Some Off-Day Phillies Links For You, May 12, 2011: All Eyes on Clearwater
by FuquaManuel on May 12, 2011 1:53 PM EDT
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Phillies:
Comcast SportsNet carrying tonight's Clearwater Threshers game
The Threshers have more talent at catcher and second base than the Phillies do.
Rare production comes from 2B and C
Gelb with the nod to @fansince09 at the end: "Should of kept JA Happ!"
Video Blog: Pete Orr’s Facts
I'm not gonna give Charlie credit for pinch hitting Orr for Valdez last night because he should have been in the starting lineup in the first place.
Semi-interesting Raul Ibanez statistical tidbit for your consumption
Not dead yet? Too early to tell? I just wish there was some blog that could have alerted me to Raul Ibanez's streakiness before the insomnia set in.
Box Score Recap, 11 May 2011
Trevor May: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K.
Elsewhere in baseball:
What could go wrong? Tim Lincecum climbs aboard a stunt airplane
Certainly not the first time that Lincecum has been in the clouds. For Red Bull's next stunt, Jimmy Rollins will jump from a plane thousands of feet above Citizens Bank Park and parachute down to his spot at shortstop just in time for Roy Halladay's first pitch.
Bartolo Colon’s stem cell treatment opens a new can of worms
Bartolo Colon is not exactly who I had in mind as the poster boy for stem cell research in this country, but you can't argue with the results.
Bryce Harper – Best Prospect Ever?
Biggest douche ever?
Visualizing AL East Hitters: wOBA through May 10th
Jose Bautista is just unspeakably good.
Los Angeles Angels say Kendrys Morales will be out for rest of season
The better part of two seasons for a freak injury. Yeesh.
How Not To Issue An Intentional Walk
This is the equivalent of air balling a free throw with the game on the line. It must really suck to be an Angels fan right now.
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He’s really upped his K/BB ratio recently.
by philsandthrills on May 12, 2011 2:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Got that Boras contract and really stopped doing the important, off-season work.
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions
We should sign him. He’s a lock for NL Wookie of the year.
by Cormican on May 12, 2011 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 8 recs
I think the guy behind him hit a Solo shot the previous inning.
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 3:03 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
You have an amazing collection of animal gifs. No, really. That does scare me a bit.
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on May 12, 2011 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions
It’s a bad hobbit he got into?
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions
Or “cringewagonesque”.
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Without my glasses I thought is was Werth
I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
by Mace Chutney on May 12, 2011 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions
There’s something inherently amusing about Orr’s face and his voice, though I’m not sure what. His vocal inflection kind of reminds me of the pets.com puppet.
Hmmm well he IS Canadian (thinking of the South Park portrayal of Canadians as puppets with dislodged heads)
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m OK with the concept of banning PEDs and punishing users, although there’s no doubt that there’s a pretty substantial gray area in between what (if anything) you think should be banned and what shouldn’t. But a doctor using a hormone on you to heal an injury seems to me to not even be in that gray area. It just seems like medicine.
This is true. I think, however the issue comes with the presence of hormones at all. The only way, at least to me, to truly prevent their usage is to completely ban them. No hormones, at all. I’m neither saying that that’s right, nor am I saying that that’s what baseball should do, but I do think that may be their view on the matter – eliminate the gray areas by banning them across the board. But then, hey, it’s Selig and MLB, so who the fuck knows?
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions
he only way, at least to me, to truly prevent their usage is to completely ban them.
By that I mean the only way, at least, that Major League Baseball feels they will be able to truly and successfully prevent their usage is to completely ban them.
Forgot to write that part. Without it, it reads like I am completely contradicting myself two sentences later.
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 2:21 PM EDT up reply actions
I am going on the record as being against the castration of baseball players.
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on May 12, 2011 8:32 PM EDT up reply actions
But a doctor using a hormone on you to heal an injury seems to me to not even be in that gray area. It just seems like medicine.
Steroids can be used as medicine too. Don’t they speed up recovery time? That doesn’t mean they should be allowed in baseball. If stem cells can be that effective and don’t get banned, I would not at all be surprised to see guys who don’t even need stem cells to use them to prolong their careers.
