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Vote for Perdro … again?
Will there be another Pedro Martinez sighting in Citizen’s Bank Park?
Well, maybe.
ESPN.com is reporting that the Phillies have been in contact with Pedro in regards to returning to the team in the second half of the season. Pedro was a pleasant surprise for the Phillies last year, rediscovering his fastball and giving the rotation some much needed depth. He was however tagged with two losses to the Yankees in the World Series.
Bellow is a statement in the story for Ruben Amero:
“We have talked to his agent, but there’s nothing so far,” Amaro Jr. said. “We are not negotiating, but we’ve been talking to him. It all depends on whether he wants to play or not.”
It’s hard to blame the Phillies for contacting Pedro considering the struggles of their rotation behind Roy Halladay and to some extent Cole Hamels. With J.A. Happ’s return still in question, Martinez wouldn’t be a horrible acquisition. And while I’m not sure Pedro can be a difference maker at this point in his career, the Phillies currently find themselves in a position where they need to consider all options.
So would you vote for Pedro?
Phillies, Halladay set to face Yankees, Sabathia
There are a ton of storylines following the Phillies as they head into a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.
- The Yankees are one of the hottest teams having caught the Rays in the AL East after being as far back as six games a month ago.
- The Phillies bats have gone silent for the better part of three weeks, leaving the team in third place, 3 ½ games behind the Braves.
- Is a series against the defending World Series champions just what the team needs to snap out of its funk?
- Will Chase Utley ever regain his form?
However, my favorite angle comes not in the series, but rather in tonight’s game: C.C. Sabathia vs. Roy Halladay.
It’s rare that one of the best pitchers in the AL goes against one of the best in the NL. If you are a fans of statistics then you have to like the Phillies chances in this one, even with a slumping offense.
Halladay has been masterful — and even perfect — for the Phillies this season, posting a 1.96 ERA to go with his eight wins. Things haven’t gone as well for Sabathia, who has a 4.01 ERA and has pitched 16 less innings than Halladay. Even more eye-catching is the way Halladay dominated New York in his time with Toronto. Although the Blue Jays have never had the talent of the Yankees, that hasn’t stopped Halladay from going 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA against the Bronx Bombers in his career. The two pitchers have met twice with each ace garnering a victory.
I expect a fun and entertaining game tonight, and it’s been quite some time since Phillies fans could put those two words together with their team’s play. This is also a game the Phillies need to win. The pitching matchups will favor New York the rest of the way and Philadelphia needs to make an early statement that it is finally ready to break free from its struggles.
When will the Phillies offense return?
There are slumps and then there is what the Phillies offense is going through right now.
Things got no better yesterday when the Phillies wasted a great start by Cole Hamels in a 3-1 loss to the Padres. Hamels took a no-hitter into the seventh, but allowed a pair of solo home runs and the Phillies offense had no answer. It was a continuation of what has been a putrid three weeks that has seen the team relinquish first place.
Here are a few of the scary numbers:
The Phillies, figured to be among the top home run hitting teams this season, have belted just 53, good enough for 12th overall. That’s not terrible but not nearly good enough for a team that relies on the longball so much.
• Philadelphia has been held to two runs or less in eight of its last 15 games, including being shutout five times.
• Their .258 team batting average is 16th in baseball. Who knows where they would be without Polanco’s .320 average.
• Chase Utley average has dipped to .260, the lowest it has been since the 2004 season.
• Raul Ibanez is hitting .230 with just three home runs. Dominic Brown’s footsteps get closer every day.
• Joe Blanton has the third best average of the team. He is hitting 308. We will overlook Nelson Figueroa’s .500 average in two at-bats.
• Jayson Werth is hitting .143 so far this month with six hits in 21 at-bats. Over that time he has as many strikeouts (7) as he does hits.
It has been bad, to be sure. Yet here the team sits, still in second place just two games behind Atlanta. The hope is that the worst has already arrived and that the team will straighten itself out and get back on top in the East.
