Have the Philadelphia Phillies Already Found Their Closer?

In the last two years, the Phillies closer role has been filled by “a veritable who’s who of incompetent puppets,” as said by Dr. Kelso from ABC’s television show Scrubs.

In 2009, Brad Lidge did almost everything in his power to warrant a demotion from the closer’s role, if not from the major league roster in general. Blowing an almost mind-numbing 11 saves, as well as posting a 5.45 FIP, he was clearly earning the loser portion of closer. 

His gallant replacement was set-up man Ryan Madson. His pitching featured a simmering high 90’s fastball and disappearing change-up. He spelled Lidge on occasion, but unfortunately managed to muster an equally poor six blown saves. Despite that ugly number, Madson was mostly a victim of bad luck as his 3.23 FIP shows.

Regardless, to say the Phillies closer has been a weak spot would be an understatement.

Coming into 2010, Lidge was on the DL after multiple offseason surgeries, Madson was the stand-in closer, and Jose Contreras was a 38-year-old former starting pitcher that had suffered a disappointing 2009 campaign. The Phillies had taken a one-year flier on in an attempt to add some middle relief depth.

What a drastic role-reversal a couple of months can create. 

Now, in mid-May, after a brief and relatively successful return, Lidge is back on the disabled list, Madson ended up on the wrong side of a fight against a folding chair, and Jose Contreras—yes, that Jose Contreras—has emerged as the Phillies’ most successful and dominant reliever. 

Contreras’s rise has been quite extraordinary. He went through spring training with some bad statistics and some ugly outings. He looked like he was somehow going to turn the Phillies’ very small investment into a bad deal.

But somewhere between Spring Training and the regular season, Contreras managed to figure something out. 

At this point in the season, albeit early season, Contreras owns a magnificent 9.0 K/BB rate and 1.82 FIP. 

He is striking out batters at an alarming rate with a filthy mix of mid-90’s splitters and nasty sliders. Even more importantly, he has maintained some outstanding control with a very respectable BB/9 rate of 1.35.

So as of right now, the Phillies bullpen is not acting like the hole that would sink the Phillies ship that many expected it to be. Even more importantly, even in the absence of Brad Lidge and Ryan Madson, the Phillies closer role looks to be in decidedly good hands.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Sore Elbows, Folding Chairs and the Exxon Valdez

Who would have thought that the most indispensable part of the Phillies infield would turn out to be Juan Castro?

When Jimmy Rollins tweaked his calf muscle in mid-April, he was batting .391 with a .516 OBP, and a wOBA of .527. Impressive numbers, ones that he certainly would not have been able to keep up over the course of the season, but clearly he would be very hard to replace.

He was replaced by Juan Castro, who provided solid defense, in addition to at least moderately adequate offensive numbers, batting .258 with a .255 wOBA.

But when Castro came down with a strained left knee, the Phillies had no choice but to insert Wilson Valdez into the starting lineup.

Doing his best Exxon Valdez impression, Wilson Valdez has been about as helpful to the Phillies offense as the oil spill was to the Alaskan wildlife.

Valdez is currently batting .152, but more impressively has somehow managed to ground into five double plays in the last week alone.

It takes a sincere concerted effort to provide such a debilitating presence in a lineup.

The penguins and seals that had the misfortune of making their habitat off the coast of Alaska in 1989 may have had their ecosystem destroyed by millions of gallons of oil, but at least they didn’t have to deal with rally-killing double plays.

While the injuries to the position players have been irksome, the injuries to the Phillies bullpen are now bordering on the macabre.

Brad Lidge had finally returned from his off-season knee and elbow surgeries, and at least initially seemed to be vaguely resembling the pitcher who saved 48 games in 48 chances in 2008.

This brief tidbit of good news was of course followed by reports that Lidge is yet again feeling tightness in his elbow and has been consulting with team doctors.

But the Lidge injury cannot even come close to rivaling the unfortunate and cataclysmic event that happened to Ryan Madson.

