2010 Phillies Year in Review
Posted: December 27, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2010 Season, A's, Angels, Arizona, Astros, Athletics, Atlanta, Baltimore, Blue Jays, BoSox, Brad Lidge, Braves, Brewers, Canada, Cardinals, Chicago, ChiSox, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cliff Lee, Colorado, D'Backs, Detroit, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Florida, Giants, H2O, Halladay, Hamels, Hot Stove, Houston, Indians, Jimmy Rollins, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Milton Bradley, Milwaukee, mini-soda, Minnesota, Nationals, Nats, New York, Oakland, Orioles, Oswalt, Padres, Philadelphia, phillies, Pirates, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Rays, Red Birds, Red Sox, Reds, Rockies, Royals, Ryan Howard, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Spring Training, St. Louis, Tampa Bay. Boston, Texas, Tigers, Time, Toronto, Tribe, Twins, Umpires, Washington, White Sox, Yankees 9 CommentsIt almost that time when we celebrate the begining of a new year
and invariably a new era in the successes of our teams. Before we jump forward
to what could be in 2011, here’s a small review of how my blog saw the Phillies
during 2010….
Here’s hoping you all have a very happy and safe New Year….
Verisimilitude and Nitwittedness ….
Posted: October 3, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: AJ, BoSox, Braves, Final Day, Giants, Girardi, Nitwittedness, Padres, phillies, Reds, Twins, Umpires, Verisimilitude, Yankees 3 CommentsThis weekend is what makes baseball a great sport, not a good sport, a GREAT
sport. With something on the line for 6 teams going into the final day of the
regular season, it is without a doubt, tense and nervous for some, exciting and
fun for others.
Just when you thought those teams that are comfortable will just sit back and
watch, along comes Charlie Manuel….
…. to place credibility back into the last weekend of the season. Initially
yesterdays line-up may have appeared a little weak compared to the last time the
Phillies and Braves met, but the game became a fight to the end with the
Phillies rookie Vance Worley giving a commanding performance thru 5 innings and
then the Phillies bullpen blanking the Braves thru the final 4 innings to give
the Phillies a 7-0 shut out on the day the Braves honored Bobby Cox.
Today I believe the Phillies may have jumped past Michael Vick to become the
most hated entity in Atlanta. Some Braves fans feel since the Phillies are in
why they don’t lay down and let the Braves get to the post season, as Charlie
Manuel said, "How is that fair to the Padres and Giants", so suck it
up Atlanta and win because you can, not because the Phillies let you.
The Yankees had a double header, while the Rays tried to find a way to beat
the Royals. The Rays managed to shut the Royals out in a 4-0 win, while the
Yankees took game 1 from the BoSox and looked like they may even sweep the
double header, except it was AJ on the mound and sometimes his cry baby attitude
gets the better of him….
….AJ’s mind went like this: let me check to make sure the
umpire called that play correctly, cause we all know, if I argue he’ll change
his mind, oh and while I argue let me see if I can trick the BoSox into thinking
it’s a dead ball. DOH!
It seems the only guy he tricked was Berkman, who just stood
there and looked dumb. Now I would like to know when AJ entered the dug out and
went down the steps, what the hell did AJ say to Girardi, it almost looked as
though AJ was blaming Girardi, and Girardi had this look on his face as if to
say AJ your just fu-cking crazy.
So we have the AL East all tied up again, but today it will be
decided, the winner of the east will also get home field advantage, the Yankees
passed the advantage back to the Rays yesterday, because now the Yankees need a
win and a Rays loss to clinch, so do they stay in Boston to find out or do they
grab everything and rush back to New York to see if they can celebrate.
The NL is a little more screwed up, the scenarios are bountiful,
the bottom line is the right wins and loses and there could be baseball everyday
till the post season starts. So we know the Phillies have home field in the NL,
but who will they play, we don’t know, since we could have 4 teams with the same
record at the end of today.
The introduction of video replay on the possibility of a home
run ball was supposed to make things right, everyone keeps saying we need more
video replays, to many errors by the umpires. What if the video replay shows one
thing yet they still make the wrong call after seeing it….
