Philadelphia’s 10 Most Intriguing Athletes of the Week

With the Major League Baseball season coming down the stretch, the NFL season getting under way, and Team USA competing in the basketball World Championships, the Philadelphia sports scene has reached a fever-pitch.

In case you were down the shore this weekend and missed it, here is a look at the 10 most intriguing Philadelphia athletes of the week.

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Philadelphia Phillies Pitching Coach Looking To Have Best Shot vs. Braves

Six days left until the biggest series of the year in the National League.

The Phillies official website reports that the Phillies pitching coach, Rich Dubee, may be looking to deliver a knock out blow next week when facing the Atlanta Braves. Given the recent awakening of the Phillies’ bats, that doesn’t sound like too bad an idea.

The Phillies crushed the Florida Marlins 11-4 on Monday, September 13th to retain their one-game lead in the NL East, while the Braves held up their end, beating the Washington Nationals 4-0.

With just over two weeks left in this season, and six games remaining between the two NL East teams, it’s pretty obvious that the race to first place will all come down to the head-to-head match-up.

The Braves, known to be a resilient team, are going to have much to contend with come these final games down the stretch because, of the six games remaining, it’s quite possible the Phillies will pitch their aces in five of them.

All it would take is for Rich Dubee to realign this weekend’s pitching rotation, and voila!  To make it happen, all Dubee would have to do is switch Roy Oswalt’s and Kyle Kendrick’s starts this weekend.

Oswalt is set to pitch on Saturday, September 18, but if switched to pitch on Friday, September 17th, instead, the trio could line up against those wily Braves on Monday, starting with Cole Hamels. But does Dubee see it the same way?

He commented on the matter, as reported by Todd Zoleki saying:

 

“As long as [Oswalt] is feeling fine, there’s a real good chance,…I don’t think there’s any downside to pitching Oswalt, Hamels, and Halladay. They are our front three starters. I would think if you have two series with the Braves, you’d want the best guys available, if possible.”

 

The news comes at no surprise to some, given what’s at stake here. Between the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants, and the red hot, Colorado Rockies jostling for playoff berths, it seems winning the division will be key—Dubee is not going to be the one to take that chance.

In September the three have put up stellar pitching performances, pitching for a combined 51 innings, going 7-0, and throwing 52 strikeouts, while only giving up, between the three of them, an average of under two runs per game.

The Braves have faced two of the three pitchers this year, in four games. The pitchers have gotten the best of them in three of the four games pitching, between the two of them, 23 innings, giving up seven runs, throwing 20 strikeouts, and only giving up two runs.

For the Phils, the good news is, Roy Halladay has absolutely dominated the Braves the two times he faced them, going the distance in both games.

 

In the first game, Halladay pitched an .82 ERA, giving up no runs, and striking out seven. His second game interestingly enough were strikingly similar numbers, but with one home run given up.

The good news for the Braves is, they seemed to have less of a struggle with Hamels, scoring six runs on him, including a three-run homer by Troy Glaus in the rain, while splitting a game a piece with him.

Now, Hamels and Halladay add Oswalt to the show and for the first time this season, line up in one series and take on the Atlanta Braves for all of the marbles.

If that doesn’t get you excited as a Braves, or Phillies fan, nothing will.

It most certainly will be must see TV, and yours truly, will be all over that coverage the whole week. Stay tuned.

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September Is the Hottest Month: Analyzing Ryan Howard’s September Splits

The air has turned cool, the leaves are turning brown, and the NFL is ready for some football.

That’s right, Phillies fans, September is here once again, and we all know what that means: Ryan Howard is ready to kick his game up a notch.

Or actually, a few notches.

As the Phillies have returned to the top of the NL East on the strength of their dominant pitching and resurgent offense, much has been made of late of how amazing Howard has been during his career in the month of September.

To put Howard’s dominance in September in perspective, let’s do this: as of Monday, September 13th, Howard has now played the equivalent of one full season of games in the month of September. Howard has 153 games, totaling 716 plate appearances and 598 at-bats.

With that in mind, let’s look at Howard’s career numbers in September and analyze how good they would be if they were single-season totals in a given year.

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Roy, Roy And Cole and … Who Takes The Ball: Pondering The Phillies Rotation

Sports Irreverence and More from The Other Tip of the Goldberg

Maybe it’s because of the rain that fell this morning—I haven’t seen any rain for about eight years, and it has me a little confused.

The rain also washed away my pickup softball game this morning, giving me a little more time on my hands to think about the pressing issues of the day.

