Motivation in generaly has never been my strong suit. The only reason I'm not the fattest person in the world is because I'm often too lazy to get off the couch to eat. I'm barely motivated enough to go to the bank to deposit my paycheck. And the only reason I need to go to the bank to deposit my paycheck is because I still have not motivated myself enough to get direct deposit.
So when the Phillies have a series against the Nationals, it is tough to find true motivation to go very in-depth or get very creative with a preview. There are still a lot of topics that I want to cover and ideas that I have for this blog, but a Nationals preview with 2 hours before game time does not feel like the time nor the place for something extravagant. There is one thing, though, that seems to be a hot topic right now that I want to at least briefly address before breaking down the upcoming series: protecting catchers.
If you haven't heard or seen, Buster Posey is now out for the season after a collision at home plate that left him with a fractured leg. There has been a disgusting amount of discussion about this topic throughout baseball, including an entire inning Saturday night during which they only showed the pitches being thrown to Phillies batters and in between had to continuously show us Joe Buck and Tim McCarver talking to each other about catchers. Honestly, who cares? It sucks that a guy broke his leg and all, but this can't seriously be the most interesting thing to talk about in sports right now. Are we seriously talking about changing the rules of baseball because one great young player will miss the 2011 season? This must be a joke. It's clearly something that's only being talked about to have something to talk about, and for that I am so angry at myself for addressing it. Jayson Stark, normally my hero, wrote an article about this issue. Why is he wasting his glorious baseball knowledge to write about something so pointless? The good news is, he actually shows in the article how stupid it all is. He talks to former catchers, and they seem to think people are as stupid as I do. "When you put on the shin guards and chest protector, you know that if there's a play at the plate and you're blocking the plate, you could take a hit at any moment." "See, everyone thinks you can control all these variables. But you can't."
So why is this a real discussion? Because an awesome 24-year-old rolled the wrong way after getting nailed at the plate? Can we please just get over this?
Game 1: Roy Halladay (6-3, 2.35 ERA) vs. Livan Hernandez (3-6, 3.71 ERA)
Halladay is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA against the Nats this year, including 1 complete game and 19 strikeouts in 16 innings. Hernandez is the only pitcher to beat the Phillies this season, but that was without Baseball. He has a .375 career batting average against Hernandez. Chase also has a .300 average against the Nationals over the course of his 111 games against them. Expect a dominant Halladay and a scared-as-crap Nationals team with Chase Utley back in the lineup.
Prediction: Phillies 4 Nationals 0
Keep an eye out for: double digit strikeouts from Halladay in another complete game
Game 2: Cliff Lee (4-4, 3.50 ERA) vs. Jason Marquis (5-2, 4.26 ERA)
Cliff is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA in his career against the Nationals, which includes a complete game, 3-hit, 12-strikeout shutout earlier this season. So we shouldn't need to worry about our pitching. Marquis, much like many Nationals pitchers, has struggled against the Phils and, more specifically, Chase Utley. The Phils have a .311 batting average against him, and Chase is batting .464 against him with 7 RBI in 28 at-bats.
Prediction: Phillies 9 Nationals 2
Keep an eye out for: Utley being a triple away from the cycle in this game
Game 3: Roy Oswalt (3-2, 2.60 ERA) vs. John Lannan (2-5, 4.40 ERA)
Oswalt is the only starter to not yet face the Nationals this season. But our starters have done extremely well against them as a whole. As a matter of fact, our bullpen totally sucks against the Nationals, compiling a 7.71 ERA in 6 games. The good news about that, though, is that they have done so in only 7 innings. Seven innings from our bullpen in 6 games. Three complete games (including one shutout) will do that. Let's hope that Oswalt can follow the lead of the other starters, especially against John Lannan. Lannan continues to set records against the Phillies, but not the kind that he wants to. He's now 0-10 against us in his career with a 6.44 ERA. Our hitters have a combined .327 batting average against him with 8 home runs and 28 RBI in just 168 at-bats. That means we drive in a run every 5-6 at-bats against him. And, you guessed it, Chase Utley is nasty against this guy. He's a .440 hitter with 2 home runs and 6 RBI in 25 at-bats. Is this series even fair?
Prediction: Phillies 8 Nationals 3
Keep an eye out for: a multi-home run game from Utley
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Mets Preview
*Note: I posted a recap to the Reds series just before this. Be sure to check it out if you care*
As the season has progressed, I've been able to compile a very flattering list. I don't want to go around bragging about the popularity of this blog, but I feel it very directly relates to this upcoming series with the Mets. Some of it may veer slightly off course, but there are some clear connections here as well.
So, here it is, the list of players who read my blog (and how I know they do):
Jon Niese
-As stated in my last Mets Preview, Jon is definitely one of my readers. After making fun of him for spelling the name Jonathon in an incredibly stupid way, he decided to let MLB.com know that he would only be going by "Jon" from now on. ESPN.com has yet to get the memo, but he is definitely only Jon according to Major League Baseball's official site. Jon-A-Thon? I guess he was tired of sounding like some fraternity-run fundraiser that collects change at intersections to help install toilets in needy areas of the country to justify their debaucherous weekends (too far? Sorry fellow Penn Staters. Sorry I'm not sorry)
The Arizona Diamondbags
-This was also addressed in the last Mets Preview. Those D-bags took personal offense to my relentless hounding of them as a franchise despite them never doing anything to harm me in any way. I will apologize to you guys once again. But, once again, it doesn't mean you're off the hook for my pointless disrespect.
Raul Ibanez
-Something that has gone on with me for years now with the Phillies is a tough love relationship. They do not respond well to me encouraging them. In some disgusting masochistic way, they enjoy hearing me tell them how terrible they are. The truly feed off of my anger and disdain. Raul Ibanez is our latest example of this. After hitting .161 in the month of April, I really started getting on Raul about how horrible he is. His response? The month of May. I have yet to let up on how much I hate this guy (because he's worthless), and he has responded by attempting to show some worth, hitting .337 in May. Too bad I still hate you. I even have been saving this link for 10 days now, waiting to show everyone that it's not just me that hates you, but Dave Schoenfield goes so far as to call you "maybe the worst defensive player in the NL." And I know what you're thinking now Raul. "Cam, you used the term 'tough love.' Does that mean you actually love me, and you're only doing this for the benefit of myself and the team?" Good question, Suckhole. Here's my answer.
In the past, I have tried to use these powers for good, but they often don't work unless my feelings are at least somewhat-to-mostly genuine. Players can't help but want to win me back, but, what can I say, I'm the most transparent thing since I left a Five Guys bag full of fries sit around for 2 hours. They can see right through to my true feelings. The most famous example of this was in 2008 while Chase Utley was in an 0 for 24 slump. I started my "Forget the Past: Start Hating Utley" campaign, but to no avail. I can't actually hate him. Baseball held out for too long on his slump and never regained his .320-hitting form he was at before said slump. (Although, .292 isn't half bad)
Jimmy Rollins
-The opposite of what is true for Raul is true for Jimmy. I used to use the blog basically only as a center for pure Jimmy-bashing. However, since I posted once last season saying that Jimmy was one of my top-3 Phillies players, he has clearly become complacent. I'm about to hit you with some serious statistics to show this, so get ready.
Since this post on June 13th of 2010, Jimmy has had 544 at-bats (including postseason). Over the course of his career, Jimmy has averaged 541 at-bats per season. We're gonna call that even. So, in his career, he also averages a .272 batting average with 31 doubles, 8 triples, and 13 home runs over the course of those 541 at-bats. In the 544 since I called him my favorite, he is hitting just .241 with 22 doubles, 1 triple, and 9 home runs.
The problem with this is, there's really no quick fix. Jimmy was a majoke before I started hating him. It was only when I admitted to loving him, though, that he actually started reading the blog and believing he was good enough despite how much he sucked. So, Jimmy, please stop reading this. Pretend it doesn't exist, much like it didn't in 2007. Go get 'em Tiger.
And now for a list of people who definitely do NOT read my blog:
Christopher Wheeler
Thomas McCarthy
The people who hired them
If any of the above actually do read it, what they are doing to me is just downright cruel. Preview time!
Game 1: Roy Oswalt (3-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Chris Capuano (3-5, 5.36 ERA)
Oswalt is our only starter that has yet to face the Mets this season. His numbers in his career against the Mets are nothing to get too excited or depressed about. Capuano has overall bad numbers this season, but most of the damage has been done to him by righties, who are hitting .312 on the season against him. Our lineup, though, has become pretty lefty-heavy. I would expect this game to stay pretty close, and our bullpens will hold up much better. This season, the Mets bullpen has a 4.50 ERA against us, and ours has a 1.96 ERA against them. I like our chances
Prediction: Phillies 4 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: Wilson Valdez driving in a few runs. He's hitting .429 against the Mets this season, and he will probably get the start at second over Utley with a left-handed pitcher
Game 2: Cole Hamels (6-2, 3.06 ERA) vs. Mike Pelfrey (3-4, 5.37 ERA)
Cole will be looking to avenge his only bad start of the season, which also happened to be his first start of the season. He lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up 6 earned runs. He's only given up 17 since then in 65 innings. Mike Pelfrey, on the other hand, is more than likely dreading this game. He has a 14.21 ERA against us in 2 starts this season, both games in which we put a 10-spot up on the scoreboard. Howard eats this guy for breakfast, and he has a homer off of him in each of his first 2 starts against the Phils.
Prediction: Phillies 10 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: another Ryan Howard home run. Since that prediction feels too easy, I'll also say that Cole lasts 8 innings.
Game 3: Vance Worley (2-0, 2.14 ERA) vs. Jon Niese (3-5, 4.33 ERA)
Worley is getting his second start against the Mets, and he pitched very well the first time around. He went 6 and gave up just 2 hits. Normally, I might be worried that they are getting a second look at him, but it doesn't seem like any of their hitters got much of a look the first time since we took him out after 6. Niese is also 0-2 against us this season, but he gave up 6 runs the first time and only 2 the second. This game will more than likely be a battle as well, once again possibly coming down to bullpens.
Prediction: Phillies 3 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: a big day from Polanco. He is 6 for 16 with 4 doubles in his career against Niese, and is hitting .407 against the Mets this season
As the season has progressed, I've been able to compile a very flattering list. I don't want to go around bragging about the popularity of this blog, but I feel it very directly relates to this upcoming series with the Mets. Some of it may veer slightly off course, but there are some clear connections here as well.
So, here it is, the list of players who read my blog (and how I know they do):
Jon Niese
-As stated in my last Mets Preview, Jon is definitely one of my readers. After making fun of him for spelling the name Jonathon in an incredibly stupid way, he decided to let MLB.com know that he would only be going by "Jon" from now on. ESPN.com has yet to get the memo, but he is definitely only Jon according to Major League Baseball's official site. Jon-A-Thon? I guess he was tired of sounding like some fraternity-run fundraiser that collects change at intersections to help install toilets in needy areas of the country to justify their debaucherous weekends (too far? Sorry fellow Penn Staters. Sorry I'm not sorry)
The Arizona Diamondbags
-This was also addressed in the last Mets Preview. Those D-bags took personal offense to my relentless hounding of them as a franchise despite them never doing anything to harm me in any way. I will apologize to you guys once again. But, once again, it doesn't mean you're off the hook for my pointless disrespect.
Raul Ibanez
-Something that has gone on with me for years now with the Phillies is a tough love relationship. They do not respond well to me encouraging them. In some disgusting masochistic way, they enjoy hearing me tell them how terrible they are. The truly feed off of my anger and disdain. Raul Ibanez is our latest example of this. After hitting .161 in the month of April, I really started getting on Raul about how horrible he is. His response? The month of May. I have yet to let up on how much I hate this guy (because he's worthless), and he has responded by attempting to show some worth, hitting .337 in May. Too bad I still hate you. I even have been saving this link for 10 days now, waiting to show everyone that it's not just me that hates you, but Dave Schoenfield goes so far as to call you "maybe the worst defensive player in the NL." And I know what you're thinking now Raul. "Cam, you used the term 'tough love.' Does that mean you actually love me, and you're only doing this for the benefit of myself and the team?" Good question, Suckhole. Here's my answer.
In the past, I have tried to use these powers for good, but they often don't work unless my feelings are at least somewhat-to-mostly genuine. Players can't help but want to win me back, but, what can I say, I'm the most transparent thing since I left a Five Guys bag full of fries sit around for 2 hours. They can see right through to my true feelings. The most famous example of this was in 2008 while Chase Utley was in an 0 for 24 slump. I started my "Forget the Past: Start Hating Utley" campaign, but to no avail. I can't actually hate him. Baseball held out for too long on his slump and never regained his .320-hitting form he was at before said slump. (Although, .292 isn't half bad)
Jimmy Rollins
-The opposite of what is true for Raul is true for Jimmy. I used to use the blog basically only as a center for pure Jimmy-bashing. However, since I posted once last season saying that Jimmy was one of my top-3 Phillies players, he has clearly become complacent. I'm about to hit you with some serious statistics to show this, so get ready.
Since this post on June 13th of 2010, Jimmy has had 544 at-bats (including postseason). Over the course of his career, Jimmy has averaged 541 at-bats per season. We're gonna call that even. So, in his career, he also averages a .272 batting average with 31 doubles, 8 triples, and 13 home runs over the course of those 541 at-bats. In the 544 since I called him my favorite, he is hitting just .241 with 22 doubles, 1 triple, and 9 home runs.
The problem with this is, there's really no quick fix. Jimmy was a majoke before I started hating him. It was only when I admitted to loving him, though, that he actually started reading the blog and believing he was good enough despite how much he sucked. So, Jimmy, please stop reading this. Pretend it doesn't exist, much like it didn't in 2007. Go get 'em Tiger.
And now for a list of people who definitely do NOT read my blog:
Christopher Wheeler
Thomas McCarthy
The people who hired them
If any of the above actually do read it, what they are doing to me is just downright cruel. Preview time!
Game 1: Roy Oswalt (3-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Chris Capuano (3-5, 5.36 ERA)
Oswalt is our only starter that has yet to face the Mets this season. His numbers in his career against the Mets are nothing to get too excited or depressed about. Capuano has overall bad numbers this season, but most of the damage has been done to him by righties, who are hitting .312 on the season against him. Our lineup, though, has become pretty lefty-heavy. I would expect this game to stay pretty close, and our bullpens will hold up much better. This season, the Mets bullpen has a 4.50 ERA against us, and ours has a 1.96 ERA against them. I like our chances
Prediction: Phillies 4 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: Wilson Valdez driving in a few runs. He's hitting .429 against the Mets this season, and he will probably get the start at second over Utley with a left-handed pitcher
Game 2: Cole Hamels (6-2, 3.06 ERA) vs. Mike Pelfrey (3-4, 5.37 ERA)
Cole will be looking to avenge his only bad start of the season, which also happened to be his first start of the season. He lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up 6 earned runs. He's only given up 17 since then in 65 innings. Mike Pelfrey, on the other hand, is more than likely dreading this game. He has a 14.21 ERA against us in 2 starts this season, both games in which we put a 10-spot up on the scoreboard. Howard eats this guy for breakfast, and he has a homer off of him in each of his first 2 starts against the Phils.