….there you have it fan interference, wait they’re playing in
Ohio, okay that means it must be a home run ball then. If you didn’t see this
then it’s worth a look, no matter how many time I replay it I still see the fan
reach over the fence touch the ball with his glove at the same time he hits the
fielders glove. The ball could have been caught by the fielder, if it wasn’t
caught it appears it may have hit the top of the wall and come back into play.
So how then will video replay prevent the umpires from getting in wrong, okay
it’ll involve someone in New York who’ll review it, lot of good that did.
This the last day of regular season is probably one of the most
exciting final days since they went to divisional play. We will at least know
the outcome of the American League battles and who the AL East champions are, as
for the National League, this could be done today or it could take till the end
of Tuesday for us to know.
3 Days to post season play – GO PHILLIES….
Do or Die Weekend, Phillies Playing Spoiler ….
Posted: October 2, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: AL, Bobby Cox, Braves, Giants, Goodbye, NL, Padres, phillies, Rays, Retirement, Spoiler, Yankees 4 CommentsThe Do or Die weekend got underway Friday, the first day of October. For some teams this weekend is the only October baseball they will play this season, for others it’s a chance to keep their fans entertained for a few more weeks.
The National League has the Giants, Padres and Braves are all in Do or Die situations. The Padres must win at all costs, the Braves can make it with a mix of Padres loses and their own wins, the Giants just need a win.
The American League has all their post season teams decided, it’s just a case of who will have the Eastern Division crown, the Yankees and Rays were deadlocked at the start of play, so any sort of favorable win/loss combination would work for either team.
While the Yankees watched the rain fall in Boston, the Rays were embarrassingly out played by the Royals, so the Yankees get a half game lead by default.
The Giants and Padres get to beat up on each other and the first round went to the Padres who seemed to want it just a little bit more.
The Braves thought they had an easy shot, at home to the Phillies it should be a no- brainer. The Phillies already are in and so will be using the time for tryouts for a post season roster. The Braves have the best home record in baseball and so felt comfortable with having the champagne bottles ready to start cork popping.
The Braves didn’t count on the fact that the Phillies would like nothing more than to stick it to division rivals at any and all given opportunities. In the center of it as usual was….
….Jimmy Rollins with his first hit since returning, not just any ordinary hit, on a night when the wind was blowing in, J-Roll hit a deep line drive home run to left field for a grand slam in the 6th inning. Phillies end up postponing any Braves celebrations with an 11-5 win.
Today at Turner Field, they say goodbye to….
….Bobby Cox, not sure what this entails, but I am sure it’s a chance for the fans to cheer and scream and make Bobby cry and cover up the fact that he’s more saddened by the fact the he still doesn’t know if he can take off Monday for his retirement home.
Today the Phillies pit Vance Worley against Tommy Hansen, so I guess the Phillies are saying to the Braves, if you cant win today you don’t deserve to be in the post season.
Around Baseball –
The Yankees get to play a double header in Boston, this will be a tough day as it’s hard enough to win in Boston without having to win 2 on the same day.
The Rays are back at it with the Royals, having passed the advantage to the Yankees it’s almost a must win if they want any chance of the division title.
The Padres and Giants face of again in San Francisco, I am sure both these teams and the Braves will be score board watching, no one admits to it, but they all do it.
4 Days to post season play – GO PHILLIES….
Thankful it’s ‘JOE’ Blanton ….
Posted: September 30, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 2nd base, ALDS, BIG Joe, Giants, Joe Blanton, NLDS, Padres, phillies, post season, Reds, Tamp Bay Rays, Twins, Yankees 3 CommentsThe final regular season game against the Nationals, although the Phillies
are playing spring training type baseball at the moment, they have to consider
who they want in the first series of the post season when they head into Atlanta
for the final weekend. If they play ‘FALL’ training games in Atlanta it will
undoubtedly give the Braves the advantage over the Padres on who gets the wild
card slot. If Atlanta get the wild card then it would depend on how the Reds and
Giants finish out the season. This is of course speculative on the basis that
the Giants clinch in the West, stranger things have happened and the Padres
could still leap frog the Giants and grab the division.
The guy they call Big Joe Blanton took the mound tonight, some say
it’s ‘Big Joe’ cause he’s a ‘FATtee’, others say it’s cause of his
‘STATURE’…..
