2010 Jimmy Rollins, We Hardly Knew Ye Redux

For the first time since the home opener introductions on April 12, the Phillies were back to their regular lineup in its regular order. Cole Hamels was once again pitching, and all looked right for the Phillies entering interleague play against a struggling Red Sox. I got home in the middle of another nerve wracking 9th inning, just in time to see J.C. Romero walk Adrian Beltre to load the bases with David Ortiz on deck as a pinch hitter. It's a wonderful thing that David Ortiz is no longer the feared slugger he once was, otherwise the ball he hit to straightaway centerfield would have easily been a grand slam that tied the game at 5-5. Instead, Shane Victorino caught the ball to end the game. All seemed good for the Phillies to me, until I read the first recap. Then I discovered that Jimmy Rollins had strained his right calf. Again.

Rollins left in the 6th with a re-strained right calf.

(Photo courtesy of Steven M. Falk/Philly.com staff photographer)

Before I get to the latest in the injury problems for the 2010 Phillies, let's rewind a bit. Where I last left you, Roy Halladay had thrown a complete game loss to the Pirates last Tuesday. This followed a big outing by Kyle Kendrick and the offense on Monday, which saw Kendrick pitch eight innings and the offense score 12 runs to destroy the Pirates 12-2. This followed the weekend sweep of the Brewers, who looked every bit the 2nd to last place team that they currently are. Coming off that and the big win on Monday, Halladay's CG loss took the wind of out the Phillies sails going into a two games series against the Cubs.

The first of those games was another tough loss that saw another wasted effort by Jamie Moyer, who pitched seven innings and gave up only two runs. At this point, I have to say that Moyer, who was demoted to the bullpen last year and had three offseason surgeris, is the frontrunner for comeback player of the year. Hopefully he continues his ageless success. Still, the Phillies only managed one run and lost 4-1.

Thursday afternoon, they managed to score four runs on the long ball, with Chase Utley effortlessly hitting a baseball into the right field seats in the 1st and Jimmy Rollins coming up with a clutch three run homer to break the 1-1 ball game in the 6th. However, Joe Blanton, who mostly mowed down the Cubs through the first six innings, gave up two more runs in the 7th and the game was tied 4-4 on a homer given up by Antonio Bastardo in the 8th. Ibanez came through with a clutch single to make it 5-4, and Jose Contreras had an epic save that followed a hit batsman, a single, two strikeouts, and a pop out. Whew.

Now we can talk about last night, the kickoff bash of 2010 interleague play. The Red Sox came to Philadelphia hoping to continue their hot streak at Citizens Bank Park of recent years, and ran into the wall of Cole Hamels, who had looked an awful lot like the 2008 Cole Hamels in his last four starts. He pitched seven innings, gave up one run, and struck out eight. The offense was keyed by homers Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, the latter of whom continues to show why the Phillies should pay him lots of money for many years. Between those long balls and Hamels' ace-like performance, the Phillies won 5-1 after the bullpen gave fans a few heart palpitations for good measure.

 Cole Hamels, apparently possessed by some sort of demon

(Photo courtesy of Stephen M. Falk/Philly.com staff photographer)

The hitch in the game was the aforementioned re-injury to Jimmy Rollins in the 6th. This was his first game back in the leadoff spot, and probably his last for a few days at the very least. He's saying all the right things and swears that it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time he strained it. For now, he'll most likely rest tonight and tomorrow and then the Phillies will see how he's feeling. I thought I was done saying this for the season, but once again: get well soon, Jimmy.

A Sausage Fest

After a fairly boring week for Phillies baseball that saw two snow/rain postponements in Colorado, the Phillies batters have been on fire, continuing to score runs at the scorching pace at which they began the season. The Phillies have scored 19 runs in two games, and are now one behind their free swinging series opponents in total runs in the NL. Hopefully that will change today.

The sausage race, a highlight of Brewers home games

(Photo courtesy of mlb.com)

Rewinding a little bit, last Wednesday was supposed to be a double header for the Phillies and Rockies, after Tuesday's game was postponed. Wednesday's afternoon game was played as scheduled, but the heavy precipitation came back and the night game was again postponed. The afternoon was a rough one, where Roy Halladay managed to pitch into the 7th inning while getting out of jams left and right and only giving up one run up until that point. He might have pitched out of the 7th inning if not for some errors and a few bad pitches which ended up tying the game up at 3-3. J.C. Romero and Danys Baez managed to keep it tied for the next two innings, aided by an insane amount of luck (read, hard line drives hit directly at Phillies). Chad Durbin still kept it tied in the 9th, but came out again for the 10th and promptly gave up a walk off homer to catcher Miguel Olivo. This was Olivo's 5th hit of the game, so it's probably good the Phillies didn't have to face him again Wednesday night.