Prediction: Phillies 10 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: another Ryan Howard home run. Since that prediction feels too easy, I'll also say that Cole lasts 8 innings.
Game 3: Vance Worley (2-0, 2.14 ERA) vs. Jon Niese (3-5, 4.33 ERA)
Worley is getting his second start against the Mets, and he pitched very well the first time around. He went 6 and gave up just 2 hits. Normally, I might be worried that they are getting a second look at him, but it doesn't seem like any of their hitters got much of a look the first time since we took him out after 6. Niese is also 0-2 against us this season, but he gave up 6 runs the first time and only 2 the second. This game will more than likely be a battle as well, once again possibly coming down to bullpens.
Prediction: Phillies 3 Mets 2
Keep an eye out for: a big day from Polanco. He is 6 for 16 with 4 doubles in his career against Niese, and is hitting .407 against the Mets this season
Recapping the Reds
Recapping a series is normally not a priority of mine, but this 5-game series (you read that right…game 3 was over 2 games long) against the Reds is definitely worthy of some thoughts. There is plenty to talk about – Utley’s return, the offense’s return, Cliff Lee coming up big when we needed him, the offense actually scoring when Cliff is on the mound, Hamels staying perfect against the Reds, Madson and Bastardo being slightly human, etc. Specifically, though, I guess I should talk about the 19-inning game on Wednesday night.
First of all, I did stay up to watch the whole game. That’s what sick days are for, right? (Note: I did not take a sick day because I watched the whole game. I watched the whole game because I took a sick day. Not as cool, but I cannot tell a lie). I dozed off during the 11th/12th maybe, but overall caught most of it.
So here are some random thoughts about the game:
-I might as well just get this out of the way, and it’s all already been said, but Wilson Valdez is the man. Seeing a non-pitcher pitch is pretty cool/weird, but I feel like it happens enough in baseball to not freak out about it too much. Especially because it usually means the game has become very crappy. For example: When Tomas Perez pitched for us in 2002 or whatever, it was a game we lost 17-3. But this one I definitely thought was super cool because Valdez actually got the win. There are a handful of position players that can say they’ve pitched in a game before, but how many have actually gotten a win? Awesome. Now on to the rest of the stuff that everyone has forgotten about.
-Roy Halladay is obviously an unbelievable pitcher, but I think he got a little lucky in this one. At a time when our offense was just figuring out how to score again, he gave up 11 hits in 7 innings. Although that only resulted in 3 runs, that is still scary for an offense trying to find itself. But it wasn’t all luck for him, because it takes some serious skill to only give up 3 runs on 11 hits.
-I should’ve turned the radio on at some point rather than listening to Christopher and Thomas talk for 13 STRAIGHT INNINGS. Ugh. They are the worst. What a field day Christopher Wheeler had with this one, too. He got to give a history lesson with every passing pitch. I hate him.
-Why is JC Romero a major league pitcher? Seriously, is there any reason for this? Is there any reason at all? If you played in the National League, would you EVER swing at a pitch from JC Romero? Screw taking one strike. My dad suggested that each hitter take until they have 2 strikes. I’ll go a step further and say take until he gets 3 outs. That inning would last forever.
-I will address my feelings towards Ibanez in the next post. We should’ve won the game way before he was up, and I still can’t stand him.
-We really shouldn’t have given up that run in the 9th inning. I told my mom after the 8th inning that Howard was going to hit a walk-off home run to lead off the 9th anyway so it didn’t matter that we didn’t score then. Then Jay Bruce (fantasy team!!) hits a home run and forces Ryan to only tie the game instead of win it.
-Back to Valdez for a second. Two of his three outs were the reigning NL MVP and a guy who had 11 RBI in this series. Say whaaattt?!
-Can you imagine leaving that game early? That just feels embarrassing to me to even think about. I really don’t understand leaving any sporting event early, but ESPECIALLY baseball. There’s no time limit in baseball. It is your fault if you lose. There is no running out of time. You had 27 opportunities in which you couldn’t get the job done. So until you waste all 27 (or 57) of them, the game is not over. So leaving before 9 innings was over would seem crazy to me. But leaving at any point after that makes very little sense. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say, “Okay, I think we’ve had enough.” It doesn’t make sense to me. Something could always change right after you leave. Every pitch has an opportunity to change the game. So what if it’s 1 in the morning? Get over it, it’s one sleepy day in your life. You could be witnessing history.
-Lastly, Christopher Wheeler kept talking about how tired the other pitcher looked and how that’s the most exhausted he’s ever seen a pitcher. Oh Christopher. You know nothing of Mel Clark’s pain.
(I would say something to wrap up this post down here, but anytime an Angels in the Outfield clip is included in a post, it will not get any better from then on)
First of all, I did stay up to watch the whole game. That’s what sick days are for, right? (Note: I did not take a sick day because I watched the whole game. I watched the whole game because I took a sick day. Not as cool, but I cannot tell a lie). I dozed off during the 11th/12th maybe, but overall caught most of it.
So here are some random thoughts about the game:
-I might as well just get this out of the way, and it’s all already been said, but Wilson Valdez is the man. Seeing a non-pitcher pitch is pretty cool/weird, but I feel like it happens enough in baseball to not freak out about it too much. Especially because it usually means the game has become very crappy. For example: When Tomas Perez pitched for us in 2002 or whatever, it was a game we lost 17-3. But this one I definitely thought was super cool because Valdez actually got the win. There are a handful of position players that can say they’ve pitched in a game before, but how many have actually gotten a win? Awesome. Now on to the rest of the stuff that everyone has forgotten about.
-Roy Halladay is obviously an unbelievable pitcher, but I think he got a little lucky in this one. At a time when our offense was just figuring out how to score again, he gave up 11 hits in 7 innings. Although that only resulted in 3 runs, that is still scary for an offense trying to find itself. But it wasn’t all luck for him, because it takes some serious skill to only give up 3 runs on 11 hits.
-I should’ve turned the radio on at some point rather than listening to Christopher and Thomas talk for 13 STRAIGHT INNINGS. Ugh. They are the worst. What a field day Christopher Wheeler had with this one, too. He got to give a history lesson with every passing pitch. I hate him.
-Why is JC Romero a major league pitcher? Seriously, is there any reason for this? Is there any reason at all? If you played in the National League, would you EVER swing at a pitch from JC Romero? Screw taking one strike. My dad suggested that each hitter take until they have 2 strikes. I’ll go a step further and say take until he gets 3 outs. That inning would last forever.
-I will address my feelings towards Ibanez in the next post. We should’ve won the game way before he was up, and I still can’t stand him.
-We really shouldn’t have given up that run in the 9th inning. I told my mom after the 8th inning that Howard was going to hit a walk-off home run to lead off the 9th anyway so it didn’t matter that we didn’t score then. Then Jay Bruce (fantasy team!!) hits a home run and forces Ryan to only tie the game instead of win it.
-Back to Valdez for a second. Two of his three outs were the reigning NL MVP and a guy who had 11 RBI in this series. Say whaaattt?!
-Can you imagine leaving that game early? That just feels embarrassing to me to even think about. I really don’t understand leaving any sporting event early, but ESPECIALLY baseball. There’s no time limit in baseball. It is your fault if you lose. There is no running out of time. You had 27 opportunities in which you couldn’t get the job done. So until you waste all 27 (or 57) of them, the game is not over. So leaving before 9 innings was over would seem crazy to me. But leaving at any point after that makes very little sense. Where do you draw the line? At what point do you say, “Okay, I think we’ve had enough.” It doesn’t make sense to me. Something could always change right after you leave. Every pitch has an opportunity to change the game. So what if it’s 1 in the morning? Get over it, it’s one sleepy day in your life. You could be witnessing history.
-Lastly, Christopher Wheeler kept talking about how tired the other pitcher looked and how that’s the most exhausted he’s ever seen a pitcher. Oh Christopher. You know nothing of Mel Clark’s pain.
(I would say something to wrap up this post down here, but anytime an Angels in the Outfield clip is included in a post, it will not get any better from then on)
Monday, May 23, 2011
Quick and Crappy Reds Preview
I'm updating this from my friend Dert's iPhone right now so I can't go as in depth as I normally would. Plus I am learning very quickly that I suck at typing on an iPhone. We're on our way to scout a playoff baseball game. Don't tell anyone though. We're being inconspicuous.
Since this is a very limited post, I will only say the only 2 things that matter about the series:
1) Cole Hamels is nasty against the Reds. I can't do my normal research, but if memory serves, Cole made his MLB debut against the Reds and has never lost to them, compiling a 1.07 ERA.
2) Chase Utley is back. Prediction: We win every game he plays in.
Let's go Phils!
Since this is a very limited post, I will only say the only 2 things that matter about the series:
1) Cole Hamels is nasty against the Reds. I can't do my normal research, but if memory serves, Cole made his MLB debut against the Reds and has never lost to them, compiling a 1.07 ERA.
2) Chase Utley is back. Prediction: We win every game he plays in.
Let's go Phils!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
This Is Our Rotation
What's happening this season is, in fact, real. Were our preseason expectations realistic? Probably not. But what is currently going on in the day-to-day life of the Philadelphia Phillies is definitely real.
We did just play more than 3 straight series' without scoring more than 3 runs in a game. We actually do place 23rd in runs scored and 18th in batting average. It is true that we only have 2 regulars hitting above .262, one of whom is on the DL right now. Yes, we really have been missing arguably our best offensive player for all 46 games thus far this season. All of that is extremely factual information.
What is not seen in those numbers, though, is the fact that we ended up winning one of those series' against a first-place AL team without scoring more than 3 runs. And we have the 2nd best record in all of baseball. And we do happen to have a player who is 4th in the NL in batting average and another who is 3rd in RBI. And that player we've been missing so much? Well, he'll be back tomorrow.
So how have we gotten to this point? How can we be this successful despite being this bad? Well...
Roy Halladay
Cliff Lee
Roy Oswalt
Cole Hamels
Joe Blanton
If you haven't taken a look at that list in awhile, please take a second to do so. Even if you have, look again. These are our real starting pitchers. Somehow, this is not made up. It's true that they've been through a lot already in this young season. Injuries, horrible outings, bad umpires, no run support, family troubles. No individual has been spared of his hard times this season. But, together, they have been unbelievable. And it hasn't even just been the starters. Our bullpen has made it happen so far as well.
Our staff ranks 2nd in the majors with a 3.03 ERA. The starters are 3rd among starters at 3.14, and the bullpen (this team's biggest weakness?) are 3rd among bullpens with a 2.76 ERA. We now have 33 quality starts this season in 46 games. That's us as a staff.
Although the starters get all the pub, we've gotten a few great (and unexpected) things out of our bullpen. Before going on the DL, Jose Contreras had yet to give up an earned run. Antonio Bastardo, the left-hander that we didn't have in our bullpen according to everyone prior to the start of the season, has a 1.17 ERA. Michael Stutes, a minor-leaguer at the beginning of April, has a 2.70 ERA. Ryan Madson, who could never cut it as a closer, has 9 saves and a 0.47 ERA. This is our bullpen.
As for the starters? Well, this is our rotation:
Roy Halladay - 6-2, 2.21 ERA, 9 quality starts in 10 total starts, 80 Ks in 77.1 innings
Halladay has done everything we could expect him to do and more. How much so? He had 2 straight complete game losses. I think we too often take the things that Halladay does for granted. The incredibility of his numbers this season are way too unnoticed. He had a game in which he threw 18 pitches before he threw a ball. This is our rotation.
Cliff Lee - 3-4, 3.38 ERA, 8 quality starts in 10 total starts, 78 Ks in 66.2 innings
Lee had higher expectations than anyone I think. He was seen as a huge hero coming back to Philadelphia for a shorter contract and less total money. We loved him in his time here, and, apparently, he loved us. And this season, unfortunately, he may be seen as the worst of the 4 aces. He has the highest ERA of the 4 and the lowest win total. But why is that? In Cliff's last 6 starts, we've scored 9 runs. And 5 of those were in one game in which he got a no-decision. He struck out 16 in 7 innings while giving up just 3 runs and got a loss. This is our rotation.
Roy Oswalt - 3-2, 2.77 ERA, 5 quality starts in 7 total starts, 27 Ks in 39 innings
Oswalt was very under-the-radar at the beginning of the season. I pointed this out in my season preview. We were definitely excited to have him, but the return of Cliff Lee, the greatness of Roy Halladay, the 4th-starter-greatness of Cole Hamels, and the let's-not-forget-Joe-Blanton attitude left Oswalt in the dust. But he started out the season as possibly our best pitcher, going 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in his first 4 starts. Then he had back and family issues and used his own personal bulldozer to clean up Mississippi. Then he came back and gave up just 2 runs in his next 2 starts, pitching 12 innings while being limited in the number of pitches he could throw. This is our rotation.
Cole Hamels - 5-2, 2.92 ERA, 7 quality starts in 9 total starts, 64 Ks in 61.2 innings
Hamels has gone through a lot of scrutiny since he won the playoffs for us in 2008. Injuries and some attitude problems have plagued him and made people question his ability to be truly dominant. Since Halladay's arrival, though, he's kept his mouth shut and done everything in his power to match the best pitcher in baseball today. After his first start of this season, people were calling for his head. Take out that first start and Hamels is 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA. Sometimes criticized for being too much of a fly ball pitcher in a small park, he has 92 ground ball outs as opposed to his 70 fly ball outs this season. And he has a stand-up triple this season. This is our rotation.
Joe Blanton - screw it...just look at the first 4 guys. This is our rotation.
What did we expect coming in? A bit too much. What have we gotten? A bit more.
We did just play more than 3 straight series' without scoring more than 3 runs in a game. We actually do place 23rd in runs scored and 18th in batting average. It is true that we only have 2 regulars hitting above .262, one of whom is on the DL right now. Yes, we really have been missing arguably our best offensive player for all 46 games thus far this season. All of that is extremely factual information.
What is not seen in those numbers, though, is the fact that we ended up winning one of those series' against a first-place AL team without scoring more than 3 runs. And we have the 2nd best record in all of baseball. And we do happen to have a player who is 4th in the NL in batting average and another who is 3rd in RBI. And that player we've been missing so much? Well, he'll be back tomorrow.
So how have we gotten to this point? How can we be this successful despite being this bad? Well...
Roy Halladay
Cliff Lee
Roy Oswalt
Cole Hamels
Joe Blanton
If you haven't taken a look at that list in awhile, please take a second to do so. Even if you have, look again. These are our real starting pitchers. Somehow, this is not made up. It's true that they've been through a lot already in this young season. Injuries, horrible outings, bad umpires, no run support, family troubles. No individual has been spared of his hard times this season. But, together, they have been unbelievable. And it hasn't even just been the starters. Our bullpen has made it happen so far as well.
