Enough is Enough or is it ?
Posted: December 15, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Blanton, Cliff Lee, Greinke, ho ho ho, Kendrick, phillies, Rangers, Royals, turkey, Yankees 6 Comments
The
whirlwind signing of the NEW number 33, Cliff Lee by the Philadelphia Phillies has
definitely brought out the reactions from fans all around baseball. It is safe
to say the reaction is mixed across the board from those that despise the
signing to those that really love it.
There are however something’s that Phillies fans need to keep
under control and that is over hyping the starting rotation, we all know the fan
base in Philadelphia can turn their love into hate on the toss of a coin. They
can deny it all they want, but deep down they know who they are and it’s those
fans that will be the first to call for Amaro’s head or Charlie to be replaced
when Phillies famous four get swept by a team like the Pirates or Astros.
One more note for the Phillies fans we don’t need a cutesy name
for these four guys, so enough with ‘Phour this’ or ‘that Phour’ the H2O was fun
but lets leave that as a thing of the past it really is ‘water under the
bridge’.
Should we be surprised at the general response from Yankee fans
who say what they will now, the majority thought they had Lee in pinstripes and
now of course the jibes at Lee for going back to Philadelphia are nothing more
than that of a spoiled little brat not getting that Christmas gift they wanted.
They are not the only group of fans that have shown that deep down they despise
Lee for wanting to go where he wanted to go and not where others thought he
should go.
For those that still seem to be bewildered by Lee leaving money
on the table to sign with the Phillies, ask LeBron James, he seems to think ‘when
your getting that much money $20Million is nothing, it wont change your life,
it’s about where you want to be after the first $100million’.
Just remember it’s not even January yet, hell any or all of them
could twist an elbow opening Christmas presents, or hurt a rotator cuff carving
the turkey. This is one Phillies fan that wants to enjoy the 2011 season with no
expectations other than to be truly entertained all season long by a
Philadelphia baseball team that has chemistry and energy with every start.
On a final note, what if the Phillies traded Blanton, Kendrick
and whoever could they still land Zack Greinke … ho!ho!ho!
Phillies lose game 3, Yankees Do or Die …
Posted: October 20, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010, Blanton, Bumgarner, Giants, LCS, lost baggage, phillies, post season, Rangers, San Francisco, Utley, Yankees 4 CommentsFor some, they would have just finished a late lunch, for others
it would have been the conclusion of a normal lunch, if you were on the west
coast getting ready for the Phillies v Giants game 3. For those of us still out
east it was late afternoon, the October air was cooling off, some where heading
home from work, some trying to wish the final hour or so of work to disappear.
It really didn’t matter where you were or what you were doing,
the game waited for no man, just Fox Sports to say ‘Lets Play Ball’. The game
got underway with another anticipated pitchers duel between Cain and ….
….Hamels. Everything seemed to be going according to
predictions, both pitchers seemed to hold the hitters in a state of
confusion, until that is, Cody Ross, stepped up in the 4th. Ross managed to slap
a ball into left field to score the first run for San Francisco, then Huff
followed Ross with a hit to score the second run. Unfortunately the defense
wasn’t supporting the excellent job Hamels was doing, the stats may not have
been great for Cole, but he pitched better than they show.
The 5th inning saw another attempt by….
….Utley to make a play and support Hamels, again this one ricocheted
off Utley, into centerfield and scored the Giants 3rd run. This was too big a
mountain to climb for the Phillies offense which appears to be lost baggage on
the trip from Philadelphia. There is no one to blame, no umpires to curse at,
okay maybe the 1st base umpire, reality the Phillies have to stop making excuses
an hit the damn ball and score runs. Everyone seems to complaining about Howard
not hitting, but as it stands he’s had the most hits in this series.
Wednesday, is game 4 and the Giants are sending Bumgarner to the
mound, okay that name is too easy to mess with so we’ll show good restraint, the
Phillies have….
….Blanton on the mound. Wait Blanton, he hasn’t started a game
since September 20 something, but he’s getting paid to do this, so let him do
it. He may not be a member of the H2O, but with the offense still in lost
baggage what difference will it make.
