Should the Philadelphia Phillies Move Jimmy Rollins Down in the Order?

It was one of those humbling moments that reminds you why the fans pay to go to the game and sit in the 400-level while the coaches get paid to go to the game and sit in the dugout.

In the Phillies’ half of the sixth inning of a 1-1 game against the Cubs on Tuesday afternoon, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins came to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third.  

The infield was playing back with first base open because of a rare tagging-up from first by Chase Utley on a Ryan Howard’s sacrifice fly.  So, when Rollins ran the count to 3-0, I suddenly had a brilliant idea.

Taking in the afternoon game on a beautiful day with five buddies, I started telling each of them “Wow, this would be a great moment for a suicide squeeze.” 

The timing struck me as perfect—3-0 count, two outs, first base open, infield playing back, the speedy Rollins somehow still batting fifth in the order—and I became absolutely convinced that we were about to see the most exciting play in baseball, the two-out suicide squeeze.

Just for good measure, and not a moment too soon, I said, “Whatever you do, don’t let Rollins swing away.”

There are two types of home runs in major league baseball—the ones you watch excitedly hoping they can get out, and the ones you know are out of the park the moment they leave the bat.  Rollins hit one of the latter into the right field seats, and the Phillies had a 4-1 lead.

Coaches 1, Asher 0.

Regarding how much smarter than me he is, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel expounded on letting Rollins swing away on 3-0.  “I let guys hit 3-0, especially guys who are good hitters,” Manuel said. “It builds confidence…I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I couldn’t teach guys how to hit 3-0. I’ve had great success letting guys hit 3-0.”

Not that they needed it, but the coaches got another on me in the eighth inning when, with one out and Utley standing on second representing the go-ahead run, Raul Ibanez hit a single to right field that Kosuke Fukudome got to just as Utley was arriving at third.  I don’t think I yelled, but I definitely said out loud, “Hold the runner!” 

Nevertheless, despite my advice, the Phillies third base coach waived Utley around and he stepped on home plate a step-and-a-half ahead of the throw and tag.

Coaches 2, Asher 0.  Ballgame.

But seriously, folks, it is time to ask: Are we seeing a new Jimmy Rollins? 

Rollins is certainly no stranger to home run power—remember, he hit 30 home runs in 2007, his MVP year , and he’s hit 20 or more two other times—but so far in 2010 his slugging percentage is .658 and his OPS is 1.116.  These are not numbers we’re used to seeing.

Rollins also seems, perhaps for the first time, comfortable hitting somewhere other than the leadoff spot.  In what is admittedly a small sample size, Rollins has an .886 OPS with four RBI and three runs in the four games since he returned from a month-long absence to nurse his ailing calf muscle.  

Yesterday, Rollins batted fifth for Jayson Werth, who got the day off in favor of Ross “He was in a nuclear accident and so he” Gload.

Could this be the dawn of the rest of Jimmy Rollins career? 

Would Jimmy be content to spend his 30s as a slightly above-average power hitter, providing protection in the order for Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and (if they can re-sign him) Jayson Werth?

Not likely.

Charlie Manuel has indicated that Rollins will probably be back in the leadoff spot at some point during this weekend’s series against the Boston Red Sox, and Jimmy has indicated that, despite his success over the last couple of days, this experiment in the batting order is probably short-lived. 

“I have at-bats when I still feel a little out of whack and others where I can feel my legs underneath me and my swing going in the right path,” Rollins said after the game. “The rest of it is just feeling my legs underneath me when I’m hitting and feeling the bat speed. When the bat speed is there, I think I’ll be ready.”

Manuel said he thinks Rollins needs more at-bats and dropping him down in the order allows him to be more aggressive and take more swings. “I look at Jimmy as our leadoff hitter, and there are a lot of reasons why I look at him that way,” Manuel said. “He is our leadoff hitter.”

Oh well. 

The new Jimmy Rollins will just have to wait. 

Frankly, I’d like to see Rollins get an extensive try-out in the five-hole to see if perhaps the Phillies can’t save a little money by not giving Jayson Werth the $20 million contact he’ll probably want when he becomes a free agent after this season.

If Jimmy can give Utley and Howard the same protection that Werth gives them, maybe the Phillies could spend that money somewhere else.

Of course, what do I know?  I’m just a guy sitting in the 400-level.

 

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is the co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com .

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Philadelphia-Chicago: Cubs Top Phillies 4-1 In a Hard-Luck Loss For Jamie Moyer

For once, Jamie Moyer knows what it takes to pitch well and lose. Oh, the irony.

Moyer was brilliant for the Phillies as they faced the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night, allowing only two earned runs on four hits and one walk in seven innings, while striking out seven and lowering his ERA to 4.30, in the rematch of the teams that faced each other back in 1986 when Moyer made his major league debut against Steve Carlton.