Our staff ranks 2nd in the majors with a 3.03 ERA. The starters are 3rd among starters at 3.14, and the bullpen (this team's biggest weakness?) are 3rd among bullpens with a 2.76 ERA. We now have 33 quality starts this season in 46 games. That's us as a staff.
Although the starters get all the pub, we've gotten a few great (and unexpected) things out of our bullpen. Before going on the DL, Jose Contreras had yet to give up an earned run. Antonio Bastardo, the left-hander that we didn't have in our bullpen according to everyone prior to the start of the season, has a 1.17 ERA. Michael Stutes, a minor-leaguer at the beginning of April, has a 2.70 ERA. Ryan Madson, who could never cut it as a closer, has 9 saves and a 0.47 ERA. This is our bullpen.
As for the starters? Well, this is our rotation:
Roy Halladay - 6-2, 2.21 ERA, 9 quality starts in 10 total starts, 80 Ks in 77.1 innings
Halladay has done everything we could expect him to do and more. How much so? He had 2 straight complete game losses. I think we too often take the things that Halladay does for granted. The incredibility of his numbers this season are way too unnoticed. He had a game in which he threw 18 pitches before he threw a ball. This is our rotation.
Cliff Lee - 3-4, 3.38 ERA, 8 quality starts in 10 total starts, 78 Ks in 66.2 innings
Lee had higher expectations than anyone I think. He was seen as a huge hero coming back to Philadelphia for a shorter contract and less total money. We loved him in his time here, and, apparently, he loved us. And this season, unfortunately, he may be seen as the worst of the 4 aces. He has the highest ERA of the 4 and the lowest win total. But why is that? In Cliff's last 6 starts, we've scored 9 runs. And 5 of those were in one game in which he got a no-decision. He struck out 16 in 7 innings while giving up just 3 runs and got a loss. This is our rotation.
Roy Oswalt - 3-2, 2.77 ERA, 5 quality starts in 7 total starts, 27 Ks in 39 innings
Oswalt was very under-the-radar at the beginning of the season. I pointed this out in my season preview. We were definitely excited to have him, but the return of Cliff Lee, the greatness of Roy Halladay, the 4th-starter-greatness of Cole Hamels, and the let's-not-forget-Joe-Blanton attitude left Oswalt in the dust. But he started out the season as possibly our best pitcher, going 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in his first 4 starts. Then he had back and family issues and used his own personal bulldozer to clean up Mississippi. Then he came back and gave up just 2 runs in his next 2 starts, pitching 12 innings while being limited in the number of pitches he could throw. This is our rotation.
Cole Hamels - 5-2, 2.92 ERA, 7 quality starts in 9 total starts, 64 Ks in 61.2 innings
Hamels has gone through a lot of scrutiny since he won the playoffs for us in 2008. Injuries and some attitude problems have plagued him and made people question his ability to be truly dominant. Since Halladay's arrival, though, he's kept his mouth shut and done everything in his power to match the best pitcher in baseball today. After his first start of this season, people were calling for his head. Take out that first start and Hamels is 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA. Sometimes criticized for being too much of a fly ball pitcher in a small park, he has 92 ground ball outs as opposed to his 70 fly ball outs this season. And he has a stand-up triple this season. This is our rotation.
Joe Blanton - screw it...just look at the first 4 guys. This is our rotation.
What did we expect coming in? A bit too much. What have we gotten? A bit more.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Rangers/Interleague Preview
Interleague play begins tonight!
Exclamation points can be interpreted in many different ways when simply put into writing. In this case, an exclamation point probably provokes anger in the minds of Phillies (and, generally, National League) fans. It says something like "Interleague play starts tonight. Crap." Compare that to the reaction of any American League fan, and it will probably be read as "Interleague play starts tonight. We can look like actual contenders for a few weeks."
Interleague play is most definitely a flawed system. Throughout the season, we play the same teams that the teams we are competing against play. Everyone in the NL East plays everyone else in the NL with the same frequency, give or take a game or maybe 2 at the most. Interleague play, though, matches teams up with unfair opponents. This season, we play the Rangers, Mariners, A's, Red Sox, and Blue Jays. I would say that we should definitely win one of those series (Mariners) and definitely lose 2 (Rangers, Red Sox) ("should" being said because these are actually considered good teams and we suck against the AL). The other 2 are pretty much toss ups. The Braves (commonly thought of as our biggest competition in the East) play against the Angels, Rangers, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Orioles. Who cares?
I do. The Angels for A's swap is a push to me. Both series can be considered a toss-up. The Orioles, though, are not very good. This means the Braves should win this series. Meanwhile, we get to play the Red Sox, a team picked by every baseball mind in America to go to the World Series prior to this season beginning. Is this a joke? 'Cause it's not funny.
The Phils are 106-129 all-time against the AL in the regular season. Under Charlie Manuel, they have the 6th-worst record against the AL of any National League team. Last year, however, we did manage to have a winning record at 10-8. Can that success continue? Let's hope so.
The Rangers are a tough team. The good news is, they are not at their toughest. Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton, 2 power-hitting outfielders, have been out for what assuredly seems like years to my brother-in-law who has them both in fantasy baseball. The other goods news is, we still have the sweetest rotation ever.
The bad news is, we have never really faced any of their pitchers. And the Phillies suck against a pitcher the first time around. Yikes.
Game 1: C.J. Wilson (4-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Roy Halladay (5-3, 2.21 ERA)
As I've kind of already hinted at, everything is going wrong for the Phillies right now. This game is a perfect microcosm of that. Bad things:
We suck in interleague play
We've (basically) never faced C.J. Wilson
We can't hit for crap right now
Howard can't hit lefties
Halladay has a 5.36 career ERA against the Rangers, his highest against any team
I want to be positive, and the calling up of Domonic Brown to replace our newest addition to the DL (Shane Victorino) has me thinking much more positively, but he won't play against a left-handed starter. There's not much to get excited about here other than a hopefully solid outing by Halladay.
Prediction: Rangers 4 Phillies 1
Keep an eye out for: John Mayberry getting the start and hopefully some revenge against his former team (although he never played in the Majors for them). Also, keep an eye out for the hate mail that I get sent by people who are tired of reading about how great John Mayberry is. Sure, the second coming is happening tomorrow, but it isn't in the form of the Jayberry.
Game 2: Colby Lewis (4-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Cliff Lee (2-4, 3.84 ERA)
This will be my first Phillies game of the season. Well, you know, as long as the rapture doesn't prevent it*. I feel pretty good about this one, and, yes, that is most likely just because I really want them to win when I'm there. I think we do have some things going for us, though. There is an OK-to-decent chance that Domonic Brown gets a start here, and nothing would please me more. Also, Cliff Lee will be getting his first shot at his former team. Although we don't have experience against Lewis, he's not as good as Wilson, and he's not a lefty. That makes me feel encouraged by this matchup. I think Lee turns it on this game and our bats show some type of life. Also, this would be a good time for a win because it's my parents' 33rd wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Hope you enjoy your present (a shoutout in the blog)!
Prediction: Phillies 5 Rangers 0
Keep an eye out for: Cliff getting double-digit strikeouts against his old teammates
Game 3: Matt Harrison (3-4, 4.27 ERA) vs. Roy Oswalt (3-1, 3.09 ERA)
Another matchup that does not excite me. Is Oswalt OK to just be able to pitch without limiting him to a certain number of pitches? Who the heck is Matt Harrison? Am I going to hate getting the answer to that question? Hopefully his limited and not-so-great career statistics will show up in this game rather than the Phillies' tendency to suck hard against inexperienced left-handed pitchers that they've never seen before. I hate to think that the latter is going to happen here. But I love that I just got to use the word "latter."
Prediction: Rangers 3 Phillies 2
Keep an eye out for: All of the Rangers' runs coming off of our bullpen
*Students have been asking about this May 21 malarkey for weeks now. Today it was a hot topic of conversation in my 5th period class. It also somehow came up that I was going to the Phillies game. One student asked, "What if it's a really good game and then all of that stuff happens before it ends? How disappointed would you be?" Are you kidding? If Jesus is taking me home, I don't really think I'd be willing to complain to him about me missing the possibility of a no-hitter or a walk-off home run. I mean, maybe my first question to him would be something about how the game was going to end, but I cannot imagine the word "disappointed" will be a part of my first face-to-face encounter with the Prince of Peace. Call me crazy.
Exclamation points can be interpreted in many different ways when simply put into writing. In this case, an exclamation point probably provokes anger in the minds of Phillies (and, generally, National League) fans. It says something like "Interleague play starts tonight. Crap." Compare that to the reaction of any American League fan, and it will probably be read as "Interleague play starts tonight. We can look like actual contenders for a few weeks."
Interleague play is most definitely a flawed system. Throughout the season, we play the same teams that the teams we are competing against play. Everyone in the NL East plays everyone else in the NL with the same frequency, give or take a game or maybe 2 at the most. Interleague play, though, matches teams up with unfair opponents. This season, we play the Rangers, Mariners, A's, Red Sox, and Blue Jays. I would say that we should definitely win one of those series (Mariners) and definitely lose 2 (Rangers, Red Sox) ("should" being said because these are actually considered good teams and we suck against the AL). The other 2 are pretty much toss ups. The Braves (commonly thought of as our biggest competition in the East) play against the Angels, Rangers, Blue Jays, Mariners, and Orioles. Who cares?
I do. The Angels for A's swap is a push to me. Both series can be considered a toss-up. The Orioles, though, are not very good. This means the Braves should win this series. Meanwhile, we get to play the Red Sox, a team picked by every baseball mind in America to go to the World Series prior to this season beginning. Is this a joke? 'Cause it's not funny.
The Phils are 106-129 all-time against the AL in the regular season. Under Charlie Manuel, they have the 6th-worst record against the AL of any National League team. Last year, however, we did manage to have a winning record at 10-8. Can that success continue? Let's hope so.
The Rangers are a tough team. The good news is, they are not at their toughest. Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton, 2 power-hitting outfielders, have been out for what assuredly seems like years to my brother-in-law who has them both in fantasy baseball. The other goods news is, we still have the sweetest rotation ever.
The bad news is, we have never really faced any of their pitchers. And the Phillies suck against a pitcher the first time around. Yikes.
Game 1: C.J. Wilson (4-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Roy Halladay (5-3, 2.21 ERA)
As I've kind of already hinted at, everything is going wrong for the Phillies right now. This game is a perfect microcosm of that. Bad things:
We suck in interleague play
We've (basically) never faced C.J. Wilson
We can't hit for crap right now
Howard can't hit lefties
Halladay has a 5.36 career ERA against the Rangers, his highest against any team
I want to be positive, and the calling up of Domonic Brown to replace our newest addition to the DL (Shane Victorino) has me thinking much more positively, but he won't play against a left-handed starter. There's not much to get excited about here other than a hopefully solid outing by Halladay.
Prediction: Rangers 4 Phillies 1
Keep an eye out for: John Mayberry getting the start and hopefully some revenge against his former team (although he never played in the Majors for them). Also, keep an eye out for the hate mail that I get sent by people who are tired of reading about how great John Mayberry is. Sure, the second coming is happening tomorrow, but it isn't in the form of the Jayberry.
Game 2: Colby Lewis (4-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Cliff Lee (2-4, 3.84 ERA)
This will be my first Phillies game of the season. Well, you know, as long as the rapture doesn't prevent it*. I feel pretty good about this one, and, yes, that is most likely just because I really want them to win when I'm there. I think we do have some things going for us, though. There is an OK-to-decent chance that Domonic Brown gets a start here, and nothing would please me more. Also, Cliff Lee will be getting his first shot at his former team. Although we don't have experience against Lewis, he's not as good as Wilson, and he's not a lefty. That makes me feel encouraged by this matchup. I think Lee turns it on this game and our bats show some type of life. Also, this would be a good time for a win because it's my parents' 33rd wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Hope you enjoy your present (a shoutout in the blog)!
Prediction: Phillies 5 Rangers 0
Keep an eye out for: Cliff getting double-digit strikeouts against his old teammates
Game 3: Matt Harrison (3-4, 4.27 ERA) vs. Roy Oswalt (3-1, 3.09 ERA)
Another matchup that does not excite me. Is Oswalt OK to just be able to pitch without limiting him to a certain number of pitches? Who the heck is Matt Harrison? Am I going to hate getting the answer to that question? Hopefully his limited and not-so-great career statistics will show up in this game rather than the Phillies' tendency to suck hard against inexperienced left-handed pitchers that they've never seen before. I hate to think that the latter is going to happen here. But I love that I just got to use the word "latter."
Prediction: Rangers 3 Phillies 2
Keep an eye out for: All of the Rangers' runs coming off of our bullpen
*Students have been asking about this May 21 malarkey for weeks now. Today it was a hot topic of conversation in my 5th period class. It also somehow came up that I was going to the Phillies game. One student asked, "What if it's a really good game and then all of that stuff happens before it ends? How disappointed would you be?" Are you kidding? If Jesus is taking me home, I don't really think I'd be willing to complain to him about me missing the possibility of a no-hitter or a walk-off home run. I mean, maybe my first question to him would be something about how the game was going to end, but I cannot imagine the word "disappointed" will be a part of my first face-to-face encounter with the Prince of Peace. Call me crazy.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Logo and Tagline Revealed!
This should be a recap of the Cardinals series as well as a preview of the Rockies series. But both of those things suck - that is, one already sucked and one is about to. So more exciting and fun news. As you can see, the blog now has an official logo. In said logo, there is an official tagline. Before I provide any explanation, I would like to give a shoutout to those who provided their own input in helping for me to come up with a tagline.
Making Mountains Out of Anthills - Lori Hellmann
-I like this one because it is a nod to the song "High Hopes" and its saga of an ant trying to move a rubber tree plant. I think it's also a nod to my generally positive attitude towards the Phillies (baseball team, not broadcast team). Very creative
Where Harry the K Lives Forever - Mike Costello
-This was a good idea because, without realizing it, I really do talk a lot about how much I miss Harry. Most of it is indirect, though, because it's largely just me complaining about our current play-by-play disaster that is Thomas McCarthy. The idea of incorporating the actual song or Harry were very high on my list of how I was going to come up with a tagline. Well done, Costello.
Play Like a CAMpion (among other things that involved my name as some type of pun) - David Cressman
-Hilarious because I'm sure Dave was being intentionally corny on this one. If you don't know Dave, sorry you're missing out on this joke.
And there were no other recorded suggestions. If you gave one, sorry I missed it. If you didn't, thanks a lot jerk. All I wanted was a little help and the ability to not do this completely on my own. Indirectly, however, you did lead me to my solution for the tagline. How, might you ask? Well...
I hear about people reading the blog a decent amount. People tell me that they send it to friends and family members. Some have even inquired about sending it to Phillies management in (high) hopes of making a change. Some people talk to me about it every single day. Some once a week. Some haven't said a word since last season or maybe won't say a word until next season (talk about high hopes...). Some people will say nothing about it until I see them in person and then go crazy talking about all different stuff they read on the blog. Overall, though, the trend is that people don't say much. And the reading seems to be the same. I know some who just read every once in a while. I know people who check every day. I know people who used to but now tell me that they haven't had a chance this season. There's a wide variety of reaction to me writing this.
