How The Phillies Grew Stronger Through All Their Injuries

It seems to many that it is obvious that teams get weaker when their players get injured.  And of course that would seem logical.

But not with the Phillies.

When the Phillies had injury after injury, did they become a weaker team?

No.  They became a better team.

And the reason is obvious if you think about it.  Let me explain why I think it is true.

As I said in my article Injury Deja Vu: A Situation That Happens Again and Again, when some of the Phillies players got injured, other players stepped up and carried the team.

In that way, the Phillies team stayed as good as they had been without injuries.

Or did they?

It seems to me that during the time when the players were injured, and after they came back, the team played better than they had before with those players.  So how could that be?

Well, it could have been because they played against different teams or faced different pitchers or something like that.  But I don’t think that’s right.  And there are a few reasons why.

First of all, if you look at the players statistics before most of them got injured, it seemed that they were in a slump before their injury.

For instance, Chase Utley was having a good season before he got injured.  But a little while before he got injured, he went into a slump.

Ryan Howard was also having a good season before he got injured, but, like Utley, a little before he got injured he went into a slump.

Shane Victorino was also slumping before he got injured.  And Carlos Ruiz was having a good season, but his batting average dropped just a little while before he got injured.

Joe Blanton was injured, and when he came back, he showed that the Phillies were probably better off with Kyle Kendrick and Nelson Figueroa.

If this is true, that means that the backups ended up helping the team better than the injured players would have, because most of the injured players were in a slump.

And also, when the players came off the disabled List, some of them played a lot better than before, like Ruiz, Victorino, and Utley.

That is one of the possible answers to why I think they did better, and there are a couple more.

After Chase Utley got injured, Jayson Werth got hot.  As you may have heard, the Phillies were talking a lot about the fact that they had a lot of left-handed batters, which made their lineup vulnerable to left-handed pitchers.  But when Utley, a left handed hitter, got injured and Werth, a right handed hitter, started playing as good as Utley, the Phillies basically switched one of their left handed hitters to a right handed hitter. And Wilson Valdez, the backup for Utley, was right handed, and he hit about as good as Werth had been hitting before.

The last reason is mostly based of the fact that others heated up when good players got injured.

For example, when Chase Utley got injured, Jayson Werth got hot.  And now that Chase Utley is back, Jayson Werth is still hot.

So the Phillies have a team with Utley playing like before, but they also have Jayson Werth playing much better than before.

Or maybe it was just that the injuries brought the the team back to reality and gave them a message like, “Man, you’ve got to get better quick or you’re season’s going to be over.”

I don’t know.

But I do think that the Phillies, like the players, were slumping before the injuries, and once the injuries started, they began to heat up.  And after the return of their injured players, they are doing better than before.

And we hope that they continue to do well.

 

 

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Ryan Howard Returns To Lakewood and Meets the Future

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Philadelphia Phillies’ Offense Almost Ruins a Roy Halladay Gem

The Phillies’ offense continued to struggle Friday night as they were only able to muster one run off a Raul Ibanez double in the third inning. But, fortunately for them, it was Roy Halladay’s turn to take the mound, so it didn’t matter.

Halladay scattered eight hits, walked three, and struck out five in seven scoreless innings to earn his sixth consecutive win. And during that six-game stretch, Halladay has allowed one earned run or less in five of them.

If anyone is still not completely on board with the move to bring this guy in, it’s out of nothing but denial and a world-record stubbornness.

But for as well as Halladay pitched, it still has to be troubling that the offense was only able to score one run the entire game to go along with only four hits.

It’s not even like they were facing a great defensive team and an All-Star pitcher. It was the Nationals and Jason Marquis.

Marquis is a good young pitcher, but there’s no reason for this lineup not to have, at the very least, four runs against this guy.

It almost seems like the guys at the plate aren’t playing with the same sense of urgency because they know Halladay is going to keep the score very low, meaning they don’t have to do as much.

