The Good Phight - All Posts

Toolbagged - Phillies 0, Reds A Whole Bunch

2013-05-19T00:12:31Z

So today was kinda crappy. This recap will be accordingly crappy, also because I couldn't watch (because, really, Fox, people in Alaska love Baltimore...), and I couldn't get At-Bat to work properly. So.

Kyle Kendrick pitched somewhat less than awesomely, being tagged for four runs on eight hits and four walks over six innings. He struck out two, and those guys must feel especially sucky. As mediocre as Toolbags was, though, the bullpen came on and took a giant dump in everyones' Cheerios. B.J. Rosenberg, called up to solve all the problems, recorded four outs, but allowed four hits, a walk, and three runs. Phillippe Aumont gave up two hits and a run; and Chad Durbin, pitching where he belongs in garbagetime, allowed two more runs on two hits.

Bronson Arroyo, on the other hand, pitched exactly like we expected. He was like Nolan Cy Johnson Koufax Halladay Martinez Clemens Johnson Carlton Maddux Grove Alexander. He was lights out. Four hundred strikeouts, zero hits, negative seven runs, Arroyo did it all.

The Phillies offense can be excused for failing to produce against the Greatest Pitcher of All Time; but still, today's performance was unpleasant. Jimmy Rollins went 1 for 3 with a walk; Domonic Brown went 2 for 4, including a double that he failed to stretch into a triple (you know, guys, maybe just stop that?); and Michael Young, Ryan Howard and Erik Kratz each recorded a hit. That's about it. Everyone else kind of sucked. Chase Utley drew a walk, but made out on the first pitch a few times and looked bad. I dunno.

Scott Franzke mentioned something interesting on the radio. When Sarge Matthews is in the radio booth, the Phillies have been outscored 30-2 this year. Thirty to two. Maybe Continued Success should go sit in with the other team?

Charlie described the game thusly on the post-game press conference:

When you lose, like, and uh, uh, you, like, forget about the goal, like, which is winnin' and things like that. And you kinda lose heart and stop trying and things like that. I'm not saying that we quit, that's not at all, not at all, but I'm saying like that were in that area where we like stop trying, and things like that. Gotta try to just keep going, and, uh, just stop trying to do too much and things like that, try to get a pitch to drive and like just score some runs; but you gotta play the whole game and things like that, all 27 outs. I don't care what the score is, and things like that, you just keep fighting and things like that, whether its 0 for 2 or 0 for 4, you I've been playing for 20 years, and things like that, and you gotta fight to really not go there, and do some really hard searching to get back there, and that's what I believe.

You tell 'em, Chuck.

Anyway, that's about it.

Fangraph of Ineptitude:

The Phils drop to 20-23, which is the moral equivalent of being a billion games out of first. They'll try to lose in less embarrassing fashion tomorrow by sending Baby Bone to the mound against the Reds' Homer Bailey.

We Win! Phillies 5, Reds 3

2013-05-18T03:23:08Z

It's Friday night. It's spring. It's beautiful outside. It was a perfect night for baseball. And the Phillies didn't let us down. Here's what I saw happen, in between dinner, kid bedtimes, and another episode of Friday Night Lights:

Jimmy Rollins proved me a prophet with his third home run of the year. The two-run shot in the bottom of the third put the Phillies ahead 2-0.
Michael Young continues to show those of us who doubted him that maybe we were wrong. After Cliff Lee led off the bottom of the fifth with a double that just missed being a home run and then Rollins bunted him over (small ball!), Young hit a triple to deep center field that put the Phillies up 3-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, with the game now tied, the Phillies scored a run without hitting the ball out of the infield. Michael Young walked (again, doubters hanging their heads in shame), Ryan Howard hit an oops-dribbler down the third base line for a single, Delmon Young was hit by a pitch, and Domonic Brown hit a bouncer up the middle that was mishandled by both the shortstop and second baseman. The Phils took the lead 4-3.

