Still Too Early to Say Philadelphia Phillies Are Out of Their Slump

After the Phillies’ hitting coach, Milt Thompson, was fired a few days ago, it looked like he was simply the scapegoat. But now that the Phillies are smacking the Rockies around a little bit, including a 10-2 shellacking of Ubaldo Jimenez, it looks like the move might have actually worked.

“It doesn’t mean we’re all of a sudden going to start hitting,” Jimmy Rollins said following Thompson’s firing, but that would seem to be the case.

Guys no longer seem to be pressing. They’re standing tall at the plate, watching the bad ones go by, and taking what the pitcher is willing to give.

If that means a single base knock, then so be it. However, they’re still getting their extra-base knocks and going yard because they’re allowing the pitches to come to them rather than chasing them a foot out of the zone in any direction.

But if we’re going to be pessimistic, they are still five games away from the Braves. The winning is nice for now, but they’ve still got a long way to go.

The hitting is a step in the right direction, and Kyle Kendrick and J.A. Happ were very good on back-to-back days. I would even go so far as to say Kendrick was spectacular.

Kendrick is certainly an odd player to watch because he could come back and not make it out of the second inning in his next start.

They’ve just got to keep it up. Really, that’s it. They’ve got to continue coming up with the clutch hit, strikeout, catch, throw, and whatever else. If they keep doing the little things, they can put themselves in a position to catch the Braves.

However, if they fall back into a slump they’re going to look up at some point and realize the Braves are too far ahead to be caught anymore. We’re nearly into August, and it’s time they play with some sense of urgency.

Because if all they’re worried about is stringing a few wins together here and there and just trying to maintain, it’s going to bite them—hard. Whether or not they want to admit it to themselves, it’s crunch time.

Next time they fall into one of their 10 to 15-game slumps, they’re not going to have enough time to dig themselves out.

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Five Most Glaring Statistics From The 2010 Phillies Season

It seems that everyone has an opinion on the struggles of the 2010 Phillies.  And while the most popular (and certainly not misguided) theories focus on the Cliff Lee trade, rampant injuries, and underachieving, there are five glaring statistical contributors that would have the Phillies missing the playoffs if the season ended today.

1.  The combined ERA of Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels is 2.78, while he combined ERA of Jamie Moyer, Joe Blanton, and Kyle Kendrick is 5.19.

How bad is the combined ERA of the Phillies three, four, and five starters?   Well, when compared to the 54 National League pitchers who have pitched enough innings to qualify for ERA rankings (the requirement is one inning pitched per team game played), a 5.19 ERA would rank 52nd.   Perhaps the Phillies will soon be adopting the motto of “Halladay and Hamels and pray for rain!”

2.  Phillies second basemen and shortstops are on pace for the following season totals (combined): .243 avg, 32 home runs, 152 RBI, and 170 runs scored.

This is a statistic that bears much more meaning when it is compared to the production of the middle infield in the 2009 Pennant-winning season.    A healthy and productive combination of Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley combined for the following numbers last season:  .265 average, 52 home runs, 170 RBI, and 212 runs scored.   Poor health and poor hitting from the middle infield could be one of the biggest factors in the Phillies offensive struggles this season.

3.  At their current pace, the Phillies will be shut out 13 times this season.

The team that has led the National League in scoring for three of the last four seasons has been held to three or fewer runs a puzzling 47 times this season.   It’s hard to imagine Roy Halladay or Cole Hamels holding a team scoreless into the ninth inning and still staring down a no-decision, and yet it has happened multiple times this season. 

4.  The Phillies are 6 games under .500 on the road.

When listing all of the reasons for the Phillies struggles this season, perhaps the biggest contributor is the difference in their road record between this season and the past two seasons.  In 2009, the Phillies finished the season 15 games over .500 on the road, and in 2008 they were 7 games over .500.   Phillies opponents could never breathe easily until the 27th out was recorded, as the team’s mental toughness was the best in baseball. 

The 2010 Phillies are doing just fine at Citizen’s Bank Park (11 games over .500), and if they were merely playing .500 baseball on the road, they would trail the Braves by only 1.5 games for the division lead and the Giants by .5 games for the Wild Card lead.  