That might be true, but if they could at least get off the bus, I’m sure Halladay would appreciate the effort.

The bats have been hot as of late, but this team has shown they can sink into a funk faster than any professional sports team, so they’re going to have to get their hitting going soon if they’d like to avoid that…and if Greg Gross would like to keep his job.

Every game is a playoff game for this team right now, and if this is all they can do in that type of situation, then there isn’t much hope for a third straight appearance in the Fall Classic.

Unless, of course, Halladay can just pitch every day.

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Phans Need To Savor the Philadelphia Phillies

The window of opportunity doesn’t stay open for very long in Major League Baseball. This is why Phillies fans need to enjoy this run while it lasts.

I was fortunate enough to be at game six of the 1980 World Series, as a naive 12-year-old, and I honestly thought that it was going to be like that every year.

Playoffs, World Series championships, victory parades, and taking a day off from school to go to a game or a parade—never did I imagine that it would be 27 years before the city would get to enjoy that feeling again.

The Phillies finished first in the East from 1976 to 1978, losing in the first round all three years, to the Reds in ’76, and twice to the Dodgers. Attendance averaged about 2.6 million over those years. Then came 1979 and a fourth place finish in the East, but amazingly, had an attendance of 2,775,011, the highest total until 1993.

Yes, the Phillies averaged more than 2000 more a game in 1979 as a fourth place team than in the first World Championship year in 1980.

What makes this current run so interesting is all the similarities to quality teams the Phillies fielded from 1976 to 1983.

Home Grown Talent

Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Lonnie Smith, and Bob Boone all came up through the Phillies farm system, as well as pitchers Larry Christenson and Dick Ruthven. This was also true in the ’93 season, with Mickey Morandini, Kevin Stocker, and Tyler Green.

Today we have Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, and now Domonic Brown as the core and future of the team.

Most successful teams have a strong farm system, and have the ability to make wise moves to fill in the missing pieces. Even General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is somewhat of a home grown product.

His father Ruben Sr. was first base coach on the 1980 team, and Ruben Jr. started out as a bat boy before eventually going to Stanford and getting drafted by the California Angels. The level of homegrown talent cannot be overlooked, with Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player trophies on the shelf.

Sticking Around

Ryan Howard is locked up through 2016 with an option for 2017, Roy Halliday is signed through 2013 with a 2014 option, and Utley is with the club until at least 2013. But the core of the team has been with Philadelphia for their entire careers, which is a testament to the ball club and to the city of Philadelphia itself.

People stay here because its a great team to play for and its a great city, simple as that. When Pete Rose came to the Phillies in 1979, he was coming to a proven winner, and he fell in love with the city. It didn’t hurt that he was best friends with Larry Bowa.

Filling in the Pieces

While the 1980 Phillies added Pete Rose in ’79 and the ’93 Phillies added Curt Schilling in 1992, those moves were nothing compared to what has happened in the front office over the past few years.

Cliff Lee comes and then is not re-signed, Pedro Martinez is signed and shows flashes of his old self, then disappears and is not on a roster in 2010. Roy Halliday is signed with an extension and Roy Oswalt is brought in, but one of the moves that made a difference was picking up Placido Polanco.

I had the opportunity to watch him every night when he was with the Tigers, and he was total money at second base, and maybe the second clutch hitter on the team behind Miguel Cabrera.

The message to today’s fans is to enjoy this prosperity while it lasts. I went from being a 12-year-old who thought that celebrations would be a yearly occurrence, to a guy in his 30s sitting in the Philadium asking himself if the Phillies will ever be good again. Well, the Phillies are good again, actually, they are really, really good.

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This Day in Sports, August 20: Phillies Lose Record 23rd Straight Game

Ignominy is a terrible thing. Waking up and wondering whether or not you’re going to lose another game today is a horrible way to start the day. The 1961 Philadelphia Phillies collectively harbored those same thoughts. On August 20, 1961, the Phillies lost their 23rd consecutive game, a modern baseball record.