But the question is when? When does the team find the offense that made them the most exciting ticket in town the last three years?
Have you seen my baseball … bat?
There’s a giant search going on right now for a precious piece of Philadelphia. It is a piece that has brought much joy to the city’s people the last three seasons. It’s been lost before, but never for this long and to this extreme.
Has anyone seen the Phillies offense?
The Phillies were shut out for the third straight game by the Mets and the fourth time in five games overall. The last time the Mets kept a team off the scoreboard in a three game series, they did it with guys named Seaver and Ryan. This time they did it with Takahashi and Dickey. Just five games ago the Phillies were seven games up on the Mets, now that lead is two. In fact, all five teams in the NL East are within three games of each other.
So what exactly has happened here?
The Phillies offense has always relied on the long ball so periods of offensive struggles have happened , but this is of epic proportions. Every time it looked like the Phillies would finally break through last night they hit into a double play – three to be exact.
Hey, remember those first two weeks of the season when the team was scoring eight runs a game? The Phillies would kill for one right now.
All totaled, the Phillies have scored one run in their last 47 innings. You would think a blooper would have had to fall in just once during this spell. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are striking out at a rate that has Adam Dunn shaking his head. Even Jayson Werth shaving his beard didn’t change his luck.
If you are having a hard time watching this team right now, you are not alone, but keep in mind that it has to end soon. And I feel sorry for the team who faces them when it ends. There’s a lot of frustrating waiting to poor off the bats of these players.
Hopefully it happens tonight in South Florida against the Marlins. If not we always have the Flyers on Saturday. There is no way anyone is keeping them off the board these days.
Phillies vs. Knuckleball — Take 2
If you tune in to the Phillies-Mets game tonight, you may think your eyes are playing tricks on you.
Don’t rush off to the bathroom to wash you eyes out with water. Your eyes will not be playing tricks on you.
Yes my friends, Jamie Moyer will be throwing harder than the opposing pitcher. Moyer and the Phillies will be facing Mets Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who floats his special pitch to the plate at a velocity in the mid-60s.
ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin has an article up talking about Dickey and how the Knuckleball he learned from Tim Wakefield saved his career.
Dickey used to be your average right-handed pitcher. His fastball hit low 90s and he had decent movement. However a shoulder injury several years ago dropped his velocity into the mid-80s and his career appeared over. Enter the knuckleball which is now the 35-year old’s featured pitch.
It is an interesting story to be sure, but make no mistake, Dickey is no Tim Wakefield.
Signed by the Mets in the Spring, Dickey struggled in camp and never threatened to make the Big League rotation. Only after injuries to Jon Niese and John Maine and Oliver Perez getting sent to the bullpen for being, well Oliver Perez, did the Mets bring up Dickey.
Even after he pitched well in his only start against Washington (two runs in six innings) he wasn’t assured another start. The Mets seriously considered starting left handed reliever Raul Valdes in his place today.
It’s a baseball oddity to be sure that the Phillies will face knuckleballers in consecutive games. Wakefield shut them down on Sunday, but you would hope Dickey could not do the same. He has only thrown the pitch for five years and his other stuff is average at best (although his 85 mph fastball is faster than Moyer’s).
Hopefully the Phillies bats break out tonight and send Dickey packing after just a few innings. If they don’t there will be a lot of GMs in the National League searching for a knuckleballer when the Phillies come to town.
A few too many for The Doc?
Is there such thing as too much of a good thing? When it comes to Roy Halladay’s performance on Tuesday, there is sure to be some debate.
Halladay went the distance in a 2-1 loss to the Pirates, throwing 132 pitches in the process. The pitch count was the highest of any pitcher in the majors this season.
On one side, Halladay is still better on pitch 132 than anyone Charlie Manuel has waiting in the bullpen. On the other, it’s still May and a 50 degree night hardly seems like the ideal time to stretch out the most important part of your rotation.
