Some Phillies Links For You, August 9, 2010: Wreckage in Queens, Too Morrow, Raul Keeps Raking
by WholeCamels on Aug 9, 2010 8:00 AM EDT
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PrintBBM Presents: SB Nation NL East Rivals Chat
And now a link to the much awaited BlackBerry Chat featuring your own dajafi, FuquaManuel and myself with Eric Simon, Alex Nelson, and Ted Berg from AmazinAvenue.com. I note how whiny and hand-wringy I was, especially at the beginning. Also see the link in the right sidebar. This was a really fun event; Eric, Alex, and Ted were cool. Hopefully we can do this again.
They look D.O.A. after latest wreck - NYPOST.com
Phillies fans didn't waste their energy taunting the hated Mets for most of yesterday's game. Why bother speaking ill of the dead?
Apt.
Raul Ibanez on fire since the All-Star break
Raul is a streaky dude, this doesn't really surprise me at all. I feel like I jumped on the RAAAAUUULL Express after everyone else had jumped off.
Phils give R.A. knuckle sandwich - NYPOST.com
Right in the Dickey!
Gimpy Beltran in center of Mets' collapse - NYPOST.com
Wow, three NY Post links in one morning. But the premise of this piece is absurd. This reminds me of the Phillies around the middle of the last decade, when one of the team's best players (Bobby Abreu) was the punching bag despite being one of the very last things "wrong" with the team.
Manuel says attitude reason for victories
I guess it's easier to say "Attitude!" than it is to carefully explain random distribution, hot/cold streaks, etc.
Halladay gets help in victory
It was nice to see Halladay pick up a victory in an otherwise so-so start. Looking closely, though, Halladay had a pretty good lousy start (or a lousy good start, pick). 10 strikeouts and one walk.
Lidge on roll since D.C. meltdown
Not long ago, actually for the better part of the last two seasons, this would have been a very omen.
Yes, very.
Sandberg Takes Journeyman’s Route to Major League Bench
Pretty interesting piece about erstwhile Phillie Ryne Sandberg's excellent minor league managing adventure.
Bill Conlin: Phillies' Halladay wins, but falls short of typical masterpiece
Ahh, fine.
Blue Jays’ Morrow Misses No-Hitter on Last Out - NYTimes.com
With 17 strikeouts and just one hit allowed, Brandon Morrow's outing on Sunday was good for a "Game Score" of 100 -- highest in MLB since Randy Johnson's Perfect Game in 2004. For reference, Roy Halladay's Perfect Game in May had a Game Score of 98.
Braves Top Giants, 6-3 - Talking Chop
Thanks for nothing, Giants (although it's worth noting that the Giants are ahead of the Phillies in the Wild Card race, so I guess this kind of helps there). Derek Lowe left the game early with really hard menstrual cramps.
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Is there any coverage of the old-timers junk at CBP this past weekend? I looked on the phils website hoping to find some write-up, but sadly, got crickets.
16th I think is the deadline, at least from all the brouha around here over the Nationals trying to sign Bryce Harper.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Carlos
Can we talk about Carlos Beltran for a minute? I actually feed badly for the guy.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I feel badly that he gets shit on constantly when things aren’t all his fault. Otherwise, I don’t feel too badly, since he did sign that ginormous contract.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 10:40 AM EDT up reply actions
I will never ever ever fault a player for signing a ginormous contract. I’d do the same thing. Be angry at the person that offers him the money, not the guy who accepts it.
Thank you. Yes, that is what I was getting at.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 10:44 AM EDT up reply actions
I don’t blame him for that….but I don’t feel ‘bad’ for him since he will bank close to 120 million dollars.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Over at Amazin’ Avenue, they are a little miffed at the Vaccaro column about Beltran due to Vaccaro saying that the reason Angel Pagan defended Beltran was because they are both Puerto Rican.
Seems like a good reason for “miffage.”
Every so often, you see derisive comments from Phillies fans on places like philly.com about the Latin-heavy nature of the Mets roster. Apparently a lot of Mets fans do the same thing. That stuff has got to stop.