5.  The Phillies bullpen currently ranks 9th in the National League.

One of the most underappreciated components of the 2008 World Series Champion Phillies was the dependability of the top-ranked bullpen in the National League.  This season’s bullpen performance has deteriorated over the past two months, as Danys Baez, Jose Contreras, and David Herndon have struggled to keep the Phillies in games.   While it is not an exciting trade-deadline target, the bullpen could be the most crucial element for the Phillies to address if they are expecting to make a postseason run yet again.

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Philadelphia Phillies Make It Difficult to Get Excited Over Wins

The Phillies won 6-0 on Friday night over the Colorado Rockies at Citizen’s Bank Park. Roy Halladay got the win as he pitched eight scoreless innings, fanning nine, and watched his offense explode for five runs in the fifth inning.

And that’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll read again soon.

… You’re still here? Oh, you wanted more? Sorry, that’s truly all I’ve got. Here is where I would usually add some sort of analysis or my opinion on the game and the Phillies in general, but there’s really nothing more left to be said.

Absent a hot streak soon, wins like this won’t matter.

They’ve got to keep this up for the rest of the season and hope that the Atlanta Braves start losing.

How do they keep this up? Well, they swing the bats better. That’s it. We’ve been over everything and every time it looks like they’re getting their act together, it falls apart—making it incredibly difficult to get excited over any of their wins.

It was great to see them put up all those runs in the fifth inning, but that was their entire offense right there. Outside of an RBI by Raul Ibanez in the eighth, the fifth inning was the only time they could score.

Jayson Werth got another RBI this month, so the world might be coming to an end. For the first night in a long time, Ryan Howard wasn’t their entire offense. And, perhaps most surprisingly of all and tying into the first two feats of this game, Halladay actually got some run support.

But, there’s still plenty of bad to go around.

For starters, they still left 11 runners on base. Yeah, 11 runners were left stranded out on the bags tonight. So even though they were able to score six runs, it could have, and should have, been a whole lot more.

If it was anyone but Halladay, or perhaps Cole Hamels, on the mound, the six runs likely would not have been enough.

On the bright side, they did win. Perhaps I’m being a bit pessimistic but if you take a second to look through my archives, you’ll see that I supported this team up until this point. But they’ve successfully sucked out all my optimism and left me with thoughts like “Cool, they won, but how will they mess it up tomorrow?”

It’s disgusting and I hate them for it. But, odds are they will lay an egg tomorrow, so excuse me if I’m not setting off fireworks in the backyard. I will be sure to watch the game, however, and hope with all I’m worth that I’m wrong.

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Trading Jayson Werth Is the Wrong Answer for the Philadelphia Phillies

Last November, the Philadelphia Phillies had found themselves in one of the most enviable positions in all of sports. 

They had just won a World Series Championship and followed it up with a repeat, albeit unsuccessful, trip to the Fall Classic. The organization possessed a tremendous nucleus of talent just entering their prime. 

For years, Citizen’s Bank Park has continued to be filled to capacity with energetic, passionate fans. And, despite trading away a handful of prospects to acquire one of the very best pitchers in the game the previous summer, the Phillies organization was still loaded with top notch prospects.

The future seemed bright. The present seemed even brighter. 

Then the Phillies brain trust, with General Manager Ruben Amaro in the public forefront, began making decisions that seemed more rooted in economics than athletic acumen. 

Surely, economics are a large part of modern day professional sports, but it can be argued that it’s better to take some one time financial hits than to lose prime-aged, winning talent. The latter is much harder to come by and contributes to earning back the lost dollars associated with writing off some ill-advised decisions.

With injuries, and those previous decisions, the Phillies find themselves currently in a much less enviable situation. The 2010 season seems to be unwinding around them as losses mount and the deficit grows— while everyone anxiously awaits for the team’s annual second half surge to kick in. 

Unfortunately, the vibrant, winning baseball that punctuated the previous three seasons post-All-Star performances seems nowhere to be found. At this point, the Phillies appear to be a team headed nowhere but home to watch the postseason.