I have always thought that pitch counts are overrated, but personally I wouldn’t have brought Halladay in to start the 9th. He was pitching to keep the Phillies’ deficit at one, rather than to protect a lead. If the Phillies were winning 2-1, I would be much more supportive of the move.
But I’m not managing in the big leagues. Manuel has said in the past that there isn’t much difference in one of his guys throwing 105 pitches and 120, so I guess he doesn’t view 132 as much higher than, say, 110.
I’m sure Manuel was banking on the fact that Halladay has proven to be one of the most durable pitchers in the game. That hasn’t changed as he has aged so there is no reason to start thinking it will now. Of coarse if Doc leaves his next start early with elbow stiffness the media will be all over Manuel’s decision.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
A Mother’s Day Phillies treat
There are games that you remember for a few days, weeks or months.
Then there are games that stick with you for a lifetime.
For me one of those game’s took place on Mother’s Day 1993.
The year 1993 is covered in Phillies history as the team transformed itself from a perennial basement-dweller to a World Series contender, almost over night. You had the antics of Larry Anderson, the craziness of Lenny Dykstra and the leadership of Darren Daulton. It was a time where outfield platoons like Milt Thompson-Pete Incaviglia and Jim Eisenreich-Wes Chamberlain were still part of the game.
It was also the year Mariano Duncan found a place in the hearts of Phillies fans.
Duncan, who along with Mickey Morandini, held down second base, produced the greatest Mother’s Day moment in team history — and did it against one of the greatest closers of all time.
Philadelphia was plodding through what seemed like an certain loss against the Cardinals, trailing 5-2 in the eighth. St. Louis had just turned to Lee Smithto shut the door. Refusing to go down without a fight, the Phillies loaded the bases for Duncan.
Duncan has never been accused of being a home run hitter. He hit just 11 that season and 87 in his 12-year career.
But on that Mother’s Day Duncan blasted a grand slam to turn the fortunes of the game, and maybe even the season for Philadelphia. I can still here thel ate Harry Kalas’ great call of the home run in my head. Being just 10 at the time I can recall celebrating wildly, running from my neighbors yard, back to my own to alert the family of the great event.
Duncan had another memorable grand slam that season — one in a win against the Pirates that secured a divisional title.
But for me, it was the blast on Mother’s Day that still holds a place in my heart.
And it will be tough for anything that happens today to top that.
Moyer spits in face of Father Time
Chipper Jones — or Larry Jones, as his birth certificate reads — hasn’t been too thrilled with his team’s offense lately.
One day after being no-hit by bellow-average pitcher Scott Olsen and the Nationals, Jones watched the Braves offense stink the joint up again.
This time they couldn’t hit the oldest man in the league, Jamie Moyer.
Just how old is Moyer?
It depends who you ask. Jones, for example thinks he’s pretty old.
“Jamie carved us tonight,” Jones said, after Moyer pitched a complete -game shutout in the Phillies 7-0 win. “The guy is 87 years old and he’s still pitching for a reason. He stays off the barrel. He changes speeds, changes the game plan and keeps you guessing.”
Jones was exaggerating Moyer’s age of course — Moyer is a young 47 — but who could have saw this coming?
After his first couple of starts it looked like Moyer would be the weak link in the rotation, but since the opening month of the season Moyer has been more than respectable. He improved to 4-2 and lowered his ERA to a manageable 4.38. With this offense, 4:38 is good enough from a No. 5 starter.
Moyer has thrown a two-hitter before. In fact his first came in 1986. I can’t quite recall who that game was against.
Maybe that’s because I was 2.
Blanton returns, Madson still an idiot
Big Joe Blanton is back for the Phillies.
As for Ryan Madson? He might be gone for a while.
Madson, who injured his toe thinking he was a soccer player and that a metal chair was the ball after blowing a save last week, will have surgery on Tuesday to fix his broken right toe. It was reported that Madson had a CT scan Monday and it revealed further damage to his foot.
Philadelphia trainer Scott Sheridan said before Monday night’s game against St. Louis that a timetable for Madson’s return will be announced after the surgery.