I’m not a doctor, but my understanding of stem cells is they regrow new tissue. Hypothetically, if Pedro decided to make a comeback and knew he needed more juice on the fastball, should he be allowed to get a few treatments of stem cells in his elbow/shoulder and come back with the same heat he had when he was 30?
by philiafan14364 on May 12, 2011 2:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, stem cells are undifferentiated cells and, depending upon how they are derived (or, to be specific where they are derived from), can develop into any body tissue (including cancer in some early testing). It’s an interesting case for how baseball will deal with Stem cells, nanotechnology and other cutting edge treatments that could be common in 20 years.
So, assuming that the article is correct and all that was done to Colon was taking stem cells from one part of his body and injecting them into another
How exactly is that different from TJ surgery, which takes a tendon from one part of the body and used it to replace the ulnar collateral ligament?
Well, TJ only improves the function of the elbow with no benefit to surrounding tissue. I suppose an argument could be made that Stem Cells could have regenerative affects beyond the targeted injury. Not much ground to argue, but I don’t think many people understand what Stem Cells are, what they do and whether God will strike you down with lightning bolts for using them.
The injections the surgeons used on Colon sound similiar in principle to the Platelet Rich Plasma Injection Cliff Lee received for his abdominal injury last year. There was a news story about Penn doctors using PRP injections to treat lower back problems and various other connective tissue damage a year ago. I was getting them 5 years ago in DC to repair damage to my pubic symphsis, and the laxity in ligaments of the pelvis, lower back and the sacroiliac joint caused by a combination of chronic conditions and a 30 ft fall. It’s a basically a stronger form of prolotherapy which involves stimulating an immune response (scar tissue basically) by injecting a dextrose solution where connective tiissue meets bone. For ligament laxity, the chemical reactions that occur during the tissue production help draw the ligaments tighter. PRP injections create an even stronger immune response because instead of a dextrose solution, your blood plasma, full of growth factors and cytokines is used. Apparently it isn’t fully known “if local injections of PRP can have a systemic impact on circulating cytokine levels, in turn affecting doping test” or if “PRP treatments have systemic anabolic effects or affect performance.” that have doping cops concerned. However, unable to show any performance enhancement from intramuscular PRP injections (which I think Lee had), this method of PRP treatment was removed from the bad touch list.
I was really hoping that FanGraphs article would end with something along the lines of “But is he the douchiest 18-year old prospect ever? Without a doubt.” Alas, no.
They are still working on the metrics to track that.
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions
Douchier that this prospect?
I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
by Mace Chutney on May 12, 2011 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions
I wish I was in Philly right now so I could watch baseball tonight… I don’t think I’ll be able to find any games tonight and I would watch the Threshers to end my baseball withdrawal from the past week.
Game thread!
"Ninety percent of this game is half mental" - Yogi Berra (SI, May 14, 1979)
by bandwagonesque on May 12, 2011 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions
I was thinking when I saw that : what a novel idea I wish they would always broadcast a game from the Phillies’ minor league organization when the Phillies have a day off or have a day game.
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
That’s an awesome idea. Do the minor-league teams have broadcasters and such? Are they carried locally?
I’ve seen some Iron Pig games on WFMZ.
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions
So John Sickels did a mock draft thingy on this site recently and he has the Phillies taking a HS outfielder from Wyoming named Brandon Nimmo. He writes:
The Phillies prefer tools and Nimmo has plenty of those. Cold-weather background but should still go high enough to buy out of college at Arkansas.
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2011/5/9/2159407/2011-baseball-mock-draft-supplemental-round
Reactions to this:
1. Wyoming? Really?
2. Would look forward to seeing all the “Finding Nimmo” headlines. Or not.
3. I like Sickels’ blog, but this strikes me as lazy. Yeah, the Phils like to draft raw, athletic HS outfielders, but that doesn’t mean you should just automatically predict them to do it with their highest pick in every single draft. You should put a little more thought into it than that. Also, there comes a point when taking so many HS outfielders makes it less, not more, likely that they’ll do it again.
Nah… Something really unique- 2nd, 3rd? catcher maybe?
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 3:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Hey, I’ve been to Wyoming!
/not studying for finals
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions
Hey, I’ve heard of Wyoming!
/being a wiseass
"There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact it's all dark."
by alcatraz0109 on May 12, 2011 4:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I saw that. I don’t know if it’s lazy, per se. Draft prognostications, in any sport, are just educated guesses anyway. Unless he has some inside info on someone the Phillies are scouting heavily, it’s all just blindly throwing darts at the wall anyway.
Yeah I guess you’re right.
Though I was also annoyed that he said the Yankees might have a better chance of signing this kid Kevin Comer (NJ HS RHP) away from college because he’s “local”. I looked him up and he’s from Burlington County! Come on, Sickels, do your homework.
