Mets (Muts) Pound Phillies

– PhilliesOutside –

It 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.

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Three Close… One Cigar…

This last week, was a trip
across the state for a match-up with the recently revamped Pirates.
On paper this should have been nothing more than a formality, a quick
trip along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, from Philadelphia
to Pittsburgh, an interesting three days and a quick trip
back to Philly with a least 2 wins from a 3 game series. Instead the
Phillies experienced 3 close ball games which were not decided
until the last 2 innings, the biggest disappointment, wasn’t so much the
2 loses that Philadelphia took from the series, it was more that the
interstate rivalry between these two teams is nothing more than a mere whisper,
instead of a big boom. Since the two teams are no longer division rivals
the once interstate rivalry is just a few games a year, Philly fans
probably outnumbered the Pirates fans at all 3 games, probably due to
the fact the Pirates no longer have hope of a post season run this year.

A city that was once a
dominant force in the steel industry, a city that named a bridge after
one of its most famous baseball players, is a city rebuilding it’s
baseball team.

The view….

…the Roberto
Clemente
bridge.

 

All 3 games were closely
contested right to the end of each game.

Game 1 was
the walk off from McCutchen, with the now famous celebratory NBA type
dunk into his fellow team mates…

 

Game 2, gave
us extra innings and a towering ‘Howard Homer’ to break
the deadlock in the 10th inning.

 

Game 3 was just as close,
until the 8th inning, another long ball, this time by the Pirates
outfielder Jones, the Pirates went on to hold that lead and take 2 out
of 3 from Philadelphia.

These weren’t the only things I saw
during this 3 game series, I also got to see what could be the early
days of the career of a future Hall of Famer, okay so it’s way to early
to tell that and I only saw him in 3 games, but I looked at a few others
and the kid has a lot of talent that can only be improved upon. This kid
has the power to become an All Star next year and an MVP in the next 5
years. He obviously needs to keep his head on his shoulders, not get
carried away in the big picture, and definitely not be mislead by any
unscrupulous people found within the world of professional baseball, it
would also help if he stayed away from injuries. Pittsburgh fans should
know all this already and those who have kept a watch on young talent
that has emerged on to the seen in the last couple of months, I say this
kid is worth remembering…..

He looks like he should be
a wide receiver for the Steelers instead of centerfield for the Pirates.
Initially he doesn’t appear cocky or arrogant like some other
young talent that in the past has shot on to the baseball scene, (i.e.
Reyes… yep I here Muts fans booing,)
This kid should be a center
piece during the rebuilding of the Pirates team. If McCutchen
wants to continue to build, what should be a huge career, he needs to
stay away from New York, remember your beginnings.

 

 

Tonight the Phillies are
back at CBP for the weekend, playing host the visiting Atlanta Braves.
Tonight Pedro Martinez goes for the Phillies, we’ll see if he can
produce a quality start for the Phillies. The scoreboard is running, I
said he would not produce 6 good starts of 6 innings
before he is crucified by a team. So far he has 3 starts and 1 of those
contained 6 innings.


Half Done, All Star Break to come…..

Something a little different today, don’t laugh my rhyming sucks……

 

Some slumps, some bloops, the first half is done,

It ends on a Felix grand slam home run,

Some Phillies are resting, this may seem sweet,

With the past weekend of a Pirates sweep,

Time to relax, whether your Muts, Nats or even Cubies,

Off to St. Louis, where rivals become buddies,

Watchin’, the Derby can be slow, but painless,

Who will win, my guess, Howard or Carlos Pena,

The Rays give the infield a new AL spin,

The Phils have the outfield and we’ll get an NL win.

 

So ryhming is not my best feature, but it’s the All Star break, so have fun


Phillies give it up in the Ninth

It was the inevitable anti-climax, a roller coaster coming off it’s tracks at the high point, and then there’s the ‘what if’s’, like they had got the Mayberry call right.

So I watched the game last night with the Reds TV or FSN Ohio or FSOH, something like thatit’s one of those low budget Fox Sports things, here’s hoping noone gets offended, cause lets face it, the Reds don’t have the market other teams do, and that’s why it’s a lower budget station. I am going to be brutally honest here, it was somewhat dificult to follow and I don’t remember the commentators names, so I cheated and looked them up, George Grande and Chris Welsh and I can tell you the pre game show was done by Jeff Piecord. I am not going into the blow by blow of how they did it, and these events may not be in order.

As a general rule they were very complimentary of the Philly players and staff, and the pre game show did part of an historical tour of Philadelphia and a spot remembering HK. They were amused that we refer to the Mets as the Muts even in the press.

1st Inning, Taveras on first, they comment on Taveras being so fast he can leave with the pitch and never get caught, – what happened thrown out, I simpathise since the consistant replay showed him safe, they did make comment about the umpire and connected him to the umpires in the Yankees game and reference Foster telling Jeter, you don’t have to be tagged if the ball beats you to the bag, or something like that –

Top 1st, Utley gets caught stealing, no replay, no analyse to see if he was safe or not straight to commercial.

They were surprised at how good Happ pitched, and they were saying Harang was the Reds ace and he needed to do this and this with the ball, then Phillies went back to back and they analysed, did freeze frames of the ball hitting the bat that is, just to show that Harang didn’t hit his spot with the pitches.

I did notice what seemed to be an air of resentment that Chase Utley had been selected to go to the All Star Game, the inference was that since he played infront of 40,000 fans every night it was easier than for say, Phillips who only gets and audience of say 20,000, it’s a popularity contest. They also complained that he didn’t make the top 4 player voting to go, you just have to look at what he has done is about what they said, then there seemed to be a sequence of events where Utley made some gold glove plays, then Utley hit a ball hard straight at Phillips and it hit off his glove, did he chase it down, no he let it trickle into the outfield, consequence, Utley’s on second, I thought that’s why Utley’s an All Star and Phillips isn’t.

Like I said I found it pretty hard to follow with these guys, and I think that is nothing more than familiarity, they had inside jokes and such like, if I watched them everyday I would understand and be able to follow along better.

Then we had the Mayberry out at home, they were so joyous they showed the replays to see how the great a defensive play it was and then you saw it the catchers tag was kind of late, Mayberry’s hand was in and on the plate, Mayberry was safe, silence fell on the commentators and then commercial break, after the break the only that was said I think the Reds got away with one then.

So thats about it really, yes I know they were over joyed that they scored a run off Lidge and won. The almost refused to mention the 22-1 the night before.

You’ll never guess what the Aflac Trivia Question was: okay here goes:

What is the largest margin of victory the Reds have had in the franchise history?

Well I didn’t see that coming.

————————————————–

The game, was without adoubt a game of missed chances, too many missed opportunities with runners in scoring position and less than 2 outs, we cant blame the loss on the umpires for a couple of bad calls just because we couldn’t deliver.

Yes we got a couple of homers and we got at least one run home from third, but it doesn’t excuse the 1 for 12 with RISP

Happ had another outstanding start, Madson delivered in the 8th and somehow Lidge had a location problem in the 9th.

I almost forgot in all the excitment, Howard broke his homerless streak, way to go Ryan.

So today is another day.

VOTE VICTORINO