I hope this isn't coming across as bitter because it definitely is not. I don't need you to change anything that you personally are doing in terms of reading or your feedback to me. Obviously I would always love more, but I can also manage with the current level of response. And who am I to blame any of you for only responding to this and reading at your leisure? Haven't I essentially only written it at my leisure since the start of the 2009 season? Yes, I am very guilty of that accusation. So, as dedicated as I say (and truly truly feel and believe) that I am right now, aren't I really just doing this as I feel like it? And aren't you reading just because you feel like it right now?
This post could take a big turn to negative town very quickly, but I'm not trying to go that way because I do not think in as depressing a way as it has sounded like for the past 350 words. I think the carefree-ness of this blog is what makes it so awesome for everyone. If I had to write this every day or week or series or whatever, eventually it would be a job to me (not that that is not my true deep down dream job). And let's look at the logic behind calling something a job that I love. Oh wait, there is none.
Job = Work
Work ≠ Play
Play = Fun
I don't think you can deny any one of those equations individually (Don't argue the Work ≠ Play...we all know that work is almost exclusively the referred to as the opposite of play). Now, I'm no math teacher, but that set of statements would lead me to the conclusion that something being a job means it is not fun. (Of course that's not true all the time, but go with me on this one).
So what do we have here? The Phillies...When You Feel Like It. When you feel like it, when I feel like it, and when they feel like it (which is clearly not now). There's nothing wrong with doing something because you love it. I stopped playing basketball after 9th grade because it became too much of a job to me. I didn't feel like playing. I was Cam the Ram for 3 years because I could do things whenever I felt like it. There were no expectations. It was just doing something because I loved it.
The same applies to everyone reading (or writing) this right now. You do it because you love it. And because you feel like it. So do I. Maybe that ends. Then we stop. Some people think that's a bad attitude and that produces quitters. I don't think so. I think it produces happy people. It's not like one day will make a huge difference in whether or not I still love this. There won't be one series or one small event that says to me "Wow. I'm never writing this again." Just like I'm hoping that this one way-too-serious post isn't making you think "Wow. I'm never reading this again." It's a process. And one that, if I go through, I can make the right decision to be as happy as possible. So don't feel guilty about not reading or responding. Just like I won't feel guilty about not writing. If that's the way you feel, then, please, be happy!
Thank you again to those of you who are giving me feedback. Thank you as well to those who read and don't give feedback. And thanks to those who don't read at all anymore. It honestly, from the bottom of my heart, makes me happy to know that you're making the decision that makes you happy. And, if that decision is reading this, I will try to keep you happy as long as I possibly can. Making everyone happy is not an easy thing to do, especially when you're trying to include yourself within that "everyone." But I guess those are my "High Hopes" for this blog.
********************
I love the point in a book (or at least both of the books I've ever read in my life) where it will randomly have some asterisks that sort of tell you, "Hey, I know it's not the end of a chapter, but, if you need a break, now's a pretty good time." So those asterisks above should tell you that, although this isn't a new post, things are getting away from the seriousness that's been expressed thus far. I really hope you could read that with a positive look at what I was saying because it was honestly meant in the most positive way. If you find mistakes in there, it's because I don't plan on going back and editing it for fear that I may take things out that I shouldn't or that I will add things that I just force in there. This whole post was very spur-of-the-moment and unplanned, so congrats on getting an accidental look into the depths of my soul.
********************
That logo took me forever to make. I found a picture of Harry Kalas that I like to think is one of his more famous photos, and I decided to set it up like the MLB logo. If you don't like it, deal with it. I think it's awesome. And it lets me put the title and tagline right within the logo. Now, though, on to the preview for this 2-game series with the Rockies
Game 1: Jorge De La Rosa (5-1, 3.70 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (4-2, 3.19 ERA)
I don't need to look at any stats for this game other than the numbers from the Phils' past 4 games or so. And I don't even need to look at them because I remember them all too well from them haunting my dreams the past few nights. The bottom line is: We can't hit. I don't know that I can, with a good conscience, pick us to win another game until Chase Utley comes back. Am I serious? Definitely not. Am I close? I think so.
Prediction: Rockies 3 Phillies 1
Keep an eye out for: Charlie Manuel himself stepping up to the plate to get something started
Game 2: Jhoulys Chacin (4-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (1-2, 5.50 ERA)
I am very excited to watch this game for one reason and one reason alone: To hear how the heck you pronounce Jhoulys. Like, honestly, what is that? Also, since we're going to lose anyway, I am hoping that Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez supply all of the runs for the Rockies. They are on my fantasy teams. (This sounds negative, I know. But Joe Blanton is pitching and we aren't hitting. What can we expect from this game other than a loss? A bad loss? Good call.)
Prediction: Rockies 8 Phillies 0
Keep an eye out for: Chase coming back sooner than people think simply because he can't stand the sight of this anymore. How's THAT for a silver lining?
Making Mountains Out of Anthills - Lori Hellmann
-I like this one because it is a nod to the song "High Hopes" and its saga of an ant trying to move a rubber tree plant. I think it's also a nod to my generally positive attitude towards the Phillies (baseball team, not broadcast team). Very creative
Where Harry the K Lives Forever - Mike Costello
-This was a good idea because, without realizing it, I really do talk a lot about how much I miss Harry. Most of it is indirect, though, because it's largely just me complaining about our current play-by-play disaster that is Thomas McCarthy. The idea of incorporating the actual song or Harry were very high on my list of how I was going to come up with a tagline. Well done, Costello.
Play Like a CAMpion (among other things that involved my name as some type of pun) - David Cressman
-Hilarious because I'm sure Dave was being intentionally corny on this one. If you don't know Dave, sorry you're missing out on this joke.
And there were no other recorded suggestions. If you gave one, sorry I missed it. If you didn't, thanks a lot jerk. All I wanted was a little help and the ability to not do this completely on my own. Indirectly, however, you did lead me to my solution for the tagline. How, might you ask? Well...
I hear about people reading the blog a decent amount. People tell me that they send it to friends and family members. Some have even inquired about sending it to Phillies management in (high) hopes of making a change. Some people talk to me about it every single day. Some once a week. Some haven't said a word since last season or maybe won't say a word until next season (talk about high hopes...). Some people will say nothing about it until I see them in person and then go crazy talking about all different stuff they read on the blog. Overall, though, the trend is that people don't say much. And the reading seems to be the same. I know some who just read every once in a while. I know people who check every day. I know people who used to but now tell me that they haven't had a chance this season. There's a wide variety of reaction to me writing this.
I hope this isn't coming across as bitter because it definitely is not. I don't need you to change anything that you personally are doing in terms of reading or your feedback to me. Obviously I would always love more, but I can also manage with the current level of response. And who am I to blame any of you for only responding to this and reading at your leisure? Haven't I essentially only written it at my leisure since the start of the 2009 season? Yes, I am very guilty of that accusation. So, as dedicated as I say (and truly truly feel and believe) that I am right now, aren't I really just doing this as I feel like it? And aren't you reading just because you feel like it right now?
This post could take a big turn to negative town very quickly, but I'm not trying to go that way because I do not think in as depressing a way as it has sounded like for the past 350 words. I think the carefree-ness of this blog is what makes it so awesome for everyone. If I had to write this every day or week or series or whatever, eventually it would be a job to me (not that that is not my true deep down dream job). And let's look at the logic behind calling something a job that I love. Oh wait, there is none.
Job = Work
Work ≠ Play
Play = Fun
I don't think you can deny any one of those equations individually (Don't argue the Work ≠ Play...we all know that work is almost exclusively the referred to as the opposite of play). Now, I'm no math teacher, but that set of statements would lead me to the conclusion that something being a job means it is not fun. (Of course that's not true all the time, but go with me on this one).
So what do we have here? The Phillies...When You Feel Like It. When you feel like it, when I feel like it, and when they feel like it (which is clearly not now). There's nothing wrong with doing something because you love it. I stopped playing basketball after 9th grade because it became too much of a job to me. I didn't feel like playing. I was Cam the Ram for 3 years because I could do things whenever I felt like it. There were no expectations. It was just doing something because I loved it.
The same applies to everyone reading (or writing) this right now. You do it because you love it. And because you feel like it. So do I. Maybe that ends. Then we stop. Some people think that's a bad attitude and that produces quitters. I don't think so. I think it produces happy people. It's not like one day will make a huge difference in whether or not I still love this. There won't be one series or one small event that says to me "Wow. I'm never writing this again." Just like I'm hoping that this one way-too-serious post isn't making you think "Wow. I'm never reading this again." It's a process. And one that, if I go through, I can make the right decision to be as happy as possible. So don't feel guilty about not reading or responding. Just like I won't feel guilty about not writing. If that's the way you feel, then, please, be happy!
Thank you again to those of you who are giving me feedback. Thank you as well to those who read and don't give feedback. And thanks to those who don't read at all anymore. It honestly, from the bottom of my heart, makes me happy to know that you're making the decision that makes you happy. And, if that decision is reading this, I will try to keep you happy as long as I possibly can. Making everyone happy is not an easy thing to do, especially when you're trying to include yourself within that "everyone." But I guess those are my "High Hopes" for this blog.
********************
I love the point in a book (or at least both of the books I've ever read in my life) where it will randomly have some asterisks that sort of tell you, "Hey, I know it's not the end of a chapter, but, if you need a break, now's a pretty good time." So those asterisks above should tell you that, although this isn't a new post, things are getting away from the seriousness that's been expressed thus far. I really hope you could read that with a positive look at what I was saying because it was honestly meant in the most positive way. If you find mistakes in there, it's because I don't plan on going back and editing it for fear that I may take things out that I shouldn't or that I will add things that I just force in there. This whole post was very spur-of-the-moment and unplanned, so congrats on getting an accidental look into the depths of my soul.
********************
That logo took me forever to make. I found a picture of Harry Kalas that I like to think is one of his more famous photos, and I decided to set it up like the MLB logo. If you don't like it, deal with it. I think it's awesome. And it lets me put the title and tagline right within the logo. Now, though, on to the preview for this 2-game series with the Rockies
Game 1: Jorge De La Rosa (5-1, 3.70 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (4-2, 3.19 ERA)
I don't need to look at any stats for this game other than the numbers from the Phils' past 4 games or so. And I don't even need to look at them because I remember them all too well from them haunting my dreams the past few nights. The bottom line is: We can't hit. I don't know that I can, with a good conscience, pick us to win another game until Chase Utley comes back. Am I serious? Definitely not. Am I close? I think so.
Prediction: Rockies 3 Phillies 1
Keep an eye out for: Charlie Manuel himself stepping up to the plate to get something started
Game 2: Jhoulys Chacin (4-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (1-2, 5.50 ERA)
I am very excited to watch this game for one reason and one reason alone: To hear how the heck you pronounce Jhoulys. Like, honestly, what is that? Also, since we're going to lose anyway, I am hoping that Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez supply all of the runs for the Rockies. They are on my fantasy teams. (This sounds negative, I know. But Joe Blanton is pitching and we aren't hitting. What can we expect from this game other than a loss? A bad loss? Good call.)
Prediction: Rockies 8 Phillies 0
Keep an eye out for: Chase coming back sooner than people think simply because he can't stand the sight of this anymore. How's THAT for a silver lining?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Cardinals Preview
If I know one thing about Major League Baseball, it's that I have no idea what a balk really is. If I know 2 things, though, it's that baseball players always play well against their hometown team. Ryan Howard is no exception. As a matter of fact, I would call him the rule.
I don't know how well players on other teams do against their hometown clubs, but I know that the Phillies are awesome at this.
Chase Utley (Pasadena, CA) vs. Dodgers - .311 BA, 15 2B, 7 HR, 23 RBI, .958 OPS in 38 starts
Raul Ibanez (Miami, FL) vs. Marlins - .333 BA, 7 HR, 34 RBI, .931 OPS in 46 starts
Cole Hamels (San Diego, CA) vs. Padres - 5-2, 2.42 ERA, .186 BAA in 10 starts
Roy Halladay (Denver, CO) vs. Rockies - 2-0, 0.77 ERA, .202 BAA in 3 starts
Those numbers are pretty good and all, but not really much to write home about compared with what Ryan Howard does against his hometown St. Louis Cardinals. In 38 games, Howard has a .372 batting average, 15 home runs, 46 runs batted in, a .477 on-base percentage, and a .738 slugging percentage. And when in the actual city of St. Louis they're even better. .388, 8 home runs, 31 RBI, 1.257 OPS. In 21 games. Say whaatttt?!!
So my preview for the Cardinals is only about him really. I don't really care about Cliff Lee's career numbers against them (even though they are awesome) or Roy Oswalt's numbers against a team he used to pitch against all the time (even though they aren't bad either). All that matter in this series is that Ryan Howard is batting for us. Can we please, please, please get on base for him? This is going to be awesome.
On a side note, my love affair with John Mayberry could absolutely take off in this series if he gets playing time. He's from Kansas City. Although that would favor him dominating the Royals, I think this rule can carry over against a team from his home state. And, let's face it, he had to have grown up cheering for the Cardinals. Who gives a hoot about the Royals?
Game 1: Cliff Lee (2-3, 3.78 ERA) vs. Jake Westbrook (2-3, 6.92 ERA)
Although I said I didn't care about anyone but Howard, Lee is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA against the Cardinals in 2 career starts. Lance Berkman is the only Cardinal with any real success against him, and that's minimal (3 for 8 with 3 RBI). Luckily for Jake Westbrook, he has only faced Ryan Howard twice, and somehow the hit he gave up was not a home run. Expect that to change now that Jakey is in a Cardinals uniform.
Prediction: Phillies 8 Cardinals 3
Keep an eye out for: a Ryan Howard home run hitting your car. From St. Louis.
Game 2: Roy Oswalt (3-1, 3.33 ERA) vs. Jaime Garcia (5-0, 1.89 ERA)
Howard is only 2 for 8 against Garcia, but one of those was a home run. I am guessing Mayberry definitely gets a start here against a solid lefty, so hopefully we can see him break out against his home-state team. Oswalt has plenty of experience against the Cardinals from his days on the Astros, and he has a 3.19 ERA and has held Pujols to a .313 batting average against him (yes, held him to that. Pujols is a career .330 hitter. He's amazing). And none of that matters anyway. Ryan Howard!!!
Prediction: Phillies 3 Cardinals 2
Keep an eye out for: back-to-back home runs from Howard and Mayberry
********************
I'm going to give everyone until my next post to submit more ideas for the tagline. I have one in mind right now, but it's one that I came up with myself, and I think that is lame. So please give me more ideas or else I'll be depressed.
This also means that you'll get to see the official High Hopes logo in a mere 2 days! I know, you can barely contain yourself!
I also posted yesterday in reaction to the Braves series, so make sure you check that out. Also, remember to let me know if you want to receive a text when I update the blog. Even if you are a person I already do this for, I want you to let me know that you actually want me to continue so as to make sure that I'm not incredibly annoying.
