Some Wednesday Phillies Links for You, August 31, 2011: Bowker from Sha Na Na for a PTBNL
by Wet Luzinski on Aug 31, 2011 7:08 AM EDT
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Not much time this morning to be as thorough as I'd like, but here's a few links for your morning cuppa.
Sources: Phillies acquire Bowker from Pirates
The hours are apparently numbered for Ross Gload. Or Brandon Moss. Or both. A couple of days of comings and goings begin.
Phillies bolster bench with trade for Bowker | phillies.com: News
Also, Dusty Baker is peepin' Phillies from behind the shades. He likes the cut of their jib!
Schwimer optioned for roster intrigue | The Phillies Zone | 08/30/2011
Farewell, Bear Jew. Maybe we'll meet again. Like, tomorrow. Matt Gelb breaks down the RAJsterbation going on.
Ryan Lawrence (ryanlawrence21) on Twitter
See what Cole Hamels did last night to Roy's postgame interview. Because he's probably dead now.
McCAFFERY: Enjoy success while you can, Phillies fans - Sports - South Jersey Local News
Apply eyeball scorching protection. We had some fun with this on the game thread last night.
The Only Other Game You Care About, Face It.
Jair Jurrjens Struggles Again As Washington Beats Atlanta 9-2 - Talking Chop
The Baggy-Pantsed Disgrace is an equal-opportunity flusterer.
Minors: Who will be a soldier for minor-league playoff wins? Jump, you fool!
Mcall.com: Blogging with Bill White Blog
Another account from the Dom Brown Hate-In on Monday.
Lehigh Valley IronPigs' Ryne Sandberg should have been International League Manager of the Year | lehighvalleylive.com
And the legend of Sandberg managerial snubs grows.
Lehigh Valley IronPigs lose to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in marathon | lehighvalleylive.com
Damn minor-league Yankees. It's tense in Lehigh Valley.
Rizzotti on slow track | Philadelphia Daily News | 08/31/2011
Many a desert flower destined to bloom unseen and all that.
Box Score Recap, 30 August 2011 | Phuture Phillies
Some great pitching performances last night.
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Also, if you haven’t seen this, I thought it was interesting… Welcome to the Information Age
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Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011
It’s a planet in which Rays manager Joe Maddon flips open his iPad in a Starbucks, sips his morning cup of tea and pores over the spray charts that dictate the funky shifts his team is about to unleash on David Ortiz that night.
I can totally see Charlie doing this, while drinking his beer, on his porch, while wearing overalls and taking a break from playing his banjo.
Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.
That is all.
WHAT DOES 404 ERROR MEAN???
I eat sentimentality for breakfast, but stats stop me dead in my tracks
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Aug 31, 2011 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions
yeah, this is a great article…
I get the sense that the Phillies pitchers are into this (and the reference to Schneider more or less confirmed that), but do the Phillies ever shift? They have good up-the-middle defense, when Utley and Rollins are healthy, and those guys are smart. But we seem to see a lot of bleeders just out of the range of Valdez & Martinez… makes me wonder how they get positioned.
It’s kind of the same article/story they did when they talked about ipods and video and how pitchers and batters could use it to get ready to face specific opponents easily
If you've got some hopelessly overmatched heroes fighting evil and some Imperial types marching, John Williams is your guy. You need a song to make people reach for a box of Kleenex, talk to Randy Newman. But if you want creepy atmospherics and spine-shivering chords to back up your casual death threats, you gotta bring in Danny Elfman
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 31, 2011 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Since you’re light on the links, here’s a great little Posnanski piece styled “Statistics and Stories” CLP One excerpt:
*This is the worst number in baseball, by the way: 126 million. If you are a general manager or hope to become one someday, avoid this number. Run from it. In baseball history, three men have received seven-year, $126 million deals.
1. Barry Zito: 2007-2013
2. Vernon Wells: 2008-2014
3. Jayson Werth: 2011-2017
…The Jayson Werth deal might have been the most puzzling of all. The $126 million contract was obviously cursed already. He was turning 32 years old. The Nationals did not seem close enough to contention for this move to help them all that much even if Werth did maintain his 2010 form. He has not so far — he’s hitting .230/.328/.389 at this writing — and because of his age and various other factors there seems little likelihood of him being an $18 million player any year over the next six. But I guess you never know.
Either way, you might want to offer $125 million or $127 million or something like that in the future.
So is this McCaffery fellow always an insufferable douche or is this a new thing?
Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.
That is all.
He’s such an inveterate asshole that it pisses me off just to see this blog link to him.