Here's what I didn't see happen:

Jay Bruce hit a two-run home run off of Cliff Lee in the top of the sixth. Was Lee tired after his double and run scored in the bottom of the fifth?
Joey Votto clobbered an Antonio Bastardo eighth inning pitch to tie the game at 3-3. The eighth inning continues to flummox Phillies pitchers.
After Michael Young scored to give the Phillies the 4-3 lead, Ryan Howard scored on a Carlos Ruiz sac fly. Replays show that Howard was probably out.
Lee, Justin DeFratus, and Jonathan Papelbon combined for 8.7 innings of 2 run ball. That Bastardo character . . . .

Fill in the blanks for the rest of the game below this Fangraph of a Friday night win.

Source: FanGraphs

The Call: Rosenberg Called Up, Valdes Sent Down

2013-05-17T19:56:27Z

Interior: Phillies Front Office, Ruben Amaro, Jr's Office.

Time: 6:15 AM, May 17, 2013

Ruben sits on a telephone, speaking at a low, intense volume. An ashtray, overflowing with cigarettes, smolders and Amaro takes a drag off of a freshly lit Marlboro Red. He takes a sip of coffee from a Styrofoam cup. He stops for a moment to think about how powerfully gritty he's acting. He continues to talk.

Well yeah, yes, sure look. I get that it's unconventional. I get that there's a risk involved. But we're up against the damn wall here! Yes, I said it. Now, wait...just you...you son of a b...now listen! I heard enough of your garbage over the last fifteen minutes to last me the rest of Ryan Howard's contract, so just plug up and tune in to what Uncle Ruben is telling you.

We're losing ground here. I don't know the record, and to be honest, skip, I don't really feel like checking. I could, too -- I'm running six blackberries at once, and just like me, they don't sleep. But the record of the team, how many runs we scored, how many we let up -- garbage, pure garbage. That's loser justification for the press if we don't win. But for me? I got cojones the size of Cadillacs, buddy, and it ain't because I like their aesthetics. It's because if you're going to drive this bus, you gotta make decisions based on what you feel, not what you know.

And yeah, I know it's risky. I know it's bold. But f**k that and f**k you too, because I'm pushing the button. Pick up the red phone Sally, because it's ringing right now, and it's ringing for you. We're at High Alert, and last time I looked up, I had the Braves and the Nationals teabagging me, while the national media laughs it up about the end of our window. Ruben don't play that game, friend; when Ruben feels disrespected, people's heads roll. When Ruben feels the Phillies getting disrespected? Then it's time for s**t to really go down.

So buckle up, Petunia, and get ready because I'm overriding everyone. Monty, Wade, Charlie, Dubee -- hell, call Gillick and see if he can stop me! I'm 100% Testosterone, baby, and I'm ready to kill. So it's not like you have a choice, see? I'm saving this season, and the only you can stop me is if you put me in a bodybag. And I counted your shots; you're wondering, did I fire five or six? And now you have to be asking yourself...

...

Oh, uh, yeah, you still there? Yeah, so like I was saying. We're going to save this season. You with me? You want to be the guy who saved 2013 or the chump who let it burn? That's what I thought. Put the order through.

We're designating Raul Valdes for assignment and bringing up B.J. Rosenberg.

We've ascended Heaven and spit in the face of God, friend. I'll see you in Philly in two hours; we're getting steaks.

Phillies Stat Notes: May 17, 2014

2013-05-17T16:45:55Z

Contents
- Phillies Hitters vs. Projections
- Hitters among NL league leaders
- Phillies Team Stats vs. 2012 and vs. Reds
- NL Standings and team stats
- Milestones

Phillies Hitters vs. Projections

Chooch has been looking better in the last week, but Howard is still utterly lost.