(Photo courtesy of Ed Andrieski/AP)

Moving on to the sausage fest at Miller Park, Jamie Moyer was back on the mound for the first time after pitching his historic two hit shutout against the Braves a week before. He had another outing with several solid innings and one bad one, where he gave up three homers, luckily all solo shots. He passed the 500 homer mark with the second of those three, making him the second pitcher ever to do so. As I've mentioned before, the other pitcher is Phillies great Robin Roberts with 505, and Moyer should pass him in the next three or four starts, so keep an eye out for that. It should be mentioned that behind Moyer and Roberts on that list is no shabby group of pitchers. Todd Zolecki pointed out that, "rounding out the top 10 are Ferguson Jenkins (483), Phil Niekro (482), Don Sutton (472), Frank Tanana (448), Warren Spahn (434), Bert Blyleven (430), Steve Carlton (414) and Randy Johnson (411)." If that's not good company for a pitcher, I'm not sure what is. Anyhow, other than those three home runs and a few runs that could have been saved had Chase Utley not committed an error in the 7th, Moyer had himself a solid outing. The offense provided more than enough support, including some fine production by the bottom of the order and homers by Utley, Ryan Howard, and Raul Ibanez. The Phillies, wearing shiny powder blue throwback unis, took this one 9-5.

Ryan Howard, homering in the first

(Photo courtesy of Morry Gash/AP)

Joe Blanton came to the mound yesterday afternoon and, except for three pitches, pretty much dominated the Brewers lineup. Unfortunately those three pitches were hit out of the park for five runs. One has to keep in mind that Blanton is still in recovery mode after his recent stint on the DL, so he should only get better as the season goes on. The offense came through again, with the bottom of the order pulling their weight and then some, which they had also done Friday night. As a good example of this, Paul Hoover, the back up back up catcher, scored three runs after scoring two the previous game. How many runs had this journeyman scored in his entire nine year career up until this point? Why, I'm glad you asked. The answer is four. That's right, he scored more runs in his first two starts this year for the Phillies than he did in his entire career up until now. In addition to that, Victorino continued his recent destruction of opposing pitchers, going three for six with a single, double, and homer and driving in four runs. He now is second only to triple crown contender Andre Ethier in RBI for the NL, and that's all out of the leadoff spot. That's a tribute both to Shane's hitting and the productivity of the bottom of the Phillies order. The Phillies won 10-6, despite a nerve wracking bottom of the 9th where Jose Contreras finally struck out Rickie Weeks and Craig Counsell to end the game and end his first career save.

(Photo courtesy of H. Rumph Jr./AP)

For now, Jose Contreras had better keep pitching the way he has so far because he is the team's closer. Brad Lidge has returned to the DL, after the Phillies announced he was only day to day following an MRI that showed no serious damage to his elbow. Unfortunately, the inflammation that has kept him from pitching for the past week does not seem to want to go away. His time on the DL has been made retroactive to May 10th, so he will be eligible to pitch again on May 25th, and will hopefully get whatever cortisone or joint lubrication injections he needs to be back before then. Lidge's few appearances offered a tantalizing glimpse at what might be if Lidge is indeed healthy again, and I still believe his arm has life left in it. For the sake of this bullpen, let's hope so. Otherwise Ruben Amaro Jr. and the rest of the Phillies' front office might be busier than they planned come this year's trade deadline.

Shades of Spring Training

Last night was another one of those games that turned from beautiful to hideously ugly for the Phillies pitching in the blink of an eye. It also looked remarkably like what we saw in spring training. Kyle Kendrick, he of the 17.47 ERA going into this game, did his best Roy Halladay impression since the Grapefruit League. He pitched eight shutout innings, including working himself out of a jam by inducing an inning-ending double play from Troy Glaus with the bases loaded in the 4th inning. The bullpen, on the other hand, continued to raise major questions that are real cause for concern going ahead. I was not watching this game, having taken advantage of half priced tickets to the Nationals-Rockies game, where I got to see the Rockies put up an 8-spot in the 3rd, but was otherwise fairly bored. Luckily I had that out of town scoreboard to keep my eye on, though I resorted to the more traditional "follow by Blackberry" method for the final three outs of the Phillies-Braves game. Or what should have been the final three outs.