The Phillies had enjoyed a rare rise to prominence a decade earlier, culminating with the famous “Whiz Kids” winning the National League pennant on the final day of the 1950 regular season. Hopes quickly faded after that, as key members of that team either retired or were traded, plunging the Phillies back to the familiar state of mediocrity.

In 1961, the Phillies were predicted to once again be near or at the bottom of the National League standings. They did not disappoint, plodding through the early months of the season hovering at the bottom of the standings. On July 29, they lost to the San Francisco Giants, 4-3, their record 30-65 at the time.

The Phillies continued losing. And losing. And losing. They were swept in successive fashion by the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pirates again, and the Chicago Cubs.

On August 20 while facing the Milwaukee Braves, the Phillies dropped the first game of a scheduled double-header, losing to eventual Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn. In the second game, the Phillies trotted pitcher John Buzhardt to the mound.

Buzhardt had been the last pitcher to win a game for the Phillies, beating the Giants 4-3 on July 28. On this day Buzhardt had good stuff, and the Phillies struck early, seizing the lead in the fourth inning on a Wes Covington 2-run homer. The Phillies added one more run in the sixth, and then put it away with four more runs in the top of the eighth. Buzhardt went on to complete the game, finally putting the Phillies back in the win column, 7-4.

After the game, during the plane ride back to Philadelphia, the Phillies were told that a crowd was waiting for them at the airport to greet them. Sure enough, when the plane landed, there were over 2,000 fans waiting for them, including a 300-piece band, to greet the victorious Phillies.

“We were hesitant to get off the plane,” then Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Tony Taylor recalled. “But it was a good feeling. The band lifted (manager) Gene Mauch on their shoulders.”

The 1988 Baltimore Orioles made a run at the record, losing 20 straight. But no team has come close since, assuring the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies the distinction of the all-time record for futility.

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Red-Hot Phillies Are Making Their Own Luck…Lots of It

Uh, one problem, Geovany—you forgot the ball…

When things are going well, this is the kind of stuff that happens.

Obviously things are going really well for the Phillies right now: good defense, timely hitting, and absolutely incredible pitching.

But that’s not all. Anyone who’s followed this team for the last four weeks knows the Phillies have repeatedly capitalized on their opponents’ tendencies to commit numerous fielding or throwing errors that have directly led to big innings by the Phils’ offense.

Please know that I’m not saying that the Phillies don’t deserve to have as good a record as they have now. They DO deserve it. Remember, there’s a reason why teams like the Nationals or Royals never seem to win games like this. Bad teams always let the competition off the hook.

Good teams, like the Phillies, truly make the opposition pay for their mistakes, and that’s exactly what the three-time defending NL East champions have been doing for the past month.

Enjoy this look back. You just can’t script this stuff…

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Philadelphia Phillies: Speak Softly and Hope for a Big Stick (Satire)

I woke up with a stiff neck. The problem is that it lasted more than four hours.

For a second, I thought my husband slipped me some Viagra.

Someone definitely slipped the Phillies something. They’ve taken the lead in the wild-card race and won twenty or so of their last bunch of games.

That was helpful information, wasn’t it? I would’ve looked up the facts but that interferes with worthwhile stuff like plucking chest hairs in my magnifying mirror so I can finally look at my breasts and see 36 double dees.

Or watching my dog sniff the cat’s butt for the zillionth time to ensure it’s the same pet he’s lived with for six years.

I named my dog Brett Farve—he’s never sure.

But I’m sure of one thing: the Phils looked great when we saw them in game one of the series against San Francisco.

A guy with a huge cranium and his totally bald friend who was wearing sunglasses on the back of his head took their seats between the plate and me. I felt like I was staring at Vin Diesel.

Then music started. I thought I heard a flute played by someone way too happy so I waited for the next break to confirm. Sure enough my husband turned to me and said, “It’s either merry music night or Irish Heritage Day.”