Yes, there is still time to catch fire and capture a playoff spot, but the overall aura of the club increasingly suggests that it is unlikely. Manager Charlie Manuel has continued to talk about the team needing a spark, yet new box scores come and go with no ignition in sight.

The minor league pipeline is no longer bulging with the prospects to acquire another Cliff Lee to light the fires of hope and propel the team on a victory run through the pennant stretch. 

And, importantly, Amaro and the Phillies seem poised to compound previous questionable decisions with another questionable decision—once again rooted in economics.

One way or another, last December’s trade of Lee was prompted by economics. The Phillies were wary of giving him a large, long-term contract and/or felt they could not afford the luxury of carrying his $9 million 2010 salary on an already bloated payroll.

Of course, previous questionable economic decisions such as the lucrative contracts handed to Jamie Moyer, Raul Ibanez, and Joe Blanton were key contributors to the expanded payroll and ultimately the decisions around Lee.

The Phillies find themselves in a similar situation now as 2009 All-Star right fielder Jayson Werth nears free agency. Because of the predictable void left by dealing Lee last winter, rumors abound that Amaro might be looking to trade Werth to get prospects to acquire a quality starting pitcher. 

The line of thinking goes that the Phillies have a future star in Dominic Brown waiting in the wings to take Werth’s spot. 

This is flawed thinking and is driven once again by economics.

Brown should clearly be taking Ibanez’s place in the everyday lineup—not Werth’s. Anyone would be hard pressed to find an argument otherwise and here are the main reasons why:

1. Werth is a better player than Ibanez in every aspect of the game— hitting, power, fielding, throwing, and running. 

2. Replacing Werth with the left-handed hitting Brown makes an already left leaning lineup further imbalanced. The lack of a slugging righty in the middle of lineup would almost surely be a fatal flaw easily exposed by the opposition. 

3. Werth is just entering his prime, whereas Ibanez is nearing the end of his career. 

4. Werth is much more versatile than the left-field only Ibanez as he can play all three outfield positions and even catch in a pinch.

5. Werth has been in a funk for a couple months, but the probability of him breaking out are tremendously greater than Ibanez, who’s “slump” has now reached a year. 

6. Werth has been money in the postseason—Ibanez not so much.

The best scenario for this season and the next few years would be to sign Werth to an extension and form a talented young trio of outfielders. The dilemma that Amaro and the Phillies organization have is that they are hamstrung by the aforementioned large contracts. 

The thought of landing Roy Oswalt sounds enticing, but it also would seem to suggest that the Phillies are willing to raise their salary budget. If so, the Phillies could afford to re-sign Werth and take on Oswalt’s salary if they were to find a way to trade Ibanez, Blanton, and fore go next year’s option on JC Romero. 

About the only way that happens is if the Phillies would agree to absorb salary expense on each player. It would be worth doing that rather than head down the slippery slope of tearing up a team built to win over the next few years. 

It remains to be seen what it would take to pry Oswalt away from the Houston Astros. Perhaps Blanton could be packaged in the deal along with a couple existing prospects to land the veteran right-hander. 

If not, the Phillies would be better off passing on Oswalt and concentrating on setting themselves up with a dynamic, balanced everyday lineup for the next few seasons. If that means taking some near-term financial hits, as painful as it might be, the Phillies should do it.

 

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Philadelphia Phillies Hitting Coach Milt Thompson Used as a Scapegoat?

It is quite obvious the Philadelphia Phillies are in a slump. A team riddled by injuries and inconsistency without an ignition towards change.

Despite getting an extra innings 2-0 win in St. Louis yesterday, where Cole Hamels shined, the team still showed the overwhelming stress that comes from being back-to-back National League Champions.

The Phillies have been plagued by non-existent bats that have turned consistent players like Jayson Werth searching for a way to right the ship.

The legendary preseason beard Werth was rocking during his early hot streaks has been reduced to a whimsical and mildly scary goatee in an attempt to fix his batter’s box issues.

