The Time is Now

The Phillies' recent struggles need to end soon, but the upcoming schedule does not exactly look promising for that to happen. The series with the Padres starting tonight is an important one, as well as the following series with the Marlins. After these 7 games, we have 15 straight against the American League, against which we have always been horrible. Looking at our schedule up until the All-Star Break, there is really nothing easy about it:

4 against the Padres (first place NL West)
3 against the Marlins (1.5 games behind us)
3 in Boston (who we have already lost 2 of 3 to)
3 in New York against the Yankees (2nd best record in baseball)
3 against the Twins (first in AL Central)
3 against the Indians
3 against the Blue Jays (3rd in AL East but with a better record than us)
3 in Cincinnati (1st in NL Central)
3 in Pittsburgh
3 against Atlanta (3 games ahead of us)
4 against the Reds (once again, 1st in NL Central)

Nothing about this is easy. Yes, the Indians are terrible, but they are still an American League team and we usually suck against them. The Pirates are not too great either, but we can't be too confident about any team when we're playing the way we are.

With all of that being said, it is important for us to make a statement in this series against the Padres. They do not have much of an offense to speak of, ranking 23rd in batting average, 26th in home runs, and 21st in RBI. They're in first place, however, because of their pitching. Their pitching staff has the lowest ERA in all of baseball. Combine that with the Phillies scoring less than the Flyers* since last Monday (14 for the Flyers, 11 for the Phils), and we could be in trouble. But now would be the time to get our offense back on track. Against arguably the best pitching staff we will face, it would be huge to win 3 of these 4 games, and I think it is very possible. We shouldn't need to score more than 4 runs in any game in order to beat the Padres. Halladay and Hamels should win their games, and that would leave it up to Moyer or Blanton to pick up a 3rd win. We need to pick up some kind of momentum going into a long stretch of interleague play.

The Phillies often pride themselves on taking the season one game at a time and forgetting about the day before. It is time that they live up to that claim, forget the last 10 or 12 games, and start winning some games that we should win. If it doesn't happen now, it is hard to see when it will.

*On a side note, if you're too depressed about the Phillies right now, check out those Flyers. They'll look to even up the Stanley Cup Finals tonight in Philadelphia. It seems like both the Flyers and Phillies are in must-win games tonight. The Flyers would be in trouble falling down in the series 3-1 and going back to Chicago. The Phillies would be in trouble losing with Halladay on the mound when they need to turn things around. There will be a lot of excitement tonight in Philadelphia all within a one-block radius.

Fantasy Baseball

The Phillies lost another one, falling 1.5 games behind the Braves for first place in the NL East. I feel there's really no need to worry at this point in the season about where we are in the standings as long as we're staying near the top. It's also tough to gauge what is going on with this team currently with all of the injuries. Because of this, today we'll take a break from talking about the Phillies.

For those who may not know what fantasy baseball is, it's basically a few friends putting together teams of the best players in the league and getting points for different statistics. Whoever's team can rack up the most points for those given statistics over the course of a season then wins.

A few years ago, I heard an idea for a fantasy baseball league that I thought was really interesting. The league would consist of just 2 teams, each team with 15 players. There would be 10 position players (one at each position, an extra infielder, and an extra outfielder) and 5 pitchers (4 starters, 1 reliever). Normal leagues will consist of more teams with less players on each team. But this league gets weirder than that. Of the 30 players that make up the league, there can only be 1 from each team. That means if one person picks Chase Utley for their team, neither person can have Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Jayson Werth, etc. There are 30 teams in the league, so it works out to one player from each team - no more, no less. And for a final twist, these teams are to remain the same for the next 5 seasons.

I talked to my brother-in-law Jeremiah about this idea, and we were both excited to have this league together. It's probably the coolest thing we've ever done. A lot of planning went into this, including narrowing down realistic players from each team that one of us would pick and then ranking those players as a guide for us while we were having our live draft at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Richmond, Virginia. We also each had to come up with some type of strategy as to how we would draft our players. We ended up looking at the draft in slightly different ways, and we came up with very different teams in the process. Here's a look at each of our rosters:

Cameron - "Dippin' Dots" (named after the Ice Cream of the Future)
C - Joe Mauer MIN
1B - Albert Pujols STL
2B - Chase Utley PHI
3B - Evan Longoria TB
SS - Troy Tulowitzki COL
IF - Joey Votto CIN
OF - Justin Upton ARI
OF - Ryan Braun MIL
OF - Adam Jones BAL
OF - Andrew McCutchen PIT
SP - Felix Hernandez SEA
SP - Justin Verlander DET
SP - John Danks CWS
SP - Jered Weaver LAA
RP - Andrew Bailey OAK

