Let's quickly get over all of this Canada malarkey and start celebrating the birthday of Amurica. And if you have to actually "start" doing this at this point in the day, you have a lot of catching up to do. We all know that the good ol' U S of A is the greatest country the world has ever seen. Unless Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is a true story, there's not a place in this universe I'd rather be (especially if it involves outer space...majoke). So for this game tonight (and the remainder of the season. And your life), you can strap on your cowboy boots, grab a Bud Heavy, grill up some burgers and dogs, discriminate against people who are different, load a shotgun, eat more than your bargained for, blow things up, and walk around wearing red, white, and blue (because those colors sure as hell don't run. Pun extremely intended).
While celebrating the birth of your beloved homeland (and if you don't want to celebrate it, well you can just giiiiit out!), you can also spend some time voting Shane Victorino into the All-Star Game.
But Cameron, the rosters were already decided. We can't vote him in now!
Oh sure you can! He's one of the 5 nominees in the Final Vote for the National League
What the heck is the Final Vote?
Major League Baseball started doing it a few years ago as some type of cop-out for people getting snubbed from the All-Star Game. This way, they can blame the fans (even more so than they already do by letting them vote in the starters) rather than have any responsibility on the managers. They still generally get it wrong, though (Andrew McCutchen is a sure All-Star this year but was left off the team and out of the Final Vote).
But I can only vote 25 times for the All-Star teams, so that won't really make a difference
You are correct that you can only vote 25 times for the All-Star teams, but the Final Vote is different. There is unlimited voting! And it's so so easy to do! When Pat Burrell was in the Final Vote in 2008, I voted over 500 times. I'm not kidding. All you have to do is type in a 5-number code each time you click vote, but it saves your vote for you. It takes literally 2-3 seconds to vote once. So, when you sit down to watch a Phillies game, why not just have a computer nearby on which you can be voting during commercial breaks? You can easily get 100 votes in during a game without putting forth any thought or effort
That sounds great, but I have no idea where to find this voting business
Click here! That should take you right to a ballot.
For those who may not have seen, we already have Polanco (starting at 3rd) and Halladay, Hamels, and Lee in the game. Shane is surely deserving of a spot on the team. He has probably been our most consistent player, and is our only guy batting over .300 now. He's been put in a number of different spots in our lineup and seems to be performing no matter what. He also randomly gave a talk at Pennridge High School this past school year about texting and driving. If that's not an All-Star, I don't know what is.
As for others who are deserving of an All-Star bid, I would definitely say Ryan Howard gets unfairly evaluated as a player. That doesn't really make any sense, but I can try to justify this. He has 67 RBI this year, 2nd in the NL. His 17 home runs are good for 5th in the NL. First base is a tough spot to get picked at in the NL, but an injured Pujols should have opened up a spot for him. His .253 average seems to be the only thing that can hold him back, and that does carry plenty of weight I'm sure. But at the same time, I kind of feel like they need to look at what he's doing all-around. He's been one of the top run producers in all of baseball despite being in a lineup that doesn't do such a great job of scoring runs. He has driven in or scored over 26% of our runs this season. To compare, Jose Bautista (the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game) sits at 25% for that same stat that I just made up. Adrian Gonzalez (an All-Star starter and the player with the most RBI in all of baseball), has a percentage just slightly higher than Howard's. Curtis Granderson (leads baseball in runs scored) has a percentage that's lower than Howard's as well. So, in theory, we're looking at the best run producers and scorers in all of baseball here, and Howard sits right up there with them in terms of his contribution to his own team. I think that's something that is deserving of the honor of being an All-Star.
Unfortunately, the All-Star game is also short on pitchers who are not starters or closers. If I brush over the fact that Ryan Madson is deserving of a spot, I still think there is a great case to be made for Antonio Bastardo. A left-handed specialist is becoming more and more valuable the more and more managers are analyzing the crap out of baseball games. And Bastardo has been much more than that. He started out as just a left-handed specialist, and then became our setup man when we needed him. Now that we need him as a closer, he is doing that. So he's done everything but start for us. And through it all, he has the 3rd best WHIP (0.80), 2nd best ERA (0.90), best opponents' batting average (.112), and best opponents' OPS (.418) of any pitcher in all of baseball who has thrown 20 innings this season. A do-everything pitcher who can handle any situation he's put in with better numbers than any other pitcher. If that's not an All-Star, I struggle to figure out how we define that term.
But enough about the All-Stars, you want to hear about the upcoming series with the Marlins. We last saw the Marlins in a 4-game sweep in the middle of June. June didn't go so hot for Florida. They had as many wins in the month as Cliff Lee did. So far this season, we have been pretty dominant against them, and they have been pretty atrocious against most everyone. We are 7-2 against them in 9 games. Since we all know how much I love numbers, let's say we played all 162 games in a season against the Marlins. If that were the case, here's what our numbers against them through 9 would project over the course of that whole season:
Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins would each have 54 home runs.
