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.
Tire Kickers ….
Posted: July 25, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Arizona, ASG, Astros, Cardinals, CBP, Chicago, Colorado, Comcast, Cubs, David Akers, drivelous, Eagles, Florida, Gary Matthews, GM's, Houston, JA Happ, Joe Kerrigan, Nationals, Philadelphia, phillies, Rockies, Sarge, sCrUBs, St. Louis, Tire Kickers, Trade, Trade Deadline, Ubaldo Jimenez, Washington 11 Comments
Anyone
who has participated as an exhibitor at a trade show of some kind will be all to
familiar with ‘Tire Kickers’, although not specific to
trade shows, since it’s origin is from used car lots, it is where we have seen the most concentration
at
any given event over the years. I am sure, some will disagree and claim they have seen
more together in one place somewhere else. In the grand scheme of things, the fact that ‘Tire Kickers’ exist
everywhere is enough.
This time of year baseball has it’s own brand of ‘Tire Kickers’,
the front office people for some clubs transform into these at this time of
year. All the ranting and raving as fans will change none of
that, yes we are all armchair GM’s at some time and we all know what
is best for the teams we help through the season by cheering for them relentlessly
regardless of how they actually perform.
Not every team’s front office can legitimately transform, the Phillies
front office has transformed and can on occasion be seen ‘Kicking Tires’ in
places like Houston, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Washington, and rumor has it even
Florida.
The Phillies of recent years have done relatively well by
‘Kicking Tires’ till the deadline makes them transform back to actual decision
makers, lets hope this year is Werth the wait. There are those Phillie fans who
think some players are Werth keeping, regardless of performance or contribution,
I think this year the Phillies should make a stab at a good starting pitcher to
assist the teams continued run at post season and if the offer a Werth-while
everyday player then so be it.
In an effort to curb some disdain by the fair weather booing fans, or just to
show they are action minded, they decided Milt Thompson should join the over
crowded list of unemployed in this country. In just the few days since this
occurred the ever drivelous incoherent commentator booth add on of Gary ‘Sarge’
Matthews has pointed out pertinent hitting features for players that apparently
weren’t there two or three days ago, after weeks of telling us what they were
doing wrong at the plate, yet insists he doesn’t want another hitting coaches
job. If you’ve been watching the Phillies for a number of years now you’ll all
remember similar style of added information from non other than Joe Kerrigan
when he was on the Comcast post game show, right before he weaseled his way into
the pitching coach job for Bowa.
Since I’ve missed a few days or more, the Phillies, after the
ASG break have….
….given 3 out of 4 to the sCrUBs and given 3 out of 4 to the
Cards, while on the road, back at home they currently have won the first 2 of a
4 game set against the Rockies with game 3 being played today at CBP. They actually
managed to knock Ubaldo Jimenez out of the game in 2 plus innings, but
today is another day and it all starts again, especially for JA Happ who is back
with the club, his last start was in April and has been on the DL, rehabbing and
just plain getting back into the swing of things.
Just a Thought:
If a player can have specific balls put into the game when
it’s his at bat, what stops teams from rotating balls in and out for home team
hitters and away hitters. I know a ball is a ball is a ball, but if the Rockies
can process their balls to reduce flight, why can’t teams do that for visiting
teams and process for increased flight for home hitters. I know many will
dismiss this as just another conspiracy with no substance, but isn’t anything
possible in this day and age, and won’t teams grab every advantage they can fair
or foul…. the big prize seems to cloud the judgment of people in and around
sports, no matter what the sport.
Yankee Doodle Andy …..
Posted: June 18, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 1986, 47, 477, AJ Burnett, Andy, anti-cold, anti-hot, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cubs, Evil Empire, Father's Day, Girardi, Indians, interwebs, Joe, June 16th, Kendrick, Mets, Moranis, Moyer, Orioles, Pettitte, phillies, Sabathia, Tribe, Twins, Yankee Doodle, Yankees 3 CommentsThe Phillies brief residence at Yankee stadium came to an end Thursday night.
It was clear when the Phillies entered Yankee stadium on Tuesday that the
Yankees were in the midst of a ‘anti-cold’ streak and the Phillies still
appeared to be enduring the ‘anti-hot’ period.