I don't know how well players on other teams do against their hometown clubs, but I know that the Phillies are awesome at this.
Chase Utley (Pasadena, CA) vs. Dodgers - .311 BA, 15 2B, 7 HR, 23 RBI, .958 OPS in 38 starts
Raul Ibanez (Miami, FL) vs. Marlins - .333 BA, 7 HR, 34 RBI, .931 OPS in 46 starts
Cole Hamels (San Diego, CA) vs. Padres - 5-2, 2.42 ERA, .186 BAA in 10 starts
Roy Halladay (Denver, CO) vs. Rockies - 2-0, 0.77 ERA, .202 BAA in 3 starts
Those numbers are pretty good and all, but not really much to write home about compared with what Ryan Howard does against his hometown St. Louis Cardinals. In 38 games, Howard has a .372 batting average, 15 home runs, 46 runs batted in, a .477 on-base percentage, and a .738 slugging percentage. And when in the actual city of St. Louis they're even better. .388, 8 home runs, 31 RBI, 1.257 OPS. In 21 games. Say whaatttt?!!
So my preview for the Cardinals is only about him really. I don't really care about Cliff Lee's career numbers against them (even though they are awesome) or Roy Oswalt's numbers against a team he used to pitch against all the time (even though they aren't bad either). All that matter in this series is that Ryan Howard is batting for us. Can we please, please, please get on base for him? This is going to be awesome.
On a side note, my love affair with John Mayberry could absolutely take off in this series if he gets playing time. He's from Kansas City. Although that would favor him dominating the Royals, I think this rule can carry over against a team from his home state. And, let's face it, he had to have grown up cheering for the Cardinals. Who gives a hoot about the Royals?
Game 1: Cliff Lee (2-3, 3.78 ERA) vs. Jake Westbrook (2-3, 6.92 ERA)
Although I said I didn't care about anyone but Howard, Lee is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA against the Cardinals in 2 career starts. Lance Berkman is the only Cardinal with any real success against him, and that's minimal (3 for 8 with 3 RBI). Luckily for Jake Westbrook, he has only faced Ryan Howard twice, and somehow the hit he gave up was not a home run. Expect that to change now that Jakey is in a Cardinals uniform.
Prediction: Phillies 8 Cardinals 3
Keep an eye out for: a Ryan Howard home run hitting your car. From St. Louis.
Game 2: Roy Oswalt (3-1, 3.33 ERA) vs. Jaime Garcia (5-0, 1.89 ERA)
Howard is only 2 for 8 against Garcia, but one of those was a home run. I am guessing Mayberry definitely gets a start here against a solid lefty, so hopefully we can see him break out against his home-state team. Oswalt has plenty of experience against the Cardinals from his days on the Astros, and he has a 3.19 ERA and has held Pujols to a .313 batting average against him (yes, held him to that. Pujols is a career .330 hitter. He's amazing). And none of that matters anyway. Ryan Howard!!!
Prediction: Phillies 3 Cardinals 2
Keep an eye out for: back-to-back home runs from Howard and Mayberry
********************
I'm going to give everyone until my next post to submit more ideas for the tagline. I have one in mind right now, but it's one that I came up with myself, and I think that is lame. So please give me more ideas or else I'll be depressed.
This also means that you'll get to see the official High Hopes logo in a mere 2 days! I know, you can barely contain yourself!
I also posted yesterday in reaction to the Braves series, so make sure you check that out. Also, remember to let me know if you want to receive a text when I update the blog. Even if you are a person I already do this for, I want you to let me know that you actually want me to continue so as to make sure that I'm not incredibly annoying.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Offensive Solutions
With our pitching staff, we won't need much more than 10 runs in a 3-game series to take 2 or even 3 of those games. But why test that? Especially against the Braves. I keep reading that they have a better staff than us statistically this season, but I am only reading it in headlines of ESPNinsider articles that I can't actually read so I have no idea what that actually means. I know we have a better rotation than they do, and they have a better bullpen. So the pitching staffs should be pretty much even (although I'd still give us a slight edge. Cole Hamels is our 4th starter).
If the pitchers are even, that means our offense just needs to be better. The Braves scored just 12 runs in this weekend's series, so it's not like they are blowing anyone out of the water or anything with their bats. In 9 games against them this season, our pitchers have accumulated a 3.35 ERA. That means we can expect the Braves offense to score 3 or 4 runs a game every time we play them. I don't think it's so much to ask for our offense to score 4 or 5 runs in those games. So what is the issue?
Raul Ibanez - I have just about beaten this to death at this point, but I think Raul sucks. And he definitely does against the Braves. He's 6 for 32 against them with 11 strikeouts. Ew. He has just a .454 OPS, which is supposed to be a stat that tells you how good someone actually is as a hitter (You know, since batting average didn't work well enough for the past 130 years). It's on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. So it basically tells you how good a guy is at just getting to first but also how good he is at getting more than just first base at the same time. However you look at it, Ibanez sucks.
Ben Francisco - Hitting .148 against the Braves this season and and just .222 overall this season. His batting average in May? Are you ready for this? Because it's really bad. You might want to think twice before actually reading this number. This is an everyday player for us. It's over the course of 13 games. Ready? Ok, you asked for it...He's hitting .094. With 0 extra base hits and 0 RBI.
Although their numbers against the Braves are worse than their season numbers, neither one is hitting above .230. Ryan Howard has 9 home runs and 35 RBI this season. Raul and Ben have 7 and 34. Combined. These are our everyday 5th and 6th batters. No, they shouldn't be putting up HUGE numbers hitting behind Howard because he'll generally get most of them for himself, but they do get a good amount of opportunities from people not wanting to face the Big Man. Last season our 5 and 6 hitters had 43 home runs and 168 RBI compared to Howard's 31 and 108. Howard did have a down year and we did have Jayson Werth, but I would imagine it's pretty normal for a 5 and 6 combined to be better than a clean-up hitter. I'm so confident in this that I'll pick any random baseball team right now and look at their numbers. Actually, I'll pick the team that is 15th in runs scored this season. That's pretty average right? Ok, this is live. Let's hope I'm not embarrassed.
The Astros. According to ESPN, their normal lineup has Carlos Lee batting 4, Brett Wallace 5, and Bill Hall 6.
Carlos Lee - 4 HR 22 RBI
Wallace + Hall - 4 HR 25 RBI
Well that didn't really prove much because Carlos Lee sucks and the Astros generally suck as well. But knowing that the Astros suck, how sad is it that they are 15th in runs scored and we are 16th? Very sad. (I'm re-reading and editing this post and realizing that this is the most awkward and uncomfortable thing you've ever had to read now in 2 years of me blogging about the Phillies. Although I'm keeping it in here, I apologize and thank you for your loyalty in this difficult time in my writing)
The solution to all of this? I've been saying it all year...John Mayberry. And Domonic Brown. Mayberry gets no shot for no reason at all. He was by far our best offensive player today, drawing 2 walks, stealing a base, and hitting a go-ahead 2-run home run. Charlie gets criticized for playing his starters way too much throughout the course of a season and not giving them rest. His reasoning? He plays to win every single game, and he puts the lineup out there that he thinks gives them the best chance to win. So how can you tell me that Ibenez (my new celebrity couple name for our 2 worst players) gives us a better chance than Mayberry out there in one of those spots? And the other spot should have been filled by Domonic Brown. He started the year injured, and he is out for the next weekish because of a sprained thumb, but in between he played in 9 games for the Iron Pigs, hitting .353 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and a 1.013 OPS. He has dominated all through the minors, and he just needs his shot to do something in the majors. Why are we keeping him down there? Why are we doing this to the future of our outfield?
Everyone knows that this Phillies team has about 2-3 more years at the most to make some serious World Series runs because of the age of our core players. So why are we holding back our 2 biggest building blocks for the future? It's not like they are being blocked by somebody like Placido Polanco (like Chase Utley was) or Jim Thome (like Ryan Howard was). It's 2 people who are collectively hitting .226 this season for a team who is struggling to consistently score runs.
It'd also be a whole different story to me if Utley were back. We could put Victorino or Rollins somewhere behind Howard in the lineup and provide somewhat of a spark back there. But that's not the case. And until it is, there's no possible way to tell me that the lineup we are putting out there gives us the best chance to win a game.
Our pitching has kept us 2 games up in the division. Imagine if we had an offense to go with it...
If the pitchers are even, that means our offense just needs to be better. The Braves scored just 12 runs in this weekend's series, so it's not like they are blowing anyone out of the water or anything with their bats. In 9 games against them this season, our pitchers have accumulated a 3.35 ERA. That means we can expect the Braves offense to score 3 or 4 runs a game every time we play them. I don't think it's so much to ask for our offense to score 4 or 5 runs in those games. So what is the issue?
Raul Ibanez - I have just about beaten this to death at this point, but I think Raul sucks. And he definitely does against the Braves. He's 6 for 32 against them with 11 strikeouts. Ew. He has just a .454 OPS, which is supposed to be a stat that tells you how good someone actually is as a hitter (You know, since batting average didn't work well enough for the past 130 years). It's on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. So it basically tells you how good a guy is at just getting to first but also how good he is at getting more than just first base at the same time. However you look at it, Ibanez sucks.
Ben Francisco - Hitting .148 against the Braves this season and and just .222 overall this season. His batting average in May? Are you ready for this? Because it's really bad. You might want to think twice before actually reading this number. This is an everyday player for us. It's over the course of 13 games. Ready? Ok, you asked for it...He's hitting .094. With 0 extra base hits and 0 RBI.
Although their numbers against the Braves are worse than their season numbers, neither one is hitting above .230. Ryan Howard has 9 home runs and 35 RBI this season. Raul and Ben have 7 and 34. Combined. These are our everyday 5th and 6th batters. No, they shouldn't be putting up HUGE numbers hitting behind Howard because he'll generally get most of them for himself, but they do get a good amount of opportunities from people not wanting to face the Big Man. Last season our 5 and 6 hitters had 43 home runs and 168 RBI compared to Howard's 31 and 108. Howard did have a down year and we did have Jayson Werth, but I would imagine it's pretty normal for a 5 and 6 combined to be better than a clean-up hitter. I'm so confident in this that I'll pick any random baseball team right now and look at their numbers. Actually, I'll pick the team that is 15th in runs scored this season. That's pretty average right? Ok, this is live. Let's hope I'm not embarrassed.
The Astros. According to ESPN, their normal lineup has Carlos Lee batting 4, Brett Wallace 5, and Bill Hall 6.
Carlos Lee - 4 HR 22 RBI
Wallace + Hall - 4 HR 25 RBI
Well that didn't really prove much because Carlos Lee sucks and the Astros generally suck as well. But knowing that the Astros suck, how sad is it that they are 15th in runs scored and we are 16th? Very sad. (I'm re-reading and editing this post and realizing that this is the most awkward and uncomfortable thing you've ever had to read now in 2 years of me blogging about the Phillies. Although I'm keeping it in here, I apologize and thank you for your loyalty in this difficult time in my writing)
The solution to all of this? I've been saying it all year...John Mayberry. And Domonic Brown. Mayberry gets no shot for no reason at all. He was by far our best offensive player today, drawing 2 walks, stealing a base, and hitting a go-ahead 2-run home run. Charlie gets criticized for playing his starters way too much throughout the course of a season and not giving them rest. His reasoning? He plays to win every single game, and he puts the lineup out there that he thinks gives them the best chance to win. So how can you tell me that Ibenez (my new celebrity couple name for our 2 worst players) gives us a better chance than Mayberry out there in one of those spots? And the other spot should have been filled by Domonic Brown. He started the year injured, and he is out for the next weekish because of a sprained thumb, but in between he played in 9 games for the Iron Pigs, hitting .353 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and a 1.013 OPS. He has dominated all through the minors, and he just needs his shot to do something in the majors. Why are we keeping him down there? Why are we doing this to the future of our outfield?
Everyone knows that this Phillies team has about 2-3 more years at the most to make some serious World Series runs because of the age of our core players. So why are we holding back our 2 biggest building blocks for the future? It's not like they are being blocked by somebody like Placido Polanco (like Chase Utley was) or Jim Thome (like Ryan Howard was). It's 2 people who are collectively hitting .226 this season for a team who is struggling to consistently score runs.
It'd also be a whole different story to me if Utley were back. We could put Victorino or Rollins somewhere behind Howard in the lineup and provide somewhat of a spark back there. But that's not the case. And until it is, there's no possible way to tell me that the lineup we are putting out there gives us the best chance to win a game.
Our pitching has kept us 2 games up in the division. Imagine if we had an offense to go with it...
Friday, May 13, 2011
Male Bag: Volume II
Welcome back to High Hopes: Haven of Masculinity (No, that's not the new tagline for the blog, it just goes with the title of Male Bag. I know that nothing about this blog other than the title of this post is at all masculine. I think we briefly discussed this last time though). The Male Bag got rave reviews the first time around, so here we go for round 2. I'll be working in a brief recap of the Marlins series as well as a preview of the Braves, so this one could end up being extra long. My suggestion: just take a look at the questions first if you don't want to read the whole thing and only read ones you want an answer to. But I'll warn you, every answer will more than likely be awesome. Remember, all of these are real questions. Except for the ones I make up.
I laughed out loud nearly the whole time I was reading your blog...except for when you droned on and on about actual Phillies-related stuff
You're welcome and I'm sorry. This comment that was relayed to me via facebook is actually a partial inspiration for the tagline search. It made me start wondering what really makes people want to read my blog because, with thoughts like that, it's clearly not the Phillies. This makes me feel even more awesome than normal (unreal, right?). I truly appreciate feedback like this because I know that some people read mainly because they love the Phillies, but it's so cool to find out that people just read so they can listen to my random ramblings. I never knew that anyone other than me enjoyed those. Well, except for my students when they don't want to hear about history.
A big goal of this blog from the beginning, though, has been to make it about more than just the Phillies. I hope that you all feel some type of personal connection to it. Comments like this are beautiful.
When are we trading Ibanez?
I will answer this question with another question. Who the crap would take him? His good series against the Nationals was followed up by a quick 0-for-2-games against the Braves until he broke out of that mini slump with a 2-hit game in game 3 of the Braves series. Then he decided to continue hitting in the Marlins series. This is the worst thing ever. He's absolutely awful. Why is John Mayberry not playing? Have I already talked about this a billion times? What is the possible downgrade of putting him in left field? He can't hit worse than Ibanez has (with the exception of a .386 average against the Marlins and Nationals combined), he can't be slower than Ibanez in the field, and he can't have less potential for future growth than the 53-year-old Ibanez. So throw him in there and let's go. I've heard the argument that we are paying Ibanez too much money to not play him. Uhhh...no. I'd be willing to start paying him MORE money to stay the heck away from our team, Adam-Eaton-style. For the poker players out there, I don't believe in any such thing as being "pot-committed." For those who aren't, that basically means you know you are going to lose but you've already invested so much money in that given hand that you'll just keep playing it anyway. That's exactly what we're doing with Ibanez if money is at all a factor. Welp, we know he's a loser, but let's play him anyway because we've spent so much money on him. Horrible idea. Let's get him out of here. Soon. And speaking of Raul, he has been a hot topic for questions thus far this season...
