Werth What Exactly ?
Posted: September 15, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Astros, Cubs, Edge, free agent, Jayson Werth, LOLstros, love, phillies, quadruple double, sCrUBs, Victorino, WWE 4 Comments
It’s
starting to look like Jayson Werth maybe more like his look-a-like character
Edge than just a passing resemblance of features. The ongoing media focus on his
pending free agency this off-season maybe turning Werth into the ‘good guy, bad
guy’ characters that Edge is known for in the WWE.
The current rumors have Werth now looking for a new agent since the old one
was unable to successfully negotiate some closure with the Phillies for a
continued relationship past this season. I think the Phillies have made it clear
that there is almost zero chance that Werth will be back next year, they don’t
want to ante up what he and others believe he can demand and I don’t think the
Phillies want to make any commitment to tenure when they have Brown and Mayberry
for a lot less money and a lot less hassle.
There are apparent questions surrounding Werth, with him not having received
an offer of love from the Phillies, has he been trying to make a point by not
being all he can be as a baseball player for a contending team. Since the All
Start Break we have seen Werth make base running mistakes rarely seen in ‘single
A’ baseball, we have seen him make bad routes in the outfield and miss catches,
and of course as every ‘advance scout’ knows when Werth is hitting 5th behind
Howard, you can safely walk Howard because you know Werth is not hitting with
RiSP.
Is he doing this to make a point and stick it to the Phillies for not showing
him the same love they showed Victorino or is he just proving previous reports
right that he really isn’t an everyday player.
Where will Werth be next year, any guess is pure speculation, so I would have
to speculate at sCrUBs, LOLstros, or even the Mariners.
Useless stats 101 – Shane Victorino added to the quadruple double
stats this season with his 10th triple in Florida.
The ALMOST Yankee Fan ….
Posted: September 13, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Astros, Braves, Cardinals, fun, phillies, Phillies Outside, Pirates, post season, Reds, Roller Coaster, season end, September, Texas, Yankees 7 Comments
A picture I came across not long ago, reminded me of how close it was that maybe I could have become part of the evil empire, it wasn’t to be, I saw the passage to the good side and followed the light. In defense of the fact that I had managed to wear a Yankees hat without my head burning, it was sometime in the 80’s and I had yet to see my first Phillies game. It wasn’t long after this I was resident down the 1st base line at Veterans Stadium enjoying the sight of the Philadelphia Phillies playing the New York Mets. It was early in my understanding of the game, so I was more into why this or why that, than any rivalry.
The brief visits over the next 10 years gave me more of an understanding of the game and an increased passion for the Phillies, even though during those early years in my baseball life L’s were a premium for the Phillies and the W’s could be something of a rarity. I learned that wins and loses aren’t necessarily what get you hooked to baseball, it definitely helps to have a post season visit at some point in time, but right down to the last game before elimination there is still hope and the knowledge that any team could and at times does collapse giving way to the unexpected.
The National League East is definitely heating up, with both the Phillies and the Braves playing only teams within the division through season end, with a 3 game set against each other in Philadelphia next week, the season will end on a 3 game series in Atlanta between the two clubs. I say tighten your belts it’s going to be an up and down roller coaster final couple of weeks for both Braves and Phillies fans.
Some have already written the Cardinals off, but with a couple of shots at the sCrUBs and the Pirates in the final weeks and the Reds having to play double duty with the Brewers and the LOLstros, in my opinion they could be in for a bumpy season end, it only needs the Reds to continue at the 3-7 pace and the Cards to improve with a spurt of wins, after all this is baseball anything can happen and it could be that Texas is the only team that appears safe at the moment, but even they could collapse and make the final weekend full of games that shape the post season.
Useless stats 101 – The year I got the Yankees hat and ultimately became a Phillies fan, there were just 2 divisions in each league and the Phillies finished 26 games back of the Cardinals, in the NL, with a 75-87 record.
WTF Award for August goes to….