Some had heralded this inter-league match-up as a re-duel from the 2009 World
Series, even the front page of MLBlogs endeavored to blast us with images of the
Yankees and Phillies, while hoping to drive us to
blogs that could portray this
match-up as a spill over rivalry from last years post-season. The one thing it
did manage to do was show us that the Yankees enjoy a good comedy, they had
moved on from the normal images that would instill you with the need to label
them as the ‘Evil Empire’, moved on to more humorous aspects of being the
‘Evil
Empire’, it was Rick Moranis batting in the 8 hole for the Yankees. Joking
aside, in this time when appearance is normally more important than comfort or
sensibility, it’s good to see someone throw that out the window for safety,
especially someone in New York.
I
think to try and conceive some hidden rivalry between these two teams who have a
long way to go before either can even contemplate the possibility of a post season
where it would be a meaningful rivalry. This isn’t a rivalry some were trying to
create it to be, but more it seemed like mutual respect, we did see some firsts during these 3 games.
Lifetime first was game 2 with Jamie Moyer as the winning pitcher, this was a
first because no pitcher this age has beaten the Yankees before, but then as old
as Moyer is, each win is probably going to be a first for the teams that lose.
It was actually on this day 24 years ago that Moyer made his major league debut,
June 16th 1986, where he pitched for the Cubs against the
Phillies and got the win while Steve Carlton took the loss for the
Phillies.
Things weren’t what they seemed at Yankee stadium this week, Tuesday was
supposed to be a pitchers duel, but turned out to be one of Halladay’s worst
starts this year, Sabathia faired a little better for the Yankees, as he faced a
Phillies team that has struggled during the ‘anti-hot’ period. Even with the
lack of offense the Phillies still managed to get some hits, runs and put
Sabathia under some stress, but ultimately the Yankees took the game much to the
delight of the Yankee fans.
This 3 game series saw for the first time this year the return of the man who
hit the longest home run at the NEW Yankee stadium, last year a monster
477′
homer was hit by the Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez, another first this
year was seen during game 2 as the Phillies launched back to back home runs,
something they’ve lacked since September ’09.
Game 3 had Kendrick pitching for the Phillies
and Pettitte for the Yankees, after
the Yankees sneaked a win from Halladay,
I am sure most fans were surprised that Moyer was able to fend off the Yankee
bats and get a win in game 2, game 3 was one that Yankee
fans must have felt confident about, with probably the best Yankee
pitcher taking the mound and the Phillies
default pitcher because Happ is stuck on the DL, anyone that knows
baseball would have given this to the Yankees.
This is still a sporting event and not all things are as we expect them, this
year is a prime example of how normal is not really normal, so much to
the pleasure of the Phillie fans Kendrick
faced off against the Yankees for the very
first time in his short career and got the win.
I’ll
put my hand up and admit even as a Phillie
fan I was almost sure Pettitte was going to win this one, with the way
the Phillies have been playing and the way
the Yankees have been playing, there were a
number of Yankee fans, even before the first
game, laying it out in the comments section of a number of online articles on
how the Yankees would easily sweep the Phillies,
this ramped up even more after they beat Halladay, with comments telling Phillie
fans they don’t have any other pitchers after Halladay and with the lack
of offense the Phillies may as well concede
and go home without the major embarrassment that the Yankee
hitters will give them. Then after game 2, Yankee
fans seemed confused that a 47 year old had had the audacity to actually
beat them, now after Kendrick held the Yankees
to 4 hits and 1 run there is probably a few Yankee
fans telling Joe how to best re-arrange his line-up so that the Yankees
won’t lose.
When it comes right down to it, the Yankees
have an impressive 41 wins which ties them with the Rays,
okay maybe Yankee fans are used to being on
top, but we still have almost a 100 games left and as we have seen anything can
happen. Of those 41 wins 22 are against teams with a below .500 record and 19
are against teams with a better than .500 record, okay so that’s fairly even,
until you look at the 25 loses, only 8 to teams with a below .500 record, which
really means they are almost a .500 club against winning teams. I am sure you
can look at this with any club and see similar things, but when you consider
they can only play the Orioles so
many times and I think they have played them some 12 times already this year, or
it certainly seems like it, and they’ve played the Astros in
inter-league with the D’Backs still
to come, as long as they don’t drown in self pity and lose to the Mets
this weekend they should at least be able to stay on pace with the Rays,
until they have to play a long string of games against winning teams that is,
then who knows.