 The AP trying to be artistically black and white with Kyle Kendrick

(Photo courtesy of Gregory Smith/AP)

Here's what I saw on the Blackberry screen. I first saw that Ryan Madson had come into relieve Kyle Kendrick, which made me very pleased that Kendrick had indeed been the pitcher keeping the Braves score at zero that entire time on the out of town scoreboard. Then I saw "M Prado grounded out to shortstop." One out. I saw "C Jones walked." Cause for concern, but not alarm. Then I saw "B McCann flied out to left." Whew, he's always a threat at the mound. Then I saw "T Glaus homered, C Jones scored." Alarm bells time. Still, the Phillies had a one run lead and there were two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Then I noticed Jason Heyward was the next batter and had a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach that I tried to blame on the brisket sandwich I had eaten earlier from Teddy's Barbecue. However, that feeling proved to be accurate baseball intuition when I saw "J Heyward homered." Lead gone. Then Yunel Escobar grounded out, so the game wasn't over yet. So much for watching the final three outs.

Ryan Madson watching Troy Glaus round the bases

(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

Billy Wagner came on in the top of the 10th for the Braves, and I hoped this would turn out to be a mistake, using the closer to protect a tie, and the Phillies could shut down the Braves for one inning and get to the next reliever in the 11th. However, the Phillies were the ones shutdown, with Polanco, Utley, and Howard going down in order. Then Nate McLouth came up to the plate to face Jose Contreras. The Nate McLouth who went into this game hitting 4-for-27 on the year. At this point, I was hoping for a quick inning out of one of the few relievers left in the Phillies bullpen who hadn't had a bad inning yet. Unfortunately, that same Nate McLouth, 4-for-29 on the year at this point in the game, hit a walkoff home run, which was, of course, his first extra base hit of the year. As Kurt Vonnegut said, so it goes.

It's up to Roy Halladay to provide some relief from these losses tonight, which, in case you're keeping score, now tallies three straight and the last four of five. We all know he knows how to get it done, and let's hope he does so again on ESPN tonight. Now that Kendrick and Hamels have had some stellar outings, the rotation is no longer looking like the biggest question mark on this team, despite Blanton's DL stint and Happ's recent "mild flexor pronator muscle strain" that's causing him to miss his start tonight, though no DL time is predicted. The offense is fairly lackluster at the moment, but the Phillies offense has long been a streaky one, so that does not worry me. No, it is the one and only bullpen that is the problem going forward. I wouldn't have imagined saying this last season, but Brad Lidge  needs to hurry up and get healthy, as does J.C. Romero. Fortunately both are looking like they'll be back in the next two weeks. I still believe that Lidge is due for a comeback season, and his last few outings have looked solid. If he can get the velocity on his fastball back to the mid-90s and his slider command under control, he'll be an all-star closer again, even if he's not quite as unearthly as he was in 2008.

It's only April, so we're months away from any need for a panic button. These are just the issues that need addressing. I believe the bullpen will right itself in due course with the upcoming returns from injury, but a little help from the outside might be needed if these problems persist. John Smoltz for closer depth, anybody?

Sweepin' Up the 'Stros

The Phillies have their first sweep of the season. And wow. Roy Halladay sure knows how to get the job done. Today marks his 150th career win, and 50th career complete game. Yes, you read that right. A full one third of his wins are complete games (Update: It's been pointed out to me that not all of his complete games were wins. Nevertheless, the numbers are still pretty unbelievable). That, my friends and fellow fans, simply does not happen anymore. But it just did, today.

(Photo courtesy of Dave Einsel / AP)

I haven't updated since the Phillies left my area on Thursday, so I'll give a brief rundown of this recent sweep and then some thoughts on what the Phillies have shown so far.

Friday night's game saw a solid start from J.A. Happ, giving up no runs in 5 innings. However, as with Cole Hamels in game 2 against the Nationals, Happ labored through those 5 innings. The bullpen, however sparkled. David Herndon continues to be one of the better Rule 5 picks around lately. His strong innings were followed by an inning each by our favorite pair of former Cuban defectors, Danys Baez and Jose Contreras, who were both unhittable. Among Baez, Contreras, Herndon, and Madson the Phillies have 4 relievers who have touched 95 and above on the radar gun, each with a solid mix of pitches to boot. This raw stuff was simply not there in the bullpen last year. Backing up this combined 4 pitcher shutout, the offense did its job and scored 8 runs on 16 hits, including 3 hits by the reawakened Raul Ibanez. I'm going to pretend that he had a stunt double standing in for him before that point and hope for the best from this point forward.