We’ve seen things like Chase Utley using voodoo on his bat to ease his hitting struggles. Yet the hitting gods couldn’t keep him from a thumb injury that will have him sidelined till Labor Day.

When things like this happen to a team with so many expectations from the public, front offices usually try to ignite their lineups with a trade or the firing of a manager or bench coach.

The Phillies did just that last night firing hitting coach Milt Thompson. Thompson, a former Phillie and member of the 1993 NL Champions, was with the team for six seasons and was a main contributor to the team’s 2008 World Series run.

The rumors of a firing surfaced just weeks ago heading into the All-Star break. Manager Charlie Manuel vehemently supported Thomspon stating:

Many people in the Philadelphia media saw this move coming as most of the team’s struggles are coming from the batter’s box.

We all knew a firing was going to take place and getting rid of Thomspon is the easiest solution.

The real question is: are the Phillies using Milt Thompson as a scapegoat for other front office transgressions?

Right now the Phillies are sitting seven games back of the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, which is good for second place. Not exactly where you’d like to sit heading into August, especially with the strength of the NL Wild Card Race.

 

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Philly Scene of the Crime Takes Place in Ruben’s Mind

This is not the movie Inception, where Leonardo Dicaprio, and a gang of New York Mets’ fans have infiltrated Ruben Amaro’s dreams to sack fans’ hopes of a third straight National League crown. We are in reality, mind you.

So, wake up and smell the putrid scent of second place and third place in the division.

The Philadelphia Phillies are on the cusp of falling off the pennant chase. They are also endangering the future of their own team, as we know it.

I doubt it takes rag-tag thieves to steal the secrets behind any team’s success or failures, especially just looking at the bitter faces of forty-three thousand Phillies fans at the ballpark. Many of which, are venting their frustration at Ruben Amaro Jr. and his decisions.

Since General Manager Pat Gillick stepped down after the 2008 World Series, Amaro inherited the job and showed gusto when he traded a boat load for 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee from the Cleveland Indians. Straight on to the 2009 World Series, he slayed the New York Yankees in two games but could not do much else in winning the main prize.

As fans have read countlessly before, Lee was traded away to the Seattle Mariners for minor league prospects while the Phillies swapped their own for Toronto Blue Jays’ ace Roy Halladay. The split decision left some divided like rival political parties, but in the end, an ace is still in town.

The question Ruben Amaro refuses to answer is that whether or not the moves were actually worth it now. I’d like to peg the blame on his head right now, but turning back the clocks, let’s go back to the 2008 World Series (which we still all pine for again, admittingly)to find the stitches of the past and how the present has been involved.

The Phillies were left with this rotation to set up their 2009 squad—Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer, and Kyle Kendrick. But in the process, they had to resign Moyer a two year, $16 million contract to keep him with the club through the conclusion of the 2010 season. The next move was signing outfielder Raul Ibanez to a 3-year, $31.5 million dollar deal.

Reverting back to the conclusion of the 2009 World Series, the Phillies had to mangle with $8 million dollars of the aging Moyer along with debating to resign rotation horse Joe Blanton. The odd man out was none other than Cliff Lee, who’d be expected to request a large contract extension after his 2010 season would require a payment of $9 million dollars. 

Strapped with an outlook at the future, rather than heavy weight contracts of hitters Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth added on to the responsibility of Lee, Amaro pulled the trigger on trading Lee for said prospects and landing Halladay (and a contract extension), by trading his own homegrown minor leaguers, including the highly touted Kyle Drabek.

Seems as though Amaro pulled a con man’s magic trick on the Phillies’ fan base. But, that’s all he could have done weighted down by the hefty money. If you kept notes or calculations, that’s nearly $9 million dollars per year ($18 million in total) for two futile players in Moyer and Ibanez. Given the circumstances of their contribution, they were ,in terms of value, one-year deals at best.

If the circumstances above worked out in my favor (or any other Phillies’ fan, ideally), Moyer may have retired after 2008, Ibanez could have been lured to sign a big 1-year deal for 2009, and the team would have enough money to disperse to Lee, Werth, Howard, and Blanton.