Jeremiah - "The Flying Cars" (named after what we will be driving in 5 years)
C - Geovany Soto CHC
1B - Mark Teixeira NYY
2B - Aaron Hill TOR
3B - Ryan Zimmerman WAS
SS - Hanley Ramirez FLA
IF - Adrian Gonzalez SD
OF - Jason Heyward ATL
OF - Matt Kemp LAD
OF - Grady Sizemore CLE
OF - Nelson Cruz TEX
SP - Tim Lincecum SF
SP - Zack Greinke KC
SP - Jon Lester BOS
SP - Wandy Rodriguez HOU
RP - Francisco Rodriguez NYM

Jeremiah had the first pick of the draft. I then had the 2nd and 3rd. He then had the 4th and 5th. And so on until the last pick of the draft, which belonged to me. Here is the order the players were picked in:
Jeremiah - 1. Hanley Ramirez
Cam - 2. Joe Mauer 3. Albert Pujols
J - 4. Tim Lincecum 5. Mark Teixeira
C - 6. Chase Utley 7. Evan Longoria
J - 8. Ryan Zimmerman 9. Jason Heyward
C - 10. Justin Upton 11. Felix Hernandez
J - 12. Matt Kemp 13. Zack Greinke
C - 14. Troy Tulowitzki 15. Ryan Braun
J - 16. Grady Sizemore 17. Jon Lester
C - 18. Justin Verlander 19. Adam Jones
J - 20. Geovany Soto 21. Adrian Gonzalez
C - 22. Andrew Bailey 23. John Danks
J - 24. Francisco Rodriguez 25. Nelson Cruz
C - 26. Jered Weaver 27. Joey Votto
J - 28. Aaron Hill 29. Wandy Rodriguez
C - 30. Andrew McCutchen

It can be seen here that Jer decided to focus more on pitching and I on hitting. Neither team is clearly better or worse than the other, and our differing strategies worked out fine for both of us. We were both happy with the teams we had after the draft. If you're into fantasy baseball and have a friend who likes it as much as you, I'd highly recommend trying this out. It's a ton of fun to think about and then draft, and it gives you some type of interest in every team. Also, we decided to make all of our players "starters" on the fantasy teams, meaning they get points every day no matter what. I couldn't decide to sit Felix Hernandez because he's pitching against the Yankees. We get all of the good and the bad with every player, and this makes the league very low-maintenance. All we do is check on how we are doing after each day.

I am leading the league thus far, but not by much. And it doesn't really matter that much at this point, since we still have over 4 1/2 seasons to see how things turn out. At the end of 5 seasons, the loser has to pay for some freak nasty tickets to a Phillies game. And the winner will get to choose if he wants to go first or second in the next draft.

Being Away

Last season, there was a 3 1/2 week stretch of the season in which I was working at a camp and could not watch any Phillies games. Before I left, the Phillies had won just 4 of their previous 18 games. The next game I watched upon my return, JA Happ lost his first start of the season after being 7-0. In between, the Phillies went 15-2. They then lost 6 of the next 9 games right after this.

This series of events indirectly led to the demise of this blog last season. The Phillies seemed to step it up when I was unable to watch, and I brought some type of horrible vibe to the team upon my return as a loyal viewer. This led to an obvious detached feeling from a team that I live and die with. At times, I considered a complete boycott of televised games for the good of the team. I selfishly continued watching, and things eventually turned around anyway.

Leaving for California last Friday was a nerve-racking time as I was experiencing flashbacks to this time last season. Although I was excited for the Phillies to go on a 10-day run, I was nervous as to what horrendous events would transpire as I made it back into the Philadelphia area.

Lucky for me, the Phillies didn't play any games while I was gone (with the exception of Roy Halladay*).

Although looking at results every day proved costly to my morale, I could find a slight silver lining as our offense mustered just 12 runs in 9 games while going 3-6. This meant that the Phillies could actually succeed with me being a regular viewer! While not watching any of the games during my vacation, I realized that there was no way the Phillies could play worse once I was back in the game.

What does this all mean? Well, it certainly doesn't mean that I'm happy or that anyone should be with the way the Phillies have played in the past 3 series. But it does mean that I can continue watching, and, in doing so, I can continue posting on this blog. It also, hopefully, means that the Phillies can begin playing baseball again. It took them awhile today to warm up to my eyes again, but 4 straight doubles today gives us some reason to hope that more hits are on the way.

Placido Polanco** should be back in the lineup tomorrow, and that should certainly provide a spark in Atlanta. He is batting .450 against the Braves this season. A day off for Werth will hopefully have him back on track as well after going 0 for his last 19. He has 2 home runs, 4 doubles, and 7 RBIs in 21 at-bats against the Braves this season.

