My Fellow Phans,
As much as people like to say that Jimmy Rollins is the engine behind the Phillies' high-powered offense, I beg to differ. I'm not downplaying how important J-Roll really is to this Phillies squad; all I am suggesting is a player who I feel is the real key to our offensive and through whom our offense lives and dies. That player is, of course, Chase Utley.
Right now Utley is in a horrific slump; coincidentally, the Phillies are also in a horrific offensive slump. For those of you who put the blame on this for Jimmy Rollins being out, just remember that Rollins has missed most of this season and there was a time when the Phillies actually looked like they could hit with Chase Utley leading the way and playing well. Now, Rollins is still out, but unlikely last time Utley is struggling and so goes the Phillies offense to the path of struggles. I'm sure if you look up stats, this will back up my point as it is evident just by watching the team play around our superstar second baseman.
Why Chase is slumping is a whole other topic. Is he really hurt as some people have noted? I don't know nor could i venture an informed guess at this point. I sincerely hope that if Utley is hurt, he comes clean about it sooner rather than later. We all know and love Utley in this town and he may be the only athlete who is immune to the criticism of a typical Philadelphia sport fan. If you're hurt Chase, come out and let us know. You are the face of the Phillies and may just be the face of the city. Nobody is going to blame you for being hurt. In fact, we will applaud your honesty in coming out and admitting it.
I, for one, sincerely hope that Utley is not hurt even though I have a belief that he just may be. Besides the fact that we would be missing our 3-hole hitter if he was out, we have no adequate replacement. It is bad enough with Juan Castro and Wilson Valdez filling in for Jimmy Rollins. We cannot afford to miss Utley as well. Do you know how bad Valdez is? Here is a man who has walked just ONCE all season and has grounded into TEN double plays. Yes, pathetic I know. He is 4th in the league in terms of grounding into double plays in nearly half the total plate appearances as any of the guys in front of him. That is why we need Rollins back and Utley healthy. There is a reason Valdez should never be allowed to grace any team's 25 man roster for any extended period of time.
Regardless of that fact, the Phillies need to start hitting and it doesn't look like it will happen until Utley begins to turn things around. All of our top hitters have their issues at the plate: To quote an article I recently read that sums up my point perfectly:
" When Ryan Howard doesn't hit, it is because he swings at bad pitches out of the zone. When Jimmy Rollins doesn't hit, it is because he is impatient at the plate. When Jayson Werth doesn't hit, it is because he is swinging for a new contract."
To finish that statement with my own ending: "When the Phillies don't hit; it is because Utley is slumping" Lets hope he breaks out of it soon.
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 10:08 AM 0 comments
Thursday, June 10, 2010
By Taking a Major Step Back, Phillies Set Up Bumpy Road Ahead
My Fellow Phans,
I know I said earlier that I would not post again until I got back, but I need to vent after watching tonight's game.
I'm sure a lot of you saw the game as it ended just a little while ago. For those of you who are friends of me on Facebook, I'm sure you have seen enough of my status to know I am frustrated with this 2-0 loss.
Let's look at the box score and what do we see?
The Phillies managed 4 hits; just 4 damn hits. 4! That is sad, plain sad. Now I know Josh Johnson is good, but he was hittable tonight. We had guys on base. 3 of our 4 hits were doubles. So we had people in scoring position. As a team we went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
So who were the lucky hitters who got hits today? Hmm, it seems to be the usual suspects: Victorino, Polanco, Ibanez and Howard. Saying that Howard, Polanco and Victorino got hits are becoming a broken record these days. Nobody else is hitting. Utley and Werth couldn't hit water if they fell out of a damn boat right now.
What makes their lack of hitting even more frustrating is how and what they are doing. Werth has become a strike out machine. Put a guy or two on base and its nearly a lock that he will strike out. Put the runners on base during time when the Phillies can get back into a game (basically a threat) and a strike out is assured. In the rare case he doesn't strikeout, Werth will just hit into a double play ending the inning. He may be the most frustrating Phillie right now for me to watch. Strike outs and double plays in possible run scoring situations are the two worst things that can happen.