Posted: September 6, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 20, A's, Angels, Arizona, Astros, Athletics, Atlanta, Baltimore, Blue Jays, BoSox, Braves, Brewers, Canada, Cardinals, Chicago, ChiSox, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, D'Backs, Detroit, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Florida, Giants, Happ, Houston, Indians, Kansas City, Los Angeles, loses, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Milwaukee, mini-soda, Minnesota, Nationals, Nats, New York, Oakland, Obama, Orioles, Padres, Philadelphia, phillies, Pirates, Pittsburgh, POTUS, President Obama, Pujols, Rangers, Rays, Red Birds, Red Sox, Reds, Rockies, Royals, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay. Boston, Texas, Tigers, Toronto, Tribe, Twins, Washington, White Sox, wins, WTF, WTF Award, Yankees 9 CommentsSomething I haven’t heard for sometime, recently changed, when I heard one of my all time favorite sayings – “Time is something to prevent everything happening at once” The game of baseball is testimony to that statement, with 162 games over 6 months to figure out which teams will play into month 7, although sometimes it seems like it all happens in month 6, it is just an accumulation of outcomes from the numerous WTF occurrences that have taken place during the season.
August saw it’s share of those WTF moments, from coast to coast baseball gave us some gems and as with other months most of those came from the umpires, from early in the month right through to the end. They never seem to have favorites or teams they actually really dislike, although at times your team is always the one getting the brunt of their wrath. With the ability to replay, slow down, freeze frame every pitch, play and call that can affect the outcome of every game the umpires are constantly under the spotlight, so this will constantly produce WTF moments from umpires everywhere..
The month also saw a couple of teams position themselves for this award, not because of the outstanding achievements they had as a collective body, but because they found the need to act like unruly children, NHL players even NFL players. You could say the heated moment between 2 teams fighting for the lead of a division can at times be explained, and is there such a thing as equal punishment, since both teams could have acted more like baseball players and not NHL players. The confusion was in Florida, although this happened on the first day of September, I decided to use it for August just so that we keep the fights together and keep them away from the post season run. We had 2 teams fighting to end the season better than the Mets, fighting each other, this wasn’t heated because the season depended on it, this was simply senseless and a definite WTF moment, but I will not reward those that are teaching our youngsters criminal behavior.
On a high note of the year for at least one team, they started the season off as, in my eyes, the worst team in the National League, they seemed to continue on that same line. In July they made some trades and things seemed to change in August, they had one of the best records in baseball for August with 17 wins, the managed 3 sweeps, yes one may have been against the Pirates, but they also swept the Cardinals and the Phillies. The LOLstros have acted like the worst team in baseball, but WTF have they been drinking in August, okay no chance of post season play unless the Cards continue to meltdown and the Reds follow suit.
Talking of meltdowns, I almost included the San Diego Padres in this list, they have managed to get swept back to back to back, but it seems to me there WTF moment is still ongoing. It would feel right if I didn’t include Lou in this months list, cause lets face it WTF was he thinking (insert retiring or staying this long).
I finally settled on giving the award to a man who has acted like a gentleman through hardship and adversity. His team started of the month in a divisional fight and a literal fight. It was difficult to find anyone worthy enough to present him with this award, but eventually someone who’ll do anything for a shot at being in the spotlight jumped at the chance. The WTF award for August 2010 goes to….
….Albert Pujols, and so we had the chance for the POTUS to award the PUJOLS. Even though he has brought his game and played well enough to give him consideration as the NL’s MVP his team has let him down as they slowly loose contention and could possibly give the chance of the 2010 MVP award to his counterpart at the divisions winning team. A pending free agent at next seasons end, he hasn’t demanded movement to a club that could give him another WS ring, he’s kept smiling and playing the game like the true sportsman that he is, this to some may not be a true WTF moment, but to me its a WTF must he be thinking.
Useless stats 101 – In 2003 Detroit had the least amount of wins in a season during the last 10 years, and they were eliminated from the race by August 21st, the earliest of any team in the last 10 years, Mike Maroth a Detroit pitcher lost 20 games that season. On the bright side they weren’t the 1962 Mets.
Phillies Outside Archive Vault 