The divide in the Met's clubhouse
Is factual and real. But the player most pointed at as the ring leader of that is no longer in a Met’s uni.
"Call me dumb, call me stupid, whatever. I block shots."
Actually never blamed for it at all
Recently signed Carlos Delgado would be the top answer.
"Call me dumb, call me stupid, whatever. I block shots."
I agree…I think it’s complete BS that Vaccaro feels compelled to point out that nationality was the reason for defense. Someone at AA commented that Vaccaro would never write a sentence to the effect of ‘David Wright defended fellow American Jeff Francoeur’
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions
It’s ridiculous how people think it is acceptable to write things like that. You would never see it written that “Ryan Howard defended fellow black player Jimmy Rollins.” I don’t understand why he, or anyone else, thinks that attributing something to both players being Puerto Rican is remotely ok.
by FearTheTurtIe on Aug 9, 2010 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions
I wonder if the whole idea is to continue fanning the flames so there is good copy to be made. I wouldn’t put it past a guy like Vaccaro. Otherwise, he would have to stick to writing about numbers and stuff, and most ‘mainstream’ columnists can’t be bothered with cold hard facts, so they use other stuff, like intangibles and ethnicity.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 11:49 AM EDT up reply actions
I really wouldn’t have a problem with two Puerto Ricans defending each other. They’re bound not simply by ethnicity, but by geographic origin. You’d expect the same from two Czechs or Swedes or Faroese or whatever predominately white nationality you’d like. If, that is, you could find two Czechs or Swedes or Faroese to play baseball.
Speaking as someone who grew up in a majority-Hispanic school district, the different nationalities can be rather cliquish. It’s not universal, but as a general rule the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans, and South Americans tended to stick together and not mingle with other Hispanic nationalities or other ethnicities. This was somewhat more noticeable to me, since some people believe I look Latino, and it became rather tiresome to explain that I did not speak Spanish, either their dialect or any other, and that I was not a Hispanic of any sort. Now, I don’t know how well this holds up in the professional world, particularly that of athletics, but within the immigrant community in Florida, the concept of one Puerto Rican standing up for another does not strike me as particularly unusual. Unfortunate, perhaps, since the idea speaks to possible racism on the part of either the author or the player involved, but not unusual.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
I felt one of the reasons the Phillies org was consistently bad from the Schmidt/Carlton era until the Howard/Utley era was the lack of latin american players in the organization. I don’t know that it was intentional, but it seemed like the Phils were one of the last orgs to get on the ball about having folks down in Latin America to find good young talent.
They had one of the best Latin operations in baseball during the ’70s. Then Bill Giles, in his infinite wisdom, decided to shut the whole thing down once he became the owner. Presumably he thought it would be a better idea to allocate that money toward Lance Parrish and Gregg Jefferies.
Two of the greatest signings in Phillies history.
And by ‘greatest’, I mean ‘setting the franchise back by a decade’.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 11:03 AM EDT up reply actions
Samuel was the first good Latino player I remember coming through the org in that time frame, and he was awesomely exciting, at least for a couple years.
I loved Juan Samuel…I still have his bat from bat day giveaway in 1987.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions
The low-and-away breaking ball was his Kryptonite.
I also remember how concerned he was one night when a child was struck by a hard-hit foul ball. He was in the field, so he didn’t even hit the ball, but the fact that he was so badly shaken really spoke to his decency as a human being, at least in my opinion.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
yes. the curveball was his nemesis. Was that the start of the catch phrase “you don’t walk off the island”?
Amazing that despite all of the injuries the Phillies are only one game off last years pace record wise. At this point last year the Phillies were 63-48, this time around 62-49. Sadly the biggest difference is that the Braves are actually good this year where as last year we had a multiple game lead in the division.
This stretch the Phillies have coming up of 13 games at home out of their next 16 games is absolutely vital to their playoff chances. If they can just tread water, stay where they are if not take a lead in either the WC or the East just in time for the reinforcements to arrive then this team can be very, very scary in the playoffs.