Speaking of double plays, Wilson Valdez isn't even in the top 140 in terms of at bats in the major leagues; but ranks 5th in grounding into double plays. Go figure that out. No wonder you are a career minor leaguer buddy. You aren't even that slow. Talk about being a Double Play Machine. Maybe we should call you Wilson "Double-Play" Valdez from now.Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
As for Utley, I really have no explanation. Is he hurt? I cannot say either way for sure. I would love to get a definite yes or no on that fact. Think of this: On May 20th, Utley was hitting .307 and now he's hitting .266. Werth was hitting .324 and now he's hitting .278. Has Utley ever had this bad? Let me rephrase: Has a HEALTHY Chase Utley ever gone through a slump this bad? I really don't think so. That is why I am really anxious to know if our best player is healthy and playing on all cylinders.
I'm going to leave the rest of the lineup alone for now and talk about the pitching. The only good point in tonight's game: Roy Halladay. How much more can we say about this guy? I am running out of compliments to throw this guy's way. He was amazing tonight giving up just 1 run in 8 innings. Sadly he will be saddled with the loss. He is 8-4 now. 8-4??!! That is unbelievable. the man has a 1.96 ERA 1.96!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With 3 runs of support each start, Halladay would be 10-2 instead 8-4.
I would rather lose 10-0 than 2-0. I hate wasting beautifully pitched games and the Phillies are continually doing this night after night. With just 3 runs a game during these past couple of weeks; who knows where we would be. Way up in first place that is for sure. We keep wasting these positive outings and it is going to come back to bite us in the ass in the end. This is just disgraceful.
I salute you Roy Halladay for pitching your ass off every time and getting nothing to show for it. We owe you big time buddy, and hopefully we pay up soon enough.
As for the other pitcher used, Danny Baez, I have no praise for him. He has started to give up a run every single performance. He needs to go. I think we can all agree on this fact. I don't know why Charlie keeps using him in close games. Let's face it Charlie, Baez sucks. Get him out of our bullpen. I could do better.
I'm not going to comment on how bad our bench really is this year. That can be saved for a later date. All I will say is, Dobbs hasn't had a good seasons since 2008. Maybe its time for a change?
If you think its bad now for the Phillies, the next 9 games may be the death of you. The Phillies face 3 of the 4 best American League teams for 9 straight games. We begin with 3 in Boston and then travel to Skankee Stadium, and finally meet the Twins for 3 in Philly. If you think its bad now Phillies' fans, it may just get a whole lot worse. I have a bad feeling about this next week and a half. This could get ugly.
Well now that I've vented, I can take my leave of absence from the blog writing world. Chances are I will not be able to post again until next week so let's hope the Phillies' fortunes turn around before then or I could be writing about the final downfall of the National League champs.
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 10:41 PM 0 comments
Alright, That's a Start....
My Fellow Phans.
Tuesday looked to be a step in the right direction for the Phillies. I am not ready to concede and say that this slump is officially over. I would need to see at least 2-3 more games within the next few days before I determine this slump is done with. Kudos to the offense for scoring runs though in a shitty start by Kyle Kendrick. Ibanez had 4 hits, Utley and Howard each contributed as well. My buddy Ben Francisco came through in a big way in the 8th inning with the game winning hit. He had pair of hits also.
The pitching was troubling. Kendrick was bad; Durbin gave up some runs as did Contreras. Lidge made Philly fans hold their breath as he loaded the bases before getting the final out. Overall he looked sharp especially for the first two strikeouts. Lets hope he doesn't give us any more outings like this one.
The Phillies have one more game to get the kinks out before we go on the American League's version of Murders' Row starting this weekend. What is AL Murders' Row you may ask? Well, its a span of 9 games during which the Phillies play 3 of the 4 best American League teams. Starting Friday, the Phillies play 3 in Boston, 3 at Yankee Stadium and then come home to play the Twins for 3 games. I foresee bad things in this upcoming stretch if the Phillies don't break out of this funk. Really bad things. Lets hope they are waking up because our good Phillies team can play with and beat those teams. Will they though is a whole other story...
I'm not sure how much I will be able to post in the next few days. I will be venturing down the shore with a friend of mine. If I do not get to post while I am down there, I can promise you intense posting when I return. Goodbye All!
