schedules), would you advocate skipping Cole Hamels’ turn in the rotation in the first week of August so that Roy Halladay could pitch the last game of the Mets series? Then explain why or why not.
No, but I don’t necessarily think that Roy gives us much more chance of beating the Mets than Cole. (An upgrade, yes… but not a gigantic one). I do think that Dickey gives them a big advantage considering the Phillies history in the “fun with knuckleballers” department.
No…I wouldn’t, the reason being I don’t want to skip anybody in the rotation not named Kendrick or Blanton, because I want to trot out the Phils 3 best pitchers as often as possible, and skipping one of those guys means I effectively give one of their starts to one of our sucky pitchers.
I don’t feel this is an equivalent example. As dannijd said (and I have alluded to in my previous posts in this debate), the Phils have shown a weakness against knucklers this year (granted only 2 games) but it kicked off a disastrous stretch, either related or unrelated to the knucklers.
Now…if the argument had been for skipping Blanton so that Kendrick could face the Mets because junky sinkerball pitchers seem to screw up the Mets timing….I’d be all for it.
What I’m getting at is that either you DO have some faith in the knuckleball jinx stuff, or it shouldn’t aggravate you. Your original statement contradicts itself and your arguments afterwards don’t do anything to explain your position any better.
No. I can see that you really want to believe that you’ve caught me in some sort of logical error, but just because you want that to be the case doesn’t make it so.
The reason why it aggravates me is that Dickey is a somewhat pitcher than Takahashi and the Mets are causing us to face a better pitcher without accruing any benefit to themselves. It is not necessary to believe in a “knuckleball jinx” to be aggravated by that. If you have some sort of basis in logic for your apparent belief to the contrary, you should explain the thread of that logic instead of just asserting it like that makes it true.
It would be identical if you were a Mets fan and the Phillies chose to skip Hamels in order to throw Halladay at you. Halladay is a better pitcher than Hamels. Therefore, if you were a Mets fan, you would not like this, since it hurts your team without helping the team that’s hurting you. Would this mean you believed in a cutter jinx?
I don’t care if I caught you in a logical error or not. It’s not that big a deal.
Halladay:Hamels::Takahashi:Dickey is not the same.
Screwing with your rotation to give you the best chance at beating a team directly ahead of you in the standings does help you.
Sorry. We’re gonna just have to disagree here.
Screwing with your rotation to give you the best chance at beating a team directly ahead of you in the standings does help you.
Unless of course it decreases the amount of rest a pitcher gets which can make them less effective
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 4, 2010 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Halladay:Hamels::Takahashi:Dickey is not the same.
Why not?
Screwing with your rotation to give you the best chance at beating a team directly ahead of you in the standings does help you.
What if the very next team on your schedule is also ahead of you in the standings?
Why not?
Because Halladay is significantly better than Hamels.
Because neither Hamels nor Halladay throws an exotic pitch.
What if the very next team on your schedule is also ahead of you in the standings?
Worry about today today. That’s like worrying about PHing for your last catcher in the bottom of the 9th in a game you trail. Get to extra innings before worrying about who’s gonna catch.
Who knows what the hell will happen to your roster before the next series. Santana might get hit by a bus.
You have an opportunity in front of you to gain ground on a team you’re chasing, you take it, with the added potential the Dickey screws up the Phils for a while AFTER this series.
The first point has to do with your accusation that the only way I could have reached my conclusion is if I believed in the knuckleball jinx. I told you that I do not believe in the knuckleball jinx, but I do believe that Dickey is better than Takahashi.
You are free to disagree with my view of the facts, but I’m sure you must now understand that it is not necessary for me to believe in a knuckleball jinx in order to reach the conclusion that I have reached. Just because you don’t think Dickey is better than Takahashi apart from the knuckleball issue doesn’t mean that I think that is the case.
So you should retract your statement that “either you DO have some faith in the knuckleball jinx stuff, or it shouldn’t aggravate you.” That statement was wrong and illogical. We can disagree on whether or not Dickey is better than Takahashi, but your logic in making that statement was wrong.
As for your second point, your analogy is not a good one. If you are trailing in the bottom of the 9th, you don’t know if there will even be extra innings, so if you save your pinch hitter, it might be for naught. In contrast, the Mets know they will be playing the Rockies in the next series regardless of what happens in the Phillies series. It’s not as if losing another game to the Phillies will cause the Rockies series to be canceled or will even make the Rockies series any less important. In fact, in theory it could even make the Rockies series more important.