Imagine it, having the rotation set up as Lee, Hamels, Blanton, Kendrick, Happ. The Halladay trade may have been executed (or not) given the outlook of the team, but on paper, a great team would be set, and Kyle Drabek would still don Phillie pinstripes. That’s a dream come true.

Back to the nightmare fans are facing now.

Will there be any chance for 2010 or 2011?

Optimists, believers, and ones with unconditional faith will say “Absolutely.” They have legitimate reason to feel confident, with Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels leading the charge for ample seasons. The spirit of 2008 must roll on (and will do so) for them.

What about the pessimists? Phillies’ fans are quite intelligent and perceptive of the stark realities and what has caused the two-time National League Champs to merely stand back and watch the rival Atlanta Braves and New York Mets make impressive waves.

With the inevitable trade deadline looming, fans will wonder what is concocting in Amaro’s own mind, as his reputation, and job-sake may need a sign at redemption. 

 

 

 

 

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Raising the White Flag: Writing Off the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies

I’m done.  I am officially giving up on the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies.

While I have similarly written the team off in recent years and then watched the Phillies rally towards the end of the season, I just can’t see it happening this year. 

Yesterday, they narrowly avoided being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals.  And by narrowly, I mean it required their pitching staff to throw a one-hit shutout.

Despite that, Philadelphia still needed to go 11 innings just to score a run. This was only its second victory since the All-Star break, and the team’s first win was practically handed to them by the Cubs.

Despite yesterday’s win, the Phillies are still seven games behind the Braves in the National League East, and show little indication that they are capable of making up such a deficit.

Before the season, many people—myself included —speculated that this could potentially be the greatest Phillies team ever. 

And for the first month and a half of the season, they certainly looked capable of living up to the hype. They were cruising along at 24-13 with a comfortable division lead. 

But then things went inexplicably wrong.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when the problems began, but it might have started on May 18th. After crushing the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates the night before, they would be facing them again with ace pitcher Roy Halladay on the mound. 

It felt like a guaranteed win for the Phillies—a game that they could pretty much win without even trying. And although Halladay pitched well in that game, the Phillies were held to only one run and lost the game 2-1.

While the mindset of the players is obviously quite different than the mindset of the fans, it is worth wondering if the team also became somewhat overconfident that night.  Did their early season success—coming after two straight pennants—somehow lead them to believe that they could win without even trying? Was their competitive nature dulled?

The turning point also might have come that Friday when they began Interlegaue play against the Red Sox. They were cruising towards victory when, for the second time this season, Jimmy Rollins had to leave a game with a calf injury. 

Rollins had missed much of the season to that point, and throughout his absence his replacements had played surprisingly well. But it might have been too much to ask for them to do it for an extended period of time. Not only does Rollins typically spark the Phillies offense from the leadoff spot, but he is an excellent defensive player and one of the team’s leaders.

Rollins’ injury also might have hurt the Phillies’ psyches. They had already suffered some bad injury luck with disabled list stints by pitchers J.A. Happ, Brad Lidge, and Ryan Madson. When Rollins went out again, it would have only been natural for the Phillies to start to wonder if they were somewhat snakebitten.

For instance, not long after Rollins returned (and the team looked like it was on an upswing), Chase Utley went out with a thumb injury that will keep him out until August at the earliest.  When you can’t get your expected lineup on the field, the pressure starts to mount for the remaining players.

Regardless of the cause, the Phillies entered a funk that they have yet to emerge from.  Considering the track record of their hitters, there is no real explanation for the lack of offensive success.  While they have been shut down by some star pitchers like Josh Johnson and Chris Carpenter, they have also had troubles against mediocre-to-poor guys like Zach Duke and Ross Ohlendorf. 

The injuries might have contributed to the slump, but injuries alone can’t account for their futility.  For instance, before he got hurt, Utley was having the worst season of his career. 

Jayson Werth got off to a strong start, but has been slumping badly since then.  Shane Victorino has hit for more power this year, but his overall numbers have slipped.  And Raul Ibanez has continued to scuffle as he did the second half of last year.