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 10:30 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Phillies' To-Do List
My Fellow Phans,
So, as I promised in my last post: I have come up with suggestions or ideas that the Phillies should look into doing in order to break this slump. I know some of these ideas are exaggerated and “out there” meaning they will probably never happen, but I’m just throwing them out there as ideas. I mean these struggles are pushing people past the point of desperation and anything must be tried to break these boys out of it and asap.
So here are my ideas / suggestions on things that could and or should be done to attempt to help the Phillies:
1. Make Chase Utley get a physical: Out of all the players on the Phillies, we all can pretty much agree that Utley is the last player to ever admit he is hurting or injured. His drive for the game is too strong for him to do so. I’m sure we can also agree that a fully healthy Utley is too good to go through the type of slump he is in right now. Hell, a sore or semi-unhealthy Utley is still better than most of the players in the game today.
I just want to make sure that our best player is not hiding an injury or maybe he is hurt and doesn’t really know it; it is possible. It wouldn’t hurt anybody by asking him to just get looked at to make sure he is 100%. Let’s face it, we cannot win anything this season without the old, productive Chase Utley. So if he is injured, let’s learn about it now before it sidelines him for longer than it should.
2. Shake up the lineup: Now this is where some may say these ideas will get a little unlikely. When I say shakeup, I don’t mean putting Francisco or Gload into the lineup occasionally. I am talking about serious changes and unusual changes. These could include:
- Moving Carlos Ruiz up in the lineup. Here’s a daring idea: move Chooch to third in the order and push everyone back a spot. He may not be an ideal 3-hole hitter, but he may just be the best hitter we have right now. Victorino and Polanco have been solidly getting on-base recently and the rest of the order never gets them in. Let’s give Chooch a chance to knock in some runs in that 3 spot. Crazy and never going to happen I know, but it gets you thinking, doesn’t it?
- If not Ruiz, why not move Werth up? Let’s face it; Werth cannot be trusted with men on base lately. Bat him leadoff and move Victorino down giving Shane more chances to knock in runs and maybe Werth will hit better in spots with nobody on base and he cannot possibly ground into a double play. Although, he may just find a way to do so with the bases empty; talk about an impressive feat.
And if you do any serious changes in the lineup; don’t do it for a game and scratch it. Leave it going for a few games and see how it goes. All ideas must be tried at this point.
3. Bring Up & Ship Out: This is where the roster changes seriously start: The manager is not the only player in this. The front office needs to step up as well and make some serious changes:
- Out: Baez / In: Scott Mathieson – Mathieson is pitching lights out (1.40 ERA) in the minors and he has the big league experience to replace Baez. He may struggle, but he is younger, but has potential and could be a serious player in our bullpen for years to come. If you don’t call him up then trade for a reliever; maybe a Bobby Jenks perhaps? Anyone has to be an improvement over Baez this year; he has to go.
- Out: Greg Dobbs / In: Dominic Brown – Our bench needs a change and Dobbs is the likeliest to go. We need some spark and lets face it; Dobbs hasn’t had a good season since 2008. Drop Dobbs and call up Dominic Brown. Bring Brown up and put him in left field and bench Ibanez. If Brown hits 250 with a decent amount of power, then he is an improvement. Give Raul some competition in the outfield and maybe that will light a fire under him and he will start to hit better; Brown has earned his shot to start in the Major Leagues. Give the man his shot already. You can even use Francisco against tough lefties. I wouldn’t see the harm in that.. Why not try something new and different? The Marlins called up their young stud outfielder, who will actually make his debut in Philly tonight, so we can’t we do the same thing?
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 1:18 PM 0 comments
The "P" On Their Hats Stands for "Painful To Watch"
My Fellow Phans,
After feeling good about the Phillies winning the first two games against the Padres, their losses in their last two games killed any positive feelings that were drawn from those two first games. Let’s face it, Friday night was Halladay once again pitching his behind off and saving our miserable offense like he did during that perfect game. Lidge looked spectacular getting the save in the 9th inning. Saturday, it was all Moyer this time completing the game and saving the disappointing Phillies offense with his stellar performance. Our offense is not coming back; its not even close.