Phils Hitters among League Leaders

At the season's quarter mark, Phillies are hard to find among the league's leaders in most categories:

fWAR: none. 20th-Utley (1.4). Top 2 in the NL are Milwaukee's Carlos Gomez (2.7) and Jean Segura (2.2).
wRC+: none. 28th-Utley (.127)
Avg: none. 22nd-M.Young (.296)
OBP: none. 17th-M.Young (.383)
SLG: none. 20th-Utley (.500)
ISO: none. 20th-Utley (.219)
BB%: none. 13th-M.Young (12.3%)
H: none. 27th-Utley (41)
Singles: none. 12th-M.Young (32)
Doubles: 7th-Rollins (12)
Triples: 7th-Utley (2)
Homers: none. 15th-Utley, Brown (7)
Runs: none. 32nd-Utley (21)
RBI: none. 14th-Utley (24)
SB: 9th-Revere (7)
GDP: 1st (tie)-M.Young (10)

And from the bottom (out of 80 qualifiers)...
fWAR: 7th-Howard (-0.4); Matt Kemp "leads" with -0.8
wRC+: 7th-Revere (52)
OBP: 11th-Howard (.284)
SLG: 3rd-Revere (.263)
ISO: 1st-Revere (.025), #2, 3, and 4 are Polanco, Dobbs, and Pierre
also 9th-M.Young (.081)
K%: 7th-Howard (29.0%)

Also,
GB/FB ratio: 1st-Revere (5.83). Next 2: E.Cabrera (4.38), M.Young (2.91)
and... next-to-last: Utley (0.76)
LD%: 11th-Howard (24.8%)
GB%: 1st-Revere (73.7%), 5th-M.Young (57.7%)
FB%: 3rd-Utley (47.2%), 6th-Rollins (43.1%) ... last: Revere (12.6%)
IFFB%: 9th-Rollins (14.3%) ... Howard and M.Young among 9 players with 0.0%
HR/FB%: 10th-Brown (21.2%)

Phillies Team Stats vs. 2012 and vs. Reds

Hitting

I've changed the color coding from indicating higher(green) or lower (red/orange) to indicating better or worse. Only two categories changed: K%, obviously, and also SH/G, where I took the position that fewer sacrifices are better. The other possibly debatable position I took is that more SB attempts are better.

One other change is that the "small ball" section now includes productive outs as a % of opportunities. Baseball-reference.com defines productive out opportunities this way:

1) Successful sacrifice for a pitcher with one out.
2) Advancing any runner with none out.
3) Driving in a baserunner with the second out of the inning.

And whaddayaknow, the Phillies lead the NL in productive outs. Which I suppose points out what should be obvious, that productive outs and small ball tactics are like the fine tuning knob. The important things are getting on base and hitting for power, and sadly the Phillies are near the bottom in both of those.

Consistency
Fans often complain about the lack of consistency in the Phillies' offense. What they mean of course, is not that Phillies' hitting should be more consistent, but that it should be more consistently GOOD. In terms of game-to-game variability in their runs scored, the Phils are right in the middle of the pack, ranking 9th in the NL in "consistency".

Pitching

NL Standings and Team Stats

The Reds are pretty good. The have scored the 2nd most runs in the NL (just barely behind Colorado), but that's due in part to their home park. Their pitching has been at least as impressive, with the 3rd lowest ERA in the NL, and FIP (4th) and xFIP (2nd) which are also near the top.

Milestones

Milestones likely to be reached over the next week or so...

Jimmy Rollins
- He needs 2 more walks (13 total) to tie Ed Delahanty for 7th most in Phils' history with 643.
- With 3 more RBIs (18 this year), he will tie Greg Luzinski for 10th most all-time for the Phillies, at 811.

Chase Utley
- His next HBP (which will be his first this year) will break a tie with Chet Lemon and move him into sole possession of 21st place in MLB history, with 152. A second HBP will tie him with Hall of Fame outfielder Fred Clarke for 20th.

Utley hasn't had a month with 50+ PAs and no HBPs since September 2004, when he batted only 52 times. April 2013, with 106 PAs, was his first such month since then, and he already has also gone the first 55 PAs in May without getting plunked.

Ryan Howard
- Howard needs 2 more extra base hits (17 total) to tie Johnny Callison for 8th on the Phillies career list with 534.

Michael Young
- Young needs 7 more RBIs to reach 1,000.

Cole Hamels
- Hamels' start against Cleveland on Wednesday was the 220th of his career and tied him with Larry Christenson for 7th most in Phillies history.