I’m Irish—I understand the connection. I’m living proof that everything in Ireland was conceived over whiskey.  I think there’s even a sheep joke in there somewhere. And someday someone will question the tradition of kissing a stone named for bullshit.

Pat Burrell was back. He whacked a two-run homer in his first at-bat to distract from the fact that “snug” is how he now likes to wear his pants.

Just another reason to question his move to the bay area.

As I scanned the fielders with my binoculars, I noticed that all the Giants’ pants seemed a little clingy, raising only more questions.

Like how that new Victoria’s Secret bra works. It claims it remembers your curves. I don’t want a bra that remembers my curves, I want one that fakes some.

You know, they asked Sarah Palin if she had breast implants. My friend Jimi said she was trying to avoid the flat tax.

Just once I wish someone would ask me if I got a boob job. My husband says I should stick with the magnifying mirror. Let me give it a try. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, can I buy boobies at the mall?”

No answer. Just like talking to my husband, I don’t know if that’s a “yes” or a “no.”

So let’s talk shop.

Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson—like the emperor—has found his groove. I just wish he’d do it without clothes.

Roy Oswalt’s dead arm has found life. I’m now guaranteed the big O every five games whether or not I have a headache.

In game two against the Giants, Jimmy Rollins was 3 for 5, slammed a three-run homer, almost hit for the cycle, stole three bases, and scored twice. Like my name on the bathroom wall, Fanavision didn’t have room to list all his accomplishments.

Charlie Manuel has used his 1,380,956th lineup this season. I’m exaggerating. That’s what people do when they catch a scrawny fish or marry a short guy.

I think Pablo Sandoval got even bigger between games one and two. Or maybe the camera adds ten pounds a game.

Jayson Werth didn’t make the cover of Sports Illustrated but he’s somewhere in the center. The problem is he’s fully dressed. It’s not even a scratch and sniff.

Citizens Bank Park celebrated its 99th consecutive sellout. That’s impressive. I have yet to make it through that many bottles of beer on the wall.

Chase Utley returned from the DL and got a standing ovation. My sister gets those—when she walks into Neiman-Marcus.

And I see pistachios are now being sold at Citizens Bank Park. They’re tasty, but the pack is small and the price is high. I can’t pay a dollar a nut. The two I’m familiar with aren’t even worth that.

If they’re trying to sell healthier snacks they might want to reconsider training their sales force. A girl walked by in the sixth inning selling “postichios.”

I almost bought a pack to see what a gay nut tastes like.

On that note, if you’re a transvestite dressed as Lady Gaga, are you really a boy or a girl?

At one point in the game, the two guys in front of us left their seats. Two cute, young, shapely, blond squatters took their place, giggling with delight at upgrading their view. (Like a center field seat is so much closer. Where were they sitting, New Jersey?)

An inning later, the guys returned; Mr. Cranium led the way. I was curious to hear what a tall, handsome season ticket holder with a tray full of food, beer bottles tucked between the fingers of one hand, and no wedding band would say to a sweet pair of co-eds hoping to share.

How ‘bout, “You’re in my seat.”

I think he’s a closet Giants fan.

Celtic music started to play and the Phanatic jumped onto the Phillies dugout accompanied by a line of performers. My son said, “Look mom, it’s Lord of the Prance.”

“That’s Lord of the Dance.”

My husband said, “When did Pat Burrell’s pants get so tight?”

Then the vendor shuffled by, “Hey, get your ‘postichios’ here!”

Welcome to Irish Heritage Day.

See you at the ballpark.

 

Copyright 2010 Flattish Poe all rights reserved.

Catch life one-liner at a time on Twitter.

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Five Things the Philadelphia Phillies Must Do To Make the MLB Playoffs

Quick, name me one other team in the majors right now who has sustained more injuries than the Phillies and ACTUALLY continued to play extremely well; all things considered.