We would win 126 games
Shane Victorino would have 216 hits, 36 doubles, 18 triples, 18 home runs, and 54 stolen bases
Our starters would have a 2.47 ERA, and our bullpen a 1.89 ERA
Even Raul Ibanez would be batting .281
Obviously this is all ridiculous, but it is just a little snapshot of the nastiness we've exhibited over the 3 different series' we've had with them. And Chase Utley was present in only one of those.
Game 1: Vance Worley (3-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Ricky Nolasco (5-4, 4.08 ERA)
We're now at the point where teams will start seeing Worley for the second time. Worley doesn't seem to have the most dazzling stuff as a pitcher, so it worries me that teams may now start to figure him out as they seem him more and more. So far this season, he has done very very well against most everyone. His one game in which he really struggled? It was against the Mets, a team that he was starting against for the 2nd time this season. So while the Marlins lineup has just a .200 batting average against him with 1 RBI, I worry that they could be much more successful this time around due to the couple of at bats they've had against him in the past. As for us against Nolasco, it seems to be pretty feast or famine. Rollins has just 6 hits in 28 at bats, but 3 are doubles and 2 are home runs. Howard has only 5 hits in 25 at bats, but he has 1 double and 3 homers. Utley has the best numbers against him with a .308 batting average in 26 at bats, and he was not playing when Nolasco held us to just 2 runs in 6.1 innings in his previous start against us this year.
Prediction: Phillies 8 Marlins 6
Keep an eye out for: Iron Pigs. Worley (an Iron Pig to start the year) may get chased out of this game early, making way for a lot of relievers. Drew Carpenter, Scott Mathieson, and Michael Stutes could all end up seeing a batter or 3 up here in the big leagues today.
Game 2: Cole Hamels (9-4, 2.41 ERA) vs. Chris Volstad (4-7, 5.01 ERA)
Cole has pitched well against the Marlins this season, going 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 2 starts. In 14 innings, he has as many strikeouts (13) as he does baserunners allowed. One of those starts was actually against Volstad, a 9-1 win for the Phils in which we hit 5 home runs (4 of Volstad). He somehow managed to make it through 5.2 innings in that game while giving up 8 runs, making Hamels' 9th win an easy one. Hamels hasn't gotten one since then, but I expect that drought to end here. Volstad, on the other hand, has still not figured out how to pitch the Phils (obviously). In the preview of that last series, I pointed out how awesome our team was against him. Things have only gotten worse for him. We now have a .368 career combined batting average against him with a 1.113 OPS. I predicted homers, and homers we got. Let's see some more in this game
Prediction: Phillies 9 Marlins 1
Keep an eye out for: Phillies fans migrating toward the outfield seats in Miami to get a few souvenirs. God knows there will be plenty of room there, and we hope that the homers will keep flying against possibly my favorite opposing pitcher. It will be especially exciting to see what Howard does (.500 average, 7 home runs, 1.988 OPS lifetime against Volstad. 1.988 OPS. A 1.988 OPS. Do you realize how high that number is?). It deserves to be out of the parentheses. A 1.988 ON BASE PLUS SLUGGING PERCENTAGE AGAINST CHRIS VOLSTAD. And this isn't in like 4 at bats. It's 24 at bats. Another prediction: Marlins take Volstad out after 3 batters. Why bother letting him face Howard?
Game 3: Kyle Kendrick (4-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Anibal Sanchez (6-2, 3.30 ERA)
Over their careers, Kendrick and Sanchez have seen these opponents many times. One thing is common for each. Kendrick just beats the Marlins. He isn't necessarily great, but he wins. He is 6-2 lifetime. Anibal Sanchez loses to the Phillies. He's not a bad pitcher, but he's 3-7 against us. Kendrick has a 4.85 ERA against the Marlins, but he just wins. Sanchez has given up only 4 runs over 13 innings in his 2 starts against us this year, but the Marlins are 0-2 in those games. That's mainly a bullpen issue this year, but his lifetime 5.35 ERA against us is not promising. It could be a tough trip through our order for Sanchez when looking at these numbers. Rollins is a .296 hitter against him, Polanco .467, Utley .464, and Howard .320. Even Victorino, who has struggled against Sanchez, is hitting .300 against the Marlins this season. I really think this series could be a great opportunity for the Phillies to erupt offensively. We actually scored some runs this weekend. It wasn't a ton, but we were able to score consistently. I think now is the time that we really can take off. The lineup is more set now that it has been all season, and guys seem to have gotten comfortable and healthy. With our pitching staff getting slightly depleted, the timing could not be better.
Prediction: Phillies 6 Marlins 5
Keep an eye out for: a come-from-behind win in this game. Every prediction I make about Kendrick discusses how telling his first inning can be, and it seems that he has gotten away from that slightly. I think he gives up some early runs here but hangs tough to end up getting the win anyway
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