*Roy Halladay threw a perfect game?! And I didn't get to see it?! Majoke! I am in no way actually angry that he threw a perfect game, and I want to take nothing away from it, but it is definitely a little disappointing that I couldn't witness with my own eyes as it happened. BUT! I would like to thank those people who helped me out in experiencing that perfect game:
Zack Schanz - for texting me with Roy Halladay's stat line at the end of each inning starting with the 4th. He knew something special was happening early, and he managed to avoid jinxing it
Brianna Link - for answering her phone and handing it to her husband and my brother-in-law
Jeremiah Link - for giving me a play-by-play of the bottom of the 9th inning over the phone
Mom - for calling me afterwards to share the good news (after I called her to tell her to turn on the game). Also for DVRing the encore so I can watch it this week
Mike Costello - for calling to share the joy upon completion of the game
Phil Nase - for letting me know that he and his girlfriend made a big scene in a fancy restaurant upon finding out the results. Respect
Cheese - for sitting by (he was in Cali with me) and making sure I didn't have a heart attack while getting the play-by-play on the phone. I've never been that excited/sweaty during a phone call
Ben Link - for reminding me that I got one of my predictions wrong because of this
Alex Schuh and Abbey Fries - for calling me about something completely unrelated while this game was going on. I just thought they'd like to be mentioned
"The Man Upstairs" - because this feels like an acceptance speech, and I'm a young person so I'm required by law to only refer to God as "The Man Upstairs" during this
And anyone else I'm forgetting! You are all so special to me! (*fighting back tears*)

**Placido Polanco will from now on be referred to in this blog as "Duke." First of all, I think this is an awesome nickname, and he definitely needs a nickname. Secondly, his head looks like that of a boxer (the dog, not the fighter), and my good friend Bean has a boxer (once again, canine variety) named Duke. Thirdly, I hate Duke basketball. That just needed to be said.

California

Yesterday, I arrived in sunny California to be here for the next week.  This means, I probably won't have a real update more than maybe once.

Interleague play starting.  Nice win against the Red Sox last night.  Interleague play, though, is really not important.  We struggle every season in interleague play, and so does every other NL team.  Because of this, we don't need to do that well because we can keep up either way.  Plus we're in first and awesome against the NL.

A Tale of Two Cities

*This post has been written by one of my best friends and, in my opinion, the only real Pirates fan in this world. Ben Follett (affectionately known as "B Fresh" by yours truly) is a baseball purist and a fantastic human being. I asked him to write this post to shake things up a bit and get a feel for these 2 games from the perspective of a Pittsburgh fan. This is the first of what I hope will be several guest blog entries this season. If interested in writing one, please let me know. So, shut up Cameron, and here it is:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

- Charles Dickens

When Charles Dickens wrote that famous line to begin his 1859 novel, I don’t believe that he could have guessed that it would ring so true for two cities in Pennsylvania, 151 years later. The Pirates and the Phillies are worlds apart as far as baseball teams go, and that was never more apparent than in the recent two game series that took place in the city of Brotherly Love.

The series was the first of 6 games between the PA Turnpike rivals with the next four coming over July 4th weekend in Pittsburgh. (A little sidebar: I know you, “the readers” whom I would surmise are mostly Phillies fans would say something like this, “What the crap, we have to play four games in Pittsburgh, over 4th of July, when they play only two in Philly! Outrage!” Well let me tell you, last night was your team’s 60th consecutive sellout, we sold out one game at the beginning of the season. We need it more. Deal with it.) So without further ado, a recap of games 1 and 2.

Game 1:

The Pirates get smoked, 12-2 while getting dominated by Kyle Kendrick (the Phillies worst starter in my opinion) and the long ball (Werth, Howard). But this game really boils down to two distinct points in the game.

Point #1: First, bottom of the first inning, Pirates up 1-0. The following sequence is the exact reason the Phillies are the best in the National League. Victorino singled on an 0-2 pitch low and away that he merely slapped between short and third. Next, after four pick off moves and a chorus of boos from the Philly faithful, Victorino steals second. Then Polanco hits a ball to the right side to move Victorino to third and Jimmy Rollins in his triumphant return does the same thing to score the run. 1-1. Teams that play small ball to score runs, even when they don’t need to, win baseball games. End of story.

Point #2: In the third, Morton loads the bases with one out and Rollins coming to the plate. He busts him inside and gets him to pop out. Next, with Ryan Howard up and the shift on (which I hate), Howard hits a two strike pitch right at where the shortstop would normally be scoring two run. Werth comes up and hits a home run and the score is 5-1 and might as well be 25-1. Game over.

