surprise surprise

i am honestly surprised. pat burrell is doing well so far. i'm glad, it's like he gives a damn. he's making some plays in the field, i liked the diving catch he made the other day. it looks like he's swinging more at that inside pitch. his obp is at .500 he's got the second most rbi's he's one of two hitters hitting over .300. things are looking up for the patmeister. he keeps playing like this and he might actually get some cheers instead of boos.
i'm also glad that jimmy rollins is doing well to start. he's hitting like a maniac. he's leading the team in hr, slugging percentage, rbis, and runs scored. did you see him hit that inside the park homerun against the marlins? that was incredible. he is playing his ass off. really, he kind of has to after his preseason predictions.
i realize it's only six games in. pat the bat was a bit of a question mark and i really hope he keeps it up. if jimmy rollins keeps hitting like this, they may have to move him out of the lead off spot.
you know what i am also surprised about? alfonseca. i was really not sure if he was going to be effective or not. right now he seems like their go to guy. you know who's also pitching his ass off? clay condrey. he really doesn't want to go up to ottowa. can't say i blame him. homer simpson had it right when he called canada "america junior". he almost tied the record for consecutive strikeouts by a phillies reliever. he keeps that up, we may have found our elusive setupman/closer.
it's really a shame that we only have two batters with averages over .300. it's a potent offense on paper, but i'm sure i say that every year. hey look at that, speaking of pitching his ass/arm off. cole the pole just struck out two in the first inning.

that's all folks

Looks like Urbina is NOT coming back to baseball anytime soon. 14 years to be exact. He was sentenced today to 14 years in jail for attacking workers on his ranch with a machete then setting them on fire.
The phillies will have to look elsewhere for bullpen help. It seems to be their achillies heel this year. I still think they should have held on to aaron fultz. I guess he was asking for too much money or something. Hopefully they can trade either leiber or rowand for something. The cubs are short a starter aren't they murph? Don't they have something they could trade in their bp?
Anyway, we'll wait to see what happens, i wouldn't be the least bit surprised if nothing happens between now and the end of april tradewise.

Welcome to Philadelphia Sports!

This is how it is in Philadelphia. Leiber is finally told he will goto the bullpen, which everyone in Philly knew anyway because he's the one who is being dangled in trades, so on the day it's made official, Garcia doesn't last an inning before going down hurt. Phillies fans, be ready for a long season. That ends in a playoff berth.... somehow

cause for alarm?

the phillies are 7-13 in spring training. is this reason for concern? maybe, the phillies have said that they want to start the season strong. the last number of years the phillies have played like crap in april. this has been typically blamed for the phillies not making wildcard for at least the past two years. while spring training doesn't really count for much, i think it might give a little indication of what we have to expect in the early season. 7-13. doesn't look so pretty and i sincerly hope that the phils don't go 7-13 in their first 20 games of the season. to be fair, a lot of the starters didn't neccesarily play as much this spring as they will in april. but neither did the starters on the other teams. hopefully the phillies can start the season like they started the second half of last year, they had the best record in baseball for the second half of last season. they played so poorly in the first half, that even the best record for the second half couldn't get them in for the wildcard. our starting pitching is certainly improved. our catching situation i think is better. barajas should be better than lieberthal was last year, it's a shame though, that they didn't at least try to go with coste. our outfield is more or less the same. our infield however i think is going to be better this year than last year. now to the bullpen. right now how it looks, we have gordon, madson, geary, alfonseca, castro, brito, condrey, and smith. compare that to last year at this time and i think it is better. we have madson back in the pen full time without a shitty curveball. the phils aren't going to use flash as often so his arm won't fall off in late august. geary is the same, solid middle reliever/possibly setup man. alfonseca is a huge question mark, but the phils aren't paying him much so not a huge gamble. castro was way under the radar last year, he had an era under three. i understand that he wasn't put into any high pressure situations, but he still faced major league batters. brito may or may not make the cut, he might be replaced by bisenius or segovia either way, that spot isn't that bad. we know what to expect from condrey he was in the pen last year. and lastly we have matt smith. if his performance last year is any indication of what he can do, he is a much better lefty specialist than rheal. so i think that despite what bald prick says the phils bp is not that bad off. i did however just read and something saying that robinson tejeda is throwing in the upper 90s like 97. possible we wanted to hang onto him i think. but he did come out of the farm system i believe. all in all, i'm not sure if the 7-13 record is an issue or not. it is spring training, but i can't help but be concerned that a team that hasn't performed well in april for quite some time isn't going to again this year. which means catchup ball until the all-star break. again. well i'll never stop believing that this is the year.

beer o' meter = 0

Its Beginning to Look alot like Last Year...

Remember how excited we all were when Pat Gillick brought Freddy Garia to the Phils in december? I remember. I remember thinkining: Finally, a GM whose decied to address pitching! Hell, we have one of the best rotations in the NL. We can beat the mets right?

Well unfortunatley, my high is gone. Pat Gillick obviously decided that getting Freddy Garcia was all that had to be done. Oh I'm sorry, i forgot about all the washups we signed. And the 900K slap in the face to howard.

Right now our setup man is a guy whose best stuff dried up three years ago(alfonseca), we have an aging closer with a bum shoulder(gordon), a guy whose never proven to have the CONSISTENT control neccessary to be a good pitcher(madson), a very solid, but mediocre LRP(Geary), and a bunch of kids who still need 2-3 years to even know if they got anything or not-and only one of them(castro) looks like he'll ever be anything special. Thats not addressing the bullpen

Raise your hand if you would have rather taken a chance on Dustin Hermanson(A 40 save closer for WS Champion) or Joe Borowski( a guy who had 38 saves last season) who both have only given up four hits through ST so far over fucking Alfonso Aflonseca and Jim Ed Warden? If your hand isn't raised its because just like Pat Gillick, its jammed squarely up your ass!