He’s got a kid from Lebanon going at the end of the first round. Named Derek Fisher (not that one obviously). In case any of y’all from out that way are interested.
It took me a few seconds to realize you didn’t mean the country. And those few seconds were filled with “Wait, there are people on here who live in LEBANON?”
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions
There’s a London, Kentucky. Just saying.
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Was going to say something along these lines. Especially in baseball, mock drafts past the top 15 or so are a pretty fruitless exercise outside of the occasional local kid connection (e.g., the Phillies with Biddle last year) or the big money slider (e.g., the Red Sox with Ranaudo last year).
Also, pretty much any mock draft you see will have the Phillies taking a high school outfielder in the first round. Every year. Seriously.
Well, unlike football and basketball, there aren’t trades to complicate things. Unlike football and basketball, even the prognosticators don’t know a whole hell of a lot about half the prospects.
Is that really all that unlike football and basketball?
But seriously, the other big differences are that it’s so much more of a crapshoot and the development time is so much longer, and so it doesn’t ever make much sense to draft anything other than the BPA. Since team need barely comes into the equation, if at all, there aren’t any objective factors you can look at. It all just depends on what the team’s FO thinks about Player X vs. Player Y on a pure talent level, and that’s pretty subjective.
Since team need barely comes into the equation
I wonder how many prospects (other than Pitchers) even make it to the Majors at the same position they were drafted to play? Shortstops being the one exception, in that most SS were drafted as SS. That said many drafted as SS move to Second or Third, but I can’t think of any MLB SS who were drafted playing another position.
What is the adjusted park factor for Wyoming?
I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
by Mace Chutney on May 12, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions
That is good to hear… Team dannijd likey!
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 3:58 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
No, it is not good to hear. Just ‘cause you autodrafted 700 injured pitchers doesn’t mean we want Yohan back in business.
by Phrozen on May 12, 2011 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Precisely. Who we do want back in business, in fact, is Roy Oswalt, mainly because he is on my fantasy team. And since my current team makes the Rangers look positively healthy, it’d be nice if he was back soon.
/bitter
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions
I want Oswalt back in business too (much more than Johan)… And I only auto-drafted two injured pitchers… Santana and Aardsma.
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:08 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Maybe I should pick him up- be more useful than Aardsma
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:45 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Yeah, this is exactly why I semi-detest fantasy sporting leagues. I like to get my loathe on of opposing teams’ players, and this kind of shit interferes with that good, old-fashioned sports hate.
Aristotle was not Belgian, the principle of Buddhism is not "every man for himself", and the London Underground is not a political movement.
by doubleh on May 12, 2011 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
After our draft, I was accused of blatant homerism on some blog somewhere (probably because I drafted Jamie Moyer). I forget which now, but it was pretty telling, but, as I tried to explain, I want to root for the guys I would normally root for. Take Leo Nunez. When he’s facing the Braves, or Nats, or Yankees or whoever else, I can root for him, but when he took the L the other day, it was awesome, Team Phrozen or not.
It’s one reason I’ve made the concious effort not to have any Braves or Mets or Yankees on my roster. Detestation!
Trust me- if it is the Phillies having a good day or my fantasy team, I will pick the former every time.
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Sure, goes without saying. But I can’t root for the Mets or Braves under any circumstances. Maybe, if the Braves were playing the some intergalactic aliens for the future of Earth…. maybe…
Otherwise, though, I want them to fail. And I (generally—there are exceptions, see Maddux, G) want their players to fail, so this Fantasy thing is hard.
True… I have looked for other options to remove the Braves and Mets from my team, but could not find decent ones… It is really tough to root for then at all, since I would ordinarilly prefer suckage out of them.
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:47 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
You'd have appreciated Phrozen's team then
He took 7 Phillies, (and also Moyer by accident), so it’d be easy to root for his team.
by philsandthrills on May 12, 2011 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions
Thome’s injured, and Branyan was traded w/ Butler for Marcum and a couple of guys.
by philsandthrills on May 12, 2011 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Not bad, then, I guess.
Stanton (see, another guy I have to root against sometimes) started off well, but he’s hit a wall since. Soria’s been roughed up a few times, but he’ll get it together.