The Rangers seemed to knock the wind out of the Yankees sails
yesterday with what shows as a blow out win, it wasn’t so much a blow out, more
a nickel and dime win. It seems the Yankees hitters are suffering like the
Phillies, while Guerrero is playing the role of Ross. The Yankees pitchers,
yesterday seemed unable to find the right location, except for Robertson, who
only got to face 2 hitters, which he disposed of with 8 pitches.
The Yankees are in a much more difficult position than the
Phillies, it’s do or die for the Yankees tonight, although by the end of today
the Phillies could also be in the do or die position, or they could be tied
again, its a matter of time before we find out.
Go Phillies….
Patience is a Virtue…
Posted: May 4, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Blanton, Cardinals, ejected, ejection, kudos, manuel, Mets, patience, Philadelphia, phillies, Redbirds 10 CommentsMonday morning the Phillies had to be feeling good, they took the
weekend series away from the Mets who had come into the Bank as
one of the hottest teams in baseball, demolishing the Phillies in the
opener on Friday night, but the backlash of this from the Phillies saw Halladay
shut out the Mets then the offense took the Mets number 1 Santana
into uncharted territory knocking 8 runs off him in the 4th inning, which would
end up being a 9 run inning, which was all the Phillies would need in the 11-5
win Sunday.
So Monday morning would have had a feel good look about the club house, with
eyes set on the pending 4 game series against the St. Louis Cardinals,
the Redbirds have the best record in the National League, so this
is going to be a tough series, but as always would be a well fought series.
The game gets underway and as expected it’s a tight close fought game to
start, then the umpires have to get involved. They didn’t show any favorites
they just seemed to spoil what would have been a really good game without there interference,
as it happened the Phillies showed lots of patience at the plate against
a very good young Cards pitcher, unfortunately the umpires caused Manuel
to loose his patience and found himself being ejected….
….the home plate umpire definitely had a very bad game causing
players on both sides to question his abilities at calling balls and strikes, in
addition to both managers questioning his abilities at calling plays at first
and third, I just hope the umpires have had their day in the spotlight for this
series and can now let the teams get on with it and battle it out.
Kudos to the Cards for taking game 1 of this series.
Mets (Muts) Pound Phillies
Posted: May 1, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Baez, Barajas, Bay, Blanton, Cardinals, Charlie manual Rich Dubee, Dodgers, Dubee, ESPN, FoxSports, Francoeur, Herndon, JC Romero, Kendrick, LA, Lidge, Los Angeles, Madson, Mets, Muts, New York, Philadelphia, phillies, Reyes, St. Louis, Wright, X-Files 2 CommentsIt is clearly obvious to anyone who has been watching the Phillies that the
offense has been on the 15 day DL along with Jimmy Rollins, Joe Blanton and now
Ryan Madson. Blanton is scheduled to reappear this weekend with the possibility
of being back in the rotation this coming Monday against the ST . Louis
Cardinals. Pitchers made it back into the bullpen, J.C. Romero last week, which
didn’t seem too successful and Brad Lidge yesterday, which was also not very
reassuring.
The offense though has been the most absent, after an excellent start to the
season there has been a distinct reduction in output since April 16th, there was
a brief appearance, a glimmer that maybe they were heading back on the right
track around the 22nd of April, but since then nothing, zero, zilch, nada,
nowt, stuck somewhere between spring training and now in a twilight zone for
baseball, the offense is scheduled to make an appearance anytime during the next
few days and from there slowly pick up speed and increased numbers till the All
Start Break then it will be time to see if they make it back from the mid-term
break.
This offensive malfunction doesn’t however excuse all the errors
and mistakes that have been made in selecting which player does what and when
they do it, I know we’ve lost a few so it has to be the managers fault, wrong, that’s
not what I am saying, but he does have some role to play in the events that lead
up to the losses. Last year we saw Charlie Manual in a situation that
allowed this type of graphic….
….this year however, unless more thought is applied to
situations things will be very different, and I want to be fair to Charlie,
it’s not all his fault, he relies heavily on Rich Dubee for up to the
minute information on members on the pen and listens to recommendations on who
should be utilized and when, but there are times when even a novice such as
myself can tell that certain pitchers shouldn’t be used in certain situations. It
has to be the only time a major league ball club manager can safely say, it was
down to the Dubee.