Now i understand that theres only so much that can be done via Free Agency-with that in mind, the blame must rest on the farm system. Yes, we have produced Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Something is obviously going right. What is going wrong is the pitching development. Who is the last phillies pitching product besides Cole Hamels, who has been anything even remotely decent. Floyd was a bust, little did we know he was such a freaking headcase who couldn't seem to figure out "If i have a 97mph fastball, i shouldn't pitch it down the middle".

If the phillies spend one more cent this year, it should be on scouts and coaches. Wheres our Chad Cordero? Wheres' our Benitez? For as long as I can remember, our biggest deficency has been pitching and yet, we don't focus on developing players to address our number one problem. Christ, if we had pitching, we could have gone somewhere in 03, or 04, or 05, or 06, or you get the picture.


So please, Pat, get Montgomery and Giles to see the light. A couple of 100,000's could get us some great pitching coaches and development specialists. Let's do it.

Phillies winning 90+

WAYS THE PHILLIES WIN 90
Pat Burrell learns to hit the outside curveball
Pat the Bat learns not to cower like a biatcha on an inside fastball
Brett Meyers wife doesn't overcook the steak again
Jimmy Rollins doesn't swing for the fences OR
Jimmy Rollins doesn't lead off anymore
Our relievers understand they're relieving a ballgame, not just giving the guy a break and pitching batting practice
Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are on the team and uninjured (nagging injuries are just as bad)
Our over the hill pitchers pull a Jack and Jill and slide back a few years
Cole's "goosebumps" aren't from the KY being to cold (he looks like a pansy in those commercials, not the most imposing figure as of now)
Our 3rd baseman has half as many errors as Da-Bell's 20+
Shane Victorino plays like a starter, does not regress to bench status
Aaron Rowand hits the padding on the walls
Flash's fastball actually sets up his breaking ball by being fast again
They play in the NL
Utley and Howard are on the team
What did I miss?
Playoffs baby, playoffs

the state of the phillies

i think that the phillies are legit this year. i predict 92 wins, it will be a tight race with the mets, and the phils will prolly get the wildcard if they don't get the division. the mets starting pitching is suspect, but it was last year and you can see where that got them. the only team in the nl that will be a problem in the wildcard race might be the dodgers. andywho, the phils upgraded their starters. last year at this time, they had lieber and myers at the top, then lidle madson and floyd. this year, still lieber and myers, but followed by cole hamels, who had a good year last year, freddy garcia, who had a good year last year, jamie moyer and adam eaton. which is a huge improvement. moyer is a work horse and will be a reliable guy. eaton and lieber are question marks. as it looks now, one of the two is going to the bullpen. eaton has some good stuff but is injury prone, and lieber is in a contract year. you can't have too much starting pitching. i think the phillies are hoping that someone will need a starter close to the start of the season that is willing to give up a good reliever. fat chance i think, looks like lieber or eaton is going to the bp. i think it should be eaton, lieber would be terrible in the bp, but eaton does take an inning or two to get going. so in reality it's a toss-up. i'm starting to like the looks of the bullpen, i think it needs some help, but all-in-all it doesn't look that hopeless. flash geary and madson are all solid pitchers. i did like matt smith's performance last season and i like him as the lefty specialist. he will most likely make the bp. they will also go with alfonseca. i believe that leaves 2 spots left. i really like fabio castro, he had some good numbers last year. they are a little deceptive though, he didn't pitch in any pressure situations and was only on the staff because he was a rule 5 draftee. the phillies have to decide if they would rather have him be a reliever in philly or a starter in AAA. i also like brito, he pitched for the first time this spring on sunday. he retired all three batters he faced, it looked really good concidering that he was in an automobile accident in late december and was unable to lift a spoon to eat for the first three weeks. there are some other pitchers that are making a bit of a splash, germano, happ and bisenius are showing that they might have some major league stuff, however they will most likely not play in the big leagues until september. but they are certainly worth watching nonetheless. that's about it for phils pitching right now. keep in mind that it's still spring training and that means almost nothing for pitchers. or almost any other player for that matter. the only other thing to discuss with the phils is the remaining two bench spots. werth and helms have guaranteed spots on the roster and with dobbs and garcia doing well and the aquisition of ruiz in the off season, a spot on the phils bench is look bleak for chris coste. that is really a shame, he had quite the cinderella story for 2006. he was on the 25 man roster up until the night before opening day in 06 until the signing of delucci on the eve of the opening game. he was then later called up and caught most of the games towards the end of the season when fasano was released and lieberthal was hurt. i really like coste. he hit over .300 last season and is a good catcher. however, his chances are slim with the garcia and dobbs doing well. one is a left hander, which they want on the bench, and the other is just flat out doing better. at the very least, we will see him in september. it really is a shame after what he was able to do for the phillies last year, but the phillies are gearing up to win this season, i think. i would not be surprised if you see the phillies in the world series. we have the best infield offensively, most likely the best starting rotation in the nl, and i think burrell will have a good season so the phils are going all the way, well at least to the world series, the al looks better than the nl again this year so yankees/red sox/detroit/white sox against the phils in the world series is going to be tought. just to reiterate, the phils 92 wins, close race for the division, guaranteed post season spot with the wild card at the least. the dodgers threaten a little bit, but i don't think that more than one team in the nl central will get close to 90 wins and the nl west is a joke other than the padres. the dodgers could do something, but if lieberthal plays more than 45 games, they are in trouble. anyway i think that is it for the phils in the time being. let me know what you think.

btw beer o' meter = 8 just fyi.