Moyer, who has spent the vast majority of his Phillies career collecting wins despite giving up four to six runs per game, found himself on the losing end of a pitchers’ duel with Tom Gorzelanny of the Cubs. 

Gorzelanny scattered three hits and two walks over six and two-thirds scoreless innings while striking out five.  The Phillies failed to capitalize on an inning and a third of John Grabow and Carlos Zambrano, two of the worst performing Cubs of the 2010 season, scoring only one run off of Grabow.  Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless ninth for his seven save.

This marks the second night in a row that the usually high-powered Phillies offense failed to take advantage of a gem from one of their starting pitchers; on Tuesday night, Roy Halladay took the loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates despite a complete game effort during which he allowed only two runs.

Meanwhile, both the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals won tonight, picking up a game each in the standings. The Phils now lead the Marlins by three games and the Nationals by four. 

The Nationals also got good news from Triple-A Syracuse, as Stephen Strasburg pitched six and a third scoreless innings, striking out nine, walking two and allowing three hits.  Strasburg has yet to give up a run at Triple-A in 18 and a third innings.

Meanwhile, this was the Phillies third game since the return of Jimmy Rollins, and the Phils are now 1-2 in those games. 

In Rollins’ first game back, the Phillies won 12-2, but they have scored only three runs in the two games since then. 

Curiously, Rollins has batted third in two of these games and tonight he batted sixth.  During the last two games, Shane Victorino has batted leadoff and gone 1-for-8.

The ability of the Philadelphia Phillies to annually be one of the elite offensive teams in baseball despite having a leadoff man in Rollins with a .330 on-base percentage has always been befuddling, but for whatever reason, it has always worked.  So, here’s an idea – why don’t we move Rollins back to the top of the order, move Victorino back to seventh, and enjoy the rest of the season?

The Phillies play the Cubs in a business man’s special tomorrow at Citizens’ Bank Park at 1:05pm. 

The Phils will send Joe Blanton to the mound to face off against Ryan Dempster.  Hopefully Blanton can get some run support and avoid the same fate as Roy Halladay and—as odd as this is to say—Jamie Moyer by losing a well-pitched game.

 

Asher B. Chancey is the co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Jamie Moyer: History (and Trivia) in the Making

Philadelphia Phillies fans are currently being treated to one of the great phenomena of Major League Baseball history.

I’m not talking about Jayson Werth’s 20 doubles, what could be the greatest 6-4-3 combination in baseball history , or the early season dominance of Roy Halladay. 

No, I’m talking about the continued career of Jamie Moyer, baseball’s ageless wonder.

I started watching baseball when I was nine years old, during the Reagan Administration.  That first year as a baseball fan, I fell in love with the 1987 Chicago Cubs, and thus began a lifetime of watching baseball.

I have followed the game through the competitive balance of the late 1980s, two expansions in 1993 and 1998, the 1994 baseball strike, the 1998 Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa saga, the Barry Bonds years, and the dawn of the post-steroid era. It has been a lifetime of baseball watching.

Jamie Moyer has been there the entire time.

The more I see Jamie Moyer, the more he reminds me of Eddie Harris, the Vaseline-wearing junk-ball pitcher played by Chelcie Ross in the movie Major League . Of course, the producers of Major League intentionally cast an older actor to exaggerate what a veteran pitcher he was—Chelcie Ross was meant to be a satirical punch line, a goof on ragged baseball players.

That “punch line” was 46 years old at the time, a year younger than Moyer is now.

Moyer hasn’t always been perceived as a major league-caliber pitcher. If you look at Moyer’s stat sheet, you’ll notice a conspicuous absence in the early 1990s. Moyer missed most of 1991 and almost all of 1992, not due to injury or Tommy John surgery, but due to the fact that he wasn’t very good.

Over the course of those two seasons, he logged over 260 innings for the Cardinals’ and Tigers’ Triple-A teams; he never even threw a major league pitch for the Tigers.

Moyer was 28 and 29, what should have been his prime, during those Triple-A seasons. Guys don’t usually come back from that. But a funny thing happened to Moyer during that time: He learned how to pitch.

His major league ERA in the three seasons before his demotion was 4.07 (93 ERA+). In the three seasons after returning to the majors, his ERA was 4.41 (108 ERA+). (It is important to not get hung up on the fact that his raw ERA went up. Look at his ERA+, and remember that Major League Baseball from 1988 to 1990 was fundamentally different from Major League Baseball from 1993 to 1995).