Also, heard rumors that Mayberry will be replaced on the roster with Bastardo…anyone heard anything official yet one way or the other?
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
Mayberry going down is official….Bastardo coming up is not official yet.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah sorry that is what I meant, I saw Mayberry going down was a done deal but with today being an off day I figured the Phillies wouldn’t rush to make a decision yet.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
I’d like to see how Vic plays first. I’m not fully versed in “options” but I’d prefer to not have to send Brown down, then called back up 5 days later because Vic’s oblique wasn’t as healed as they thought. Not sure who I’d jettison in his place, but I’d give it a look-see.
I doubt Brown will be sent up and down frequently enough for his Options to become an issue. Worst case schenario the teams gets by with Gload for a week until the September call ups can be made.
That is exactly what should happen. Charlie has not really commited to Dom the way I thought he would/should. And Dom has looked overmatched so far.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
One has to wonder if the fact that Brown has appeared overmatched has led to Manuel’s seeming lack of commitment to him. Manuel has to balance Brown’s development against this team’s need to win now, and the fact that Brown does appear overmatched can’t increase Manuel’s belief that expanding his use will lead to good results.
I’ve seen the same rumor and it makes sense given the Phils’ needs.
With 13 of 16 at home, I hope they can do more than tread water.
Tuesday’s game is a big one. Vicente Padilla is one of the hottest pitchers in baseball right now, and we’ve got KK on the mound. If we can pull this one out, it will be a big lift.
So do I, but again, you have to consider who they are fielding on a regular basis. As well as The Replacements have done for the team this year, it would be unfair to expect that they will continue to provide the type of play they have. Though it certainly helps that Raul and Chooch are red hot. Hopefully Werth can build off of yesterday.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
this week's pitching matchups (era/fip/xfip/siera)
Tue: Kendrick (4.37/5.07/4.69/4.80) vs. Vicente Padilla (3.09/3.94/3.81/3.31)
Wed: Oswalt (3.50/3.41/3.57/?.??) vs. Chad Billingsley (3.82/3.40/3.96/3.91)
Thu: Blanton (5.65/4.49/4.40/4.28) vs. Clayton Kershaw (3.19/3.23/3.87/3.51)
Fri: Hamels (3.45/4.09/3.55/3.28) vs. R.A. Dickey (2.65/3.63/3.90/4.08)
Sat: Halladay (2.34/2.71/2.86/2.85) vs. Hisanori Takahashi (4.13/3.90/4.12/3.75)
Sun: Kendrick (4.37/5.07/4.69/4.80) vs. BIG PELF (4.16/4.02/4.49/4.59)
I like most of those match-ups except for Padilla, but he can be pretty inconsistent (I know Kendrick can as well.)
It’s annoying that we see Padilla, Billingsley, and Kershaw. If three of the Dodgers five starters have numbers like that, isn’t it a little odd they are only 58-54?
by FearTheTurtIe on Aug 9, 2010 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions
Surprisingly, Blanton was the team’s second-best pitcher for the last month in the advanced stats department – at least until Saturday, when Hamels probably passed him. But they’re probably still close.
Kershaw is really good though, so it’s reasonable to be nervous about that game. But only because of how good Kershaw is.
Kershaw scares me a little less as the Phillies have a good history against him. Kershaw’s line against the Phils: 0-3, 6.67 ERA, 1.574 WHIP, .269 BAA, .814 OPS against.
that’s also against a Phils lineup that usually features Howard/Utley/(good) Victorino and not Valdez/Gload/Browncisco
vs. Kershaw:
Howard: .125/.333/.250
Utley: .300/.417/.700
Victorino: .125/.125/.125
Neither Valdez, Gload, nor Brown have faced Kershaw. Francisco has a .000/.333/.000 line. By OPS, the top five Phillies against Kershaw are Ibanez, Utley, Polanco, Rollins, and Werth. All are, of course, small sample sizes.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
Raul’s got good numbers against all three Dodgers starters, although Padilla’s the only one he’s faced more than a handful of times (presumably from their days in the AL West).