Perhaps dismayed with his inability to dominate opposing batters in the ninth inning of games so far this year, upon blowing yet another save, this time against the San Francisco Giants on April 26th, Madson returned to the dugout, where sources say he was rudely, irresponsibly, and vulgarly, verbally abused by a particularly sassy folding chair.

Now being a man of supreme pride, and impressive martial arts abilities, Ryan Madson defended himself by issuing a swift roundhouse kick to said chair.

Unfortunately because of his aggressive self-defense, Madson managed to fracture a toe and now currently resides on the 60-day DL.

But such a small price to pay for reducing a sarcastic chair to mere splinters.

While on the plus side the Phillies have still managed to chug along with a 20-13 record, one can only hope their days of rash decisions and unfortunate injuries are behind them.

But then again, this is baseball, and as long as there are games there will be injuries, and in Ryan Madson’s case, as long as there are chairs, there will be blood. 

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Philadelphia Phillies: Sore Elbows, Folding Chairs, and The Exxon Valdez

Who would have thought that the most indispensable part of the Phillies infield would turn out to be Juan Castro. 

When Jimmy Rollins tweaked his calf muscle in mid-April he was batting .391, with a .516 OBP, and a wOBA of .527. Impressive numbers, ones that he certainly would not have been able to keep up over the course of the season, but clearly he would be very hard to replace.

He was replaced by Juan Castro, who provided solid defense, in addition to at least moderately adequate offensive numbers, batting .258 with a .255 wOBA. 

But when Castro came down with a strained left knee, the Phillies had no choice but to insert Wilson Valdez into the starting lineup. 

Doing his best Exxon Valdez impression, Wilson Valdez has been about as helpful to the Phillies offense as the oil spill was to the Alaskan wildlife. 

Valdez is currently batting .152, but more impressively has somehow managed to ground into five double plays in the last week alone.

It takes a sincere concerted effort to provide such a debilitating presence in a lineup. 

The penguins and seals that had the misfortune of making their habitat off the coast of Alaska in 1989 may have had their ecosystem destroyed by millions of gallons of oil, but at least they didn’t have to deal with rally-killing double plays.

While the injuries to the position players have been irksome, the injuries to the Phillies bullpen are now bordering on the macabre.

Brad Lidge had finally returned from his off-season knee and elbow surgeries, and at least initially seemed to be vaguely resembling the pitcher who saved 48 games in 48 chances in 2008.

This brief tidbit of good news was of course followed by reports that Lidge is yet again feeling tightness in his elbow and has been consulting with team doctors. 

But the Lidge injury cannot even come close to rivaling the unfortunate and cataclysmic event that happened to Ryan Madson. 

Perhaps dismayed with his inability to dominate opposing batters in the 9th inning of games so far this year, upon blowing yet another save, this time against the San Francisco Giants on April 26th, Madson returned to the dugout, where sources say he was rudely, irresponsibly, and vulgarly, verbally abused by a particularly sassy folding chair. 

Now being a man of supreme pride, and impressive martial arts abilities, Ryan Madson defended himself by issuing a swift roundhouse kick to said chair.

Unfortunately because of his aggressive self-defense, Madson managed to fracture a toe and now currently resides on the 60 day DL.

But such a small price to pay for reducing a sarcastic chair to mere splinters.

While on the plus side, the Phillies have still managed to chug along with a 20-13 record, one can only hope their days of rash decisions and unfortunate injuries are behind them.

But then again, this is baseball, and as long as there are games there will be injuries, and in Ryan Madson’s case, as long as there are chairs, there will be blood. 

 

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5 Reasons Roy Halladay Is a Better Fit Than Cliff Lee for the Phillies

Most teams would love the opportunity to choose between two of the best starting pitchers in the major leagues, but for the Phillies this question became an agonizing decision. Who did they want? The dominating Roy Halladay, or their very own post-season hero Cliff Lee? In the end, amid much controversy back in Philadelphia, the Phillies decided to acquire Roy Halladay and send Cliff Lee to Seattle. Here are 5 reasons that they made the right decision.

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The Curious Case of Cole Hamels

When Cole Hamels won the World Series MVP award at the tender age of 24, few doubted that he had a very promising career ahead of him. 