Jonathan Papelbon
- He needs 3 more saves to tie Bob Wickman for 29th most in MLB history, at 267.

Consecutive Solo Home Runs
The Phillies have hit 16 straight home runs without a man on base. The mark for consecutive solo home runs was set by the Giants in 2011 when they hit 21 straight, breaking the record of 19 set by the 1914 Phillies.

The Phils’ last home run with a man on base was the 3-run shot by Domonic Brown on April 27th. John Mayberry Jr. then started the streak of solo homers by going back-to-back after Brown.

25 of their 34 homers have been solo, or 73.5%, which is the 3rd highest % in the NL, behind Cincy’s 78%, and Miami's 74%. The NL average has been 61%, and if the Phillies had the same percentage, only 21 would have been solo. The Cubs (48%) and Nationals (53%) have the lowest %’s of solo home runs.

By the way, one would think that the lower a team's OBP, the higher the percentage of home runs that would be solos, but this year at least there is almost no correlation (.08) between solo home run %’s and OBP.

J-Roll: Here We Go Again

2013-05-17T16:11:45Z

One of the contributing factors to the Phillies struggling offense has been Jimmy Rollins. He currently has a disappointing .255/.304/.382 triple slash line, good for a .686 OPS. That line is off the pace of last year's .250/.316/.427 (OPS .743), though not by that much.

A week ago though, Rollins was doing even worse. Through May 7, Rollins was hitting .234/.288/.344 for a paltry .632 OPS. In other words, Rollins was having a very slow start.

Does this sound familiar to you? If you've followed the Phillies for Rollins' entire career, if you read this site, or if you read our annual this winter, it should be. Rollins has been a slow starter for most of his career, and it's right about now that he picks things up.

Last year, I wrote about this, comparing Rollins' first month-plus to the rest of the season. Here's the chart I published in that article. The chart has Rollins' past full seasons (2001 through 2011, excluding 2010 which was injury riddled for the first several months). The first column is the date of his lowest May OPS, the second is his OPS on that date, the third is his season ending OPS, and the fourth is the change from the May low to the end of the season (colored from dark red (worst) to dark green (best)).

	Date	Low OPS	End OPS	Change
2001	May 1	0.586	0.743	0.157
2002	May 1	0.790	0.686	-0.104
2003	May 30	0.720	0.707	-0.013
2004	May 6	0.503	0.803	0.300
2005	May 11	0.622	0.770	0.148
2006	May 26	0.661	0.811	0.150
2007	May 24	0.800	0.875	0.075
2008	May 13	0.800	0.786	-0.014
2009	May 10	0.499	0.719	0.220
2011	May 30	0.686	0.736	0.050

2012 continued this pattern. His May-low OPS was after the May 4 game. After that game, his OPS was .525. From May 5 through the end of the season, he had a .786 OPS, good for an incredible increase of .261.

Over the off-season, I did a similar calculation, but instead of choosing Rollins' lowest May OPS as the comparison date, I chose the 40th game of each season, roughly 1/4 of the way into the season. That chart is pretty similar.

	OPS 40	OPS 40+	Change
2001	0.646	0.773	0.127
2002	0.851	0.628	-0.223
2003	0.739	0.695	-0.044
2004	0.584	0.867	0.283
2005	0.630	0.814	0.184
2006	0.678	0.851	0.173
2007	0.877	0.875	-0.002
2008	0.800	0.874	0.074
2009	0.635	0.747	0.112
2011	0.729	0.739	0.010
2012	0.578	0.798	0.220
Average	0.704	0.787	0.083

It seems we're in the midst of the exact same thing this year. Comparing two dates that are the same, last year, on May 7, Rollins stood at .231/.278/.274 with 0 home runs, 6 stolen bases, and a .552 OPS. After that date, he hit .254/.324/.462 with 23 home runs, 24 stolen bases, and a .786 OPS.

This year, on May 7, his .234/.288/.344 line was accompanied by 1 home run and 3 stolen bases. In the 7 games since then, Rollins has a .345/.375/.552 line with 1 home run, 1 stolen base, and a 927 OPS.

