Are you are having a tough time getting pumped up for the Phillies first Spring Training contest tomorrow?

Well, lets fix that.

Sure we might not see Ryan Howard hit any bombs or Roy Halladay throw a few flame balls, but there is still enough going on to keep the attention of hardecore baseball fans.

Philly.com Phillies beat writer Andy Martino points out several things of interest heading into Philadelphia’s clash with Florida State. Bellow are his thoughts:

Points of interest for the exhibition include J.A. Happ’s new two-seam fastball.  The lefty is playing with the sinker to augment his four-seam fastball, cutter, change-up and curveball. As with all spring training pitch additions, he will work it in for a while before deciding whether [...]

Thank God, baseball is back ! 

Pitchers and Catchers reported a day early as the Phillies get geared up to try to make it 4 in a row.  The role that used to belong to the Atlanta Braves as the perennial team to beat seems to have been handed over to our Phitens.   The Braves and Marlins both made off season moves that indicate the team in their sights is in fact the Phillies.  The Mets also signed Jason Bay for 66 million for four years to improve their chances at being competative.  They may finish 15 games out instead of 24, but will never seriously challenge.

I believe this year the race is a two team one.  The Braves and the [...]

Roy Halladay is there.So is Cole Hamels.

J.A. Happ? Check

Brad Lidge? Check.

The pitchers and catchers have arrived at Clearwater, Fla., one day earlier than tomorrow’s mandatory date.

According to philly.com every pitcher has reported except for Jamie Moyer and Jose Contreras. (There’s an old persons joke just begging to be inserted with that).

So good news baseball fans; despite the snow that appeared outside our windows today, baseball is ready to get going again.

The only real news of the day is that J.C Romero said he expects to break camp with the team, implying that he will be completely recovered from his elbow surgery and ready to pitch at full strength by Opening Day.

That’s good news for the Phillies, as Romero is the [...]

If the Phillies want to become a dynasty, I offer 5 suggestions to send them on their way. They have a good balanced ball club, one that has won the National League east three times in a row, been to 2 World Series and won one. That is a good 500 or so games for the team. But to truly become a dynasty, they need to sustain this level of play for 1000 or so more games.

That is tough in an arbitration filled, salary capped, league unless they plan on spending half a billion dollars each and every off season like the Yankees seem to do. Frankly, as much support as the Phillies get, I still  [...]

Phillies rookie pitcher J.A, Happ was the only player named on every NL Rookie of the Year ballot by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

It still wasn’t enough to win him the award.

Florida rookie Chris Coghlan received 17 first-place votes, to Happ’s 10 in winning the award, Major League Baseball announced today.

To his credit Coghlan did have strong credentials, batting .321 with 31 doubles and nine home runs with the Marlins. However, I’m still not sure he deserved the nod over Happ, who was a big reason why the Phillies made it to the World Series for the second-straight season.

In his first full season Happ was sensational going 12-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 23 starts. He was certainly the [...]

If the Phillies are to become the first National League team to win back-to-back World Series since the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine teams of 1975-1976 and the first team since the 1985 Kansas City Royals to overcome a 3 games to 1 deficit Pedro Martinez will play a big part of it as he takes the mound tonight at new Yankee Stadium for game 6 of the World Series against the New York Yankees.

That the Phillies are here probably isn’t that surprising to many fans.   From the beginning of the season many had the Phillies picked to at least get back to the World Series.  That Pedro Martinez is pitching to keep the Phillies title hopes alive tonight isn’t [...]

Joe Blanton will get another chance to crack a home run in the World Series.

More importantly, he will get a chance to pitch the Phillies past the Yankees in Game 4, on Sunday. Manager Charlie Manuel announced today that Blanton will get the call, instead of using Cliff Lee on three days’ rest. Lee will pitch Game 5.

Manuel said that he did not think Lee would be ready on three days’ rest and that he did not want to push him. He also said that he will use J.A. Happ exclusively out of the bullpen the rest of the way.

Blanton started Game 4 against the Rays last year, combining a strong pitching performance with a clutch home run in what [...]

Do you think that this is what the Phillies had in mind when they pulled the trigger on the trade that brought Cliff Lee to Philadelphia? Did they have some crystal ball somewhere that told them Jamie Moyer would get hurt, that J.A Happ would be ineffective in his first post-season start and that Cole Hamels would not show the form that won him the NLCS and World Series MVP in 2008?