….me I’m just glad his name isn’t Richard. The bench players
got another start tonight and went back to back with homers in the top of the
2nd inning added to it in the 4th and 5th to give Joe a cushioned lead to pitch
off. When the start of the bottom of the 7th inning came around the Phillies had
just back up players on the field except for Blanton, I am sure the 7-1 lead the
Phillies were enjoying played a part, in addition to this being post season
auditions for the back up players.
A day off today gives everyone a rest and time to consider the
Braves series, do they continue auditions or go to Atlanta and make a statement.
The Phillies get home field advantage, which means they get to
play at home at the start of each series while they are in the post season. With
this in mind there is at least one change they should consider making before
post season play begins….
….the 2nd base bag, this has been the culprit of injuries and
has even come completely out and into the hands of sliding runners. This base
pad is responsible for a Valdez injury, Utley injury and a
Rollins injury and is suspected of being part of some bad judgment calls by
Werth, Ruiz and Victorino, so what do you say ground crew, lets replace this bag
with one that is more reliable and a little more favorable to the Phillies.
Around Baseball:
The Yankees lost to the Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the O’s,
so no changes there.
The NL West is still a fight to the end with both San Diego and
the San Francisco winning.
The Braves won again keeping their lead in the Wild Card and the
Phillies still uncertain of who will be the team they face in the first series
of post season play.
6 Days to post season play – GO PHILLIES….
Seven Days and Counting ….
Posted: September 29, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: 7 Days, Braves, Giants, manuel, New York, Oswalt, Padres, phillies, post season, Rays, Reds, Tampa Bay, Yankees 4 CommentsSome called it a hangover game, some called it the day after game, but it should have been just another game that we went out there and tried to win. The starting pitcher goes out there, albeit a shortened game of just 5 innings regardless of how he does, so for Roy Oswalt, yes I said Roy Oswalt, cause if you were listening to the Phillies TV feed you would be a little confused, they kept on calling him Roy Halladay, in fact they called him Roy Halladay more than they called him Roy Oswalt, so just in case T-Mac , Wheels or Sarge actually read anything that is written here maybe they’ll offer an apology to Roy Oswalt.
So there not totally confused here’s what Oswalt looks like….
….without wanting to point out the obvious, he’s the one with ’44’ and the name ‘OSWALT’ on his back.
The Phillies have selected the post season schedule already, and needless to say they have selected the one that allows them to go with a 3 pitcher starting rotation. The choice was somewhat of a no brain-er, and members of the press asking Manuel why he’s going that way, should not be covering baseball for any media outlet.
Just in case you missed it, they have been labeled H2O by a number of fans and some members of the Philadelphia press….
They have suggested that Halladay will start game 1, but this is speculation at this time, it is also an obvious choice. In keeping with obvious choices personally I would have Hamels then Oswalt, this would be just to break up the righties with a leftie in between, but it’s all about what Charlie thinks at the time.
I was dubious about constantly resting players from our starting line up between now and October 6th, but on reflection I think it’s more for Manuel to see what bench players and what bull pen members are going to make the cut. It’s a waiting game now, it’s like a second round of spring training in the fall.
Around Baseball:
The Yankees and the Tampa bay rays won last night assuring them both of play off spots, it’s just a case of who’s the division winners and who’s the wild card team.
The Reds beat the LOLstros last night to clinch the NL Central, kudos to them.
The NL West is a fight to the end and can only be decided when the Padres and Giants go at each other in the final series of the season. The Braves need to keep winning to keep them in the wild card, the series against the Phillies could be their do or die series. The Padres have the toughest road over their final 5 games.
7 Days to post season play – GO PHILLIES….
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.
Visions Part Deux …..