The economy?  Nah, nothing I can do about that; it’s way above my pay grade—which is a problem in and of itself, of course.

The Eagles home/season opener against Green Bay, and the Washington McNabbs hosting Big D? Still too many hours away. 

Memo to Phillies Fans:   We’re in a real pennant race here—only 19 games left to play, and we’re deadlocked with the Braves for first in the NL East and only two games ahead of the Giants for baseball’s consolation prize.  We have three world-class starting pitchers, and then two question marks—a heavy one that gets shelled in the first inning (Joe Blanton) and a skinny one (Kyle Kendrick) that looks like Greg Maddux occasionally and Mike Maddux more regularly.

I’m reminded of that old saying coined in the late 1940’s for the Boston Braves who had two top hurlers in Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, and then, as legend has it, used Blanton and Kendrick as their third and fourth starters. Someone, please check their birth certificates.

Spahn and Sain, and Pray for Rain went the refrain, and in the days of four-man (and sometimes three-man) pitching rotations, it was not that much of a stretch for Braves fans to wish for that.

Fast-forward, kind of, to the 1964 Phillies.  Now, I was a bit too young to have experienced this, but it’s hard-wired (with pessimism and jaded cynicism) into my Philly Sports Fan DNA.  As many (even) older Phils fans can tell you the Fightins—long the doormats of the National League—were having a dream season, featuring Jim Bunning’s perfecto, a great season from co-ace Chris Short, an exciting rookie in Richie (“I became Dick later”) Allen and great play from right fielder Johnny Callison.

They found themselves, improbably, 6 ½ games in front of the Reds with only 12 games left to play.  Fans were lining up for World Season tickets—the first Fall Classic to hit Shibe Park/Connie Mark Stadium since 1950, when…

…Manager Gene Mauch remembered that Spahn/Sain ditty and also remembered that he was not enamored of any starting pitchers not named Bunning or Short.  Chaining “Blanton and Kendrick” to the bench, the Little General overused Bunning and Short, and presto—the Phils managed to lose 10 straight games, the first seven of them played before the forgiving Philly faithful.  No pennant; just an all-time collapse: the Philly Phold, Mauch’s Meltdown…

Bunning and Short And Make A Mockery of the Sport???

So, what to do about 2010?  In case you didn’t know, the Phillies—counting today, and assuming they’ll play through the rain—have 19 big games left in their next 22 days.  The next three Thursdays are off.  6 of those remaining 19 games are huge showdowns versus those Atlanta Braves.

Does Charlie Manuel—with three scheduled days off—go with a four-man rotation and choose Blanton or Kendrick to be the odd-man out? Does he get greedy and jettison both Blanton and Kendrick, and stay with his three-headed monster of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels?

And as a longtime Phils fan, I must ask:  Does Uncle Cholly channel his inner Mauch and go with Halladay and his pick of either Hamels or Oswalt (coin flip or arm wrestling) in a two-man rotation—an homage to those beloved ’64 near-champions. It says here that if Manuel does lose it and goes that route, that he should stay with Hamels and keep Oswalt as his emergency (16^th-inning) left fielder. It could happen and pardon the self-reference below:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/442961-hard-to-believe-harry-howard-loses-it-and-who-batted-oswalt

Now, I don’t really expect Cholly to totally lose it, but he could partially panic and go with that three-headed monster of Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels—three pitchers who may all get you over 200 innings pitched with a 3.00 ERA (or lower, in Doc’s case) and over 200 strikeouts (Halladay’s there, Hamels should surpass it, and Oswalt will get close to it.)

Of course, our three-headed monster needs a catchier nickname, than “(Our) Three-Headed Monster”, and to that cause I propose:

Two Roys and a Boy (okay: that kind of sucked, but I’m typing out loud here)

King Cole and The Roy-al Court (Get it? Blame it on the rain)

Roy Squared and Cole

R-C-R 

Okay, I think I have it.  We have two H’s, but also two Roys, and that’s been throwing me off.  Let’s go with their last initials: Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt.

H 2 O …we can say that Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt are like water torture for opposing batters.  Well, we don’t have to, but.

What do you think?  It’s pure, it’s clean, it’s, it’s… water. 

Which reminds me that it’s raining, and with three scheduled days off and 6 games remaining against the Braves in our last 19…

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Philadelphia Phillies Appear Poised for Another Championship Run

The Philadelphia Phillies obstacle course of a season currently finds them one game up in the National League Eastern Division. The club’s 2010 campaign has been akin to a season of The Amazing Race in terms of duration, complexity, and challenge. 