Nah, probably not.  What they did know about the 2008 American League Cy Young Award winner was that he is a horse.  A guy who takes the ball and pitches deep into games, and that is what the Phillies really need tonight when they take on 15 game winner [...]

If the Philadelphia Phillies want to repeat as World Series champions, they will have to prove their worth on the road.
Starting pitcher Cole Hamels had a rough outing, allowing four runs in five innings, and the Phillies could not battle all the way back in a 5-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies in Game 2 of the NLDS.
Yovit Torrealba provided the big blow, hitting a two-run home run in the third inning . From there, Aaron Cook corralled the Phillies hitters until the sixth when the Phillies battled back with three runs.
Trailing by one in the ninth, the Phils threatened, putting runners on first and second with two outs, but Colorado closer Huston Street got Shane Victorino to hit a [...]

The past two nights the Phillies are looking like a team that gave it’s all to clinch the division and are not all that concerned about home field advantage for the championship series.  With the exception of another towering homerun by Howard in the bottom of the first (his 44th) the Phillies offense was flat.  Joe Blanton looked equally flat as he allowed 5 runs in 6 plus innings and never seemed to be on top of his delivery. 

Charlie Manuel rested Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino took over the leadoff spot for the night and went 1 for four.  Tracy got his 4th pinch hit in the 7th inning, but was stranded on base as were all the Phillies that [...]

If there was any question of whether or not J.A. Happ would pitch out of the bullpen in the postseason, today’s news should erase it.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel announced that left-hander J.C. Romero has not recovered from his strained forearm injury and will need another month until he is fit to pitch.

That means the Phillies will enter the postseason without one of its biggest bullpen pieces last year, and most consistent left-hander.

Romero was huge in the 2008 postseason, including winning two games in the World Series.

With Romero no longer an option, the Phillies will likely turn to Happ and Scott Eyre to get out left-handed hitters in the late innings. It also means an already [...]

The Phillies closed out a game at Citizens Bank Park for a much needed 7-4 win over the Astros on a night when the Braves finally faltered in their headlong rush toward postseason.  Braves fans saw a glimmer of hope for the first time in 5 years as the perennial NL East champions made a valiant attempt but simply had too much ground to make up and too little time. 

It is all but done now.  The Phillies have 5 games to play with a 5 game lead.  Happ continued to lay claim to a spot in the postseason rotation with 5+ strong innings .  He allowed three earned runs and ran his record to 12-4, the best rookie record for a [...]

When I got in my car this evening following Brad Lidge’s 11th blown save of the season I knew I would hear some pretty upset Phillies fans when I flipped on 610 WIP.

The first thing I heard surprised me. It was suggestion that J.A. Happ should be the Phillies closer going forward.

With just two weeks left in the season this move seemed ridiculous. Happ has never closed and wouldn’t have much time to settle into the role.

It just didn’t seem like a reasonable option.

Forty minutes later when I got out of my car I was convinced: Happ taking over the closers role is the right move to make.

At this point it seems all but certain that the Phillies will go [...]

After a rough couple of weeks at the end of August, where the Phillies starting pitchers were roughed up in several games, the staff has reverted back to their mid season form.  They are looking like the powerful, indomitable rotation we expected to have after several key midseason trades.  Cliff Lee lost back to back starts, as Pedro struggled without losing a game but the staff endured.  The starters posted 28 consecutive scoreless innings before Hamels gave up a lone run on two freak bloop singles.   Lee looks like last years Cy Young winner, Pedro looks like Pedro of old, throwing 130 pitches of shut out ball in his last start, and after tonights performance by Cole Hamels,  JA Happ has got [...]

Joe Blanton again made a case to be in the Phillies’ rotation, pitching six scoreless innings in the Phillies 6-1 win over the Nationals.

Of course that comes after Pedro strengthened his case and Cliff Lee assured his. Then there is J.A. Happ who has made a season-long case to pitch come time for the postseason.

Never before has a Phillies team had such a great problem.

At this point there are only two things assured: First, Cole Hamels will be in or near the front of that rotation. Second, Lee will be right there with him.

From there, things get cloudy. For how well he has pitched this season and the fact that he is right-handed points to the notion that Blanton will [...]