Raul can't be classified with NASA and the city of Pittsburgh. I feel like he is a smidge above.. right?
Right. NASA, Pittsburgh, glitter, ironing, and packing hold a special place in my heart as the sources of all that is wrong with the world. Raul Ibanez definitely does not fall into that category as I may have slightly suggested in my "Say Cheese" post. Ibanez is just painful to watch play baseball, and I'm convinced that we are a better team without him. It will be very very difficult for anyone to convince me otherwise other than Ibanez himself over the course of a month, not 2 series'. So why do I hate those other 5 things so much?
Pittsburgh - It's much easier to list the good things about Pittsburgh than the bad, because there are only 3 good things. Primanti Bros. sandwiches, the fact that all of their professional sports teams are the same colors, and my good friend B Fresh. Everything else is awful. Be more specific? No, I won't. Name something. that sucks about Pittsburgh.
NASA - This is my only political stance. Stop spending so much money on such stupid things. I acknowledge that NASA has done and will continue to do fantastic things in this world. You cannot, however, tell me that a multi-billion dollar remote control car cruising around Mars is actually worth anything. What is the Hubble telescope doing for us? Taking pictures of Saturn? What do we do with pictures of Saturn? Put them in science books, base illustrations in The Magic School Bus off of them, and make them the desktop on our computer if we're huge losers who are fascinated enough by outer space to want to think about it every time we take the computer off of hibernate. And that's worth billions and billions and billions of dollars to us. In a world that currently lacks money. Nice. Real nice.
Glitter - I've heard it referred to as "craft herpes." Amen. A student did a project using glitter while I was student teaching over a year ago, and I still randomly will find a piece of glitter on my stick of deodorant. PLEASE GO AWAY ALREADY
Ironing - What do you do with that little crease at the top of the back of a dress shirt? How can I iron that so it actually looks right? And how far up do I iron my pants? Should that crease be going straight up through each of my ass cheeks? I have no idea!
Packing - What if I go swimming? A question that has scared the living daylights out of me for every single trip I've ever gone on, whether it be for 1 night or 16 weeks. One trip to the pool adds so many things. My swim trunks. A shirt that matches them. Some flip flops. Another towel. An extra pair of socks for that day. An extra pair of underwear for that day. Let's face it, a whole new outfit for that day. And I don't want to make a decision on Friday about what I'll wear on Sunday. I need options. I need to travel comfortably, but are we going to do something once I get there that requires a nicer wardrobe? Packing sucks.
With Raul rocking the beard so far this season (apologies of this is no longer true, I'm sort of detached from the world), would you still refer to him as "naked mole-rat" V1.2 of his nickname?
This was asked earlier in the season when Raul still had a beard. He doesn't anymore because he thought it would change his luck I assume. Either way, he doesn't really deserve a nickname this season. The suggestion I gave this reader via email was "Suckhole or something like that." And the reason this reader was detached from the world is because I have officially received questions from readers "across the globe" as I suggested in my first Male Bag. This question, and others, came in from Afghanistan.
Does the Purple Doughnut Eater read your blog? If so, what are his thoughts?
This question comes from a friend of mine who works at Giant and has seen my dad buy way too many doughnuts over the years and also knows of his affinity for the color purple. Apparently these doughnuts are for "customers," but they probably are used to inject poison into them in an attempt to assassinate corrupt world leaders. If you didn't know, Paul Koehler has an unknown job that allows him to work on the road (except when he works from home or an office), work whatever hours he wants (except when he has set hours), and know every single person we ever see in public (except for the people who know him but he cannot identify). This all seems pretty shady to me, so I rarely ask questions. As for the actual question, I am not entirely sure whether or not he is reading the blog this year. I know he had in the past, and I told him about it a few weeks into this season but am not sure that his busy schedule (except when he's not busy) has allowed him to get around to it. His thoughts are generally focused on Pennridge softball and spider solitaire. I'm sure he's just happy that I don't have a blog about the softball team and second-guess his every move. I'm glad to because I'd hate to get on his bad side. Who knows what he is capable of.
How was Easter with the Koehlers?
Nice question. Unrelated to the Phillies, but a guaranteed hilarious answer. I was kind of worried about answering this for fear that some of the extended Koehlers read this blog, but then I realized that I don't have anything to be scared of because whatever I say will be true. For example, there would be no denying the fact that our extended family ate 3 separate family dinners all at my grandparents house. The Sellersville Koehlers (my immediate family) ate at the dining room table with my grandparents. Another group of the extended family ate at what used to be dubbed the "Kids Table" back when there was more than 1 kid in the family. And yet another group of family members decided to eat on the back porch. And no mixing of those 3 groups would be done. So that was a funny thing to witness. And, sorry, the ham was dry. Oh so dry. (Not that I could do any better. Thanks Pop-pop! You're efforts definitely exceeded any that I would have made, and for that you definitely deserve credit, among so many other things.)
There was also a hilarious pre-prayer wait and debate that went on. We had to wait for everyone to get there to pray for our meal. Once we established that the last guest was on their way, we waited until one of the family members who was actually there to walk outside to wait for that person, and then we prayed anyway without both of them. Where's the logic? No one's really sure.
How many games up are we?
We're up 1 game. On Major League Baseball. Yes, we have the best record in baseball currently by 1 game. In terms of the NL East (which is clearly the intent of the question), we are up 3 games on the Marlins. The Marlins are so awkwardly good this year. Josh Johnson is fantastic, but, other than him, their best players are absolutely horrendous. Hanley Ramirez is flirting with .200, and Mike Stanton only has 5 home runs and 15 RBI. This is classic Marlins. They have no business being good but they just do it anyway to piss people off. Cause we know they aren't making anyone happy by being good, judging by their attendance numbers. Taking 2 of 3 from them was awesome, especially because my predictions were pretty accurate as well. The loss for Halladay is tough (especially in a complete game where he gives up 1 earned run), but it isn't shocking with Johnson opposing him. Halladay pitched great, but Johnson is a great pitcher as well, and we can't expect to do too much against him as an offense.
How do you feel about facing Werth...and will it be a pointless and obnoxious focus of the commentary throughout the series?
This is another question from Afghanistan, and it was posed to me before our first series against the Nationals. My answer to this: I definitely think it will be an obnoxious focus of the commentary throughout any series with the Nats, mostly because it will be a focus and our commentary is always obnoxious (on TV at least). There seemed to be a lot of boos in his time in Philadelphia so far (and Washington for that matter), and I support the booing. I think he's a jerk for leaving and making it completely and unquestionably about money. I will boo Jayson Werth all day. I know he did a lot for us, but remembering the past is not exactly the Philadelphian way.
Dude I just signed up for a new comcast account and scored a free season of MLB extra innings. BOOM.
This comes from a reader in Georgia, celebrating the ability to watch the Phils in a horrible area that would only include Braves telecasts. This is so awesome, aside from the fact that he got a Comcast account. It's sad how inferior it is to Verizon. And sad how inferior everything is to D&E (now Windstream). State College certainly got something right with that cable/internet provider. And yes, I'm dead serious.
Last season you did awesome things like a glossary and picking walk-up songs for each player. Any chance that happens again this year?
I've referenced the glossary a few times, but I think I do plan on doing another one. New season, it's only right to do a new glossary. The walk-up music is a guaranteed post to come sometime in the near future. I am very excited about that one, and I have been brainstorming songs for a few weeks now. Something to look forward to.
Kill me if we don't win this series
Going into the Braves series this weekend, my biggest concern is the sanity of my sister and brother-in-law. They have to spend the weekend with Jeremiah's brother who just happens to be a Braves fan. And despite all logic and any type of reasoning, he is truly convinced that the Braves are better than the Phillies. Inspired by his ignorance, I will blindly choose the Phillies to sweep this series. I'm not even giving you the matchups for it, nor will I use the loads of Phillies vs. Braves stats I have accumulated this season. I am making this decision on the fly. Is this a cop-out for doing a preview? You could definitely say so, and I can understand you thinking that. But trust me, this is absolutely killing me. All of the work I do following the Phillies pays off the most when we play within the NL East because I can truly analyze and use the statistics I've collected. But instead, I'm going for the slap-in-the-face factor here and predicting a series sweep. And let's just say we'll win 5-1, 4-2, and 6-0. Just because the Phillies are better than the Braves. With no real reasoning to back that up. Or at least not that I'm putting in here. Look out, though, this may kill me enough to force me to justify my thoughts in the middle of the series.
Where is the tagline? And where's this new logo?
Nowhere yet. I haven't gotten many suggestions for the tagline still, and I am waiting for that to unveil the logo. Hopefully soon though. Please keep the emails, facebook messages, texts, and comments coming. Also, let me know if you want a text letting you know when I update the blog. There are a few people that I will text every so often, but no one consistently. I know a lot of people check this daily no matter what, but I am sure some of you are just left guessing. If you want to end that guessing game, let me know!
I laughed out loud nearly the whole time I was reading your blog...except for when you droned on and on about actual Phillies-related stuff
You're welcome and I'm sorry. This comment that was relayed to me via facebook is actually a partial inspiration for the tagline search. It made me start wondering what really makes people want to read my blog because, with thoughts like that, it's clearly not the Phillies. This makes me feel even more awesome than normal (unreal, right?). I truly appreciate feedback like this because I know that some people read mainly because they love the Phillies, but it's so cool to find out that people just read so they can listen to my random ramblings. I never knew that anyone other than me enjoyed those. Well, except for my students when they don't want to hear about history.
A big goal of this blog from the beginning, though, has been to make it about more than just the Phillies. I hope that you all feel some type of personal connection to it. Comments like this are beautiful.
When are we trading Ibanez?
I will answer this question with another question. Who the crap would take him? His good series against the Nationals was followed up by a quick 0-for-2-games against the Braves until he broke out of that mini slump with a 2-hit game in game 3 of the Braves series. Then he decided to continue hitting in the Marlins series. This is the worst thing ever. He's absolutely awful. Why is John Mayberry not playing? Have I already talked about this a billion times? What is the possible downgrade of putting him in left field? He can't hit worse than Ibanez has (with the exception of a .386 average against the Marlins and Nationals combined), he can't be slower than Ibanez in the field, and he can't have less potential for future growth than the 53-year-old Ibanez. So throw him in there and let's go. I've heard the argument that we are paying Ibanez too much money to not play him. Uhhh...no. I'd be willing to start paying him MORE money to stay the heck away from our team, Adam-Eaton-style. For the poker players out there, I don't believe in any such thing as being "pot-committed." For those who aren't, that basically means you know you are going to lose but you've already invested so much money in that given hand that you'll just keep playing it anyway. That's exactly what we're doing with Ibanez if money is at all a factor. Welp, we know he's a loser, but let's play him anyway because we've spent so much money on him. Horrible idea. Let's get him out of here. Soon. And speaking of Raul, he has been a hot topic for questions thus far this season...
Raul can't be classified with NASA and the city of Pittsburgh. I feel like he is a smidge above.. right?
Right. NASA, Pittsburgh, glitter, ironing, and packing hold a special place in my heart as the sources of all that is wrong with the world. Raul Ibanez definitely does not fall into that category as I may have slightly suggested in my "Say Cheese" post. Ibanez is just painful to watch play baseball, and I'm convinced that we are a better team without him. It will be very very difficult for anyone to convince me otherwise other than Ibanez himself over the course of a month, not 2 series'. So why do I hate those other 5 things so much?
Pittsburgh - It's much easier to list the good things about Pittsburgh than the bad, because there are only 3 good things. Primanti Bros. sandwiches, the fact that all of their professional sports teams are the same colors, and my good friend B Fresh. Everything else is awful. Be more specific? No, I won't. Name something. that sucks about Pittsburgh.
NASA - This is my only political stance. Stop spending so much money on such stupid things. I acknowledge that NASA has done and will continue to do fantastic things in this world. You cannot, however, tell me that a multi-billion dollar remote control car cruising around Mars is actually worth anything. What is the Hubble telescope doing for us? Taking pictures of Saturn? What do we do with pictures of Saturn? Put them in science books, base illustrations in The Magic School Bus off of them, and make them the desktop on our computer if we're huge losers who are fascinated enough by outer space to want to think about it every time we take the computer off of hibernate. And that's worth billions and billions and billions of dollars to us. In a world that currently lacks money. Nice. Real nice.
Glitter - I've heard it referred to as "craft herpes." Amen. A student did a project using glitter while I was student teaching over a year ago, and I still randomly will find a piece of glitter on my stick of deodorant. PLEASE GO AWAY ALREADY
Ironing - What do you do with that little crease at the top of the back of a dress shirt? How can I iron that so it actually looks right? And how far up do I iron my pants? Should that crease be going straight up through each of my ass cheeks? I have no idea!
Packing - What if I go swimming? A question that has scared the living daylights out of me for every single trip I've ever gone on, whether it be for 1 night or 16 weeks. One trip to the pool adds so many things. My swim trunks. A shirt that matches them. Some flip flops. Another towel. An extra pair of socks for that day. An extra pair of underwear for that day. Let's face it, a whole new outfit for that day. And I don't want to make a decision on Friday about what I'll wear on Sunday. I need options. I need to travel comfortably, but are we going to do something once I get there that requires a nicer wardrobe? Packing sucks.
With Raul rocking the beard so far this season (apologies of this is no longer true, I'm sort of detached from the world), would you still refer to him as "naked mole-rat" V1.2 of his nickname?
This was asked earlier in the season when Raul still had a beard. He doesn't anymore because he thought it would change his luck I assume. Either way, he doesn't really deserve a nickname this season. The suggestion I gave this reader via email was "Suckhole or something like that." And the reason this reader was detached from the world is because I have officially received questions from readers "across the globe" as I suggested in my first Male Bag. This question, and others, came in from Afghanistan.
Does the Purple Doughnut Eater read your blog? If so, what are his thoughts?
This question comes from a friend of mine who works at Giant and has seen my dad buy way too many doughnuts over the years and also knows of his affinity for the color purple. Apparently these doughnuts are for "customers," but they probably are used to inject poison into them in an attempt to assassinate corrupt world leaders. If you didn't know, Paul Koehler has an unknown job that allows him to work on the road (except when he works from home or an office), work whatever hours he wants (except when he has set hours), and know every single person we ever see in public (except for the people who know him but he cannot identify). This all seems pretty shady to me, so I rarely ask questions. As for the actual question, I am not entirely sure whether or not he is reading the blog this year. I know he had in the past, and I told him about it a few weeks into this season but am not sure that his busy schedule (except when he's not busy) has allowed him to get around to it. His thoughts are generally focused on Pennridge softball and spider solitaire. I'm sure he's just happy that I don't have a blog about the softball team and second-guess his every move. I'm glad to because I'd hate to get on his bad side. Who knows what he is capable of.
How was Easter with the Koehlers?