I’ve gotta say, the fantasy season has become much more fun once I started a precipitous slide down to 15th place or so. Made it so much less annoying after a CS or a BS.
by philsandthrills on May 12, 2011 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, agreed. I was rockin’ and rollin’ along for a short while, powered by HRs, but half my team’s forgotten how to hit.
Luckily Frenchy is still tearing up the AL.
Team RTP:
Lowe – DUI, nicked up hit in the head with ball
-Cano -
-Ruiz – back
-Colon – investigated for bionic arm
-Luke Scott – torn up arm
- Heyward – MRI today, DL likely
I know I’m forgetting some. Most of these came to light in the last 3 – 4 days. I’m waiting for my team plane to go down, which somehow will actually happen.
Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."
by RememberthePhitans on May 12, 2011 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Fortunately for all of you, I am cushioning the bottom of our fantasy league so none of you need to worry about falling too far.
Weall appreciate it. I’ll be joining you shortly, it appears.
by Phrozen on May 13, 2011 1:08 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I heard Dan Okrent (the father of Rotesserie League baseball, back when it was still called that) say once “There is nothing more interesting than your own fantasy team, and nothing less interesting than someone else’s fantasy team.” Since I don’t do fantasy baseball I find the whole thing very unintersting.
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions
yep that’s actually where I saw the quote. Even as someon who has never done fantasy sports it was still interesting to watch. I think it’s still on ESPN On Demand for comcast.
I came, I saw, I conquered
by Veni Vidi Vici on May 12, 2011 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG
The Good Phight, Big Black Kids, fun!
Also from that link, freaking Chris Young… dude’s started 4 games this year, two of them excellent starts against the Phils. I feel like he’ll make a miraculous recovery from surgery in time to shut the Phils out on May 28th.
While I am glad that the Phillies won’t have to face him again, I was hoping for scheduling quirks, not an injury that will make it difficult for him to find another job (hopefully with an AL team)
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:12 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
so with all these resurrections happening at once I’ve kind of forgotten about Contreras. Has there been any word on his progress? Is he still dead?
I came, I saw, I conquered
Where the eff did Bautista come from? I mean, it’s kind of absurd:
wOBA (‘04-’11) .226 .202 .326 .331 .311 .339 .429 .541 (so far)
WAR (‘04 -’11) -0.9 0.0 -0.8 1.2 0.4 1.9 6.9 3.2 (so far)
It’s crazy. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it will invariably cause someone to speculate on PED usage, whether justifiable or not.
Doesn’t every single person cite his swing change?
by philsandthrills on May 12, 2011 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Yea that seems to be the consensus. But I meant the general masses who pay less attention to that kind of stuff. It’s not really as big of a deal (as opposed to it being actual writers doing the speculating) but it still bothers me. It is crazy though, that a swing change could do that. I wonder how much he regrets not changing sooner.
by FearTheTurtIe on May 12, 2011 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Stuff like this fascinates me.
If a swing change was able to make such a difference, how come nobody else is able to do the same thing? There was absolutely nothing about Bautista pre-2010 that would have caused anyone to think he had this kind of potential. It’s not like he was an Anthony Hewitt – a physical freak who couldn’t “put it together”. He was just an all-around mediocre talent.
The same thing with Cliff Lee. In the minors, he was a decent prospect, but he wasn’t seen as having all that high of a ceiling, and he had a problem with wildness. How does someone like that develop the best control in MLB?
Or someone like Trevor Hoffman. He was a really good pitcher who lost his fastball because of an injury. So, immediately after he realizes his physical abilities have been diminished, he learns to throw maybe the greatest change-up of all time, a pitch he’d never thrown before in his life. If he could just all of a sudden learn to do this, how come someone like Kyle Kendrick can’t? Kyle throws harder than Hoffman did! There’s no apparent difference in physical giftedness there.
Baseball can be so weird.
Same here. It’s a shame that the current environment casts shadows of doubt over so many great players.
You missed my single most fascinating case study… Albert Pujols. 13th round pick, considered an okay prospect in 2000 (I don’t think he even made the Cards top 10 prospect list in 2000). Rocketed through the minors in 2000, #42 prospect in baseball in 2001 (A very good, but not future G.O.A.T. ranking). Comes up with the Cards out of ST and begins destroying the NL. And for the past 4 or 5 years he’s been doing that with an elbow that needs Tommy John surgery.
Domonic Brown pulled from last night's game with a jammed thumb.
Per Matt Gelb, Brown will sit out tonight’s game as well. Team says it is precautionary.
by dannijd on May 12, 2011 5:59 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
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