He was the toast of Philadelphia, the unquestioned staff ace, and the heir to Steve “Lefty” Carlton. 

The only problem was that reality intervened, and the last two years have been riddled with speed bumps for the young Hamels.

In 2009 he was plagued by injuries, bad luck, and the occasional verbal gaffe. He went from dominating postseason ace to struggling third starter behind the rejuvenated Pedro Martinez and the cutter-throwing, Southern-talking, easygoing, dyed-in-the-wool season savior, Cliff Lee.

When Lee was traded in the following offseason, the scrutiny of Hamels only grew. 

During the 2010 preseason, the Phillies camp was filled with stories of Hamels’ work ethic. He had improved his arm strength, solidified his curveball, and added a new cutter.

The ace was back.

But so far, the early results from the 2010 season have been inconclusive. 

He has continued to struggle, and Phillies fans have become increasingly restless. 

Hamels’ latest outing, last night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, seems to be a pretty good representation of his young career as a whole.

Through eight innings, Hamels was dealing. 

He had given up only six hits and allowed no runs while striking out eight. But then, in the top of the ninth inning, after an ill-timed distraction by a fan, Hamels allowed two straight doubles to tie the game. 

The effort was solid and looked pretty good on paper, but the end result left you wanting just a little bit more. 

But if you take a closer look, there is little reason to doubt that Hamels will figure it out this season and at the very least remain a very solid No. 2 starter behind Roy Halladay.

Hamels currently has a 4.42 ERA, good for 34th among National League starters.

Now if you see that number alone, you are understandably very worried. 

But if there is one thing that the new era of baseball has taught us, it is that some statistics can be very misleading.

Instead of using ERA to condemn Hamels, we should instead look into exactly why that number is so high.

Expected Fielding Independent Pitching, or xFIP, attempts to quantify only the things that pitcher himself can control. It ignores park factors and defense while accounting for strikeouts and walks. It normalizes a pitcher’s HR/fly ball rate and quantifies this on an ERA scale. 

Hamels’ xFIP is 3.31, good for seventh among National League starters.

Now this does not mean that Cole Hamels is the seventh best pitcher in the NL, but what it does show us is that Hamels has actually pitched quite solidly. His biggest weakness is that the majority of the fly balls he has given up have turned into home runs.

If you look at his Batting Average on Balls in Play, or BABIP, which is an unusually high .356, it shows that Hamels has also been unlucky on ground balls and line drives that have come from his hits allowed.

These two numbers suggest that Hamels has actually pitched much better than his ERA reveals, and that number should decline significantly over the course of the year. 

Factor in his very solid K/9 rate of 10.24, and it is not inconceivable that Hamels could turn out to be one of the best No. 2 starters in MLB this year.

So do not fret, Phillies fans. The numbers show that although the utterly dominating Cole Hamels of the 2008 postseason might not be back, the 2010 version should be more than serviceable. 

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With Ruben Amaro Jr., Are the Philadelphia Phillies Really in Good Hands?

Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is a smart man.

He graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Human Biology and from all accounts has been a fundamental aspect of the Phillies‘ success in recent years. 

Amaro is also a baseball man. 

He played in the major leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, and Toronto Blue Jays. He spent 10 years as assistant general manager to the Phillies under Ed Wade and Pat Gillick and has been the general manager for two years now. 

With Amaro as assistant general manager, the Phillies made the playoffs for the first time in a decade and won the World Series. In his first full year as general manager, the Phillies returned to the World Series. This kind of success generally gives you a small grace period from serious criticism. 

As long as Amaro has held a significant position in the Phillies front office, they have had a great run of success and have made some tremendous decisions. He has worked with Gillick to keep this window of success open for as long as possible, and he should be commended for that. 

But over the past year, Amaro has made some curious decisions that have made me start to question exactly how competent this new regime is.

Has Amaro really been such an asset to the club, or has he been simply enjoying the success of the foundation that was set by former GMs Gillick and Wade and former scouting director Mike Arbuckle?

Let’s take a look.

Amaro’s first decision as general manager was to reward Jamie Moyer with a two-year, $16 million contract extension. 