Nice question. Unrelated to the Phillies, but a guaranteed hilarious answer. I was kind of worried about answering this for fear that some of the extended Koehlers read this blog, but then I realized that I don't have anything to be scared of because whatever I say will be true. For example, there would be no denying the fact that our extended family ate 3 separate family dinners all at my grandparents house. The Sellersville Koehlers (my immediate family) ate at the dining room table with my grandparents. Another group of the extended family ate at what used to be dubbed the "Kids Table" back when there was more than 1 kid in the family. And yet another group of family members decided to eat on the back porch. And no mixing of those 3 groups would be done. So that was a funny thing to witness. And, sorry, the ham was dry. Oh so dry. (Not that I could do any better. Thanks Pop-pop! You're efforts definitely exceeded any that I would have made, and for that you definitely deserve credit, among so many other things.)
There was also a hilarious pre-prayer wait and debate that went on. We had to wait for everyone to get there to pray for our meal. Once we established that the last guest was on their way, we waited until one of the family members who was actually there to walk outside to wait for that person, and then we prayed anyway without both of them. Where's the logic? No one's really sure.
How many games up are we?
We're up 1 game. On Major League Baseball. Yes, we have the best record in baseball currently by 1 game. In terms of the NL East (which is clearly the intent of the question), we are up 3 games on the Marlins. The Marlins are so awkwardly good this year. Josh Johnson is fantastic, but, other than him, their best players are absolutely horrendous. Hanley Ramirez is flirting with .200, and Mike Stanton only has 5 home runs and 15 RBI. This is classic Marlins. They have no business being good but they just do it anyway to piss people off. Cause we know they aren't making anyone happy by being good, judging by their attendance numbers. Taking 2 of 3 from them was awesome, especially because my predictions were pretty accurate as well. The loss for Halladay is tough (especially in a complete game where he gives up 1 earned run), but it isn't shocking with Johnson opposing him. Halladay pitched great, but Johnson is a great pitcher as well, and we can't expect to do too much against him as an offense.
How do you feel about facing Werth...and will it be a pointless and obnoxious focus of the commentary throughout the series?
This is another question from Afghanistan, and it was posed to me before our first series against the Nationals. My answer to this: I definitely think it will be an obnoxious focus of the commentary throughout any series with the Nats, mostly because it will be a focus and our commentary is always obnoxious (on TV at least). There seemed to be a lot of boos in his time in Philadelphia so far (and Washington for that matter), and I support the booing. I think he's a jerk for leaving and making it completely and unquestionably about money. I will boo Jayson Werth all day. I know he did a lot for us, but remembering the past is not exactly the Philadelphian way.
Dude I just signed up for a new comcast account and scored a free season of MLB extra innings. BOOM.
This comes from a reader in Georgia, celebrating the ability to watch the Phils in a horrible area that would only include Braves telecasts. This is so awesome, aside from the fact that he got a Comcast account. It's sad how inferior it is to Verizon. And sad how inferior everything is to D&E (now Windstream). State College certainly got something right with that cable/internet provider. And yes, I'm dead serious.
Last season you did awesome things like a glossary and picking walk-up songs for each player. Any chance that happens again this year?
I've referenced the glossary a few times, but I think I do plan on doing another one. New season, it's only right to do a new glossary. The walk-up music is a guaranteed post to come sometime in the near future. I am very excited about that one, and I have been brainstorming songs for a few weeks now. Something to look forward to.
Kill me if we don't win this series
Going into the Braves series this weekend, my biggest concern is the sanity of my sister and brother-in-law. They have to spend the weekend with Jeremiah's brother who just happens to be a Braves fan. And despite all logic and any type of reasoning, he is truly convinced that the Braves are better than the Phillies. Inspired by his ignorance, I will blindly choose the Phillies to sweep this series. I'm not even giving you the matchups for it, nor will I use the loads of Phillies vs. Braves stats I have accumulated this season. I am making this decision on the fly. Is this a cop-out for doing a preview? You could definitely say so, and I can understand you thinking that. But trust me, this is absolutely killing me. All of the work I do following the Phillies pays off the most when we play within the NL East because I can truly analyze and use the statistics I've collected. But instead, I'm going for the slap-in-the-face factor here and predicting a series sweep. And let's just say we'll win 5-1, 4-2, and 6-0. Just because the Phillies are better than the Braves. With no real reasoning to back that up. Or at least not that I'm putting in here. Look out, though, this may kill me enough to force me to justify my thoughts in the middle of the series.
Where is the tagline? And where's this new logo?
Nowhere yet. I haven't gotten many suggestions for the tagline still, and I am waiting for that to unveil the logo. Hopefully soon though. Please keep the emails, facebook messages, texts, and comments coming. Also, let me know if you want a text letting you know when I update the blog. There are a few people that I will text every so often, but no one consistently. I know a lot of people check this daily no matter what, but I am sure some of you are just left guessing. If you want to end that guessing game, let me know!
Monday, May 9, 2011
At This Rate
It's time for one of my favorite posts of the season! We are now about 1/5 of the way through 2011's regular season, and we can take a look into the future...assuming the rest of the season plays out exactly as the first 33 games have. So here's what to expect:
-The Phillies will finish with an incredible 110 wins, winning the NL East by 10 games over the Marlins and sharing the best record in baseball with...the Cleveland Indians? Weird
-Only 4 players in history have had a quadruple-20 season (20 doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases). They are: Frank Schulte (1911), Willie Mays (1957), Jimmy Rollins (2007), and Curtis Granderson (2007). Shane Victorino will add his name to that list with 29 doubles, 20 triples, 25 home runs, and 34 stolen bases. (Fun fact: This post is copied and pasted from last year's entry with a slight change in the numbers)
-Placido Polanco will bat an incredible .366 on the season. And finish fourth for the batting title
-Ryan Howard will finish with 147 RBI, his highest total since 149 in his 58-home run MVP season. Except he will do it by hitting 23 less home runs.
-5 of the FBI's top 10 Most Wanted will be dead by October, with Phillies fans helping to share the news on ESPN all 5 times
-Phillies pitchers will have 45 saves, but no one player will have more than 25, including 0 by Brad Lidge
-Both Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay will have 20-win seasons. Cole with 20 and Roy with 25. Halladay will more than likely win the Cy Young with a 25-5 record and a 2.19 ERA
-Cliff Lee will fall just 5 strikeouts shy of 300 while having a losing record
-Christopher Wheeler will attempt to answer all 150+ Dodge Stump the Fans Trivia Questions and get about half of them right
-Thomas McCarthy will giggle at him while he attempts to answer every game
-Fans will give a crap about 0 of these occurrences
-Chase Utley will play in 0 games, but news of him running will be presented to us as if it's the cure for cancer approximately 2,550 times this season
-Vance Worley will finish 10-0 with a 0.75 ERA
-Raul Ibanez will hit just .212 this season
-John Mayberry will hit .364 as a pinch-hitter, but will start only 35 games this season while Ibanez gets over 550 at-bats
-Jayson Werth will hit .227 and finish with 43 RBI. Or about $250,000 per RBI. Well done, Nationals. Well done.
Now, in terms of my predictions at the beginning of the season:
-Joe Blanton will get 15 wins this season. No, no he won't. He'll be 0-5
-Roy Oswalt will have the lowest ERA on the team. Nope. Halladay and Hamels will have lower ones of our regular 5 starters. 2.19 for Halladay, 2.83 for Hamels, 3.33 for Oswalt
-Michael Martinez will become our everyday 2nd baseman. Actually, he'll get less than 100 at-bats and hit .158. Yikes. Wilson Valdez is the obvious choice, and Pete Orr is the cooler choice
-Rollins will hit .300. He's at .285, meaning he's on pace for .285. But .300 is still realistic
-John Mayberry will hit 15 home runs. Or 5. Yeah, 5 works.
-Ryan Howard will win a Gold Glove. Errorless in 33 games. Boom baby.
-The Phillies will beat the White Sox in a 7-game World Series. We'll win. But the White Sox have the worst record in baseball. Oh well...guess I missed on that one. But who would've predicted the Indians? Not you, so shut up.
If all of these predictions and paces mean anything, it's that we should be most worried about our next opponent, the 2nd-place Marlins. Without further ado, your Marlins preview:
Game 1: Joe Blanton (0-1, 5.92 ERA) vs. Javier Vazquez (2-2, 6.39 ERA)
I would say that we can expect the most runs out of this game if nothing else. That may seem very obvious, and that's because it is. Phillies hitters absolutely dominate Vazquez. Take a look at these batting averages against him from the last 5years:
Ben Francisco .308
Ross Gload .469
Ryan Howard .333
Raul Ibanez .320
Placido Polanco .370
These numbers are with a minimum of 13 at-bats against him. Rollins has just a .200 average and Victorino .267, but, other than that, we can expect to get some hits tonight. Joe Blanton, on the other hand, has had a good amount of success against the Marlins.
Prediction: Phillies 8 Marlins 4
Keep an eye out for: Ryan Howard re-taking the Major League lead in RBI
Game 2: Roy Halladay (5-1, 2.19 ERA) vs. Josh Johnson (3-1, 1.68 ERA)
If you can only watch one game in the series, make it this one. These two faced each other twice last year in the span of 2 weeks. One was on May 29. If that date means nothing to you, it was Roy Halladay's perfect game. What you may NOT remember about that game, though, is that Josh Johnson pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 unearned run, allowing the Phillies to win 1-0. The second matchup between them was a 2-0 win for the Marlins with Johnson pitching 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball. Josh Johnson is probably your current NL Cy Young favorite, and Halladay is not far behind. My X-factor: Roy Halladay is 18-1 with a 1.56 ERA against the NL East since joining the Phillies. Expect greatness
Prediction: Phillies 1 Marlins 0
Keep an eye out for: Neither team getting a hit until the 5th inning.
Game 3: Cliff Lee (2-3, 3.69 ERA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (3-0, 3.23 ERA)
This game is a real toss-up to me. I have no idea what Cliff Lee will do or what our hitters will do against him. And Nolasco is having a good year and has always 0had some decent success against the Phils (6-3, 3.78 ERA). I can't see us sweeping this series, and I don't want to pick us to lose the Halladay-Johnson showdown. That combined with our success against Vazquez leaves this game as the one to lose. Sorry, Cliff. Maybe we'll score runs for you someday.
Prediction: Marlins 4 Phillies 0
Keep an eye out for: Cliff striking out double-digits again
I would be comfortable from a predictions standpoint picking either team to win all 3 of these games. It is a scary series, and one that we definitely want to win to stay in first and keep the pressure on everyone else. The coming month is not in any way an easy one for the Phils. Staying in first until Chase comes back would be a great great thing for us.
-The Phillies will finish with an incredible 110 wins, winning the NL East by 10 games over the Marlins and sharing the best record in baseball with...the Cleveland Indians? Weird
-Only 4 players in history have had a quadruple-20 season (20 doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases). They are: Frank Schulte (1911), Willie Mays (1957), Jimmy Rollins (2007), and Curtis Granderson (2007). Shane Victorino will add his name to that list with 29 doubles, 20 triples, 25 home runs, and 34 stolen bases. (Fun fact: This post is copied and pasted from last year's entry with a slight change in the numbers)
-Placido Polanco will bat an incredible .366 on the season. And finish fourth for the batting title
-Ryan Howard will finish with 147 RBI, his highest total since 149 in his 58-home run MVP season. Except he will do it by hitting 23 less home runs.
-5 of the FBI's top 10 Most Wanted will be dead by October, with Phillies fans helping to share the news on ESPN all 5 times
-Phillies pitchers will have 45 saves, but no one player will have more than 25, including 0 by Brad Lidge
-Both Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay will have 20-win seasons. Cole with 20 and Roy with 25. Halladay will more than likely win the Cy Young with a 25-5 record and a 2.19 ERA
-Cliff Lee will fall just 5 strikeouts shy of 300 while having a losing record
-Christopher Wheeler will attempt to answer all 150+ Dodge Stump the Fans Trivia Questions and get about half of them right
-Thomas McCarthy will giggle at him while he attempts to answer every game
-Fans will give a crap about 0 of these occurrences
-Chase Utley will play in 0 games, but news of him running will be presented to us as if it's the cure for cancer approximately 2,550 times this season
-Vance Worley will finish 10-0 with a 0.75 ERA
-Raul Ibanez will hit just .212 this season
-John Mayberry will hit .364 as a pinch-hitter, but will start only 35 games this season while Ibanez gets over 550 at-bats
-Jayson Werth will hit .227 and finish with 43 RBI. Or about $250,000 per RBI. Well done, Nationals. Well done.
Now, in terms of my predictions at the beginning of the season:
-Joe Blanton will get 15 wins this season. No, no he won't. He'll be 0-5
-Roy Oswalt will have the lowest ERA on the team. Nope. Halladay and Hamels will have lower ones of our regular 5 starters. 2.19 for Halladay, 2.83 for Hamels, 3.33 for Oswalt
-Michael Martinez will become our everyday 2nd baseman. Actually, he'll get less than 100 at-bats and hit .158. Yikes. Wilson Valdez is the obvious choice, and Pete Orr is the cooler choice
-Rollins will hit .300. He's at .285, meaning he's on pace for .285. But .300 is still realistic
-John Mayberry will hit 15 home runs. Or 5. Yeah, 5 works.
-Ryan Howard will win a Gold Glove. Errorless in 33 games. Boom baby.
-The Phillies will beat the White Sox in a 7-game World Series. We'll win. But the White Sox have the worst record in baseball. Oh well...guess I missed on that one. But who would've predicted the Indians? Not you, so shut up.
If all of these predictions and paces mean anything, it's that we should be most worried about our next opponent, the 2nd-place Marlins. Without further ado, your Marlins preview:
Game 1: Joe Blanton (0-1, 5.92 ERA) vs. Javier Vazquez (2-2, 6.39 ERA)
I would say that we can expect the most runs out of this game if nothing else. That may seem very obvious, and that's because it is. Phillies hitters absolutely dominate Vazquez. Take a look at these batting averages against him from the last 5years:
Ben Francisco .308
Ross Gload .469
Ryan Howard .333
Raul Ibanez .320
Placido Polanco .370
These numbers are with a minimum of 13 at-bats against him. Rollins has just a .200 average and Victorino .267, but, other than that, we can expect to get some hits tonight. Joe Blanton, on the other hand, has had a good amount of success against the Marlins.
Prediction: Phillies 8 Marlins 4
Keep an eye out for: Ryan Howard re-taking the Major League lead in RBI
Game 2: Roy Halladay (5-1, 2.19 ERA) vs. Josh Johnson (3-1, 1.68 ERA)
If you can only watch one game in the series, make it this one. These two faced each other twice last year in the span of 2 weeks. One was on May 29. If that date means nothing to you, it was Roy Halladay's perfect game. What you may NOT remember about that game, though, is that Josh Johnson pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 unearned run, allowing the Phillies to win 1-0. The second matchup between them was a 2-0 win for the Marlins with Johnson pitching 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball. Josh Johnson is probably your current NL Cy Young favorite, and Halladay is not far behind. My X-factor: Roy Halladay is 18-1 with a 1.56 ERA against the NL East since joining the Phillies. Expect greatness
Prediction: Phillies 1 Marlins 0
Keep an eye out for: Neither team getting a hit until the 5th inning.