DO NOT CLICK THE LINK. THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
That’s how I think of philly.com and bleacherreport.com in general
If you've got some hopelessly overmatched heroes fighting evil and some Imperial types marching, John Williams is your guy. You need a song to make people reach for a box of Kleenex, talk to Randy Newman. But if you want creepy atmospherics and spine-shivering chords to back up your casual death threats, you gotta bring in Danny Elfman
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 31, 2011 11:22 AM EDT up reply actions
Sigh – thanks for reminding me about that
If you've got some hopelessly overmatched heroes fighting evil and some Imperial types marching, John Williams is your guy. You need a song to make people reach for a box of Kleenex, talk to Randy Newman. But if you want creepy atmospherics and spine-shivering chords to back up your casual death threats, you gotta bring in Danny Elfman
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 31, 2011 11:47 AM EDT up reply actions
That movie was awful. And my husband bought it on Blu-Ray. Ugh.
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
Sounds like you might need to reign in his spending a little bit.
Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.
That is all.
That’s not all it sounds like
I mean it’s basically geek fetish porn
If you've got some hopelessly overmatched heroes fighting evil and some Imperial types marching, John Williams is your guy. You need a song to make people reach for a box of Kleenex, talk to Randy Newman. But if you want creepy atmospherics and spine-shivering chords to back up your casual death threats, you gotta bring in Danny Elfman
by SportingFanaticism on Aug 31, 2011 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions
Well, he bought it on Blu-Ray because he hadn’t seen it yet and thought the special effects would be good—he ended up hating it, but now we are stuck with it on the most expensive format possible.
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
I saw an article on bleacher report that said we were going to trade hunter pence.
by Cole_Hamels_Can on Aug 31, 2011 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions
I wonder how they made that into a slideshow.
Might as well just hand them over.
by All ur Aces R Belong to Us on Aug 31, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions
Hunter was one of their 15 players most likely to be traded in the offseason. Also on the list was Michael Bourn- the author argued that the Phillies and Braves would not be able to afford to keep them.
"Valdez can pitch, Lee can hit... and pigs can fly."
by dannijd on Aug 31, 2011 5:03 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Fixed that for you
the “author” argued that the Phillies and Braves would not be able to afford to keep them.
My God, that article was awful. It was completely full of supposition and conjecture. He might as well be an op-ed writer.
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
I think it was the “just enough offense” part that got me. If you can’t even get that part correct, there’s no reason to read on. It’s obvious he’s just looking for “the angle” here and not truth.
While his overall point is fair—it will be difficult to sustain this run—but it’s the ad-lib observational “I can see it with my eyes!” shit that makes it awful. The stuff about Rollins “wink wink” not running out routing GB’s really sent me over the edge. Assholio.
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
To me everything else in there was poorly written, but had some basis in the real world. Resigning Ibanez would be a God-awful decision at any cost. And why would Raul even want to resign as a 5th outfielder.
Also, his assertion that the Phillies will be awful starting next season is hyperbole. Sure, it’s possible, but it’s not a foregone conclusion. My god, he’s a bad writer.
on a related note
Here’s a link to that Cataldi article that we also had some fun with in the comments yesterday. Scroll down to the bottom to read the Phillies part of it.
http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/sports/article/955477—stop-that-train-i-want-to-get-off
He’s partially right that Eagles Linebackers are terrible, but Jeremiah Trotter wasn’t exactly Ray Lewis, either.
The Phillies part is just funny.
Yeah- a number of the decisions Cataldi derides were made in games that had become routs- they were strategically correct moves, and moves that should be made regardless of the time of year, but that become even more important with the run of games they are about to go on. As for Howard and Hamels- just because they can play does not mean they should- one of the luxuries of the Phillies current situation is the ability to take care of these minor issues before they become major ones- did Cole need the DL- probably not- but to say he was vacationing because the Phillies did not care about winning could not be more wrong.
Quick note to Cataldi- the Phillies are 6-4 in their last 10- and only one of those was lost by the pitchers he named- the others were lost by Madson, Bastardo, and Oswalt.
"Valdez can pitch, Lee can hit... and pigs can fly."
by dannijd on Aug 31, 2011 5:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Here's a tidbit from Zolecki
http://zozone.mlblogs.com/2011/08/31/lees-dominance/
Sometimes I think I forget how great Cliff has been this year.
It's only gonna get funner
by VanceinmyPants on Aug 31, 2011 10:14 AM EDT reply actions
Oh, Cole
The Lawrence tweet. At least Halladay smiled and Ryan doesn’t write “Halladay just gave him the stare of death.”
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
Cole Hamels jokingly interrupted Halladay interview: “(ESPN) just said Verlander is better than you. Your thoughts?” Halladay just smiled.
I like Cole’s humor and Lee’s smile to offset the overall terrifying bad-ass-atude of Doc Halladay.
by Cole_Hamels_Can on Aug 31, 2011 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions
What Lawrence apparently did not report was that reporters, fans and team officials alike all moved away from direct contact between Halladay’s eyes and Cole for 30 seconds after Cole said this.