As for Blanton, he was solid in his return but not good enough to keep the Phillies from falling to the Cardinals, 6-3. Blanton pitched well until he ran into trouble in the seventh. Reliever Nelson Figueroa couldn’t bail him out, allowing two inherited runners to score. Why is Figueroa coming in a one-run game in the seventh anyway?
Blanton finished will four runs allowed over 6 2/3 innings, on 10 hits and 94 pitches. Even though it was a loss, Blanton showed little rust and should fit in nicely as a strong No. 3 in the rotation.
The Phils get back at it with the Cards on Tuesday.
Philles-Mets overreactions – Take 1
There’s nothing like the first installment of the Phillies-Mets rivalry to bring out the most uneducated comments from Philadelphia and New York fans alike.
This rivalry, which will have 17 more meetings after tonight always gets folks talking on sports talk radio. It becomes more like comedy radio, actually.
The schedule makers have been nice enough to give each team a day of on Thursday leaving fans two full days to call in to 610 or 950 in Philly and 660 in New York. Now the smart baseball fan knows that the calendar reads April and that this series holds little meaning in what will take place this summer. At best the Phillies will finish the series with a 2.5 game lead on New York. At worst they will be 3.5 games back. The end result will likely lie somewhere in the middle. But sports talk isn’t rational. However, as I said earlier it is funny, so here are just a few of the things I have heard stated on the AM dials in both Philadelphia and New York. One or two of these statements might actually prove to be true:
- The Phillies will sweep this series and the Mets will be back to fourth place by next week.
- A series win by the Mets will show that they will be in contention deep into the summer.
- Mike Pelfrey (4-0, MLB-leading 0.69 ERA) has emerged to give the Mets the best No. 2 in baseball.
- Mike Pelfrey is garbage and will be rocked on Saturday.
- The Mets announcers are the worst in the game.
- The Phillies announcers put you to bed.
- Philadelphia wants to be New York.
- New York wants to be Philadelphia.
- Cole Hamels is better than Johan Santana.
- The Mets winning streak means nothing because it came during a home stand.
- The Mets winning streak is a sign of things to come as it coincided with the arrival of Ike – Davis and the return of Jose Reyes.
- Ike Davis is a fluke.
- Ike Davis has a swing comparable to Ted Williams (this after 10 games).
- David Wright’s time has come and gone. He is just an average baseball player.
- All of those flyball outs hit by David Wright at home will be 10 rows deep at Citizens Bank Park.
- This series will set the tone for the entire season.
Ah, let the fun begin.
Halladay vs. Santana on Sunday?
There could be some real drama at Citizens Bank Park in Philadephia this weekend.
The Phillies and Mets will renew their rivalry with a three-game series beginning Friday. While Saturday’s game will be televised on Fox at 3:30 the real excitement could come on Sunday Night baseball on ESPN.
The way things look we could be in store for a Roy Halladay-Johan Santana showcase.
Halladay pitched on Monday and Sunday’s game would be his next turn to pitch. He could also pitch on Saturday on regular rest if Charlie Manuel decides to skip someone in the rotation. The Phillies have an off day on Thursday, so Manuel will have a choice.
Meanwhile Santana is pitching today and will be on regular rest for Sunday. The Mets also have off on Thursday so Jerry Manuel will too have a choice. He could go with Johan on Sunday on normal rest and skip the No. 5 starter or select to give him an extra day. In that case the Phillies would miss Santana entirely.
So we may have a marquee matchup or we may not. While I’m sure the Phillies would not complain about missing Santana I think both fan bases would love to get their first taste of Doc vs. Santana.
Phillies dominate Nationals
The first game of the season is in the books and things turned out exactly as Phillies fans hoped it would. Roy Halladay was dominant over 7 innings and Placido Polanco had six RBIs and a grand slam in an 11-1 spanking of the Washington Nationals.
Opening Day is the always time for overreactions from fans, so I won’t go there.
