2010 Phillies Year in Review

It 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….

 

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A New Begining….

It’s finally here. Spring is Sprung…

springavatarBYEBYE.jpg


…all the cheap shots at the American League teams are out of my system, until something really horrendous happens, it’s time to focus on the task at hand, supporting the Philadelphia Phillies through thick and thin, taking all the abuse other fans can give, and giving it back in the same good humored rivalry it is all meant.

Accepting that when my team does something, which to the average human, is totally off the wall and far out there, they are doing it for the best interests of the club and not to spite the fans.

Everyone gets a clean slate, even umpire Ed Rapauno, gets a fresh start and can step out without fear of humiliation in Philadelphia, until that first call anyway. It’s a time when Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes have the same number of stolen bases, or a time when even Brad Lidge is no longer a…

kloser.jpg


…loser.

It truly is a special time, the Cubs have the same record as the Cardinals, Milton Bradley has as many RBI’s as Albert Pujols, and any player can claim to equal Ryan Howards home run quantity.

The time has come to start waving those towels, the time has come to grill in the parking lot, the time has come to never be short of beer, the time has come to start screaming LET’S GO….


PHILLIESRED.jpg – peter



Phillies Unanswered Question…..

The Phillies and Pirates
go 10 innings and end it as a 3-3 tie. Nobody likes a tie in baseball,
but it’s spring training and lets face it, these guys are just using
each other to try new things out, tone up pitchers arms and to see how
fielders and hitters have adjusted during the off season, plus thrown
in there is the chance for minor league players to show there stuff to the
big league coaches in the hope they may be allowed out of the minors
earlier than scheduled

One of the things currently unanswered from the Phillies camp is:

“What the hell is with Jayson Werth and his beard and hair?”.
werth-1.jpg
Suggestions that have been thrown around are that he’s a keen fisherman and he’s emulating Captain Birds Eye, another is he misses Eric Bruntlett (he must be the only one)
and finally he had a gig as Santa and like it too much, but I have to
be honest these are all hype and misinformation thrown out to disguise
the real reason behind the new look. After some deep down discoveries
about some of his off season activities, my findings are that he is in
negotiations to star in some upcoming commercials for Geico as they try to give teams some extra insurance. “isn’t that what the bench players and bullpen do?” Okay
so its not Geico, even if he does look and act like a caveman, but
seriously, if you see this Jayson… “HAVE A FRICKIN SHAVE AND A HAIR
CUT, you look like a serial killer”


Around Baseball

The New York Yankees backup catcher, Francisco Cervelli, got dinged in the helmet by Jays pitcher, Zech Zinicola. Cervelli picked up his second concussion since November. The Yankees
waited till the 9th inning to retaliate, now come on guys it’s spring
training and pitchers are going to be wild, especially those in later
innings. I guess this definitely sets up some interesting meeting for
the regular season between these two clubs.

The Dodgers fans thought they were in the twilight zone Saturday when Guns ‘n’ Roses started blaring out, everybody stood up ‘standing
ovation or just checking to see if they were dreaming or had been
caught up in one of those ‘back to the future’ type movies
‘, we’ll never really know, but it was real, Eric Gagne was once again on the mound in a Dodgers uniform. I’m sure Broxton won’t lose any sleep worrying about the closers spot.


MLB obviously have there own way of doing things, and like most major corporations believe they know best, although they test for amphetamines, steroids and other PED’s they do NOT test for HGH although it is banned. In the UK recently a rugby player was banned for 2 years for testing positive for HGH, however MLB
not convinced the test is good will research themselves with their own
experts before attempting to implement a test for a substance they have
banned.

MLB
Umpires get some updates, following last years post season, and regular
season too, which for all the great plays and achievements of players
and teams will probably be the year known for ‘BAD UMPIRING’. MLB is seen to be making some changes at least, former supervisors Marty Springstead, Jim McKean and Rich Garcia have not been retained and umpires such as Randy Marsh and Charlie Reliford have been made supervisors. I am not sure this will change much other than allow MLB to to claim they are trying, and I am sure some managers will say, “Yes they are VERY TRYING at times”.
I hear people calling for more video playback, but still that’s still
based on someone’s opinion of what they see, even in the NFL
they still get it wrong after video playback. Umpires don’t have to be
perfect, just get the obviously calls right the rest is all part of the
great game of baseball.

any sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the possibilities of more during the season.
.