Hunter Pence will not guarantee a WS, but, then, neither does Carlos Beltran.
Is it just me
Or is Bowker basically Moss with less power?
And maybe less defense.
But maybe Ruben is looking only at their PH numbers, and Bowker’s seem to be pretty decent. I don’t know what Moss is like as a PH.
The So Taguchi rule
RAJ requires the 25th player to be completely useless hitter, and possibly an inferior defender as well, (but with some versatility). See Taguchi,So, as well as Bruntlett, Eric.
This necessitated keeping Mini-Mart on the roster the entire year, whether or not Rule 5 was in force. However, thanks to some recent replacement-level play by him, and the unsustainably high average-with-RISP by Exxon, and the possible DL appearance by Gload, RAJ needed an additional incompetent player who could play multiple positions with equal meh capability, along with the ability to pinch hit.
(On a slightly more serious note: We’ll always be left to wonder if Cleveland had not claimed Thome, if Thome would have declined a trade anywhere else and thus would have gone to the Phils).
Hunter Pence will not guarantee a WS, but, then, neither does Carlos Beltran.
You may as well call that the Ruben Amaro rule.
by Cormican on Aug 31, 2011 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I hope The Bear Jew eventually sticks in the Majors if only so the nickname sticks.
The Good Phight, NotGraphs, fun!
I'm looing at the discussion section of ESPN
it appears every san fran fan is turning on sabean.
It's only gonna get funner
by VanceinmyPants on Aug 31, 2011 2:52 PM EDT up reply actions
awesome comments from the mcall article
With all due respect to my fellow Johnny Callison members, here’s a simple question…..over the next 5 years, who would you rather have….Domonic Brown or John Mayberry, Jr.? [snip] It’s a no-brainer. Mayberry is better all-around, more versatile, and not the head-case Brown apparently is. Granted, Brown has tons of physical ability, but he never seems to have his head into the game. Mayberry can play all 3 outfield positions well, can spell Howard at first, and, reportedly is willing to take a shot at learing 3rd base. Brown is a defensive liability wherever they stick him. [snip]
Posted By: TOM BALL | Aug 30, 2011 12:34:19 PM
I don’t konw what game you were watching last night but I didn’t see ANY effort out of Brown. He hardly ran faster than a jog in the outfield and his at bats looked like he was casually swinging the bat..I think he is just upset about being sent back down to the minors….and as for the fans, they have every right to boo. Fans paid for their tickets and have the right to expect players to put in the effort, win or lose. Brown needs an attitude adjustment if he wants to get back to the big league
Posted By: J | Aug 30, 2011 12:59:19 PM
Brown is a prospect, that’s all he is. As such, there is a very slight chance he will ever contribute at the MLB level. Package him for proven MLB talent. Who would you rather have, prospects of a Hunter Pence?
Posted By: VOR | Aug 30, 2011 3:49:34 PM
So his fallback position is as a wide receiver at Miami. That pretty much tells me all I needed to know.
Dick Allen was booed unmercifully and overcame it and belongs in Cooperstown.
Brown ain’t Allen!
Posted By: TOM BALL | Aug 30, 2011 4:33:04 PM
Boo him all night long. His talent is going to waste and he is clearly becoming a lazy person. He doesn’t show effort anymore and does not appear to be trying to improve himself. Ship him out of town for some dirty laundry and a box of donuts.
Get Lost Dom.
Posted By: Jim | Aug 31, 2011 8:42:43 AM
This crap makes me glad I don’t live around Philadelphia at times. If I want to talk Phillies, I come here and discuss them with intelligent people. The sad thing is, the Phillies wouldn’t sell out if all of these dumbasses didn’t exist.
It's only gonna get funner
by VanceinmyPants on Aug 31, 2011 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, but every city’s got them. It’s better to have idiots who care than idiots who don’t, I guess.
I guess what I’m saying is I’m glad I don’t have to deal with these idiots, just Tigers idiots.
It's only gonna get funner
by VanceinmyPants on Aug 31, 2011 3:37 PM EDT up reply actions
Mayberry at third
of course, it’s so obvious! no worries guys, we’re set next year.
by perfectdepth on Aug 31, 2011 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions
What would be wrong with giving Mayberry a shot at playing third?
"Valdez can pitch, Lee can hit... and pigs can fly."
by dannijd on Aug 31, 2011 5:14 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
That’d be one tall third baseman. And where has that commenter heard that talk (other than in his head).
I thought it was meant as a joke…
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Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011
Father Time and the Philadelphia Phillies
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6910166/father-time-philadelphia-phillies
Fairly objective article, although I think pushing the age thing a bit. Out of the ‘big’ contracts the Phils are on the hook for, we really only have one that is going to be a dud.
