Philadelphia Phillies: Will They Try To Acquire Aaron Rowand Again?

Andrew Carpenter has been waived by the Philadelphia Phillies and was claimed by the San Diego Padres. This means that the Phillies now have an open spot on the 40-man roster and Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly speculates that spot might soon belong to Aaron Rowand.

Rowand was recently waived by the San Francisco Giants, so the Phillies could grab him for the rest of the season. He would provide some support off the bench as he is batting .286 against left-handed pitchers. Since this has been a weakness for the Phillies, this move does make sense.

Overall, Rowand is batting .233 with four home runs and 24 RBI.

He is remembered best in Philadelphia for going all out every time he played, even though it did lead to some less than desirable results occasionally. He was loved in Philadelphia, so this could be a very popular move with the fans.

The downside to this acquisition would be that Rowand would not be eligible for postseason play. Nevertheless, he might be worth acquiring for a month.

This season, Carpenter appeared in six games for the Phillies and posted a 7.71 ERA. He had a 1.821 WHIP which translates to 12.5 hits per nine innings and 3.9 walks per nine innings—definitely not stellar numbers in the major leagues.

However, he was dominating in AAA Lehigh Valley. In 34 appearances there he went 5-1 with a 1.79 ERA. He also barely allowed any base runners as shown by his 0.978 WHIP.

The other reason for opening up this roster spot could possibly be to prepare for the return of Joe Blanton from the DL. Nevertheless, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said, “We needed some roster space–just in case.”

Amaro’s quote seems to imply that something unexpected and could happen, so the return of Blanton has been anticipated. We will just have to wait and see what will happen for the Phillies.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Breaking Down the Matchups in September

The Philadelphia Phillies have the best record in baseball at 85-46, and they have a very difficult schedule from here on out. While they do get to play a few games against teams in the lower half of the National League, they will also be taking on some pretty stiff competition.

Let’s take a look at every team the Phillies will play for the rest of the season and see how they match up.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Is Cole Hamels a Cy Young Contender?

The Philadelphia Phillies finally returned to the field last night to defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2. The victory was especially sweet because starting pitcher Cole Hamels returned from the DL.

Although he received a no-decision, he went six innings, allowing two hits and one run and striking out seven.

This outing only served to strengthen his bid for the Cy Young Award. He still probably remains somewhat behind teammate Roy Halladay and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw. Nevertheless, he has been having an amazing season so far, and with a very strong September, he could contend for the award.

Hamels is 13-7 this season. His ERA and WHIP have both dropped as a result of his start last night to 2.58 and 0.97, respectively. Opponents are only batting .211 against him. He is also averaging 8.19 strikeouts per nine innings.

In terms of sabermetrics, his 5.3 wins-above-replacement rating is indeed third among National League pitchers behind Halladay (6.9) and Kershaw (5.8), according to FanGraphs.

As the only homegrown ace the Phillies have in the rotation right now (although Vance Worley is making a case to join the aces), he has shown that the Phillies can develop pitchers as well as trade for them.

He has also shown that September is traditionally his best month over the past three seasons, were his ERA is 0.7 runs below his season statistic at that time.

With a strong September, perhaps he can make some noise and gain ground on Halladay and Kershaw in the Cy Young race. However, he does have quite a bit of ground to make up.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Key Players for Phils Down the Stretch

The Philadelphia Phillies play 33 games in 31 days as the season winds down.

This is too much baseball to rely on just one or two hot players. Players are going to need a day off, and other players will need to pick up the missing production. Every athlete on this team will surely get an opportunity to contribute something during the final push.

Nevertheless, some players will surely contribute more than others. Here are five key players that the Phillies will need to perform at their best throughout September.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Taking a Look at the Full End-of-Season Schedule

The Philadelphia Phillies only have 33 games left in the season. However, thanks to Hurricane Irene, all of these games will be played in 31 days. That will definitely test their durability.

Let’s take a look at where they will play and who they will play.

They will have one or two games every day for the rest of the season. This might not be so bad if every game was in Philadelphia. Of course, they will be traveling quite a bit over the next month. Of their 10 remaining series, six of them will be on the road.