We have in the bullpen a pitcher who is a rule 5 draft pick, who
we keep in the pen because if we don’t 
he
has to go back to where he came. In reality he belongs in the pen, he serves a
role and he’s good at it, but put him in the wrong place or situation and he’ll
have a bad day as would most of the pitchers out of the pen. Last nights game
against the Mets was a key example of right and wrong pitchers for the
scenarios, Baez is not a 2 inning guy, why was last night the time to try
and find out, it wasn’t, it shouldn’t have been, cause we already new the
answer, but for some unexplained, x-file type reason we had to confirm something
that we already new, after he pitched in his second inning and didn’t get any
outs, but gave up 4 runs, it was time to bring in the rule 5 guy, Herndon,
who went on to pitch 2 scoreless innings, he did let a inherited guy score, but
nothing against him.
Today the Phillies and Mets go at it nationally on
Fox, oh whoopiii, we get to listen to a bunch of no knowledge numbnuts a-sssswhipe’s
ramble on about how good or bad players are when they don’t even know anything
other than what they read in the columns from the biased reporters of either FoxSports
or ESPN. Talking of ESPN, we get the joys of watching and
listening to all the action from them on Sunday night.
Anyone who has any interest saw or heard the Mets pound
the Phillies last night, the rivalry makes it hard to stomach, but I have
to say the Phillies made it easy for the Mets. There was signs of
talent back in the Mets lineup, sorry all you Mets fans, but I
dislike Reyes with a passion, not because he’s a Met, but
because he gives the appearance of having an arrogant, holier than thou
attitude, his actions indicate that he believes he is bigger and better than the
game itself, so for me, he is not one of players with talent on the Mets,
however Jeff Francoeur and David Wright showed up to play and play
they did, Jason Bay also made the right choice and opted out of the BoSox
for the Mets in the off-season. Rod Barajas, okay he hit 2 homers
last night, but guys he’s a 3rd rate catcher at best and should be kept on the
bench for emergency use only, preferably behind a glass, with ‘break in case of
emergency’ on it.
So it’s big pat on the back for the New York Mets, but
it’s still early in the season, so no breath holding hoping you’ll go all the
way, we don’t want a rush of people turning blue in New York,
cause I think that’s happening in LA at the moment and it’s not
from breath holding.
APRIL FOOL’S DAY in October
Posted: October 9, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: April Fool's Day, Blanton, Cardinals, Dodgers, FlashForward, Happ, Hollywood, lawsuits, limbo, manuel, MLB, Nobel Prize, Norway, Norwegians, Obama, Oscars, phillies, pray, Red Birds, world wide web 12 Comments|
As normal, with large mug of What made me think it could Was it that Charlie Manual
…NO…that could be Was it that the new star of
…NO… that too could be Maybe it was rumors that the
… NO… that was It wasn’t even sports
I just hope tomorrow puts me |
September/October… the Final Countdown…
Posted: September 2, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Blanton, Defense, Durbin, Erye, Giants, Hamels, Happ, Lee, Lidge, Madson, Marlins, Martinez, Moyer, october, offense, Park, phillies, post season, September, Taschner, Walker 13 Comments|
What’s in store for the Phillies 33 Games in 33 Days… So the end of season Offense and Defense…
The same guys that have The pitching staff seem to Starting Pitching…
Cliff Lee, took Cole Hamels, last JA Happ, has Joe Blanton, the Pedro Martinez, Jamie Moyer, Although The Bull Pen seems With the ability to load up More to come over the
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Just a Random Quickie…
Posted: August 20, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Arizona, Blanton, BoSox, Brett Myers, D-Backs, Diamondbacks, John Smoltz, Krusty, Lee, Martinez, Mets, New York, Pedro, phillies, Rays, SideShow Bob, South Park, Yankees 18 Comments|