Since his return to the majors in 1993, Moyer has gone 229-143 with a 4.15 ERA (109 ERA+) in 533 games, while finishing in the top 10 in Cy Young Award voting three times, winning 20 games twice, being a member of the 116-win 2001 Seattle Mariners, and going to two World Series with the Phillies.

If the phenomenon of Jamie Moyer were limited to the fact that he is 47 years old, that alone would be enough to be “gotta-go-see-him-when-he-comes-to-my-town” significant. Indeed, we’ve only seen six players Moyer’s age in the majors since World War II: Moyer, Julio Franco, Phil Niekro, Minnie Minoso, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Satchel Paige.

Nolan Ryan never made it to 47, nor did Jesse Orosco, Tommy John, Warren Spahn, or Gaylord Perry. Seeing a guy Moyer’s age play in the majors is, almost literally, a once in a lifetime event.

But Moyer isn’t just an old man playing baseball; he is an old man playing baseball effectively. The guy is the third starter on the prohibitive favorite for the NL pennant. Of the other five guys to make it to the age of 47, only Wilhelm and Niekro did it as actual contributors to their team.

At the age of 47, Franco appeared in 95 games, mostly as a pinch hitter, for the New York Mets. Satchel Paige and Minnie Minoso didn’t actually play until the age of 47—Paige retired at the age of 46 and made one relief appearance at the age of 58 as a novelty, and Minoso retired at the age of 38 before making brief novelty “comebacks” at the age of 50 and 54.

So, basically, three guys have played through the age of 47 in a meaningful way since World War II. That makes Moyer all the more significant.

The flip side to Jamie Moyer is that it seems like every time he pitches, he makes history, or more appropriately, he makes trivia. For example, in his first game of the season, he became one of a handful of players in major league history to play in four different decades. The others to join that club this year are Ken Griffey, Jr., and Omar Vizquel; again, not exactly contributors to their teams.

In Moyer’s most recent start, against the Milwaukee Brewers, the teams had a “turn-back-the-clock” style game in which they wore old throwback uniforms. Except…the uniform that Moyer was wearing, the “throwback,” was a replica of the very same uniforms the Phillies were wearing on the day he made his major league debut against them in 1986 against Steve Carlton.

How many players can say they wore a uniform that was a throwback to an earlier point in their own career?

Moyer is also now constantly facing batters who weren’t born yet when he made his major league debut. Last year, he faced off against Graham Taylor, Cameron Maybin, Justin Upton, Chris Volstad, Ryan Tucker, Jay Bruce, and Clayton Kershaw. This season, Moyer has struck out Braves super-phenom Jason Heyward, who was born in 1989, Moyer’s fourth year in the league.

And then, of course, there was May 7, 2010, the day that Moyer became the oldest player ever to pitch a major league shutout. He didn’t just shut out the Atlanta Braves that day; he faced only one more batter than the minimum 27 batters, he threw only 101 pitches, and his game was strikingly similar to the one pitched by Dallas Braden two days later , except that was a perfect game.

Of course, when you’ve been pitching as long as Moyer has, not all of your accomplishments are special. I n his most recent ball game, that throwback game against the Brewers, he gave up three home runs to join former Phillies legend Robin Roberts as one of only two players ever to give up 500 home runs in a career.

At this point, Moyer leads the league in home runs allowed and is only four away from taking sole possession of first place from Roberts. But as far as “bad” records go, even that is a fun one.

Here’s another Moyer Fun Fact: On Sept. 2, 1986, Moyer was matched up against Nolan Ryan, still a tender 39 years old, at Wrigley Field. That game went 17 innings, and the Cubs were forced to use a rookie pitcher as a pinch runner in the 17th. After the pinch runner failed to score, he stayed in to pitch the 18th inning—his major league pitching debut—and took the loss. That pitcher was Greg Maddux.

Maddux, of course, has been out of the league for two years and is on his way to the Hall of Fame. Moyer is still pitching. 

At the end of the day, the Philadelphia Phillies are one of the best teams in baseball, and Jamie Moyer plays, frankly, a way-too-important role on this team. At the same time, though, Moyer is a baseball specimen at this point, and every game he pitches in should be cherished by baseball fans.

Maybe someday someone will make a movie about Jamie Moyer; I think Chelcie Ross would be perfect for the role.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

The Top 10 Philadelphia Phillies Pitchers of All-Time

When Roy Halladay joined the Philadelphia Phillies, I made a comment on local sports-talk radio that Halladay immediately joins the Phillies’ Mount Rushmore of starting pitchers. Was this hyperbole?

Could a guy in his first season with the Phillies ( a team founded in 1883) possibly be one of the top four starting pitchers in the team’s history?

Let’s take a look at the All Time Phillies pitching staff.

Begin Slideshow

« Previous Page