Now, I am one of Moyer’s strongest supporters. I appreciate everything he has done for the Phillies and throughout his career and the strength of his determination to pitch as long as he can. But most importantly, because of his experience and pitching acumen, I believe Moyer has more influence on the Phillies’ pitching staff than anyone outside of Rich Dubee.

But $8 million a year for a man who will be 47 at the end of this contract?

Moyer got rocked last year, and by the end of the season he was pitching long relief in the bullpen. He has pitched solidly so far this season, but $8 million is still very high, especially considering the Phillies weren’t facing any significant competition for his signature.

Next, Amaro signed Raul Ibanez to a three-year, $31.5 million contract that will keep him on the Phillies until he is 39. 

Ibanez got off to a roaring start last year, putting up almost Albert Pujols-like numbers for the first half of the season. But following the All-Star break, Ibanez slumped miserably and dealt with a debilitating groin injury (probably something similar to the kick to the nuts that he dealt to most National League pitchers early in the year).

Rauuuuuuul (as his name is chanted at Citizens Bank Park) is a fan favorite in Philadelphia and was a significant part of the Phillies’ early-season success last year.

But this contract strikes me as strange for two reasons.

One, it guarantees $10 million a year to a guy who will be 38 this year, an age where most baseball players are long past their prime. 

Two, this contract was signed very early in the offseason, long before the outfielder market was set. Similarly aged outfielders like Bobby Abreu were eventually forced to take fliers on one-year contracts for significantly less money. 

I love Ibanez, but this contract looks like it will be hurting the Phillies next year, especially if it prohibits them from locking up Jayson Werth, a superior and younger player (and former owner of the greatest beard in the National League; I mean seriously, that thing was tremendous).

Midway through the 2009 season, Amaro made his most successful decision yet. He traded prospects Carlos Carrasco, Lou Marson, Jason Donald, and Jason Knapp for Cliff Lee. 

Carrasco just hasn’t been able to put it all together and achieve to the extent of his talent and looks destined for a future role in the bullpen. Marson and Donald appear to be no more than future utility men. The jury is still out on Knapp and will be for a long time. With his talent, he could be the next Josh Johnson, or he could succumb to further injuries and never even make it to the major leagues.

We all know what Lee did last year.

But ultimately, the verdict on Amaro’s entire career as general manager might come down to his subsequent decision to trade Lee to the Seattle Mariners.

Lee had an incredibly affordable $9 million contract and was absolutely beloved in Philadelphia. 

But Amaro decided that Roy Halladay was the pitcher he really wanted, sent more prospects to Toronto to acquire him, and discarded Lee.

The decision to acquire Halladay was a great decision. In my opinion he is the best pitcher in all of baseball, and he signed a very reasonable contract extension to stay in Philadelphia for the next three seasons. 

Don’t even bother trying to argue that Lee is better than Halladay. He’s not.

But Amaro’s polarizing decision was to give up the mouthwatering prospect of a rotation headlined by Halladay-Lee-Cole Hamels in order to restock the farm system. 

I perfectly understand the need to restock the farm system, but it seems like Amaro could have just as easily waited for interest in Lee to rise and then exchanged him for a stronger collection of prospects. 

I like the potential of the group that they acquired. Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and J.C. Ramirez all have the potential to be productive major league players, but I think the Phillies got shortchanged here.

This season, Amaro signed Ryan Howard to a monster five-year, $125 million contract extension. 

I analyzed that decision in full detail in an article yesterday, but simply put, this extension is for too much money and for too many years, and the timing of the extension was strange at best. 

When you put it all together, it makes a curious portfolio. 

Ruben Amaro Jr. has made some great little signings—classic Pat Gillick signings for unheralded players like Juan Castro and Jose Contreras that provide the Phillies with great organizational depth. Pedro Martinez was a vital part of the Phillies’ postseason success.

He has made some fantastic trades, acquiring two of the best pitchers in the game within two seasons.

But on the big signings, the most important decisions, it seems like Amaro has made some foolish mistakes.