Game 3: Cliff Lee (2-3, 3.69 ERA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (3-0, 3.23 ERA)
This game is a real toss-up to me. I have no idea what Cliff Lee will do or what our hitters will do against him. And Nolasco is having a good year and has always 0had some decent success against the Phils (6-3, 3.78 ERA). I can't see us sweeping this series, and I don't want to pick us to lose the Halladay-Johnson showdown. That combined with our success against Vazquez leaves this game as the one to lose. Sorry, Cliff. Maybe we'll score runs for you someday.
Prediction: Marlins 4 Phillies 0
Keep an eye out for: Cliff striking out double-digits again
I would be comfortable from a predictions standpoint picking either team to win all 3 of these games. It is a scary series, and one that we definitely want to win to stay in first and keep the pressure on everyone else. The coming month is not in any way an easy one for the Phils. Staying in first until Chase comes back would be a great great thing for us.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Nationals Recap/Braves Preview
As some of you may know, I am nerdy enough to keep my own stats for the Phillies. It almost pains me to type that sentence because we all know that baseball has every statistic already kept somewhere, but I get some type of strange enjoyment out of it. In the more-than-slightly racist, Asian-imitating words of one of my former roommates and best friends Paul (affectionately known as Walnuts, Nuts, Gilligan, Gigli, Sack Lunch, Greta, and 35-40 other nicknames I can't think of), "I ruv numbers!" I truly do have a weird obsession with numbers, which is perhaps why I have such a weird obsession with the Phillies. Any question I ever have about the team can be answered quantitativaly.
So when you look at a series like the one against the Nationals, it is easy to see why we would sweep them. We have now won 5 out of 6 games against them. In those 6 games, our starters have accumulated an ERA of 2.15, and they've done it with plenty of work. The bullpen has pitched just 7 innings. That is truly unbelievable. Half of our games against them have been complete games by the starters including one shutout. If you haven't paid attention yet, make sure you watch in wonder the next time we play the Nationals. Our rotation is doing something truly special against them.
And, along with that, our worst offensive player this season has shined against Washington. Raul Ibanez has been absolutely horrendous this season. Except against the Nationals. He has 24 at-bats against the Nationals this year, about 23% of his season total (yes, get ready for some serious numbers here). In those 24 at-bats, he has 9 hits (41% of his season total), 6 RBI (40% of his total), 3 doubles (60%), and 2 home runs (67%). He is also batting .375 (as compared to .214 for the season) and has a 1.125 OPS (nearly double what it is for the season). Without his Nationals numbers, Ibanez is hitting .165 in 22 games. Gross. So, for all of you who think he is back, let's not get too excited. Although I would love for that to be true (but would I? Dominic Brown should be back relatively soon and John Mayberry should be playing), I feel like this is a trend we see against just the Nats. In 2009, he batted .426 against them with 8 home runs and 21 RBI. Last season, he batted .283 (not as good, but still solid) with 4 home runs (of 16 for the year). So can we please not be blinded by one good series against one bad team and sit his butt on the bench once we see him struggle over the next 3 days against the Braves?
SPEAKING of the Braves (can't you just hear Thomas McCarthy saying this horrible segue?), it should be a good series with them coming to town over the weekend. Here is a look at our matchups.
Game 1: Derek Lowe (2-3, 3.72 ERA) vs. Cliff Lee (2-2, 3.66 ERA)
This game will be a tough one. In my opinion, the key will be getting into the Braves' bullpen. In 3 games this season, they have a 6.83 ERA against us as compared to a 3.48 ERA from their starters. I don't know what to expect from Cliff Lee in looking at his last start against the Braves. It was only his second start, but he has been kind of up and down a little bit this season.
Prediction: Phillies 6 Braves 5
Keep an eye out for: All Phillies runs coming off of home runs. Lowe gets a few of his sinkers up in the strike zone and we jump on them.
Game 2: Jrrr Jrrrjrrjrrrrjrrrs (3-0, 1.52 ERA) vs. Kyle Kendrick (1-2, 2.08 ERA)
Kyle Kendrick is starting for us over Roy Oswalt. Oswalt can be expected back in about a week hopefully. Kendrick is interesting because you never know what you're going to get out of him, but you can figure it out in the first inning of every game. So, my prediction will be completely based on that. If he can get a 1-2-3 first inning, he'll pitch 7 innings and give up 2 runs. If he doesn't have a 1-2-3 first, he'll give up 2 in the first and end up giving up 6 in 4 innings before getting pulled. The good news with that is, our bullpen has yet to give up a run against the Braves this season in 9.2 innings. So, since it's not fair to make someone predict what Kyle Kendrick will do...
Prediction 1: Phillies 3 Braves 2
Prediction 2: Braves 6 Phillies 3
Keep an eye out for: The Phils bats struggling against Jrrrjrrjrrrrjrrrs. He generally shuts us down pretty well but often lacks run support. So let's hope for Prediction 1.
Game 3: TBD vs. Cole Hamels (4-1, 2.66 ERA)
Cole loves pitching at home, and he hates pitching in the afternoon. The good thing about this is it's a Sunday Night Baseball game. Without knowing the Braves pitcher, I would say look out for Shane Victorino to shine in this game and the series in general. In the first series in Atlanta, Shane batted nearly .700 (yes, nearly seven hundred...thought I'd type it out so you didn't think it was a typo) with a double, home run, and two stolen bases. Cole also threw 7 shutout innings in his first appearance against the Braves this season. And can we please recall that our starters in this 3-game series include Cole Hamels AND Cliff Lee. And Roy Oswalt was supposed to start. This rotation still makes me so excited.
Prediction: Phillies 5 Braves 1
Keep an eye out for: Bobby Valentine rivaling the Phillies broadcast team in his annoying and stupid comments. The way I found out about bin Laden dying last week was via a text conversation with one of my oldest friends. The start of the conversation was this:
Me - Bobby valentine sucks
Matt - Bin laden is dead
And on that note, go Phils and go America!
So when you look at a series like the one against the Nationals, it is easy to see why we would sweep them. We have now won 5 out of 6 games against them. In those 6 games, our starters have accumulated an ERA of 2.15, and they've done it with plenty of work. The bullpen has pitched just 7 innings. That is truly unbelievable. Half of our games against them have been complete games by the starters including one shutout. If you haven't paid attention yet, make sure you watch in wonder the next time we play the Nationals. Our rotation is doing something truly special against them.
And, along with that, our worst offensive player this season has shined against Washington. Raul Ibanez has been absolutely horrendous this season. Except against the Nationals. He has 24 at-bats against the Nationals this year, about 23% of his season total (yes, get ready for some serious numbers here). In those 24 at-bats, he has 9 hits (41% of his season total), 6 RBI (40% of his total), 3 doubles (60%), and 2 home runs (67%). He is also batting .375 (as compared to .214 for the season) and has a 1.125 OPS (nearly double what it is for the season). Without his Nationals numbers, Ibanez is hitting .165 in 22 games. Gross. So, for all of you who think he is back, let's not get too excited. Although I would love for that to be true (but would I? Dominic Brown should be back relatively soon and John Mayberry should be playing), I feel like this is a trend we see against just the Nats. In 2009, he batted .426 against them with 8 home runs and 21 RBI. Last season, he batted .283 (not as good, but still solid) with 4 home runs (of 16 for the year). So can we please not be blinded by one good series against one bad team and sit his butt on the bench once we see him struggle over the next 3 days against the Braves?
SPEAKING of the Braves (can't you just hear Thomas McCarthy saying this horrible segue?), it should be a good series with them coming to town over the weekend. Here is a look at our matchups.
Game 1: Derek Lowe (2-3, 3.72 ERA) vs. Cliff Lee (2-2, 3.66 ERA)
This game will be a tough one. In my opinion, the key will be getting into the Braves' bullpen. In 3 games this season, they have a 6.83 ERA against us as compared to a 3.48 ERA from their starters. I don't know what to expect from Cliff Lee in looking at his last start against the Braves. It was only his second start, but he has been kind of up and down a little bit this season.
Prediction: Phillies 6 Braves 5
Keep an eye out for: All Phillies runs coming off of home runs. Lowe gets a few of his sinkers up in the strike zone and we jump on them.
Game 2: Jrrr Jrrrjrrjrrrrjrrrs (3-0, 1.52 ERA) vs. Kyle Kendrick (1-2, 2.08 ERA)
Kyle Kendrick is starting for us over Roy Oswalt. Oswalt can be expected back in about a week hopefully. Kendrick is interesting because you never know what you're going to get out of him, but you can figure it out in the first inning of every game. So, my prediction will be completely based on that. If he can get a 1-2-3 first inning, he'll pitch 7 innings and give up 2 runs. If he doesn't have a 1-2-3 first, he'll give up 2 in the first and end up giving up 6 in 4 innings before getting pulled. The good news with that is, our bullpen has yet to give up a run against the Braves this season in 9.2 innings. So, since it's not fair to make someone predict what Kyle Kendrick will do...
Prediction 1: Phillies 3 Braves 2
Prediction 2: Braves 6 Phillies 3
Keep an eye out for: The Phils bats struggling against Jrrrjrrjrrrrjrrrs. He generally shuts us down pretty well but often lacks run support. So let's hope for Prediction 1.
Game 3: TBD vs. Cole Hamels (4-1, 2.66 ERA)
Cole loves pitching at home, and he hates pitching in the afternoon. The good thing about this is it's a Sunday Night Baseball game. Without knowing the Braves pitcher, I would say look out for Shane Victorino to shine in this game and the series in general. In the first series in Atlanta, Shane batted nearly .700 (yes, nearly seven hundred...thought I'd type it out so you didn't think it was a typo) with a double, home run, and two stolen bases. Cole also threw 7 shutout innings in his first appearance against the Braves this season. And can we please recall that our starters in this 3-game series include Cole Hamels AND Cliff Lee. And Roy Oswalt was supposed to start. This rotation still makes me so excited.
Prediction: Phillies 5 Braves 1
Keep an eye out for: Bobby Valentine rivaling the Phillies broadcast team in his annoying and stupid comments. The way I found out about bin Laden dying last week was via a text conversation with one of my oldest friends. The start of the conversation was this:
Me - Bobby valentine sucks
Matt - Bin laden is dead
And on that note, go Phils and go America!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Sorry...Nationals Preview
The life of Cameron Koehler is not one that lacks stress or activity. With a 14-inning game, bin Laden dying, Pennridge baseball games to attend, the Flyers going into overtime, and an attempt by me at retaining my status as a teacher, it is difficult to get a minute to sit down and really reflect on a series as well as preview a new one within about 40 hours. I know what you're all thinking. "Here he goes again, giving up on the blog. Wow, it's super early this year. You really wimped out man." Well all I have to say to that is, "What are you talkin' about wimped out? W... Wha... Did you s... That guy hocked on my burger!"
However, in this case, I'M the one who...wait a second...I think I just...Yeah...I just had an idea.
It's not a really great or groundbreaking idea, but I just wanted to take a few lines to quote the greatest comedy in movie history (more on that in the next Male Bag). I'm just going to do a really quick preview of the Nationals in the next 6 minutes before I am off again for another Pennridge baseball game followed by some Pennridge basketball games. Yikes. Here it goes!
Game 1: Livan Hernandez (3-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (3-1, 3.13 ERA)
The Nationals are a team that Hamels likes to face. He is 9-3 with a 2.73 ERA against them in his career. Although I generally don't give much thought to statistics like that (because teams change every year), I think there can be a certain psychological advantage that a player holds against a team. And I teach psychology. And a student in my psychology class calls me Mr. Koehl Hamels. Is this an accident? I doubt it.
Prediction: Phillies 6 Nationals 2
Keep an eye out for: Howard starting to hit with a lot more power as the weather stays warm
Game 2: Jason Marquis (3-0, 2.62 ERA) vs. Vance Worley (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
A battle of undefeateds. The difference? We absolutely KILL Jason Marquis (see: Opening Day last season) and Worley is 1-0 in his very short career against the Nationals. A 15-pitch win last season. How's THAT for efficiency?
Prediction: Phillies 8 Nationals 6
Keep an eye out for: A much earlier exit for Worley this time as the Nats are able to figure him out the 2nd time through the lineup. The 4thish inning may be the death of him
Game 3: John Lannan (2-3, 3.78 ERA) vs. Roy Halladay (4-1, 2.14 ERA)
I hate John Lannan. If you don't remember, he's the guy who, in his major league debut, decided to make a statement by breaking Utley's hand and plunking Ryan Howard in the next at-bat. What a jerk. Oh, and Roy Halladay kills the Nationals.
Prediction: Phillies 3 Nationals 0
Keep an eye out for: John Lannan's control almost starting a brawl, except the Phillies realize that the Nationals are too pathetic to fight with
So there it is. Took me 10 minutes instead of 6. I'm out!
However, in this case, I'M the one who...wait a second...I think I just...Yeah...I just had an idea.
It's not a really great or groundbreaking idea, but I just wanted to take a few lines to quote the greatest comedy in movie history (more on that in the next Male Bag). I'm just going to do a really quick preview of the Nationals in the next 6 minutes before I am off again for another Pennridge baseball game followed by some Pennridge basketball games. Yikes. Here it goes!
Game 1: Livan Hernandez (3-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. Cole Hamels (3-1, 3.13 ERA)
The Nationals are a team that Hamels likes to face. He is 9-3 with a 2.73 ERA against them in his career. Although I generally don't give much thought to statistics like that (because teams change every year), I think there can be a certain psychological advantage that a player holds against a team. And I teach psychology. And a student in my psychology class calls me Mr. Koehl Hamels. Is this an accident? I doubt it.
Prediction: Phillies 6 Nationals 2
Keep an eye out for: Howard starting to hit with a lot more power as the weather stays warm
Game 2: Jason Marquis (3-0, 2.62 ERA) vs. Vance Worley (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
A battle of undefeateds. The difference? We absolutely KILL Jason Marquis (see: Opening Day last season) and Worley is 1-0 in his very short career against the Nationals. A 15-pitch win last season. How's THAT for efficiency?
Prediction: Phillies 8 Nationals 6
Keep an eye out for: A much earlier exit for Worley this time as the Nats are able to figure him out the 2nd time through the lineup. The 4thish inning may be the death of him
Game 3: John Lannan (2-3, 3.78 ERA) vs. Roy Halladay (4-1, 2.14 ERA)
I hate John Lannan. If you don't remember, he's the guy who, in his major league debut, decided to make a statement by breaking Utley's hand and plunking Ryan Howard in the next at-bat. What a jerk. Oh, and Roy Halladay kills the Nationals.
Prediction: Phillies 3 Nationals 0
Keep an eye out for: John Lannan's control almost starting a brawl, except the Phillies realize that the Nationals are too pathetic to fight with
So there it is. Took me 10 minutes instead of 6. I'm out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)