Perhaps fortunately, half of these road trips are in the National League East, which will reduce travel time a little bit. Also, the Phillies do have the best road record in the National League at 37-24. Obviously, though, there will still be a lot of time in the air.

Again, the Phillies have 33 games left. 18 of these games are against teams with records at or above .500 (currently, the Phillies have four games with the Cincinnati Reds who are 66-66). They play the Milwaukee Brewers four times and the Atlanta Braves six times. Milwaukee has the second best record in the National League and Atlanta is third best. Of course, the Phillies do have the best record in baseball right now. However, if this was the NCAA, the strength of schedule is pretty high for this month.

Finally, they do have a 10 game homestand in the middle of September, but they have to play a pair of doubleheaders during this stretch. That essentially means that they will play 10 games in eight days. This could have implications on their starting rotation and require some spot starts from Kyle Kendrick or some September call up. If they do not utilize another starting pitcher, some of their regular rotation will be throwing on four days rest twice. This is definitely less than ideal.

They are going to play just over a fifth of the season in this one month. I guess that could be called busy.

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Roy Oswalt Retirement More Likely After Rough Start for Philadelphia Phillies?

Roy Oswalt followed perhaps his best start of the season against the Washington Nationals with one of his worst in a 6-5 home loss to the Florida Marlins on Friday night, giving up six runs on 12 hits in 5.2 innings before leaving to a chorus of boos.

There has been talk all season as to whether or not the 33-year-old right-hander will be able to pitch another season in Philadelphia, with Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com saying Oswalt “has hinted about retirement after the season.” Is this move becoming more and more probable?

Unfortunately, outside of that gem against the lowly Nationals last week in which he pitched eight shutout innings, he has allowed at least three runs in each of his other starts since June 7.

This number is slightly inflated, however, because he did not pitch at all in July thanks to back inflammation. Therefore, to put it more into perspective, he has allowed three or more runs in seven of his last eight starts.

That injury is also worth mentioning because of what Oswalt said back in June:

You throw as long as you can and when you can’t throw anymore you don’t. Hopefully it’s not to the point where I can’t throw anymore. If it’s at that point, you just have to accept it.

I also agree that I hope he is not at that point. However, he seems to be sinking into a trend of allowing more runs than he normally does in roughly the same amount of innings.

The Phillies have the option to buy him out for $2 million at the end of the season or pay him $16 million next year. It seems unlikely that the Phillies would pay that much for the injury-prone pitcher.

It will be interesting to see how this season finishes out for him.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Can the Atlanta Braves Catch Them in the NL East?

Philadelphia Phillies fans largely believe that first place is all but wrapped up. They have a six-game lead with just over a month left in the season. The Phillies have the best record in baseball. Why bother worrying?

The Atlanta Braves are the reason why. Even though they are six games behind the Phillies in the division, they have the second-best record in the entire National League. They are on a hot streak right now as they have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games. They obviously have a lot of talent, yet Phillies fans don’t seem overly concerned.

However, should they be? Let’s take a look.

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Roy Halladay vs. Clayton Kershaw: Sizing Up the NL Cy Young Front-Runners

The Cy Young picture is coming into focus in the National League.

Everybody is zooming in on the Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw.

However, they are different pitchers. East Coast versus West Coast, righty versus lefty—but both are dominant.

Let’s take a look at the so-called tale of the tape and compare these two aces.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Bad Moves We’re Glad the Phillies Didn’t Make

Hindsight is supposedly 20/20. However, luckily for Philadelphia Phillies fans, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of regret regarding the trade deadline.

The blockbuster trade involving Hunter Pence was enough to make quite a few people happy. Some people say the price was too high, but that is not what this article is about.

The Phillies always have a lot of rumors swirling around. There were a lot of moves that the Phillies could have potentially made.

However, here are the 10 moves that the Phillies would have regretted if they had swung them.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Reasons the Phils Are the NL Favorites

The Philadelphia Phillies are apparently the favorites to win the National League this season. The betting odds according to Belmont have the Phillies on top of the National League.

Why is this?

The obvious answer is that the Phillies are the first team to 80 wins and have a 7.5-game lead in the division.

However, here are five more reasons on top of this one relatively obvious statistic as to why the Phillies are the favorites to win the National League.

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