He hasn’t made any horrific decisions yet, the ones that cripple organizations for years (though many will argue that the Howard contract will do just that), but when it comes down to it, it makes you wonder…

Are the Phillies really in good hands after all?

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The Ryan Howard Contract Extension: Feast or Famine For The Phillies?

On Monday, the Philadelphia Phillies announced that they had signed first basemen Ryan Howard to a $125 million, five-year contract extension. The deal includes a sixth year club option, that could potentially keep him in Philadelphia until 2017. 

Ryan Howard will be paid $20 million in 2012 and 2013, $25 million from 2014 to 2016, and the club option is for $23 million with a $10 million buyout. 

That, my friends, is a lot of money.

Immediately after this deal was released, fans, pundits, analysts, scouts, and statisticians took to the web, and took to the airwaves to dissect this deal. 

The response was both incredibly passionate and incredibly polarized. 

As usual in baseball, the key difference in opinion seemed to be between scouts and sabermetricians.

This dynamic in baseball has been overplayed and stereotyped since the publishing of Moneyball, but the Ryan Howard deal seems to have brought the argument volume to full pitch (pardon the pun).

Casual fans and old-school baseball people love this deal. 

The deal keeps Ryan Howard in a Phillies uniform for years to come. It keeps his powerful bat in the heart of the Phillies lineup and it keeps Ryan Howard in Philadelphia where he is beloved and is a significant part of the community. 

Statisticians and sabermetric analysts hate this deal. 

The Phillies wildly overpaid an overrated baseball player. Not only that, but they are giving a significant raise to a player whose skill-set will drastically decline throughout the remainder of the deal. 

Now, in full disclosure, I am not a statistician. I took an Statistics In Economics course my freshman year of college, with a teacher who showed almost no signs of life unless he was regaling you with the story of his first visit to Carnegie Hall.

Nor am I a baseball scout. In fact, I have never even played competitive baseball.

But I am a devoted follower of the Philadelphia Phillies, have done my research, and fancy myself knowledgeable of the MLB.

From this, I have concluded that a true verdict of this contract lies somewhere between those two poles.

Here’s why.

Ryan Howard is a great baseball player. He is not the best player on the team, that honor belongs to Chase Utley. Nor is he the teams flashiest player, that honor(?) belongs to Jimmy Rollins. 

But he is a very good player.

He has hit over 40 home runs and batted in over 130 runs every year since 2006. He has been a valuable component of the Phillies post-season qualification in 2007, their World Series victory in 2008, and their National League pennant in 2009.

Sure, he strikes a lot, but their are only a few teams in the MLB that would not be happy with Ryan Howard as their first basemen. 

But Ryan Howard has his flaws.

Ryan Howard strikes out with great frequency (he led the league with 199 strikeouts in 2007 and has topped 180 every year since 2006). 

Ryan Howard does not a play a premium defensive position, and he does not seem to play that position very well. 

Hard hitting baseball bashers that strike out a lot and play poor defense are very common in baseball, but they are rarely regarded as premium players. 

Ryan Howard is a very good baseball player that is now earning an elite baseball salary. 

Over the course of his contract, Howard’s guaranteed salary per year will be more than any other baseball player except for Alex Rodriguez. 

This is where the extension begins to look foolish. 

In my opinion, one of the most important sabermetric hitting statistics is Weighted On Base Average. Weighted On Base Average provides a weighted combination of On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage. Essentially it measures a players ability to get on base and create runs.

In 2009, Ryan Howard’s wOBA was .393, good enough for 10th in the MLB among first basemen. 

UZR is a statistic that attempts to show the value that a player has defensively.

In 2009, Ryan Howard’s UZR was 2.0, good enough for 8th in the MLB among first basemen. Interestingly enough, defense is the only quality where advanced statistics prove Howard to be more valuable than the common perception. 

Although this is only a very basic overview of Howard’s statistical value, it gives the notion that Howard is merely a pretty good first basemen. 

But you cannot judge this contract solely on a statistical basis. 

Ryan Howard has provided rare talent since he graduated to the big leagues. He has hit a ton of home runs, a ton of RBI’s and played pretty good defense. 