I’ll give ya a minute.

Yeah, I couldn’t think of any either, and that’s because there really isn’t any. Sure, there are a couple of teams who have dealt with a season long injury list (Boston anyone) but nobody has duplicated what the Phightin’ Phils have in the 2010 season.

This is a team that has lost Placido Polanco (twice), J-Roll (twice), Chase Utley who recently returned, Shane Victorino, Carlos Ruiz and newest member of the DL Ryan Howard.

But in their place have come players who, for the most part, have filled in more than admirably when they were needed most.

Players such as Wilson Valdez, Ross Gload, Brian Schneider, Domonic Brown, and Ben Francisco have all filled in when asked and have done so with effective results on defense and on offense.

But time really does heal all wounds, and everyone except Howard has found their way back onto the playing field at just the right time.

Albeit, they are still chasing Bobby Cox and those pesky Braves! Don’t you just hate going away parties?

If the Phillies are going back to the postseason they are going to do it either by winning the division, or via the Wild Card, but there are a few things that they must do in order to keep the torrent pace that lifted them from 7 games out of first to nearly 2 games out of first.

Let’s take a look.

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Philadelphia Phillies Fans, Time To Fess Up

For me it happened on July 22, a Thursday. I was sitting in traffic on my way to work. The sun was out.

That was the day I gave up on the Phillies and left them for dead.

They had just lost three in a row to the Cardinals, and six of seven coming out of the All-Star break. They were seven games behind the first-place Braves. They were a game behind the Mets.

Injuries were piling up. Their two-month, team-wide hitting slump, despite a few flashes of life, was reaching historic proportions. Jayson Werth was becoming a liability. The bullpen looked like the worst in baseball, and the pain of the Cliff Lee trade deepened with every passing day.

On my weekly podcast early that evening, I boldly predicted that the Phillies would not make the playoffs. I said the Cardinals were the team to beat in the National League and predicted that St. Louis would go to the World Series and possibly win it.

These days, of course, I’m feeling pretty stupid, guilty and embarrassed about my lapse of faith in July. I’m a punk and a bastard, I admit it. On the other hand, I know I’m not alone.

Be honest, fellow Philadelphia fan, when did you give up on our Fightin’ Phils?

It was probably around the same time I did.

That week after the All-Star break was do-or-die. Even today, I believe that if the Phillies had dropped another two or three games in a row at that time, they would have been cooked. They would have been out of first place by double digits, out of the wild-card race by nearly as much, and it would have changed the mentality of the team and the front office in relation to this season.

When I made my bold prediction, I did qualify it with one caveat (at least I think I did, or I tell myself I did). My words were something to the effect of, “If there are no major changes, I predict the Phillies will not make the playoffs.”

If there are no major changes.

But, it turned out, there were major changes. Two, in fact, including on that very day, July 22. Because Ruben Amaro saw, just like you and I saw, that the Phillies’ season was on life support. He saw that they were merely a step or two away from falling out of contention, kind of like the Los Angeles Angels did at some point this year.

The Angels, recently the class of the American League West, fumbled around and flirted with failure a little too long, until one day they looked up and Texas had the division signed, sealed, and delivered. That could have been the Phillies in relation to the Braves.

Instead, Amaro fired hitting coach Milt Thompson. Charlie Manuel got on board and claimed responsibility for it, for added effect. It happened after the fourth game of that Cardinals series, a game the Phillies won. Not that the Phils’ lack of production could really all be blamed on Thompson, but it sent a message—wake up, get with it, because nobody is irreplaceable.  

Suddenly, the Phillies started hitting again. They rattled off eight straight wins, and won 13 of their next 15. They cut the Braves’ lead from seven games to two. Along the way, the other major change happened. They got Roy Oswalt. It didn’t make up for the Lee deal, but it sure eased the anguish, because it gave the Phillies one of the best rotations in the sport. Amaro had gone from hero to zero and then back to hero.