An ongoing spate of injuries has kept the National League’s best team on paper at less than full strength all season long. Key players revolved on the disabled list and often when back on the field, found themselves still compromised by inactivity and less than full physical function. 

The team’s fortunes had taken such a nose dive that many were debating whether the Phillies should be “buyers” or “sellers” in the annual July swap meet. Some argued that it was time to concede to the injuries and team’s diminished record, write the season off, and look towards next season. 

To the Phillies players’, coaches’, and entire organization’s credit— that did not happen. Everyone maintained a sense of calm, found a way to stay afloat, and even threw in a bold trade to acquire another marquee pitcher. 

The payoff has been a slow, steady climb back to the top spot in the NL East after spending almost three months looking up at the Atlanta Braves. But just as the team was making the swap in standings, a few more warning flares appeared. 

First, Brad Lidge’s balky elbow caused the team to shut him down for a few days. Although he is just months removed from surgery to clean it up, both Lidge and the team remain optimistic that it is only a minor ailment that will not derail the Phillies closer. 

Lidge has been a key cog in the team’s resurgence and is being counted on as an important element for the team’s success. Since an ugly blown save against the Washington Nationals in late August, Lidge has done his best work since the 2008 World Series run. 

Next, Gold Glove shortstop and team heartbeat Jimmy Rollins pulled up lame running the bases. Two previous stints on the DL already this season with a calf injury caused manager Charlie Manuel to immediately sit him down and is now listed as day-to-day. 

The injury was indicated to be a hamstring strain. Both player and team remain optimistic that a short rest will nip the problem in the bud. 

Other players such as Ryan Howard, Placido Polanco, and Chase Utley may not be 100 percent over the balance of the year, but that is the reality of the marathon that is Major League Baseball. 

Continuing brushes with the injury bug highlight that a successful conclusion to the season is not all within the team’s control. And, surely the other team’s fighting for a postseason berth are not going to fade away easily. 

The Braves lead baseball in comeback and walk-off wins. 

The San Francisco Giants have the pitching and a bolstered offense to maintain their charge. 

After a recent tailspin, the San Diego Padres are showing signs of a rebound. Strong pitching had produced the best record in the NL before their 10-game losing streak, and surely is capable of producing many wins down the stretch. 

The Colorado Rockies have launched their annual September surge. They are playing with the same strong sense of confidence that has propelled them past other teams in recent years when the games became more urgent.  

Despite the keen competition, the Phillies are well positioned and poised to make another run to glory. 

The Phillies offense has started to heat up as the original starting cast now populates the lineup and returning players continue to find their groove. Hitting can be contagious and Howard appears to have his normal September offensive bug. 

With an effective Lidge, a rested and sharp Ryan Madson, and an overall good supporting cast, the bullpen has moved from weakness to strength. 

And, importantly, the starting staff  is imposing— at least three out of five days. 

Joe Blanton brought back memories of Adam Eaton through July, but has been 6-1 with a 3.37 ERA since. The remaining schedule may allow the team to bypass inconsistent fifth starter Kyle Kendrick. 

The biggest source of optimism for the pennant stretch and postseason, should they advance, derives from the fact that Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt can out-duel anyone. 

Surely the games need to be won on the field, and a one game lead and a pack of hungry teams in pursuit of the playoffs will keep the heat on— but this Phillies team has the elements to win it all. 

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Philadelphia Phillies: The Five Most Important Under-the-Radar Players

Having a lot of superstars is great for obvious reasons. But the thing that makes a team great is having guys on the roster who can step in for those superstars when needed and make the plays that need to be made, or just play in a supporting role and do all the little things.

Fortunately for the Phillies, they have a lot of both types of guys. The superstars (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Jimmy Rollins) aren’t hard to pick out. But what makes this 2010 team so dangerous is just how stacked the roster is with great supporting players.

The superstars get a team in position to win, but it’s the role players who ultimately do the things necessary to win.

So heading into one hell of a playoff push, let’s take a look at the five guys who everyone should keep an eye on as potential difference-makers.

Wilson Valdez

Early in the season, Valdez was forced to split time with Juan Castro at shortstop while Rollins recovered from an injury. It became abundantly clear very quickly, however, that Valdez was the superior player in nearly every aspect.

He’s never going to be a .300 hitter, but he’s come through with some clutch hits and has been fantastic in the field. In fact, Valdez has only been charged with one error this season and has turned 19 double plays from third base, shortstop, and second base.

He likely won’t see a whole lot of time in the playoffs, but he will be a huge part of the push to stay in first place and will be a great guy to have coming off the bench.