In other words, it sure looks like he's doing it again.*

*All of the usual caveats apply. Small sample size since May 7. Past performance trends are no guarantee of future performance. Aging affects everyone. If it lasts more than four hours, see a doctor. Etc. etc.

2013 Phillies Draft Preview - Reese McGuire

2013-05-16T17:41:33Z

McGuire is an 18 .5 year old 6'1" 190 lb very atletic Catcher from Kent, Washington. He's a right handed thrower and left handed hitter with reported plus power potential for the position. The Phillies have shown in recent years that they clearly have a lot of faith in their Northwest amateur scouts by drafting several players from the region. There's no secret here though, everyone knows about McGuire and ranks him pretty highly. Reports have linked both the Marlins (who pick 6th) and the Pirates (9 and 14) as being strongly interested in the young Catcher. So, the chances here may be slim, but if someone else drops that they like better, it's not out of the realm of possibility that McGuire could end up in Philly.

There is, oddly for a high schooler in the relative boondocks of Washington, a ton of video on McGuire to look at, so we should get a half decent sense for how he might profile. First the good news per scouting reports, his pop times (for Throws to second) all have timed above average thanks to a strong arm and quick release. Reports also seem to indicate his defense is good enough to warrant a First Round pick alone, even if he couldn't hit a lick. Fortunately, reports also note he can hit quite a lick, frankly.

First video up is from the Perfect Game All America, courtesy of Bullpen Banter. You can see him catching warmup the first few seconds. He looks really smooth and natural behind the plate. Otherwise, just a lot of nice looking swings in this video. It's not the most bat speed in the class, it's not the quietest swing in the class, but it's a classic looking swing that if paused when he makes contact looks quite textbook.

Here's some high school fil of him from MLBdirt.Tough to make much of it, but game film is nicer to see than BP or HR Derby's where everyone looks good hitting meatballs. It's only a few at bats, but he does well in laying off some close stuff that suggests he has some eye.

Game film with Slo-Mo, courtesy of Diamond Scape Baseball.

Reese McGuire is a UC San Diego commit and here's a video of the kid talking a bit about that at USA Baseball practices in 2012. For the record, reports are that if he's drafted in Round 1, he's signable.

Now for my favorite video, which sems to have been uploaded by someone named Reese McGuire. It's low tech and appears to be a redundant video within a video featuring much index finger pressing of sideways white triangles. Honestly, not much to take from this, but it's entertainingly low tech.

Here's Reese's Perfect Game profile for more video. Overall, he'd be a total steal were to fall to the Phillies and would likely be the #1 prospect in the Org by the end of the season. So, while he may be unlikely to fall, it would be great if he did. Becasue of his defense I doubt there's any threat of him moving to Right or Third, but Catcher's a tough position and can wear guys down and ruin healthy knees. All that said, one advantage going for Reese is that he's from Washington state and, unlike guys in Florida, souther Cal, etc. doesn't play due to weather for large chunks of the year, so his knees have less mileage.

Kobayashi Maru: Trade Chase?

2013-05-16T12:22:51Z

I've been running this scenario in my brain for a few weeks now, and I'd be fairly surprised if a plurality of you all haven't been doing the same thing: if the Phillies are totally out of this thing -- this thing being the ever-ethereal postseason hunt -- by the trade deadline, who will stay and who will go? Put differently, if Ruben Amaro, Jr. is in a position to sell major leaguers for prospects, who will he sell? And, perhaps just as importantly, who should he sell, and who do we want him to sell? Without consigning the 2013 Phillies to the dustbin of history before they've written their final chapters, how do we begin to answer these questions?

There are certain players that we can agree on fairly easily. If the Youngs Delmon and Michael are hitting in July, and the Phillies are fairly assuredly longshots for any offseason glory, then it's fairly obvious that the Phillies ought to sell high on their one year rentals. Michael Young may very well retire after this year, and while I suppose there's some way of arguing for a Delmon Young contract extension, I'd imagine this remains the less popular option overall. If the Phillies can get some high-risk prospects or even some low-ceiling bench or bullpen help, then mazel tov.