In comparison, the pitchers have fared better, but they have been somewhat disappointing as well.  While Halladay has mostly pitched well, he hasn’t quite lived up to the “Best Pitcher in Baseball” hype he received before the season.  To his credit, he’s received very little run support, and has been on the losing end of several low scoring games. 

The rotation’s back end, consisting of Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer (who has now come down with an injury of his own), and Kyle Kendrick, has been terribly inconsistent. They have all provided some strong starts, but have also been atrocious in other games. There is no telling what to expect from any of them. 

Then again, aside from Halladay and Cole Hamels, none of the Phillies’ starters was expected to be the type of pitcher who could carry a team to victory.  They were expected to keep the game close with a “quality start” and have the offense put up a lot of runs.  Since their offense has been so underwhelming, it has made their performances look that much worse.

Their bullpen doesn’t seem to be in great shape either.  While closer Brad Lidge has been better than the utter disaster he was in 2009, he has had some shaky outings and has made the ninth inning a nervous experience for Phillies fans. It doesn’t appear that any of their other relief pitchers are especially reliable either.

While it’s bad enough to watch a team underachieve, the worst part about the team is how they seem to play bad baseball. Their offensive slump seems more pronounced by the accompanying mistakes that they make. 

Between fielding errors, poor baserunning, and abysmal clutch hitting, the Phillies are not doing the little things necessary to win games.

Many of these mistakes are hard to explain. For the past few seasons, they’ve been one of the better defensive teams in the league. While part of the problem may be that some of their regulars have missed time, it feels like even their normally sure-handed players are making atypical errors in the field. 

Their running game has taken a major downturn as well. They have been among the league leaders in stolen bases the past few years, and those numbers have been way down in 2010. 

Once again, injuries to Rollins and Utley have not helped in this department, but it still seems as if they aren’t taking advantage of their opportunities.  In addition, they’ve made several baserunning mistakes, and have made outs trying to stretch hits for extra bases.

Worst of all is the team’s situational hitting. While it had some problems with this in recent years (the 2008 World Series championship team had notable struggles with runners in scoring position), it seems to be even more pronounced since the offensive slump began. 

The Phillies into double plays.  They seem incapable of advancing runners.  And in situations where they have a runner on third base and less than two outs, their success rate at getting the runner home is horrendous.

It’s maddening to watch a once mighty offense struggle so much.  You can only see Raul Ibanez flail helplessly at a curveball or watch Jayson Werth take strike three so many times before you get disgusted.

Their offense has performed so poorly that the team fired hitting coach Milt Thompson.  Thompson was their hitting coach since 2005 and during his time, they had constantly been among the best offensive teams in baseball.

Was it his fault?  Probably not, but I guess they figured they had to make some sort of move.

Now, their front office is talking about looking for help by making a trade for a starting pitcher such as Roy Oswalt. 

Of course, had they simply not traded ace pitcher Cliff Lee in the offseason, they probably wouldn’t need to look for help.  Management has still not been able to adequately explain why they “had” to trade Lee, and why they got such a poor return for him.

But even with Lee, I don’t know if the team would have fared much better this season, since it’s difficult to win games where you don’t receive any run support. In many of their starts, Halladay and Hamels have pitched well, only to get a loss because the team was held to one or fewer runs.

The team’s only hope is that since their hitters have successful track records will start to play up to their capabilities. There’s a theory that guys like Ibanez, Victorino, and (when he returns) Utley will ultimately have final numbers similar to their career norms. Getting to those numbers would mean an especially hot final two and a half months to the season, which would probably result in an offensive explosion for the team.

But based on the way that this season has gone, I no longer expect to see a season ending hot streak like we saw in 2007 and 2008. After a few years of everything breaking right for them, it just feels like a lot is going wrong. 

It also seems like the other teams in the division are playing better than they did the past few years.  To make up ground in the division, they’ll need the Braves to slump a bit, but it would be hard to imagine that the Braves collapse down the stretch like the Mets did in 2007.