Ross Gload

If you would have told me Gload would be batting .281 with six home runs, 29 RBI, 14 runs and only 10 strikeouts as the Phillies’ primary left-handed pinch hitter, I would have laughed in your face. But, here we are.

Gload has made Greg Dobbs all but worthless and is a guy the Phillies really like. He’s going to continue to be the go-to guy off the bench and will be highly counted upon all throughout the push and into the playoffs.

A big situation doesn’t seem to rattle him, so he should be fine when the lights are on. I wouldn’t have thought it to be the case when they signed him, but there’s a bit of confidence in everyone watching that when Gload hits the plate, he’s going to come through.

Kyle Kendrick

Kendrick likely won’t find himself in the rotation come playoff time. He’ll be relegated to the bullpen in favor of Joe Blanton, who will keep the fourth spot. And while I believe Kendrick is the more talented pitcher, it’s definitely the right move.

Blanton, even with his maddening tendency to give up first-inning runs and put the offense in a hole immediately, is the more consistent of the two.

He’s not going to come out and blank anyone for seven innings, but he’s also not going to allow 11 runs in the first four innings.

Kendrick has the ability to do the first, but is just erratic enough to do the latter. And in the playoffs, that’s just something the team cannot afford.

But out of the bullpen as a long reliever, I believe Kendrick can be a real difference-maker. His problems seem to come about when he really starts pressing.

He feels like if he doesn’t strike out the side to start the game he’s not doing his job. He’ll begin to calm down later in the game, but by then, it’s sometimes too late.

As a reliever, he might be able to relax, knowing exactly what sort of situation he’s going into and being given a specifically tailored assignment. And when Kendrick is relaxed and just going out and slinging it, he turns into a dangerous pitcher.

Carlos Ruiz

All right, so maybe he’s not exactly in the same mold as the other guys, but he’s not exactly a superstar either and will definitely play a huge role for the Phils over the next two months or so.

Ruiz isn’t getting a lot of the attention because of the way Howard has gone off as of late, but Ruiz has been nearly spotless for a long time now. He’s coming up with the clutch knocks when they need them and has been a life-saver behind the plate.

Chooch is quietly hitting .296 at this point in the season, and if he can carry that over into the playoffs it’s going to make the Phillies’ lineup a real forced to be reckoned with from top to bottom.

Brad Lidge

Closers are like kickers in the NFL: no one really knows their name unless they do something great or really mess something up. In Philadelphia, Lidge’s name is known for a little bit of both.

But for all the talk, Lidge has actually been pretty good this season. He has blown five saves, but three of those came in one bad stretch from late June to early July. And, if I’m not mistaken, it later came out that Lidge was already having elbow problems then.

Since then, Lidge has blown only two saves and has a respectable 3.38 ERA and a 1-1 record. He is not ever going to be the same guy we saw in 2008, but he is a guy the Phillies can count on to come through when they really need him.

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Howard, Utley, and Halladay Break Jinx; Lead Phils To 8-4 Win Over Mets

The Philadelphia Phillies have shown resilience, heart, and very solid pitching in somehow amassing the best record in the National League during a strange season that could have derailed a lesser group.

At Citi Field—a mausoleum of a stadium that has not been kind to the Fightins in 2010—they rode three hits by Carlos Ruiz and solo shots by Ryan Howard and Chase Utley to defeat the hapless New York Mets, 8-4.

The box score will reflect that their ace, Roy Halladay, was not at his sharpest, scattering eight hits and four earned runs over seven and two-thirds innings. Doc did however bring his bat, bouncing a seeing-eye, two run single up the middle with two outs in the fourth inning to break a 3-3 tie.

On a day that Halladay did not have his very best stuff, he collected the game-winning RBI(s), and tied Ubaldo Jimenez and Adam Wainwright for the league lead at 18 wins.  With the win, the Phils retained their one game lead over the Atlanta Braves—who scored 6 in the 6th to defeat 6’6″ Cardinals co-ace Chris Carpenter. Call it a devilish comeback if you will.

The Phillies also remained two games clear of the next team behind Atlanta in the wild card hunt, the San Francisco Giants, who hours later defeated the San Diego Padres in a 1-0 slugfest.

So, what of the Phillies’ offense that has not been as dynamic as in past seasons? Coming into tonight’s contest, they had scored exactly seven runs in six games in Queens this year.

Have they solved their Citi Field jinx? Maybe so, but more importantly they seemed to have found their offense. It did not hurt that Mr. September, Ryan Howard, stayed back on a pitch and casually lifted an opposite field shot to left center to tie the game at three.