Posted: July 14, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: A's, Albert Pujols, American League, Andre Ethier, Angels, Arizona, ASG, Astros, Athletics, Atlanta, Baltimore, Blue Jays, BoSox, Braves, Brewers, Canada, Cardinals, Chicago, ChiSox, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, D'Backs, Detroit, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Florida, Florida Marlins, Giants, Halladay, Houston, Indians, Jayson Werth, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Milwaukee, mini-soda, Minnesota, National League, Nationals, Nats, New York, No Hitter, Oakland, Orioles, Padres, perfect game, Philadelphia, phillies, Pirates, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Rays, Red Birds, Red Sox, Reds, Rockies, Royals, Ryan Howard, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay. Boston, Texas, Tigers, Toronto, Trade Deadline, Tribe, Twins, Washington, White Sox, Yankees 11 Comments
The National League managed an upset of the American League by taking the All Star Game victory, because of recent history showing the dominance of the American League this is a good way to move forward into the second half of the 2010 season for National League teams.
At the beginning of the season I laid out how I thought the season would progress and how teams would position themselves for October baseball, with just over half the games played it’s a good time to reflect and update my season ending visions.
The American League has shown some surprises, out West the Mariners have not faired as I thought so this has left the Rangers and Angels duking it out for a post season place. In the Central the Indians are not performing in the manor they could have been and in the East the top 3 are as expected, but the Jays are doing better than I had thought, as a mid way summary I now have the following possible outcomes.
AL WEST
Angels ……..88-93 wins
Rangers ……..86-91 wins
The A’s will hover around the .500 mark and the Mariners will finish below .500 with about 70 wins.
AL CENTRAL
ChiSox ……..84-89 wins
Twins ……..81-86 wins
Tigers ……..81-86 wins
The Royals and the Tribe will fight, but fail to reach .500 this year.
AL EAST
Yankees ……..93-98 wins
Rays ……..92-97 wins
BoSox ……..90-95 wins
As you can see this could be any of these, I had considered the Yankees breaking 100 wins again, but recent history shows last time they had 56 wins in the first half they had a dismal second half with only 33 wins, so the Yankees number is a crap shoot, the Jays should end around the .500 mark and the O’s will probably break 64 wins, but no more than 70 wins.
The National League has also given us a couple of surprises, the Padres are the biggest one for me, kudos to them, I thought they would struggle to be a .500 team this year, but they proved me very wrong. The Pirates are more disappointing than anything, I really thought they could be a above .500 team this year, but not going to happen, the Reds are better than expected or are the Cardinals not as good as expected. The East is as expected a 3 horse race and will continue through season end.
NL WEST
Padres ……..85-90 wins
Rockies ……..84-89 wins
Dodgers ……..83-88 wins
Giants ……..79-84 wins
Arizona will struggle to reach 70 wins this year.
NL CENTRAL
Cardinals ……..85-90 wins
Reds ……..85-90 wins
The Brewers and Cubs will struggle stay around the .500 mark on the year, the Pirates and Astros will have chance to play spoiler or helper in September as the Cards and Reds are on target to give us a game 163 this year, but as the Astros and Pirates play out the year they’ll both struggle to get over 65 wins.
NL EAST
Phillies ……..90-95 wins
Mets ……..88-93 wins
Braves ……..87-92 wins
Still a close 3 team race and could go to any of the 3, itll be up to the Nats and Marlins to play spoiler, since both those teams wont even be knocking on the .500 door.
So these are my mid-term visions as far as the divisions are set, as for Phillies players and that dreaded date of July 31st, where teams negotiate to the wire to get the best possible deal, or they think is the best possible deal. The past few seasons the Phillies have faired pretty good at the trading deadline, this year I would say look to see Jayson Werth end up with one of 3 teams, Astros, Pirates or even the Reds, also movers could include, Dobbs, Castro or Ransom and maybe even Kendrick or Happ, I do not think anything major will occur, it is possible we could get Oswalt, but no breath holding here, or even one of the Reds pitchers, it maybe that the Dodgers decide they can lose Broxton, so the Phillies can lose Lidge, but that’s as farfetched as a straight trade of Pujols and Howard, or Werth and Ethier, dream on people ESPN’s got no inside track and the second half is just beginning. So tighten that safety belt, keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times and enjoy the ride, don’t forget to scream and raise your arms at the appropriate times, but most of all have FUN.
Is McGwire on PED’s again ?