The team was reinvigorated. The bench picked up the slack in the wake of injuries. In came Mike Sweeney. Up came Domonic Brown. The bullpen started coming around. And on and on…

Now the Phillies are in the wild-card lead with their sights firmly set on the division crown. July 22 is beginning to seem like a long time ago.

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Charlie Manuel To Blame for Philadelphia Phillies’ Inconsistencies?

No Phillies team for the past decade or so, and I truly mean no team, has been more frustrating to watch than this year’s squad.

They could very easily be the most talented group the Phillies have had since getting back to the playoffs back in 2007. They finally found a great No. 2 hitter, had a guy settle into the six spot, were able to get some speed at the seven spot, and returned with All-Star quality guys at nearly every other spot in the lineup.

But then there were the injuries. Other than Jayson Werth, every other Phillies starter has done at least one stint on the DL. Even the resilient Ryan Howard couldn’t avoid the bug. So because of that, the Phillies have had (I believe) a measly seven games with their complete lineup intact.

Seven games. That’s it. That number would be low if we’re talking about an NFL team that plays only 16 games. These guys play 162 games, have played 120 to this point, and can’t get the entire group of starters together for more than seven games.

Frustrated yet? Well, it gets worse.

The backups come in and, to the delight of everyone around the team, actually play well. They’re not playing with All-Star numbers, but certainly well above anyone’s expectations.

That is, of course, when they seemingly feel like it.

More than any other season in the past three years, it seems like pitching gems were going to waste left and right. And it didn’t matter whether it was Roy Halladay or Kyle Kendrick or any guy in the middle, the Phillies offense just could not take advantage and, because of that, have lost more 1-0 or 2-1 games than I can recall in recent memory.

And if they couldn’t come through when their guys were pitching a gem, forget about being able to actually pick their guy up and give him some help when he needs it. In ’08 and ’09, it wasn’t really a cause for concern if Joe Blanton came in and gave up three first-inning runs. The Phils offense would back him up and they’d usually be able to come out with a win.

This season, however, games were lost in the first inning. It seemed like the lineup would start to press as soon as they fell behind, and then it was just all downhill from there. Once their slumps began, they were hard to reverse.

But then, something wonderful happened—they started hitting.

Hitting coach Milt Thompson was the guy picked as the scapegoat and promptly fired. Greg Gross took over and has been given credit for the turnaround the offense had, but anyone paying attention can tell it was more about the shock of their coach getting tossed than it had to do with the new guy coming in.

After some great stretches of winning the games that had to be won, the Phillies found themselves two games out the division lead with a two-game lead on the final wild card playoff spot after back-to-back blowout wins over the Giants.

And then the unthinkable happened last night as the Phillies were shut out over eight innings, only managed four hits, and were unable to pick up a somewhat shaky Hamels and take advantage of an Atlanta Braves loss.

How, exactly, is it possible for a team like the Phillies to blow a team out in back-to-back games, and then just fold when the opportunity for a sweep is presented?

It took a little while to get to this point (and thanks for sticking with me here), but the only answer I can come up with is that Charlie Manuel is not preparing these guys properly. When a team is on a hot streak, it’s up to the manager to make sure their heads are in the right place.

Instead, it seems as though he’s content to lie back and let them figure things out. Manuel probably hasn’t had to do a whole lot over the past few seasons and I’m not sure if it’s made him lazy or what, but he doesn’t seem to be doing what he needs to do.

And make no mistake, this isn’t just about the losing. If they came out and dropped a game even 5-4 but were hitting fairly well and just happened to get outplayed, that’s one thing. But the guys are coming out, they look flat to begin with, and then can only muster four hits and not a single run until what is essentially garbage time down 5-0 in the ninth inning.

I understand these guys are professionals and adults and should be able to get themselves right without Manuel’s help, but when they’ve proved that they can’t it’s time for Manuel to step up and doing something other than blow bubbles in the dugout.

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