Senor Octobre, Carlos Ruiz, also continued his torrid hitting, boosting his average to .296 with a 3-3 night, while also drawing two free passes. And Chase Utley, their Mr. Everything who seems to be finding his stroke again, pulled a ball into the right field seats to provide a seventh-inning insurance run.

Another part of the Phillies’ winning formula was the good fortune of coming to the plate versus a horrific looking Mets middle reliever Sean Green. Green, who looked even less polished than his surname would suggest, pitched just one-third of an inning, but packed in an intentional base-on-balls, another walk, and a hit batsman—plunking Wilson Valdez on a 3-0 offering with the bases loaded. 

After not finding the area code one  pitch to Halladay, and almost hitting him on another, Mets skipper Jerry Manuel pulled Mr. Green. Both Halladay and Green looked relieved when the shaky reliever was sent to the showers. How do you spell relief?

Then again, the above scenario is the Mets problem, who learned before the game that their ace, Johan Santana, would miss the remainder of the season. Despite a fine 2.98 ERA, the Mets had only given Santana 11 wins in his 29 starts this year.

It’s almost enough to make one feel sorry for the Metropolitans. Almost…

But this is Philly, and the Fightins did what they had to do in beating back a sub .500 team on the road. And if it takes hit batters and two runs batted in by their starting pitcher to get a win, the Phils won’t complain.

With 20 games left to play, the Phillies are not yet a lock for the playoffs. But with a resurgent Howard, the best starting pitching in the National League (arguably), and the experience of taking it to the wire the last few years, would anyone be accused of being a homer if they identified them as the team to beat in the NL?

No, I didn’t think so.

 

 

 

 

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Six Things that Tested Even the Most Loyal Phillies Fans in 2010

With only three weeks to go in the 2010 regular season, it’s looking more and more like there will be postseason baseball in Philadelphia.   That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some difficult moments along the way.

Injuries and slumps are bound to happen, so rather than focus on the obvious, here is a look at six things that made even the most ardent Phils’ fan consider switching to reality television for entertainment.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Can They Pull Off Something No NL Team Has Accomplished?

It’s been 66 years since the National League has seen a three-time National League champion.

The year was 1944 when the mighty St. Louis Cardinals won their third straight pennant after finishing first in the NL with 105 wins.

Looking to rebound from their loss the previous year to the New York Yankees, the St. Louis Cardinals won their fifth title in the “Streetcar Series,” against their crosstown rivals the St. Louis Browns. Three consecutive NL pennants hasn’t happened since.

Of course, in 1944 the format was much different. The MLB changed to the NLCS in 1967. But that makes it even more shocking of a statistic when you say that since 1969, when the championship series was implemented, no one in the NL has been able to pull off the elusive three-peat.

The Reds came close in 1976 and the Dodgers came close in the subsequent years of 1977 and 1978. The Atlanta Braves came extremely close, winning four out of five pennants consecutively—not including 1994’s lockout season—splitting two and two in ’91 and ’92, then again in ’95 and ’96.

This year, a similar event has a chance of coming to fruition. The Philadelphia Phillies have a chance to be the first NL team in over 60 years to win three consecutive pennants. This season has showed Philadelphia why it’s been such a difficult feat to pull off.

Plagued by injuries, the Phillies came into this month on a steady mission: continue their quest to tie up loose ends from 2009’s loss to the New York Yankees and make history as the first team to win three pennants in the championship series format. 

Unlike the St. Louis Cardinals of 1944, however, this road was not easy for the Phils. Change of batting order, new acquisitions, battling injuries, and fighting against hitting slumps, the Phillies still find themselves in the same place the Cardinals were around this time 1944—first place in the NL. Granted, the Cardinals had a 14 game lead on the Pittsburgh Pirates; it is, nonetheless, first place.

With their pursuers, the Atlanta Braves, only a game behind them, the Phillies have a long road ahead of them. Anxiously, we await the six games left against that resilient bunch, to find out if our Phightins can make this happen.

While the Phillies do show many similarities with that historical team of 1944, if the Phillies are able to pull off history, they will have done it their way—Phightin’,

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Philadelphia Phillies Main Strengths and Weaknesses In 2010

This year has been a crazy year for the Phillies.  There have been many ups and downs, and there may be many more to come.  The team has had some injuries, they have had some slumps, they have had some winning streaks, etc.  To sum it all up, they’ve basically had everything.  And for the most part, they have still done good throughout it all.  Here are some of their main strengths and main weaknesses.

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