He may struggle against left-handed pitching, continue to flail away at breaking balls, and strike out too often, but more importantly he has been more than willing to address these flaws.

Over the past two years, he has lost over 30 pounds in order to increase his agility and improve his defense, which he has. 

He has shifted his stance, shortened his swing, and is working on improving his pitch identification. 

He has done everything that Phillies have asked of him, and more, while managing to thrive in one of the nations toughest sports towns. 

He has been a fundamental aspect of the Phillies organizational renaissance on the baseball diamond and off. He brings fans to the seats and sells merchandise. 

He has allowed the Phillies to begin acting like the big-market organization that they have always had the potential to be.

It is precisely this organizational growth that is reflected in this contract.

This is a classic big-market oversigning, the kind of signing you see from the Yankees.

These signings are not always a bad thing however.

Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texeira were two incredibly important parts of the Yankee’s World Series victory last year, and will continue to be productive players for years to come. But do you really think  that Rodriguez and Texeira will be performing up to the $20 and $21 million they will be earning in the last year of their contracts, when they are ages 42 and 37, respectively?

Most likely, no.

Ryan Howard has helped turn the Phillies into the type of organization that can make these deals.

Small market teams have to operate in the way that is most economically efficient in the long term, all the time.

Big market teams can overspend in the future to get the most that they can in the present.

This contract is not a tremendous bargain for the Phillies, but I do not think that it will be the type of contract that cripples a franchise.

The Phillies were right to give Howard a contract that locks him up for what is left of his prime.

Just not for this amount of money, or this many years.  

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Philadelphia Phillies Already Bitten By Injury Bug

Seven games into the 2010 MLB season, we already know a few things about the Philadelphia Phillies.

Roy Halladay is good.

Chase Utley is the man (as Harry Kalas so eloquently and correctly stated, may he rest in peace).

Cole Hamels is…well scratch that, I don’t think even Cole himself could tell you what is up with him at this point.

And we also know that no season ever goes on without a hitch.

Only seven games into the 2010 MLB season and the Phillies have already been bitten by the dreaded injury bug.

They began the season with Joe Blanton, J.C. Romero, and Brad Lidge already on the disabled list. For those of you keeping track at home, that would be their third starter, late-inning lefty specialist reliever, and closer (can we even still call him that?).

And although it has not been confirmed yet, it is looking increasingly likely that you can now add a shortstop, leadoff hitter, and sparkplug, Jimmy Rollins, to that list.

Only seven games in and that list of walking wounded is already adding up pretty fast.

If Jimmy Rollins is the latest casualty, this will be a particularly harsh blow for the Phillies.

Jimmy Rollins is the leadoff hitter and the engine of the Phillies high-priced muscle car of an offense.

When Rollins is slapping triples, getting on base, and stealing bases, it adds an entire new dimension to the lineup filled with sluggers such as Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth.

What is worse is that Rollins had been doing these things particularly well so far this season. He has even been taking walks, which to anyone who has watched him throughout his career, is particularly surprising (in a good way).

To add insult to injury, Rollins has been diagnosed with a calf injury. For those that are unfamiliar with calf injuries, they share a certain quality with that weird in-law that your family always seems to invite over.

They linger.

Although the Phillies offense has been dominating the opposition so far (albeit the very, very weak opposition of the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals) a lingering calf injury to Rollins could be just the screw that could derail this train.

If Rollins is out for an extended period of time, its looks like the task of replacing him will fall to Juan Castro. Castro is not the equal of Jimmy, either with the glove or the bat, but the Phillies could certainly do a lot worse. But losing Rollins not only makes the top of the lineup weaker, it also makes the bottom of the lineup weaker, by having to move Shane Victorino up, and slotting in Castro.

This makeshift lineup could certainly hold up for a time without completely handicapping the Phillies but I think all Phils Phans are in agreement in hoping that Rollins can come back quickly and healthy, and return to his dynamic self.

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MLB Fan Support Running Rampant: Is It a Problem?

As a displaced Philadelphian, currently living in DC, I was relishing the chance to attend my first Phillies game of the 2010 season.