But I will give you a few quick thoughts.
First impressions:
— Halladay has some serious movement on all of his pitches. Not much Halladay did surprised me today as he is the model of an ace. Actually the only thing that was a surprise was each time the Nationals managed a hit. His stuff was that good today.
— Tom McCarthy loves him some Roy Halladay. I’m talking about the “want to take him home” kind of love. It was bad.
— The Phillies are going to lead the league in Grand Slams again. When Polanco is raking them out, you know your in for big things. Plus this team always fills up the bases.
— Rollins looks like the J-Roll of old. He clearly wasn’t himself last season, never really finding a groove after an awful first half of the year. He had two hits and was on base four times. In other words, he was a perfect leadoff hitter.
— The Mets won 7-1 today, which is good news for the Phillies’ rival. The bad news: Four more days until Santana can throw again.
— Sarge went the whole game without using the phrase “as well” or “slide-piece.” Don’t expect it to happen again.
— As I’m writing this Braves rookie Jason Heyward just destroyed a home run in is first career at-bat. This kid might just be as good as advertised.
— The Phillies played smart, sound baseball. Now all they have to do is keep that up for a 161 games plus the playoffs.
Phillies roster set for Opening Day
Baseball officially begins tonight with the Yankees taking on the Red Sox on ESPN as the schedule makers have done their best to make sure fans will be sick of the rivalry by mid-June.
As for Philadelphia baseball — well that’s about to take off as well.
The Phillies open up the season Monday afternoon with a 1:05 start against the Washington Nationals.
The Phillies will begin their quest for a second World Series title in three years a little short-handed as Joe Blanton, Brad Lidge and J.C. Romero will start the regular season on the DL. The position players have remained healthy though, so expect plenty of runs to be scored in this opening three-gams set with the Nats.
Bellow is the 2010 Phillies roster, which was finalized this weekend.
Pitchers: Righthanders Danys Baez, Andrew Carpenter, Jose Contreras, Chad Durbin, Roy Halladay, David Herndon, Kyle Kendrick and Ryan Madson, and lefthanders Antonio Bastardo, Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer.
Infielders: Juan Castro, Greg Dobbs, Ryan Howard, Placido Polanco, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.
Catchers: Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider.
Outfielders: Ben Francisco, Ross Gload, Raul Ibañez, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth.
Blanton has problem ab problem
Big Joe Blanton may have a big problem on his hands. Or just a minor one.
Either way with the regular season less than a week away this is not the time for injuries to start popping up.
It is being reported that Blanton injured an abdominal muscle during a bullpen session today. He will be examined by a team doctor on Thursday. Even if the injury is deemed minor it is unlikely Blanton would make his scheduled exhibition start against the Pirates on Saturday.
If Blanton needs to go on the DL the team will at least be comfortable with his replacement as Kyle Kendrick would be the obvious choice to fill the void.
As we wait for the results, and hope for the best, cue the irony of the heaviest pitcher on the staff having a problem in his abdominal region.
After all, they say laughter is the best medicine.
Nationals claim old friend Chris Coste
Our old friend Chris Coste is on the move again — although not outside the NL East. Coste was placed on waivers by the Mets yesterday and quickly scooped up by the Nationals. Hopefully they can find a use for the veteran catcher as he certainly became a fan favorite in his time with the Phillies.
The following is an exert from the Washington Post
The Nationals claimed catcher Chris Coste off of waivers from the New York Mets, a minor move aimed at shoring up their catching depth. With Jesus Flores still rehabbing his shoulder injury, the Nationals needed an extra catcher in their organization behind Ivan Rodriguez and Wil Nieves.
Coste, 37, played 88 games last season for the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, hitting .224 with a .618 OPS. He also won a World Series with the Phillies in 2008 and provides a reliable solution in case of emergency.
The Mets have a glut of catchers in their camp, which made Coste expendable in their eyes. But he has an option remaining, so the Nationals will be able to send him to Class AAA Syracuse without the risk of losing him.
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