(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki)

Moving on to Saturday night's game, our favorite 47 year old pitcher got his first start of the season, playing on "turn back the clock night" in Houston, where the Astros wore 1965 throwback uniforms. Incidentally, as has been pointed out elsewhere, Jamie Moyer is the only active player who was alive in 1965. It's those little details like that that make his career all the more astounding. His start was not all that astounding, however, giving up 5 runs including 2 home runs in the 3rd inning, which now puts him at 493 homers given up in his career. That means he's 12 short of the all-time record set by the Phillies' own Robin Roberts. Not bad company. That start aside, a 2 run shot by Ryan Howard in the 6th inning put Moyer in line for the win and the bullpen did its job once again, limiting the Astros to one run in 3 innings of relief. Shane Victorino, the last lackluster piece of the Phillies offense, came alive with a 2 run homer in the 8th after an RBI single earlier in the game. The Phillies took it 8-5.

And then there was one. One game left to earn the first sweep of the season. One game left, if all went well, for Roy Halladay to win his 150th game. It was a pitchers' duel from the start, well at least after Roy Oswalt gave up a leadoff homer to Jimmy Rollins, J-Roll's 34th career leadoff blast. That and a sacrifice fielder's choice by Ruiz in the 2nd was all Halladay needed. He went 9 innings, struck out 8, and gave up one unearned run. That included a 6th inning where he loaded the bases with no outs, then got a sacrifice double play and a quick 3rd out when Carlos Lee popped out to shortstop. Halladay gave up 2 singles to start the 7th, then after allowing the runners to advance on a Kaz Matsui bunt, Halladay induced a grounder back to him and a strikeout. Oh, and he even had a single in the top of the 7th. He cruised through the 8th and 9th, though Carlos Lee hit a monster foul ball that was feet away from being a homer to start off the 9th that likely gave all Phillies fans watching a near heart attack. Clearly the baseball gods were smiling on Roy today. When he got Pedro Feliz (yes, that Pedro Feliz) to pop out to Utley to end the game with the Phillies winning 2-1, it became clear to all just why the Phillies went to great lengths to acquire this guy.

Needless to say, the Phillies season so far has been an exciting one. With a 5-1 record, the Phillies came into today leading the majors in most offensive categories, but they showed in today's game that they can win with more than just their frightening offense. The bullpen got its rest in today, but they've all looked sharper than us fans could have hoped for coming out of spring training. About that offense, every single regular has now contributed solidly, even a few of the pitchers, though that's really the icing on the cake. I won't make crazy statements on how many wins, runs, etc. the Phillies are on pace to get, but I will say this. Assuming that there's more to this first week's performance than completely destroying a few mediocre (or worse) teams, this is going to be a damn good year.

The Changing of the Beard

While I don't know or care why Jayson Werth is sporting his awesome new beard (which is a VAST improvement over his old goatee), I do know and care why Chan Ho Park is going to lose his old one. Our former middle relief champ is losing his beard because he signed with the Yankees today. The question is: what the hell is Chan Ho Park thinking?

Let's go over the facts of what's been happening with Mr. Park since we last saw him give up a single to A-Rod in the 7th inning of Game 6 of the
World Series, back on November 4th. The rumors are that, before he became a free agent, Park was offered a one year contract for around $3.25 million to pitch in relief for the Phillies in 2010, doing what he did best in 2009. Instead, he turned down this deal and decided to look elsewhere, reportedly because he still viewed himself as a starter. And we all know how well that went for him in 2009. In case you forgot, his record as a starter last year was a whopping 7.29 ERA in 7 starts, where he was clearly losing velocity just so he could pitch badly in games for longer. When he switched to being a great long relief pitcher, he posted a 2.52 ERA for the rest of the season and regularly hit 94-96 mph with his fastball again. He also averaged a little over a strikeout per inning he pitched. So clearly this is a guy who is meant to be a... starter? If you asked him at the end of last year, that seemed to be the case.

Moving forward to this past week, there were faint signs of life returning to Park's pitching career, when it was rumored that the Cubs had interest in him, including giving him the chance to compete for a spot in the rotation. Meanwhile the Phillies had moved on, given a similar amount of money to what they had offered Park to Cuban Defector #1, Danys Baez, a quality late innings reliever with closing experience. They also signed Cuban Defector #2, Jose Contreras, to do what Park did last year for half of what they had offered Park. So the Cubs are offering the man what he ostensibly wanted, and his prior championship caliber team has moved on, what does he do? He signs with the Yankees. For $1.2 million plus $300,000 in incentives. And why does he choose the Yankees over the Cubs? "I was deliberating on the Chicago Cubs and the Yankees, but their history and championship contention resulted in me picking the Yankees" (from a good ESPN article on the subject). So let's recap:

• In November 2009, Chan Ho Park turns down a $3.25 million offer to play for a championship caliber team, in relief, because he wants to be a starter.
• On February 22, 2010, Chan Ho Park accepts an offer for $2 million less than that to do what? Pitch in relief for a championship caliber team. While turning down what probably would have been a higher offer from the Cubs to compete for a starting role.