However, these last two games, our starters were not able to make up the atrocious offense that we are putting on the field these days. Blanton was not good on Sunday and really hasn’t had that many impressive performances this season. Our offense was helped by a critical error, but one wonders how many, if any, runs we would have scored if that error had no occurred. The Phillies stranded something like 15 base runners in that game. 15! 15 runners in just 10 innings; that is more than a runner per inning! I am running out of negative adjectives to describe our offense at this point. I’ve used bad, sad, pathetic, horrendous, atrocious, miserable, disgusting, terrible, disappointing, and probably more that I just forgot to list here.
Last night, Hamels started out with 6 no hit innings. As the night went along, the Phillies couldn’t even muster up a single run for the guy. Once he gave up that run in the 7th, we all knew it was over. The better the pitching performance, the worse the Phillies’ offense seems to perform. Hamels was great; we couldn’t have asked more out of him. All we needed were a simple 3 runs, I guess that is too much to ask of our hitting these days. We could have and should have swept this series. The Padres are not a good hitting team. We let them off the hook in those last two games. Oh well, such is the Phillies these days. Kudos to Jayson Werth for blowing two key opportunities in that game. He may be the worst offender of them all this time. Oh and Baez needs to go. There has to be better options in the farm system, free agent market or on the trading block that are better than him. He’s horrible.
I wanted to use a new word for this post, so I turned to my trusty thesaurus to find just the right term. Here’s one you may agree with: painful. Is this offense as painful to watch, listen, follow, and root for me as it is you guys? Every time we get a few runners on base, we strike out or hit into a double play. Don’t believe me? Check out nearly all of Jayson Werth’s at-bats. Chase Utley has done nothing recently; he, out of any Phillie, is too good for this slump business. I’ll throw this idea around again; could Chase be bothered by something that he is not telling us? A hip perhaps… Why not make his get a physical. Ryan Howard seems to get the occasional hit, but still nothing near his potential.
The only hitters getting any sort of offensive swing are Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco and Carlos Ruiz. It doesn’t matter if Victorino and Polanco are getting on base if the middle of our order is specializing in strike outs and double plays. They just sit out there on base as the big RBI guys falter behind them. It truly is painful to watch, isn’t it? Maybe Ruiz needs to hit third so he has some RBI opportunities or at least 6th, I mean Raul Ibanez hasn’t done anything all season, period.
Of course this whole slump dates back to the “Binocular Sign-Stealing” incident in Colorado. Scary to consider? Yes, I think so. Coincidence? I sincerely hope so. But, the long this slump goes on, the more that cloud will hang over this club. I mean it has to be pretty bad when it starts weighing on my mind, ask anyone I know about that. I know we’re not cheaters, right? Right, now I really don’t know. Well, let me rephrase that. I know we’re not. However, the longer this slump goes, the more and more people are talking about that incident and how timely all this is. The only way to prove people wrong is to hit and, right now, nobody is doing that. We couldn’t hit ourselves out of a paper bag right now, and it is painful to watch.
I recently read an article entitled “Manuel baffled by latest Phillies flop”. In it Manuel states, "I don't know what to say, really, if you want to know the truth," Manuel said. "I want to us to come out, have fun, hit balls and score runs like we know we can. It's not happening." Maybe Manuel should get a clu, make some changes in our lineup, bullpen, and or bench. We need something, anything that can help us right now.
Later in the Article: “"This team's not going to quit," leftfielder Raul Ibanez said. "There's too much talent in the room. There's a lot of season left. But obviously it doesn't take the sting out of what's going on right now.
"
Excuse me for playing Captain Obvious here Mr. Ibanez, but I watch this team and it appears to me they have quit or at least stopped trying or maybe they’re over-trying. I don’t know, in all my years of baseball, I have never seen anything like this. Even with our “bad” teams of the past who couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat never had slumps this past. There is too much talent for this slide to keep going on like this. Although having talent is only as good as wanting and caring enough to use it. Are they at this point? I really don’t know.
I am working on some plans that I think the Phillies should take in order to improve; look for them at a later post.
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 10:08 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Saluting the Great Ken Griffey Jr.
My Fellow Phans,
Earlier this week, baseball lost one of its active legends when Ken Griffey Jr retired from the game of baseball. I must be getting old that one of my favorite players when I was younger is retiring. Here are my thoughts and memories on perhaps the greatest left-handed hitter to even play the game of baseball.