There are more difficult names, however. Jonathan Papelbon, Cliff Lee, Mike Adams, Kyle Kendrick, Ben Revere, Jimmy Rollins, John Mayberry, Jr, and, yes, Chase Utley. We could conceivably think deeply about any and all of these names, judging how plausible or how desirable it would be to trade them. But Utley is a uniquely interesting case for two reasons: first, his eerie mystique; and second, his contract situation.

The first is a fairly obvious point: Chase Utley has meant a lot to the Phillies during his career. I need not belabor the stats, but during his peak from 2005-2009, Utley earned between 7 and 8 fWAR. To put this in perspective, during Mike Trout's wacky video game year last year, he earned 10 fWAR. Miguel Cabrera, the eventual MVP, earned 6.9 fWAR. As a metric for determining how good a baseball player is, we can agree that WAR has its failings, but as a general testament to how good Utley was both offensively and defensively (and, let's not forget, on the basepaths), it drives the point home effectively. So, yes, the man who was not only more valuable than 2013 Miguel Cabrera for one year, but for five years straight carries some weight in Phillies lore. He is quantitatively and qualitatively the best second baseman the team has ever seen.

But that brings us to the contract situation. Utley is presently signed to a team friendly deal, at seven years, 85 million dollars (details here, via Cot's Contracts). It's been a tremendously valuable deal for the Phillies, but it unfortunately ends after this year. Complicating things further, as you likely know, Chase Utley has been...injury prone the last few years. In fact, this is the first year since 2010 that Chase has begun the season on the active roster, as opposed to the disabled list. Injury has seemed, over the past three years, to be less of a question of "if" and more a question of "when" with Utley. So what does a contract look like for a player like this, and are the Phillies interested in penning it?

The answers to these questions will, presuming they have fallen out of the postseason hunt, greatly impact the Phillies' decision come July. The answers to these questions are also entirely unknowable. Comparables don't spring to mind for Utley, as injury has not sapped his ability to perform on the field, but simply his ability to stay on the field. So, the entire contract must operate as a sort of progressive gamble: one will get good value from the contract, hypothetically, if one can guess accurately the extent of Chase's injury troubles. If they're over, as one might so hopefully infer from the beginning of this season, then you sign him. If not, well, it's harder.

And this is the background for answering any sort of Utley trade question that one might want to ponder. But this only attempts to answer the Platonic question of "do I want to trade Chase Utley?" Conceivably, there is a practical question, too, namely, "Do I want to trade Chase Utley for that?" Remember, the Phillies may be able to get a compensatory pick if Utley leaves, and any return would have to account for both Utley's production for the rest of the season and for the potential value of that draft pick at the end of the season.

Royals Review, our network's Kansas City Royals site, has thankfully done some of the legwork for us here. To summarize their findings briefly: Utley looks a lot like Carlos Beltran did in 2011, when the Mets traded him to the San Francisco Giants for Zack Wheeler. To be sure, this is a best case scenario. But assuming that a contending team would want Utley, and presuming that Ruben Amaro is no Sandy Alderson, we might assume that the Phillies could get a top 4-9 prospect from 2B needy teams -- say, the Oakland Athletics, the Kansas City Royals, and the Baltimore Orioles.

It would very much surprise me if Ruben could pry top prospect Kyle Zimmer from the Royals, but I think that Royals Review hits on a plausible second name in Yordano Ventura. Ventura, tearing up AA ball right now, is a high-K pitcher with a small frame, so while the upside is phenomenal, there is some concern that he is slated for the bullpen. Ventura is therefore fairly low-risk, but with a highly variable reward.

For the Athletics, (top 15 prospects here), I would expect Addison Russell, Sonny Gray, and Dan Straily are fairly untouchable for a rental, though you never know. My guess would be that the Phillies could trade for outfielder Michael Choice -- a centerfielder who was the A's first round pick in 2010. While Choice is rapidly playing his way out of the Phillies' price range, the A's have a plurality of outfielders in Yoenis Cespedes, JJ Reddick, Coco Crisp, Chris Young, and Seth Smith, so he is expendable and fairly attractive as an option. Beyond Choice, I'd expect Grant Green would be appealing to the Phillies as an Utley replacement, but the mid-power, high average second baseman may be too close to the majors for Oakland to trade.