The Phillies host the Twins
this weekend, but then the Tribe come
to Philadelphia, at least we get 1 club that’s not a winning team
this month, not that it seems to make a difference to the Phillies,
at least during the ‘anti-hot’ run anyone and everyone has a 50/50 chance
of winning.
Here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend and just in case you’ve been traveling
around with your eyes closed or surfing the interwebs with blinkers on, Sunday
is Father’s Day, so don’t forget, unless your the dad, then it’s
customary to act surprised and still have to break out the grill and cook for
everyone that stops by….
You Can’t See Me ….
Posted: May 22, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Blue Jays, BoSox, Boston, Cubs, Hamels, Homer, Howard, John Cena, Kendrick, Lackey, Matsuzaka, Philadelphia, phillies, Phillies Outside, Pirates, Red Sox, Ryan Howard, WWE, You Can't See Me 8 CommentsI guess the rivalry between the BoSox and
Phillies has built somewhat over the last
few years, not to the same extent as between other teams. The stage was set
however for the first game of this weekend series, the opener to inter-league
play for the Phillies, and almost every
major league team.
Cole Hamels on the mound for the Phillies,
although he has pitched well in his last few starts, there is still some
elements in the back of your mind, asking who will show up to pitch tonight. The
fears were dispensed after the first inning hiccup, as he gave up a home run to V-Mart,
who by the way doesn’t look right in a BoSox
uniform, from then on he shut the Red Sox
down through 7 innings allowing just the 1 run on 3 hits and a walk, while he
picked up 8 strike outs.
John Lackey took to the mound for the Red
Sox, some of the media in Philadelphia
had labeled him as somewhat of a Halladay clone, when he is on his game.
It appeared as though Lackey was on his game and the Phillies
were in trouble through the first 3 innings. Then the bottom of the 4th inning
came and so did Ryan Howard, who started the Phillies
offense with a home run to left field, then it was like the Boston
Red Sox outfield was playing a game of….
….‘now you see me now you don’t’ or was it WWE‘s
John Cena’s ‘You Can’t See Me’ they lost a fly ball from Jayson
Werth somewhere in the night sky and lights, from then on it was all Phillies
who as a team ended the day with 5 runs on 9 hits, winning the first game by a
score of 5-1. The big set back for the Phillies was that Jimmy Rollins disappeared
into the dressing rooms half way through the game after feeling a twinge from
his right calf muscle. Rollins has just returned from the DL after the strain to
his calf put him there earlier in the season, Rollins will be day to day at the
moment.
Tonight the Phillies send Kendrick
to the mound, Kendrick has had a number of shaky starts this year, but
his last 3 have been fairly strong, inline with most 5th place rotation guys.
The Red Sox have the right handed Matsuzaka
who has really only had one good outing this year against the Blue
Jays, he has given up more hits than innings pitched and in 4 games
has served up 19 runs to the opposition.
We all expect our teams to win, but after the was the Phillies
offense failed to produce against both the Pirates and the Cubs,
we must realize you can’t win them all, just be nice to win the more than the
other teams.
Interview with Ryan Howard
Posted: May 21, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cubs, Dave and Busters, phillies, Pirates, Red Sox, Red Sox Nation, Rollins, Ryan Howard, sCrUBs 3 CommentsA week in any other year you would be happy to have come out of with an even
record splitting both the Pirates and the Cubs series evenly, but not this year,
the Phillies should have swept both teams, but it wasn’t to be, now we head into
the inter-league weekend and the Phillies host the
Red Sox, so I thought it was
time I went back onto the interview circuit, which allowed me to meet up with Ryan
Howard, this is how it went…
http://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf
The Halladay Blues
Posted: May 19, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Cubs, Halladay, Moyer, phillies, Pirates 11 CommentsWell that was a given, I blew it, I jinxed them, at the end of my last
post I had to go a say that Halladay would leave the Pirates
with all zero’s. What happened, I can only believe it’s that time of the month
again, before all the women jump up and down and start screaming like banshees,
I am not making some veiled reference that attempts to draw humor from your
pain, or is it our pain, juries still out on that one, I am referring to that
time when the last month the Phillies went
from dominating play to only managing to win 4 out of 12.