Posted: June 4, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: AL, Allen Krause, Cardinals, Jeff, Jeffery Lung, Mark McGwire, Mark Newman, McGwire, MLB, MLBAM, MLBlogosphere, MLBlogs, Padres, PED's, Philadelphia, phillies, Red State Blue State, RSBS, San Diego, St. Louis 16 CommentsThe Phillies returned home yesterday and
took some rest, more like some, gather my thoughts time, and while some
players were probably reflecting on how best to ignite the offense, so they
don’t end up with a sell out ‘boo-bird’ stadium this weekend, others I am
sure were checking out the Rollins’ Basebowl Tournament, an event J-Roll
hosts every year, I just hope he played it safe with his calf injury and took no
risks.
The San Diego Padres are in town for the
weekend, it seems like the Phillies are
getting no breaks, they just got off a road trip, which put them in all the over
sized ball parks with hot teams and now they get home to host another hot
team in the Padres, if they can break
out of this, whatever it is, over the weekend then they will deserve
every run and hit they get against this Padres
team that is currently dominating the West.
Other news in baseball, it seems that Mark McGwire has been at it
again, yep you guessed it, this time he can’t deny it, cause there is no way in
hell a guy like him knocks up a chick like his wife and then she has triplets,
all girls on June 1st, yep gotta believe he was poppin’ the blue ones. On a side
note, that I didn’t pick up on at the time and haven’t seen mentioned anywhere,
yes I know Stephanie McGwire is his 2nd wife, but she was a pharmaceutical rep
when they met, is that weird or is it me.
The most important news from yesterday around MLB, was actually here
in the Blogosphere, not it’s not the fact that the Blogosphere’s
front page depicted the almost perfect game, but at the time chose not to depict
Roy Halladay’s actual perfect game, it isn’t the fact that the Blogosphere’s
front page went through a quick change to cover the retirement of "KG
Jr.", it wasn’t even the fact that after yesterday’s post I managed to
get through the day without having my blog cancelled by ‘The Man’ Mark Newman,
who’s really a nice guy, (sucking up), or the geeky guru powers at
his disposal within the Blogosphere… No people this event almost
got my WTF award for June, it is definitely still in the running, depending on
the rest of the month, this earth shattering event happened at none other than RSBS
– I hear you ask, what other than Jeff falling off a female sCrUBS fan in a
drunken stuper, could possibly be earth shattering at RSBS
– Well I have the proof in pictures, for all of you who are familiar
with the escapades of Jeff and Al, you’ll know that both try to alternate posts
on the blog, but it seems Jeff is the only one who knows how to comment, well I
have the proof…..
….that’s definitely AL’s handtyping, I have it on good
authority and if you want to see the evidence for your self just click the link
at the end and scroll down to the 5th comment…. click
here
Time to get ready for the Phillies vs Padres and hopefully the
next big news story will be the Phillies breaking out of this…
……what ever it is
Phillies Playing Blankety Blank ….
Posted: June 1, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: American League, Braves, Cardinals, Detroit, Dodgers, Giants, God, Memorial Day, Mets, National League, nil, nothing naught, Padres, phillies, Royal Air Force, Tigers, zero 6 CommentsMemorial Day weekend is now behind us, it was a time we honor those
that paid the ultimate price so that we may enjoy our
freedom. Some little known facts a place in Ohio, Ironton lays claim to
the longest running Memorial Day parade, they have been holding one since
around 1868, as far as I can find out, I wasn’t there then so I can’t confirm
it. Ironton sits on the Ohio river a stones throw from Kentucky
and West Virginia.
In Great Britain the last Monday of May is a different holiday, there
equivalent to Memorial Day is normally the second Sunday of November,
although a 2 minute silence is observed on November 11th, in remembrance of
those that paid the ultimate price. Many of my ancestors have been members of
the British military for as long as I know, my father was in the Royal
Air Force, which is the same branch of military I served my country.
I hope everyone had some good memories of this past weekend, we may complain
about the beer not being cold enough or it may have been the burgers over done,
or the weather stopped you from lighting that grill. I am sure many sat around
with a beer or 2 and righted all the wrongs in the world, some probably
disagreed with the current conflicts overseas, it’s your right, that’s the
beauty of ‘Freedom’ I trust you all remembered that if nothing else this weekend
and just maybe you did something nice for at least one person, you never know
what fruits it may produce in a world where the ‘pay it forward’ program mostly
comes naturally for those that enjoy the true free world.