Time for a quick blog, choosing the subject was a challenge, there have been a few recently. So it was a pick out of the hat between, John Smoltz and some sarcastic banter about the Cards recent addition, last nights performance by Cliff Lee, which is already covered plenty of times and opportunities will keep arising, my verdict or lack of on Pedro Martinez, Brett Myers fight to get out of a car or Yankees/Boston and the Rays chance to take over Wild Card. and the winner is……. Pedro Martinez, my verdict…. What has Pedro done for us lately, well unfortunately his recent start against the D-Backs was shortened, so we were unable to see if he could go beyond 5 innings and if he would give up any more runs as he tires, so I guess the verdict is still out on that subject…. But still, since it was Pedro Martinez that was chosen lets review what he brings or could bring to the Phillies…
We all know he’s a 3 time Cy Young winner, but his last one was 9 years ago so he’s a 7 time All Star, again last one was 4 years ago how about a 5 time player of the week, yep, 7 years ago he’s an innings eater, yeah okay, highest ranking was ’98 and ’04 when he was 6th in the AL How about he was an All Star MVP, that’s true 10 years ago Here’s one, he won ‘MLB.COM ODDITY OF THE YEAR’, and that reflects on what exactly? – Oh I see he found it amusing that the sprinklers came on at Shea, while he was pitching for the Mets. So he’s a comedian, a clown, someone fun to be around, well the Phillies have there fair share of those guys, I guess the question will be…. Is Pedro going to be the CLOWN…
or will he turn out to be just another side show…
Only time will tell… …for me there hasn’t been enough time or action to determine. This weekend he is scheduled to start against the Mets at Citi Field, we’ll see if his old club comes out and destroys him or if he manages to destroy them. Based on the Mets current state of affairs I would have to say the advantage is Pedro’s going into the game, but we’ll see. Truth be known I would like to see him face the Marlins, but that probably isn’t going to happen. Till the next time when I hope there will be more action and evidence to show if Pedro’s involvement is worth the hype or not… Tonight Blanton goes to the mound, and we’ll see if the Phillies offense can support him and clinch a sweep of the D-Backs. |
Phillies Go Deep In Atlanta….
Posted: August 15, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Atlanta, Blanton, Braves, Howard, Jurrjens, Lidge, Major League Movie, Pedro Cerrano, phillies, Soriano, Utley, Victorino 7 Comments|
Joe Blanton was Blanton
…he’s been described as a ‘hulk’….he’s The Braves had a 1-0 lead going
…from the movie ‘Major
…I am not sure if he was
….BOOM!!…Utley’s It wasn’t for long though, The 5th and 6th innings the
….it would stay at a 2-2
….BOOM!!…. Howard So the Phillies were
….eventually he
Well the Phillies |
Cliff Lee, Pitching and Hitting to Win #3…..(updated)
Posted: August 13, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Atlanta, beer, Blanton, Braves, Chicago, Cubs, Dempster, Eagles, Feliz, Hamels, Howard, Ibanez, Idiot, Idiot Cubs Fan, Lee, Madson, phillies, Police, sweep, TBA, Utley, Vick, Wrigley Field 12 CommentsCliff Lee takes his 3rd straight win as the Ace in the Phillies rotation and
drives the Phillies to a sweep of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. After suffering the embarrassment of being swept at home last weekend the Phillies issued there own 3 game sweep on the road.
Lee pitched outstanding for 8 innings, like me, most thought Madson would come on in relief at the start of the 8th inning, but he didn’t, Lee came out for the 8th and got through it like an Ace. Lee ended his day after throwing 122 pitches with over 67% of them for strikes, he gave up 1 run on 6 hits and walked 3 batters. It wasn’t till the 4th inning that the Phillies offense gave Lee the lead, he managed to get himself out of a couple of jams during the first 4 innings, it wasn’t till the 5th inning that the Cubs managed t
o drive in a run and that was the only time a Cubs player would cross the plate. He held the Cubs to a 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position, obviously the Phillies defense played a role in this too. Lee seems to like this playing in the NL where he gets to show case his bat swinging abilities, he hit his 2nd double, but was eventually stranded on 3rd at the end of the inning. With the Phillies, Lee is now 3-0 with an ERA of 1.13 through 24 innings as a pitcher, as a hitter he is 3 for 9 (.333) with 2 doubles.
Ryan Madson came on in relief of Lee to start the 9th, he pitched a scoreless inning giving up just 1 walk with 2 strike outs.