It’s Time….

…to spring into action, players
have had a chance to wipe away the cobwebs, meets old friends, get
introduced to new ones, have their memories jogged on which base is
which, and figure out which shoe goes on which foot.

This week is the week that interaction
between teams begins, this week is the start of old and new rivalries.
It may only be spring training games, but it will give us a hint
of what’s to come, it will let us see who’s here to play and who’s here
to wing it.

The Phillies bring a core of
players which in essence is the strongest it’s had over the last few
years, some new additions, even a re-addition to what was already a
solid base of players. This is definitely the start of what should be an
interesting year all around baseball.

For the Phillies, question marks
will surround the likes of Lidge and Hamels, not just at
the start of the season, but all season long. The media will be waiting
to pounce on the first sign of anything that may show a reduced
performance, in my opinion Hamels will do just fine, for me the
one to watch will be Lidge, even though he will have a better
year than last year, (which shouldn’t be hard to do), he will
have just a mediocre year and hopefully Charlie will have him on
a shorter leash than he did last year.

I am sure it will not take Polanco
long to get his footing at 3rd base and become a dominant 3rd base
player, he is a familiar figure to the organization as are they to him.
It’s looking as if Polanco will be the only addition to last
year’s starting line-up in the field, the rest of the infield and
outfield should be more than accustomed to each other by now. We should
get a chance to see the new additions to the bench during this month and
some of the potential prospects, even though the farm system is a little
depleted with the acquisitions over the last couple of years.

We will definitely get a chance to see
the star acquisition Roy Halladay as he is set to square off against CC
in the opener against the Yankees this week, as with all spring training
games, we shouldn’t expect too much from him, after all we’d like to see
him still throwing maximum innings come October.

Around Baseball

Not too much to say at this point, just
waiting for the St Louis Cardinals to announce Pete Rose
as the players investment coach, following the announcement of McGwire
as the hitting coach, I am sure Pujols and Holliday will
be looking to him for inspiration.

 any
sarcasm is not meant to offend, unless it does, then consider the
possibilities of more during the season.

 


HAPPY NEW YEAR…

Happy New Year to all, yes even
Yankee fans… It’s a new year and spring training is just around the
corner, which means everyone is back to even, well for the first day of
baseball anyway, after that it’s anyone’s guess as to who ends up where.
It’s to early for predictions, for me anyway, but I have already had a
glimpse into the future as this picture was taken at 12:48am January 1st
2010 and I actually received it at 7:48pm December 31st 2009, so here is
my son, Dave and daughter-in-law , Lucy as I saw them in the future, as
you can see a small amount of motion blur from traveling through time,
that or the celebratory New Years beverages had gotten the best of
them…

 …it’s a little soon
for me to look further into the future and come up with predictions for
the coming season, but it’s not to late to have a glimpse of how I saw
2009, a few images I used in my blog during 2009
(images
in no particular order)

 

 

 

 


Ryan Howard

Howard seems to be loosening up nicely. Now leading in homeruns, yes it is only preseason and as people keep saying nothing really counts, but he’s warming up and is looking as though he should start the season off in good shape at the plate. He looks confortable and confident and the slimmer, fitter Howard is heading towards April with an spring in his step. Predictions I think he will exceed 50 homers this year with relative ease, he may even go beyond 60, if teams continue to pitch to him as the season progresses. I think that is going to be the story of August and September, the lack of pitches Howard sees and if that is the case then he could receive a high number of intentional walks. Obviously that all depends on the hitters before and after him, if they have a average or high OBP anything could happen. So this is my first prediction, I will hopefully look back in September and see how good it was and watch Howard hit his and the Phillies way into the post season.


Spring Training

Spring training is under way and the Phillies players are enjoying themselves, it’s a time for blowing out the cobwebs, getting the baseball feeling back and loosening up the arms and legs. Then again for some of us it’s a time that says spring is upon us, the weather is turning the days into sun rather than snow, temperatures are heating up, away go the winter coats it’s almost sweatshirts and light coats and soon just good old t-shirts. Can’t wait for April… bring it on