Well, myers looked reall good. 9 k's! Thats pretty exciting.
Whats up with Utley hitting cleanup? Why? Why? Why? No, he hits third, and howard bats fourth. Simply because of the fact that we don't really want Pat having to hit behind Howard when he gets walked....so what. You had a whole offseason to address that problem and the best we could get is Wes Helms.
Once again the phils proved that in 14 years they still can't:
1) Produce Runs. We had 11 hits over the game and only 3 runs. Compare that to the braves today who only had 9 hits and 5 runs...
2) Have a bullpen who can win a game for a guy who goes 7 innings and only gives up 3
In all fairness had we gotten number 1 done, we would have one the game. The bullpen was good. Madson just blew it in the 10th(What a suprise).
Oh well, first game...
4 comments:
i think the idea of switching utley and howard is a good idea for a couple reasons.
first, utley has good baserunning/stealing skills. with howard batting behind him, he has less chance to steal.
second, both burrell and howard are prone to strikeouts, so putting utley in between the two really breaks that up.
third, this guarantees howard batting in the first inning and definately gets him more at bats.
fourth, until burrell learns to hit that inside pitch, he is not a reason to not pitch around howard.
I hate this howard/utley/burrell thing. Check it: Our lineup now goes switch-switch-lefty-lefty-righty-righty-righty-righty-pitcher. That's really dumb. It's well-established that lineup construction isn't a big deal as Bill Conlin would have you believe, but, I mean, if you have three good hitters in the middle of your lineup, why WOULDN'T you break them up L/R/L?
Plus, Bolger, "both burrell and howard are prone to strikeouts, so putting utley in between the two really breaks that up"? Burrell's 2006 strikeout total: 131. Utley's 2006 striekout total: 132.
"Once again the phils proved that in 14 years they still can't:
1) Produce Runs. We had 11 hits over the game and only 3 runs. Compare that to the braves today who only had 9 hits and 5 runs..."
Wow, talk about a small sample size. Last year the Phils led the league in runs scored, in '05 they were 2nd and in '04 they were 3rd. (And if you think that's all because of park effects, they finished 3rd, 2nd and 2nd in runs scored on the road in '06, '05 and '04, respectively.) Ability to score runs has not been this team's problem for quite some time.
Facts, guys! They are your friends.
hey i never had a problem with them producing runs. they are great at that. my earlier comment was what phillies.com said about the switch.
i didn't look at the number of strike outs that those guys had, i was just providing what i thought was the phillies thinking behind it.
i will however point out that the two point i agree with them on are:
first and formost, utley is better protection for howard than burrell or helms. hands down. the second i sort of see the point, utley's base stealing potential. he might be able to steal more bases without howard behind him. that's a little of a stretch i guess.
i guess i should have clarified my earlier comment with this is what the phillies are thinking. anywho, i blame this loss on the management first, tom gordon second, shane victorino third(contigent upon the idea to steal third was his own), and ryan madson fourth.
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