It’s like the Phillies offense just takes
a vacation and when they show up, the bull pen is on vacation. Unfortunately
last night the person that got the raw end of the deal was ‘The Doc’, Roy
Halladay, he threw another complete game, I can only believe he was
expecting the offense to come through at the end and get him the win, instead
the Pirates ended up taking it 2-1 in a pitching duel. Halladay
went all 9 innings on 132 pitches, giving up 9 hits and 2 runs, that should be
worthy of a win, but all it turned out to be was the ‘Halladay Blues’....
….the Phillies have the chance to turn things around tonight
as they take on the Cubs in the start of a 2
game series, on the mound tonight is Jamie Moyer, ironic because he started his career
with the Cubs, his major league debut for
them was against the Phillies, way back when
most of the other players were either un-thought of or getting their diapers
changed.
N. L. Central Crystal Ball….
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Albert Pujols, Astros, Brewers, butterfingers, Cardinals, champagne, Chicago, Cincinnati, cologne, Crystal ball, Cubs, download, Easy Button, Holliday, Houston, HP, IGN.com, internet, Jesus hates the Cubs, Kolsch. Koln, laptop, McCutchen, Milledge, Milwaukee, Peters Kolsch, Philadelphia, phillies, Pirates, Pittsburgh, Poo-hole, Predictions, Ray Ban, Red State Blue State, Reds, RSBS, sarcasm, St. Louis, Staples, sunglasses, Virtual Reality 9 Comments
The Houston Astros fans should consider the latest fashion accessory…
…these NEW Ray Ban sunglasses will be needed to hide the Phillies glare on the players Ed Wade seems to think will work better in Astros uniforms when they didn’t work in Phillies red pinstripes. Ed Wade can be very good for the Astros, he just has to get over the fact that some players aren’t as good as he thought. It will be a tight race at the bottom of this division, but I think till Ed Wade gets over the fact that the players he really liked when he drafted them into the Phillies aren’t what he needs in Houston then the Astros will struggle to get out of the bottom spot, which is a shame, because the Astros are normally a very tough team especially in the final few weeks of the season.
The Chicago Cubs fans need nothing more than high speed internet and a wonderful download…
…courtesy of our friends at RSBS they have explained it all for me and made it clear to the rest of the world as to why the Cubs will this year be a below .500 team. It’s true see for yourselves the video doesn’t lie, it’s from a very reliable inside source.
The Pittsburgh Pirates fans will be able to do some serious….
The Milwaukee Brewers fans need a trip to Europe to visit….
The Cincinnati Reds fans may already have just the thing to help their season…
…their very own easy button. No not because your going to walk away with the division, but because it’s going to be such hard work to stay up with the leading team, you’ll need something to make the occasional day seem easy.
The St. Louis Cardinals fans are going to enjoy another runaway year, the biggest problem for the STL fans is their unfortunate grasp on reality, so for that you will need your very own…
…St. Louis Cardinals ‘Virtual Reality’ machine, because of the delusions of a World Series you will need this machine to fulfill that fantasy, otherwise there may be suicidal tendencies, when a team from the East crushes your dreams as they move into the World Series. Now obviously this is all predicated on the fact that the player known as ‘Poo-hole’ doesn’t end up on the DL with back problems and of course that the now highest paid ‘butterfingers’ can actually catch a fly ball to left field.
any sarcasm is not meant to offend,
unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the
season.
trademarks,
trade names,
copyrights and patents are the property of their respective owners.
Health and Safety in Play…
Posted: November 12, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: Barry Bonds, Cubs, David Beckham, health, phillies, safety, soccer, T.O., Tiger Woods, violence 12 Comments|
There are a number of ways For example you could be an It has been some time since
What the hell was she I guess we can think
|
MOUNTAINS to CLIMB…
Posted: September 19, 2009 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: American League, Angels, Atlanta, BoSox, Boston, Braves, Cards, Chicago, Colorado, Cubs, Detroit, Dodgers, Florida, Giants, Halos, Los Angeles, Marlins, Minnesota, mountain dew, National League, New York, Philadelphia, phillies, race, Rangers, Red Sox, Rockies, San Francisco, Sox, spoilers, St. Louis, Texans, Texas, Tigers, Twins, wild card, Wite Sox, Yankees 10 Comments
|
A million dollar hole in one
American
Yankees – without Detroit – are Angels – are Boston – look set to
National
Phillies – sitting on Cardinals – with the Dodgers – still have Colorado – sit on top More… Streaks… I Spoilers… Race… the
My choices at this time It is September ball and we For the
…being |
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.
Phillies Outside Archive Vault 