Game 2: (AKA “fill-in-the-blank Pirates pitcher vs. Roy Halladay” Game)

I made a bet with a guy I work with that the Pirates will win more than 70 games this season. The bet is for a case of beer. I like beer and I also really think the Pirates can win 70 games. Game 2 was not one of those games. But alas, this is the Pirates. Nothing is as it seems. Halladay dominated for most of the game but found himself in the middle of the only thing the Pirates do better than the Phillies, close games. The Pirates are now 12-4 in games decided by 2 runs or less, and the Phillies are now 8-8. This game was about the Phillies not hitting as much as anything else. I would like to attribute that to good pitching by Zach Duke, but I know better (Actually, I’ll give him some credit, good game Zach). In the end the Pirates win, Raise the Jolly Roger, no one ever has success when it is their bobblehead night, and the series is a split. What was painfully obvious during this series is that the Phillies are really good, even when they lose, and the Pirates are bad, even when they win.

Although this series was full of “Expect the Unexpected” like Cameron wrote in his preview, I have learned that the Pirates are exactly what I expect. As naïve as I can be at times because I love baseball and want them to be good; they aren’t good, they won’t win Championships and therefore aren’t the Phillies. For once in my life, I actually wish Pittsburgh was more like Philadelphia, somebody shoot me.

...

So that was kind of expected. To the point where my mom called the grand slam

Expecting the Unexpected

Although I cannot claim to be a real Flyers fan, anyone from the Philly area has to be loving the NHL Eastern Conference Playoffs right now.  After getting in the playoffs on the last day of the season, facing the 2-seed in the first round, being down 3-0 in the second round, and losing their goalie, the Flyers now have home ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals and won Game 1 6-0 last night.  I doubt anyone outside of my good friend Bean could have predicted a series of events for the Fly Guys anything like what has gone down in the past few weeks.

Along the same lines, the baseball season thus far has been nowhere close to what most of the "experts" would have expected.  Here's a quick look at some things that just shouldn't be happening:

AL East - The Red Sox are in 4th place.  The Yankees, commonly picked to win the World Series again, are in 2nd behind the Rays.  The Rays are not necessarily a surprise, but the 3rd place Halladay-less Blue Jays certainly are

AL Central - No surprise to me the Twins are in first.  To my credit, though, I'm awesome.  The Royals winning 14 games with only 1 of those coming from Cy Young winner Zack Greinke is definitely unexpected

AL West - The Mariners were looking mighty good with two aces and the addition of Chone Figgins, but they have one of the worst records in baseball.  The Angels, who were the other favorite to win the division, are also under .500.

NL East - The Nationals.  Holy crap the Nationals.

NL Central - The largely favored Cardinals are in 2nd place behind the surprising Reds and just ahead of the Pirates.  Yes, the Pirates are in 3rd

NL West - The Padres are in 1st place after back-to-back losing season and with no sign of a real offense aside from Adrian Gonzalez

So, although the season is still relatively young, many things are happening around the league that have people confused.  It's tough for a team to be a fluke for an entire 162-game season, so things will even out eventually.  

In the meantime, the Pirates are in 3rd place and coming to Philadelphia.  It's tough to claim the Pirates have been successful this season with a 16-21 record, but it's tough to tell both Pittsburgh baseball fans that the Pirates have been unsuccessful considering the horrendous failures for the past 17 seasons.  Third place is a big deal.

Win or lose, the season has been exciting to watch for Pirates fans.  They are 11-4 in games decided by 2 runs or less.  That means that they get to see other teams score a lot of runs in games they lose.  That's exciting, right?

This is good and bad news for the Phillies.  We know that we can score a lot of runs.  We also know the pain of losing close games all too often.  I have a feeling that this 2-game series will see more success, though.

Game 1: Charlie Morton vs. Kyle Kendrick

Charlie Morton sounds like a baseball player's name.  That seems to be all he has going for him this season.  He has a quality start in each of his last 3 games, and his ERA is still over 9.  That means that he has an ERA of 4.50 at the very most in his last 3 games, yet in 7 games this season, he has an ERA of 9.19.  I normally do a stupid amount of math and calculations in this blog, but I'm just going to say that he completely sucked for 4 games before becoming decent.  This game could end up being something like 12-6 in favor Phillies with the Pirates random offensive success showing up while Kendrick pitches.  Kendrick could also end up pitching a shutout.  We'll see which Kyle shows up for this game.

Game 2: fill-in-the-blank Pirates pitcher vs. Roy Halladay

I would say sorry, but I hate Pittsburgh.

This series should be a 2-game sweep for the Phils, relying on offense in one game and pitching in the next.  But with the way this baseball season has been thus far, we can't really know what to expect.