I could be wrong.  Philadelphia could suddenly remember how to hit, go on a hot streak and make yet another late-season run at the playoffs. 

I will continue to watch the team and hope that they turn things around.  But after seeing too many inept offensive performances, and too many mistake-filled losses, I no longer expect it to happen.

 

Originally posted on my blog: Stranger in a Strange Land

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Milt Thompson Pegged as Philadelphia Phillies’ Scapegoat

With the heat turning up on Charlie Manuel and the Phillies for their pathetic display this season, the team needed to find a scapegoat to turn attention away.

But after a game in which the Phils couldn’t put a run on the board until the 11th inning despite 12 total hits and a eight scoreless innings of one-hit baseball by Cole Hamels, it would have to be a good one.

Their selection was logical: If everyone is upset about the lack of hitting, fire the hitting coach, Milt Thompson.

Of course, anyone paying attention can see this isn’t going to fix things. Thompson can’t swing the bats for the players and it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to talk them out of swinging for the fences every time they step up to the plate.

He can preach and preach and preach about just getting contact and how useful a base knock can be, but he has no control over them once they leave the dugout.

And once they’re in that batter’s box, you can bet every single guy in this lineup gets wide-eyed just looking out at the vines in center field and get giddy just thinking about how they’re going to take their lap around the bases.

That is, until their fantasy is ruined by the ump shouting “Steeerike Three!” in their ear.

But, like I said, it’s a move that certainly makes sense on the surface and will breathe some new optimism into any fan looking for any reason to believe in this team again. So, for that reason, the move has done its job.

The new guy, Greg Gross, has a history inside the Phillies’ organization. He was a player for 10 years and was around for the Phils’ World Series appearances in 1980 and ’83. He was the hitting coach once before, from 2002 to 2004, but went to Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2005 to work in player development.

Perhaps a shakeup is just what these guys need to wake them up, but I’m so sick of saying that by now I could puke.

Either way, Gross is going to have a difficult time ahead of him as he’s taking over a lineup ranked 13th in the National League in batting average with a mediocre .254 average, and a lot of guys who are getting in their own way at the plate more often than not.

One thing is for sure: As a .287 career hitter with only seven home runs in 17 years, Gross will certainly not be preaching that the bats continue to aim for the fences. Hopefully his unique perspective will sink in before the season is officially lost. But I’m not holding my breath.

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Philadelphia Phillies Are Dumb To Trade Jayson Werth

The last week before the MLB trade deadline on July 31st is usually an eventful and dramatic couple of days up until the last second.

The players who are on the trading block are not exciting and certainly bring no guarantee.

The only proven difference-maker was SP Cliff Lee, who was traded to the Texas Rangers two weeks ago. Lee was 2010’s diamond in the rough, or technically on the mound, because the fact is, he makes a team better.

The rest of the rumored players on the chopping block, minus Philadelphia Phillies right-fielder Jayson Werth, do not come with any certificate of guarantee. With Lee a goner already, this makes Werth a very popular guy. 

It would be hard to believe the Phillies’ for sale sign is out on Werth. With 2B Chase Uttley on the DL till September and leadoff hitter SS Jimmy Rollins not 100 percent healthy, it doesn’t make much sense to me.

You can bet one thing for sure: The Phillies wish they had never let Cliff Lee go in the first place.

It’s crazy that a pitcher of the caliber and talent of Cliff Lee has worn four different uniforms in less than two seasons. That number be five after 2010 is over because Texas cannot afford Lee, or themselves for that matter.

Going back to Werth, he is not putting up the numbers he is capable of at all. Surely not the best timing, as Werth is a free agent at the end of 2010.

Is Werth to blame for his sub-par stats and should teams be proceeding with caution?

Absolutely not, considering the Phillies flipped Werth the bird and handed 1B Ryan Howard a blank check a year before his current contract is up, which isn’t till after 2011.

Werth supposedly turned down a contract offered by the Phillies, but after the five-year, $125 million contract going to Howard, it was said the team was capped out.

It made no sense to sign Howard because timing was off and it keeps the power first baseman till 2017. Philly fans can just watch a Red Sox game, because Howard will be their David Ortiz, at best.