The Phillies offense came off of 10 hits and 3 walks, the big offensive
inning was the 4th, when Ryan Howard hit a 3 run home run to the opposite field, this was Ryan’s 1st home run in August, ironic really, I had said at the end of July, that it seems when
Raul Ibanez goes deep then Ryan goes deep and visa versa, and in Wednesday’s game Raul went deep and so Thursday Ryan went deep. In the same inning Pedro Feliz took Dempster deep too, giving the Phillies a 4 run lead. Utley picked up an RBI in the 6th and Feliz picked up another in the 7th giving the Phillies a 6-1 lead that they never relinquished.
The Phillies headed to Atlanta last night to start a 3 game series against the Braves today, before heading home for the only day off between now and the end of August. Joe Blanton is scheduled to start tonight against the Braves, Saturday is an afternoon game and although it’s Hamels rotation spot, it is currently being listed as TBA, have they not announced it yet or are they holding back to the last minute because of a possible problem? I am sure we will find out soon.(update: Hamels is now listed as the starting pitcher for Saturday). It does though, seem to be freaky days of late in Philadelphia sports, everybody has heard by now that Vick signed a 2 year deal with the Eagles, what were they thinking? I am sure they will let us know soon enough.
Still with freaky things, the ‘Idiot Cubs Fan’ turned himself in to Chicago police yesterday, probably wants another 15 minutes of fame, or a beer commercial contract.
Alumni Weekend, Kalas Induction, Fish sink Phils…
Posted: August 8, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: A-Rod, Alumni, Blanton, Cleveland, Fish, Francisco, Harry Kalas, John Kruk, Marlins, Nolasco, phillies, Red Sox, Victorino, Yankees 7 Comments| It was the start of Alumni weekend at CBP, and before tonight’s game they inducted Harry Kalas onto the Phillies Wall of Fame. The activities delayed the start of tonight’s game, but it was all well worth it. A number of the Phillies Alumni were in attendance and were surprised by Harry’s voice being the one to introduce them to the waiting fans.
Yes there was a game tonight, the Phillies and the Fish, went at it in a 3 game series opener, for the Phillies it was Joe Blanton on the mound and he was squaring off against the Marlins right hander Nolasco. This in my mind (which is a little warped and sometimes x-rated) should have been a chance for Blanton to get his 8th win on the year and prove his recent solid performances will continue on through the rest on the season. (sigh) Blanton showed up to pitch, which is always a good sign, and as all good pitchers in a starting rotation do, from time to time, he had a little bit of a shaky start, but settled in and pitched well through 6 2/3 innings, the problem was the Phillies defense and offense decided to take a night off.
The only player who really showed up to give 110% was Francisco, the new arrival from the Cleveland trade. Since Victorino was again suffering, this time from a slight quad strain, Francisco got a starting role. In an effort to get the defense fired up he threw a bullet in from the outfield to gun down a runner at the plate to end the top of the 7th inning, then his continuing efforts were trying to jump the offense into action he hit a 2 run home run to left field which landed in the flowers beds, in the bottom of the 7th inning. Unfortunately for Blanton, he was out of the game by this time, but it was still, too little too late, the Phillies could do little to support his efforts and they ended up losing 3-2. One thing that, again in my mind, (see previous note about my mind), I found entertaining was the presence of one of my favorite Phillies players from seasons past. It took me a while to find this picture in my archives, and it was the only one that I had that showed the mullet hanging out of the cap. How times change.
Okay so he’s not on everyone’s list of Philadelphia’s finest players, he didn’t really carve anything specific into the Phillies history books, but for me he was and still is the type of character I like to see. Scandal Brewing or was this just innocent: The Yankees and the Red Sox go 14 shut out innings, then bottom 15th 1 on 2 out A-Rod at the plate….‘possibly’ deep in the depths of the new Yankee stadium the under paid supporters of A-Rod were discreetly turning all the AC fans to suction mode for the left field, bullpen area. A-Rod hits his home run then in an effort to prevent discovery he sends a electronic signal to the guys below to switch the AC fans back to normal,
how else do you explain the shortened celebration and anxious run toward the dugout while messing with something obviously hidden in his uniform… these questions need answers….
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