Domingo Santana homered again on Monday.
Update:
Singleton (CAL) – 36 for 109, 8 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 8 BB, 34 K, .330/.387/.532
Cosart (TEX) – 6 G, 32.1 IP, 25 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 10 BB, 18 K, 0 HR, 2.78 ERA
Santana (SAL) – 21 for 54, 3 2B, 5 HR, 5 BB, 11 K, .389/.459/.722
Zeid (TEX) – 11 G, 12.1 IP, 18 H, 16 R, 13 ER, 4 BB, 13 K, 3 HR, 9.49 ERA
I DON’T WANT TO LIVE ON THIS PLANET LALALALALALALALALALA
"I remember being three and I wanted to be a baseball player, that's all I ever really wanted to be. That and Spider Man." -Raul Ibanez
by Jose and the Contrarians on Aug 31, 2011 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions
I know this is a really old discussion, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot since the trade. So, one of the reasons that people saw Singleton as dispensable was because of Ryan Howard and his contract (assuming also that Singleton is moved back to 1B for good). But as of right now, it seems like Ryan Howard could become a negative-value asset well before his contract is up (hell, there’s a nonzero chance he could be a negative-value asset as soon as next season). So wouldn’t that make Singleton actually anything but dispensable?
All of this is basically a way of asking the questions: How bad would Ryan Howard have to be for going with another option (internal or otherwise) to be the best course of action, how likely is he to be that bad, and how soon is he likely to be that bad?
The Good Phight, NotGraphs, fun!
I think the contract is irrelevant at this point. If Howard + contract becomes a negative value asset, then it becomes a good idea to see if you can give him away. But being a negative value asset doesn’t mean that you have negative value on the field. If you make the assumption that the market for Howard is always going to be rational and that you won’t be able to dump him unless you either (1) retain enough salary to make what you’re trading away a non-negative value asset, or (2) receive negative value in return, then the only question vis-a-vis Singleton is whether the team is better on the field with Singleton in place of Howard, as opposed to the reverse or Singleton + Howard.
I don’t think I’m explaining this very well.
No no, you make a lot of sense. Thanks.
I think I should have used a different term than “negative value asset”. He’s already a negative value asset. He was a negative value asset last year as well. I should have said “negative WAR player” which is an even more nauseating thought. Based on fangraphs’ dollar figures, Howard could end up producing absolutely no value on the field for the $125 extension assuming a pretty pessimistic (but entirely plausible) continuation of his current trends.
And if that’s the case, not having Singleton at the ready would look even more awful, assuming he ends up developing into something close to his potential.
The Good Phight, NotGraphs, fun!
Yeah, Howard at negative WAR would not be happy making.
I’m hopeful we won’t get there anytime soon though. A lot depends on his dip in fielding (as measured by UZR) and whether that’s real and/or permanent. On one hand, this is the second-worst fielding year of his career, which is a bad sign, but on the other hand, he’s doing much better in UZR than he did last year, so the trend isn’t going only in one direction. If his UZR were only at his pre-‘10 level, he’s probably still be a 3-WAR player.
I guess his baserunning has gotten worse though, and there the trend is in one direction, so that’s a bit of a bad sign.
Strangely enough, that Jayson Stark article about the new information age, in which its effect on Howard is prominently discussed, actually made me feel a little better about Howard not falling off a cliff relative to his current production… and, really, if he maintains his current production, or somewhat less, then he remains worth playing (though clearly overpaid, obviously)
I think we might woo losing pretty much every piece. For fucking Hunter Pence. Seriously.
"I remember being three and I wanted to be a baseball player, that's all I ever really wanted to be. That and Spider Man." -Raul Ibanez
by Jose and the Contrarians on Aug 31, 2011 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Some interesting videos from the Al Dia Youtube site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qwPNvUixw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGon_y2nL4k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDqogdHzUT0
I wasn’t aware that Ruben was fluent (or pretty close to it, at the very least) in Spanish. He seems slightly less smug in Spanish, although still pretty smug. I’m going to rate him here at “código azul: desconcierto”
I also learned from the Wilson Valdez video that the word for “infielder” in Spanish is apparently “jardinero” – doesn’t that also mean “gardener”?
Braves traded for Diaz. Damnit. That fucking guy again. Gee, I wonder why they signed him?
What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big ol' Tylenol.
Remember when the Phillies clinched the division because Diaz got picked off third base with two outs in the ninth inning of a game the Braves were losing by one run? That was funny.
Lol…
"Valdez can pitch, Lee can hit... and pigs can fly."
by dannijd on Aug 31, 2011 7:25 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Shane and Polly, really?!?
"Valdez can pitch, Lee can hit... and pigs can fly."
by dannijd on Aug 31, 2011 7:37 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
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