Finally, the Orioles baffle me a bit. I'm welcome to any suggestions in the comments, but the only one that makes sense (from this list) is Jonathan Schoop, a second baseman/shortstop in the Grant Green mold. My colleague, Joecatz, sees this as an impossible trade, and while I'm not sure I agree, I can see his point: like Green, Schoop may be too close to contributing to sacrifice. A more plausible and riskier target may be LHP Eduardo Rodriguez, currently pitching well in high A, but with much development left, and, as we know, many potential setbacks to come.

So, in the end, I want to pitch this to you: given what we know about Chase, is it a trade, or is it an extension? And does the Phillies' being in or out of contention change this calculus?

And if it is trade, then who makes the most sense, or offers a reward big enough to say goodbye to Chase "WFC" Utley? Yordano Ventura, the low-floor but variable-ceiling RHP? Michael Choice, the expendable but talented outfielder? Grant Green or Jonathan Schoop, ostensible Utley stand-ins, though by no means Utley replacements? Or Eduardo Rodriguez, a projectable lefty, who could likely be had without too much concession from a monetary standpoint?

Poll

For whom would you trade Chase?

Not Cole, man: Indians 10, Phillies 4

2013-05-15T20:49:08Z

Eyes were on Cole Hamels, whose job was to maintain a three-game win streak, grab his second win of the season, and send the Indians out of town feeling irreversibly bad about themselves.

Instead of that, the Phillies created the stat that they are 1-8 in games started by Cole Hamels.

Earlier, when the afternoon was still young, Cole showed signs of wobbliness. He needed 25 pitches to get out of the first inning. He had chucked 51 to close out the second. He was at 77 by the end of the third. And it was in that third inning that Hamels' unsustainable shut out went sideways.

After a Jason Kipnis double and a walk to Asdrubal Cabrera, Mark Reynolds took a loopy hack at a pitch so thunderous that he seemed to injure himself. After a brief timeout, he stepped back into the box and smashed a two-run double.

The offense, which was recently fixed permanently, became the worst offense ever again. J-Roll answered Reynolds in the third with a clutch RBI single that knocked in Delmon Young. Two innings later, he'd double in Carlos Ruiz and John Mayberry to cut the deficit - now 5-1 thanks to a Mike Aviles home run - to 5-3.

But that would be it for a while. Hamels' spot in the lineup came up in the fifth with runners on the corners and Charlie Manuel went with Kevin Frandsen. This plan failed, as did many on the day, like the plan to not be completely iced by Indians starter Corey Kluber, who in his last start - five days ago - gave up eight runs in four and two thirds innings.

Hamels departed then, having surrendered five earned runs, two walks, and four strikeouts. All day, he was going deep into counts, not getting outs, and maintained about as much command over his audience as a Wiggle dancing on a dugout in the midst of a blow out.

Which is what things devolved into as the game went on.

Chad Durbin, as in "OH GOD CHAD DURBIN PLEASE NO," entered the game, and threw 0.2 of perfect baseball. Then he walked the Indians pitcher, Corey Kluber, who, as an American League pitcher, remember, never really gets to have at-bats, but looked right at home facing all of the Phillies' staff.

An infield single from Drew Stubbs, and suddenly, the Indians were threatening. Charlie Manuel raced out to the mound and replaced Chad Durbin with Jeremy Horst, who threw five balls in a row before Asdrubal Cabrera hammered home a pair of rather unnecessary Indians.

Philippe Aumont pitched a perfect "how is it only the" seventh, if by "perfect" you mean "down by four runs." Raul Valdes - who was found alive after going unseen for 10 games - threw the last two innings and only gave up a three-run home run to blow the game wide open.

Silver lining: We locked up Carlos Zambrano earlier today, so feel free to celebrate by watching this Fangraph wither and die.

Source: FanGraphs