One theory is that Werth is making himself less appealing so the Phillies can’t get as much for him.

This reason made no sense to me, as this is the time Werth should be making teams drool to secure a multi-year monster contract. Everyone is still waiting for him to breakout.

Still, I would be shocked if Werth continued to decline after waving Citizens Bank Park and the Phillies goodbye. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of Philly seems to be the best option for Werth, and no doubt, he will thrive again.

As a fan, it is easy to point out a player who fits perfectly on a team. Call it fan intuition, but it is usually very accurate. An example would be Nick Swisher, who in my mind has always been a New York Yankee.

That is why this Jayson Werth soap opera just feels funny and off track, because he was that guy in Philly.

Well, I guess we will know in a week. FYI, the New York Yankees would be happy to have Werth in pinstripes.

 

READ MORE AT…..Lady Loves Pinstripes .

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Phillies’ GM Ruben Amaro Has Staked His Entire Legacy on Lee Trade

Ruben Amaro must make an immediate, high-impact trade to salvage the Philadelphia Phillies’ underwhelming season and his own reputation as a general manager.   The off season trade of Cliff Lee has upset many fans, and the team he has assembled is floundering, currently slightly over the .500 mark.  Furthermore, Amaro’s attitude is not endearing fans.

After the announcement of Kendrick’s demotion, The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘s Matt Gelb’s posted this on his blog:

Ruben Amaro Jr. wore one of those patented smug looks on his face. The Phillies general manager had just demoted his fifth starter without listing a replacement in the rotation for him.  “I think we know exactly what we’re going to do,” Amaro said. “I just choose not to tell you.”

I highly doubt that the smug Amaro planned to start J.A. Happ and his 5.59 ERA on short rest, or that he was counting on someone getting hurt so he would be able to bring Kendrick back up in less than the required 15-day demotion period.   

So, Mr. Smug, since you knew exactly what you were going to do, what has happened since then?

Nonstop Lee banter has plagued the Phillies this entire season.  Lee became an instant fan favorite, putting together one of the most impressive playoff performances ever recorded.   Plus, I must wonder how the players in the clubhouse were rattled by this trade as well.   In trading Lee, Amaro told the fans and the players that even without Lee, the Phillies had enough to win with the rest of the pitching staff.

Right now, a number of sources are reporting that Amaro is aggressively pursuing a top-flight starter such as Roy Oswalt or Dan Haren.  But yet, Amaro continues to fight back whenever the name “Cliff Lee” comes up.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ‘s Phil Sheridan today wrote about a recent exchange in Chicago with some reporters:

“Given your intense trade-deadline pursuit of pitching…”

“Is this a Cliff Lee question?” the Phillies’ general manager asked, bristling at a reporter over the weekend in Chicago.

“As a matter of fact…”

“I’m done,” Amaro said, walking away from the visitors’ dugout and toward the solace of the batting cage at Wrigley Field.

The fact that he refuses to acknowledge that he may have made a mistake is what angers so many people.  

People would respect Amaro had he responded: “Listen, guys, at the time I really thought that even without Lee, we had the pitching that would win us a championship.  I was wrong about that.   However, I still have a great feeling that the guys we acquired in that trade will develop into something special, and I will do everything I can right now to bring our pitching staff up to the championship quality that you and I both have in mind.”

However, Amaro continues to make denials as his pitching staff falls part, exuding an “I’m better than you” attitude, making comments such as, “That is not the way you do business in baseball,” in reference to the need to acquire some prospects for Lee.   By the way, with Aumont 1-6, and with the other two pieces acquired in other leagues, the Phillies organization was rated the strongest at Class A of all 30 teams and they possess the No. 1 prospect in all of the minors.

Most importantly, the prospects would enable the Phillies to fill holes during the season should they arise.   Well, Ruben, it’s time to fill the holes.  If you fail to make the playoffs this year, you are done.   You will have lost your credibility with the city.

Oswalt or Haren will do it.  Anyone else?  You are done in Philadelphia.

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