As a baseball fan, I have already favored watching left handed hitters. Why? Well the answer is simple; there are some lefties who have a “perfect” swing; it never seemed to happen for any righties. It’s hard to describe and probably only baseball fans will get what I am talking about. The perfect swing was a swing that was fluid every time, it made an observer stand up and go, wow that guy is amazing. A perfect swing made you a good hitter simply because you clearly knew exactly what you were doing at the plate. I’m sure you know where this is going, but I’ll continue. Ask any baseball fan, and I’m sure most of them would agree; Ken Griffey Jr. had the perfect swing.
When Griffey came into the league; he immediately made a hit with the Seattle Mariners, (no pun intended). With his sweet swing and his great plate discipline, there were a great many, myself included, who thought he would break the home run record. However injuries delayed put an end to that pursuit He would end with 630 career home runs. What made Griffey so great was that his name was never connected to any steroid stories or accusations, at least none that I know of. He always remained the small-built, unassuming guy with natural power like no other player. His perfect swing and natural talent was all that needed.
Once he returned to Seattle, you just knew it was almost the end for Griffey. I cannot think of a more perfect ending then returning to where it all started for one final go around. He didn’t want a farewell tour and there will not be one as he ends his career and will just stop playing. I’m sure that teams will still celebrate this legend anyway. He was a legend, a leader and is a first ball Hall Of Famer or at least should be. If Griffey does not get in on the first ballot, I may have to boycott baseball, but I’m sure there is nothing to worry about in that regard.
I cannot believe I am quoting Milton Bradley when I actually agree with him, but he summed up the situation perfectly when he said “On a day like this, it should rain in Seattle.” It is raining Mr. Bradley, but not a dreary rain to point out a great loss, but instead it is raining praise and thanks from the Seattle faithful to the greatest Mariner to ever play the game, Mr. Ken Griffey Jr.
I salute you Ken Griffey. You were one of my favorite players growing up and I look forward to seeing your induction into Cooperstown. Baseball lost one of its legends this week, and he will never be forgotten.
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
Posted by Shieldsy07 at 10:07 AM 0 comments
Looking Back at Last Night's Game
My Fellow Phans,
Congrats to the Phillies on their big win yesterday. It was nice to see them back Roy Halladay, at least enough to get him a win. Contreras and Romero were a little shaky in the 8th, but the story of the game had to be Brad Lidge.
Lidge worked a perfect 9th inning last night for his 2nd save of the year striking out two hitters in the process. To say Lidge looked good last would be a HUGE understatement. His slider was breaking where and when he wanted it to, and his fastball had pinpoint control. See the at-bat versus Padres’ slugger Adrian Gonzalez for further proof. We haven’t seen Lidge pitch this well since, well since 2008. Now I’m going to leave it at that because I feel I’ve said too much to possibly jinx him already.
As for the rest of the pitching: Halladay pitched 7 strong innings and what a wizardly 7 innings those were. He ended up stranding something like 11 Padres base runners. He made the big pitch when he had to. The 8th inning was a shaky one as Jose Contreras and J.C. Romero loaded the bases before Romero got an inning ending double play which was HUGE!
As for the offense, it still was not up to par. We did score 3 runs and got the victory, I’m not going to say that wasn’t important. However, our slump is still upon us offensively. The Phillies managed just 4 hits through the first 7 innings and were greatly outhit by the Padres, but they still had the lead. The Phillies haven’t scored more than 3 runs in a game since May 21st. That is a 12 game stretch of scoring less than 4 runs.
The scoring came really on just two plays. The first two on a Shane Victorino hit a 2-run home run. What made this home run important besides giving the Phillies the lead, was that it was hit on a 2-0 pitch; a good hitters’ count. Getting good swings on a pitch in a hitters’ count is always a sign of a player going well at the plate. The other offense came on a bases loaded walk to Jayson Werth. It was a close 3-2 pitch; I’m not going to deny that at all. A hitter with a lesser eye at the plate may have chased the pitch, but Werth laid off of it and worked the critical walk that gave the Phillies the lead.
Overall, it was a good game. I mean the Phillies won and that’s all that matters, right? Maybe they can shock us all and make it two in a row tonight. They say miracles happen every day right so we shall see.
Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!
No comments:
Post a Comment