Yesterday afternoon, I met up with a few friends, and headed over to Nationals Park to watch the Phillies take on the Nationals.

The weather was pleasant and Nationals Park is beautiful. I certainly enjoyed myself, but throughout the game, I could not help but notice something—this did not feel like an “away” game.

The ballpark was sparsely populated and the Phillies fans clearly outnumbered their DC counterparts.

The “Let’s Go Phillies!” chants could be heard throughout the game, the Nationals’ starting lineup were audibly booed, and the Nationals pitchers were mercilessly heckled each time they had the audacity throw to first to keep a baserunner on.

I noticed that this has started to become a trend in Major League Baseball.

For years the members of Red Sox Nation have traveled far and wide to outnumber local fans at their own parks, even turning Baltimore’s Camden Yards into Fenway South for a few games a year.

This trend is far from being solely a Boston phenomenon though.

Fans from the baseball powerhouses of Boston and New York have been traveling for years, often overwhelming the local fans of their less fortunate opponents, such as the eternally miserable Kansas City Royals.

Even the recently successful teams like the Tampa Bay Rays have trouble asserting their majority when the Sox or Yankees come to town.

Nor is this strictly an American League occurrence.

On any given day you are likely to find more Phillies fans in Nationals Park, more Cubs fans in PNC Park, or more Dodgers fans at Chase Field.

Now, I know that this is purely a result of some teams being more popular than others, as is the case in all other sports in all other countries.

But my question is whether or not this is detrimental to the game.

Last week the Washington Post had published numerous articles highlighting the immense diaspora of Philadelphians who have almost overwhelmed the city and turned Nationals Park into hostile territory.

These articles, all of which portray the Phillies fans in a negative light, highlight occurrences where these Philadelphian transplants have made the game generally unsavory for the locals.

While this criticism may have more to do with the opposing fans’ actions and behavior, more so than their general presence, the animosity is still there.

I know there is no way to make all the teams equally popular, nor should this be the case. Teams are rewarded for their good decisions with success and popularity.

Baseball is a meritocracy and should remain that way.

I only wonder if there is a way for this popularity to come without the detrimental effects to local fans.

When it comes down to it though, I believe that this is not baseball’s problem, nor is it the individual team’s problem. Instead it comes down to the individual.

As baseball fans we should be able to support our team with all the passion and fervor that we can muster but we should also know when this passion has gone too far.

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Cole Hamels Struggles, but Phillies Win Behind Potent Offense

This was not the debut that Cole Hamels had been hoping for. From all the hype of his spring training progress you half-expected him to go out and throw a no-hitter, and since it was against the lowly Washington Nationals, it might as well have made it a perfect game. 

Instead, Hamels labored through 5 innings. He gave up 5 hits, walked 4, and allowed 2 earned runs. It did not look pretty, but he was effective enough, and most importantly he didn’t allow the “big inning” that plagued him during his 2009 campaign. 

Phillies fans may be accused of demanding perfection, but with this teams offense, it seems like a lot less will suffice. 

The Phillies hitters were once again unleashed upon the Nationals and they punished starter Jason Marquis to the tune of 8 hits, 3 walks, and 6 earned runs through only 4 innings. 

They did it with power, but more impressively, they did it with patience. 

Although it is only two games, I have to say I have been very excited with the Phillies’ patience at the plate. It seems as if Placido Polanco’s grinder strategy has rubbed off on the rest of the lineup, who have occasionally been known to swing freely.

I have been particularly impressed with Jimmy Rollins. After last season’s miserable start, he simply seems more comfortable at the plate. He has not been swinging at as many first pitches, instead opting to wait for that right one that he can slap through the gap or drive down the line. No one will ever accuse Jimmy of being Kevin Youkilis, but if he can improve his on-base percentage the Phillies lineup will be even more of a force. 

All in all it was another effective performance by the Phils. Hamels didn’t mirror Halladay’s masterful Monday performance and the offense didn’t completely blow out the Nationals pitching staff (although they came pretty close), but a win is a win and over the course of a 162-game season, even the early, seemingly mundane games, can come back to matter.

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