All of these come with SSS warnings
Rollins, Howard, Ruiz, and Ibanez all eat Billingsley’s lunch (Howard has the lowest OPS of those four at 1.042).
Padilla is just unfortunate: Howard has a 2.667 OPS, Francisco has a 1.667, Ransom (!) has a 1.400…Ruiz has never faced Padilla, and Schneider is horrible against him (.063 BA in 18 PAs), although that’s got to be BABIP Fairy, since he only has 2 SOs and 2 BBs.
Honor is no substitute for victory.
pretty sure that Ruiz
faced Padilla in the playoffs last year…as he made 2 starts against the Phils.
But I guess he does not have any official MLB regular season stats against him
The scary thing about Padilla is figuring out whom he will arbitrarily decide to headhunt against. The man is a flatout sociopath.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I think we should do an over/under on the amount of eephus pitches he throws.
by WanderingMoses on Aug 9, 2010 11:50 AM EDT up reply actions
I believe there’s a lot of debate within the professional community about the differences, too. Here’s one link I found because I was also curious.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Interesting. I do think that linguistically, there’s a subtle distinction in connotation, although it may or may not match up to whatever the psychological distinctions might be. To me, “psychopath” works better for Padilla, while “sociopath” would be a better term for someone like Lenny Dykstra.
See, I don’t think of “sociopaths” are being wacko. I think of them as being really manipulative, selfish, scary people, but they’re scary because they’re not unhinged, not because they are. “Psychopaths” are wacko.
To me, this is the sociopath
Truly scary, scary dude.
The Iceman. He’s Penance Stare proof. I don’t know what’s more evil – doing it for money or doing it as labor of love like serial killers.
Those Iceman specials on HBO are scarier than any horror movie I ever saw. Scary thing is, this dude did it both for money and for the hell of it.
Yeah a gunhot in the casaba is bad enough but leaving someone bounded and gagged to be eaten by rats is just like watching Jeff Francoeur get his only hits for the season against Phillies pitching.
Not that many people would really care, but Zolecki tweeted that Ransom made it through waivers. Since pinching Figgy I guess Ed Wade didn’t need a backup 3B/2B?
We were warned
That Rauuuuuul was more even streaky than PTB at the time of his signing. But it also appears that Raul has somewhat lower lows and significantly higher highs than Pat (stat geeks?) . What most of our concern was that Raul had some kind of 38-year-old fallout. Note that the era of old players getting better (e.g., Bonds, Clemens) is now over in the testing era. We now see what happens to non-enhanced players as they age, despite “better training regimens” (Chipper, Griffey Jr,).
However, Raul has always had less mileage due to his years of part-time status than players like Chipper and Griffey. So maybe we can get high production out of him for the rest of this year and half of next year (!??) like 2009.
Raul Ibanez: since Moyer is on the DL, he is fast becoming our favorite old guy.
Rooting against a certain LW for the Tampa Bay Lightning will be impossible.
Good Finish
Just a thought after another win in the last game of a series, a habit the team got into starting with that 2-0 win in extra innings in St. Louis. Since the Sunday night disaster against the Cubs, when Halladay got beat badly, the Phillies have played six series and won the last game every time, each time coming up big to either salvage a game (Cards and Nationals) , finish off a sweep (Rockies, Diamondbacks, and Marlins – sweeps always make a nice gift) or gain a series win (Mets). Add on the 1-0 win over the Reds to complete that four-game sweep before the All-Star break and you’ve got a trend going that explains a lot of the success the team has had recently. In comparison, in the first 28 series of the season, the Phillies lost the final game 16 times. I know this isn’t hard analysis like some prefer, but I’m a believer in the concept that taking something positive out of a series can pay dividends in the upcoming games, Teams that get in ruts can struggle to play their best while those that get “hot” can overcome injuries and bad breaks and capitalize on the breaks they get. Regardless of the pitchers involved, I feel better about losing Saturday and winning Sunday than I would about the reverse. I don’t know if the players would feel differently but I bet they feel pretty good with the day off today – better than they would if they’d lost Sunday.
by phillyinportland on Aug 10, 2010 3:36 AM EDT reply actions
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