I kind of agree with Bilzo here. But only because the Mets stand a far outside chance of beating the Phillies and Braves for the division which to me gives the Phillies series more weight. They could, theoretically finish first in the division and still be 1 game or more back in the wild card race. BTW, this is a ridiculously small issue to burn dozens of posts on.
They could also finish first in the wild card race and 1 game or more back in the division, right? I understand that the Giants are currently slightly ahead of the Braves, but on August 4 it’s a pretty negligible difference.
I’m merely stating that if I was managing the Mets I might make the same decision. You’re fighting the Phils for both the WC and the Division, while the Rockies are in the fight for the WC. Screwing the Phils has the potential of helping you in 2 chases instead of just one. But this is a really small ripple in the ocean of a baseball season.
That’s a fair point. But yes, we’re talking very small differences. And I would not make the same decision myself.
essentially…throwing Dickey in there has all kinds of benefits if nothing more than psychological. It’s worth the switch IMHO.
And please please please forgive me TP for daring to assert that you could have made a flawed statement. I’m forever humbled.
I really despise this sort of defensive sarcasm. It’s the type of thing you would expect to see from a sullen teenager. Were you right or were you wrong in stating that the only way I could have reached my conclusion was to believe in a knuckleball jinx? If you were wrong, then I was perfectly within my rights to call you on it and you shouldn’t hide behind snark to avoid having to admit it. If you still think you were right, then you should be able to defend your position.
Anyway, the primary goal of any manager in this situation has to be to win the most games. Screwing the teams above you needs to be secondary. The small benefit gained by hurting a division/WC opponent more than you hurt a WC opponent is, I think, clearly outweighed by the cost of skipping the third-best starter in your rotation.
it was me btw that you told this too
"The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"
~Thomas Jefferson
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Aug 4, 2010 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions
I hate being called the losingest team ever. Not many other teams have been around as long as the Phillies. Some asshole Rays fan said that to me, I said if somehow the Rays last a 100 years they would lose 20,000 games.
I wasn't even a year old but I stayed up to be outside the Vet with my Dad and Mom when the Phillies won the World Series 1980.
Von Hayes
Man, I love that guy. He was my childhood hero growing up. I have a notebook at home with like 100 Von Hayes cards. Glad to hear that he’s still in the game, it would be awesome to have him back in the Phils organization. I wore #9 for the majority of my playing life (except high school where numbers went by size, and being 6’5" it looked like I was wearing a toddler shirt) and tried to model my lefthanded swing just like his.
Wish my last name was more friendly to being paired with the name Von, I would have named my second son Von. First one got the name Chase, but having a Von Schoch (Shuck) sounds like a vampire or something.
I actually thought that Von is starting to look like some weird lovechild of Frank Langella and Christopher Lee. Nixon and Dooku make a lovely pair, no?
Ironically(?) Nixon was a pretty good joke in his own right as well
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 4, 2010 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions
It is an evil bank that overcharges you, just with an almost unpronouncable last name attached to it.
Maybe my boy can secure some government bailout funds. Then we can buy the Riversharks.
by ManicPhanatic on Aug 4, 2010 3:07 PM EDT up reply actions
An FYI for all you TGPers in the NYC area
It looks like the Williamsport team will be playing on Staten Island this weekend.
Not for nothing, but I’d like to thank A-Rod for hitting his 600th in the middle of the week during a day game thus sparing me some of the madness
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 4, 2010 1:47 PM EDT reply actions
Ironically, ESPN totally missed it by creaming over the never ending Favre saga.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
One down one to go another town and one more show
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 4, 2010 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions
I like Gookie, but that’s just because I’m hungry.
by ManicPhanatic on Aug 4, 2010 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions
Seth Schwindenhammer is a good one. Apparently, if he makes the majors, his name will be the longest in baseball history, surpassing Saltalamacchia.
Zelous Wheeler? I thought maybe he was a strikeout king with that name, but he’s not.
Brett Butts is just unfortunate.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Dude would have to have a nickname in the majors. Can you imagine chanting “Schwindenhammer”? It would probably be something unimaginative like the Hammer. Boo.
I think it should be something German, but most of those nicknames sound too ethnic and conjure up Nazi imagery, like Der Fuhrer.
So, when roughly translated, his name means, “the disappearing (or shrinking, fading) hammer.” That’s kinda awesome, yet maybe not so if you’re a slugger.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Depends on what he looks like—if he’s tall, blonde and build like a brick house, perhaps that could work. I’ve always thought Thor to have to be the best-looking of the superhero bunch. Might be my Norwegian roots.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
I guess he could frost the tips or get the old Burrell/Michaels ill-advised dye job and fit the bill. Remeber Pat with the yellow-blonde hair? Yuck.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
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