———————–
It’s June we are as good as 1/3 of the way through the season, I was going to
evaluate the current standing with regard to how my predictions are working out,
but decided it’s not worth doing that till at least July, when teams start
dumping or finding players based on their chances for postseason. Since there
has been many conversations started and ended with the fact that Philadelphia
has more zero’s in May than a lot of teams see in a season, I thought I would
try and put some of it into perspective, even the Phillies
own analysts are starting to ask, where’s it end, when does it end. Well I say
it end’s now, this week, maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow night, but by
this weekend the Phillies will be either
back on top of the division or at worst by the time the weekend its over.
How do the Phillies compare to the rest
of baseball, in May they went 16-12, the best team in baseball went 20-8 in fact
2 teams did that and both those teams moved from the bottom of their respective
divisions to the top or almost.
The
top 2 teams of each of the American League divisions is the same on June
1st as it was on May 1st, those top 2 teams of each American League
division were on average winning between 15 and 17 games and losing
between 12 and 14 games, the only one of the 6 teams to have a losing record was
the Detroit Tigers they went 12-14 for the
month.
The top 2 teams of each division in the National League saw 2 teams go from
top to bottom or almost anyway, the Giants
dropped down in the West and Mets in
the East, those 2 teams were replaced by the best 2 teams in baseball the
Dodgers and Braves
respectively. The Phillies had the same
record as the Padres, a better record than
the Cardinals, in fact on the 1st of May the
Phillies were a 1/2 game out of 1st place in
the NL East and on June 1st they are a 1/2 game out, before today’s game.
More of how the Phillies performed, from
the 17th of April to May 1st the Phillies
went 4-8 and from the 17th of May to June 1st the Phillies
have gone 5-9, yet for the most part they lead the division in both April and
May. How about runs I hear you say, well during the same time period April 17th
or May 1st, they went 38 runs for and 57 runs against, from 17th May to 1st June
they went 34 runs for and 54 against, so the numbers are similar again.
I’ll admit there were more zero’s on the board in May, but it’s wins and
loses that count, so if at the end of June the Phillies
are still putting up zero’s then maybe I will start to ask, what is going on,
how do we fix this, but at this moment in time it seems all the players have hit
that down turn at the same time, so as I said before when the bats wake up, even
some almighty, visible only in the mind of those that choose to have imaginary
friends in adulthood, won’t be able to help the pitcher of the moment.
The Perfect Game….
Posted: May 29, 2010 Filed under: Dailies | Tags: A's, Angels, Arizona, Astros, Athletics, Atlanta, Baltimore, Blue Jays, BoSox, Braves, Brewers, Canada, Cardinals, Carlos Ruiz, Chicago, ChiSox, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, D'Backs, Detroit, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Florida, Florida Marlins, Giants, Halladay, Houston, Indians, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Milwaukee, mini-soda, Minnesota, Nationals, Nats, New York, No Hitter, Oakland, Orioles, Padres, perfect game, Philadelphia, phillies, Pirates, Pittsburgh, Rangers, Rays, Red Birds, Red Sox, Reds, Rockies, Royals, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay. Boston, Texas, The Doc, Tigers, Toronto, Tribe, Twins, Washington, White Sox, Yankees 12 CommentsPerfection is a hard thing to achieve, in baseball terms for a pitcher, it’s
throwing 9 innings and facing the minimum number of batters, just 27, without
giving up a hit, walk or anything else that may put a batter on the bases. It
was the end of the worst week of the Phillies
season so far, it was Saturday night in Florida, the Phillies
had set a record for innings without a run during the week, they were what could
only be described as having a case of hitlessness…..
Tonight the Phillies ‘ACE’ Roy
‘The Doc’ Halladay turned the tables and threw the perfect game, not just a
no hitter, a perfect game, the 20th in baseball history, 27 Marlins
came up and 27 Marlins went down, including
3 straight pinch hitters in the 9th inning.
Roy Halladay, definitely imprinted himself in the Phillies
history books and it is well deserved. A man of class, saying he just followed
Ruiz from the 6th inning on, so to the pair of them congratulations.
Phillies Outside Archive Vault 