I'll say this, if Chan Ho Park's goal was to give a giant middle finger to the Phillies, he succeeded. I just don't know what the Phillies ever did to him to deserve that. It's also possible the whole thing is another fail on the part of Scott Boras, that baseball super-agent. [Update: Turns out he's not represented by Scott Boras, but Jeff Borris. Those damn homophones get me every time. Thanks to the anonymous comment for that tidbit. You should still read Jayson Stark's piece about Johnny Damon, though, even if it's not quite as relevant.] If you want to see how well listening to Boras did for another one of his actual clients, read up on the saga of Johnny Damon of this offseason, as brilliantly retold by Jayson Stark. Also, for another great take on this whole story, check out Chan Ho Plays Waiting Game, Loses over at Crashburn Alley

But enough about the past. The Phillies position players officially reported today, and Jayson Werth's beard was the star attraction to many observers. If seeing it one time wasn't enough for you to believe it, here it is again:

This beard reminds me (and others who have tweeted about it today) of many things, including: Jesus, Ron Burgundy when he breaks down in Anchorman, the GEICO cavemen (thanks Brad Lidge), and Johnny Damon c. 2004. This last comparison could be both exciting and depressing. The exciting part is that Johnny Damon in 2004 was part of a magical championship Red Sox that broke the curse of a city. Jayson Werth could prove pivotal in the Phillies winning another World Series title this year, cementing this Phillies team and one of the greats in baseball, certainly National League, history. The depressing part is that Johnny Damon turned around and signed with the Yankees the very next year and the beard vanished. Let's hope Jayson Werth doesn't follow Chan Ho Park and do the same next offseason.

Note: Werth photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki; Park photo courtesy of Jeff Zelevansky, Getty Images.

Welcome: Offseasoning

Hi all, I figured I'd get this up and running before pitchers and catchers in a week. Phillibustering is a blog about the Philadelphia Phillies from a completely biased fan's perspective. I'll be giving my take on games, trades, signings, and all things related to my hometown team. I'll also be bringing in guest contributors from time to time to give another team's perspective (especially when the Phillies destroy that team). There are also some awesome well-established Phillies blogs out there that will do a much better job than I can breaking down stats, and there will be plenty of links to other analysis when needed (or when I get lazy).

Now that that's out of the way, a few thoughts on this offseason. First, let me just say that the Mets offseason has made me very happy. I'm sorry, but signing Jason Bay and Kelvim Escobar will not revive the team. Maybe they'll be a little luckier on the injury front this season. On that note, in the future they might want to be better informed about surgeries that their stars are undergoing before those surgeries happen. Just sayin'.

On to the Phillies: I like all the signings. Our bench got a nice upgrade, though we could still use a good power bat there. I like the relief pitchers we've added, even if Ruben does seem to have a thing for former Cuban defectors this year. Danys Baez will be reliable and Jose Contreras showed a lot of promise as a reliever with the Rockies at the end of last year. I realize that's a small sample size, but I'm inclined to give Ruben the benefit of the doubt on a pitcher that's one of those low-risk high-reward types he loves so much. I also like the Placido Polanco signing, since we need a situational hitter with good plate discipline. He's also got Gold Glove defensive chops at 2nd base, and I'm going to trust the powers that be in the Phillies organization that he has the throwing range to play 3rd as well or better than Pedro Feliz.

Now the big one. I love that Roy Halladay is a Phillie for the foreseeable future. I love that we got him and $6 million for the prospects that we had to give up. However, I don't like the Cliff Lee part of the blockbuster nearly as much. Not because we should have kept both, though that would be nice, of course. It's mostly because, at first, the two trades were linked because Seattle prospects were going to the Jays, and that seemed reasonable to me. However, when it became a matter of some of our top prospects going to the Jays, the Seattle part of the deal became separate, and I've seen no indication that Cliff Lee was shopped around for better prospects. That being said, all prospects are just that: prospects. None of them is a sure thing, and in the end, we traded away good prospects and got back good prospects. Only time will tell who got the better end of that bargain, no matter what all the scouting reports say.

Some final quick thoughts:

• We won the World Series without either Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay. We had another ace then: Cole Hamels.

• If Cole Hamels weren't such a big question mark entering this year, there wouldn't be nearly as much of a desire to keep both Halladay and Lee.
  
  
• Cole Hamels will have a better year this year than last, and a lot of his struggles (though by no means all of them) in 2009 can really be blamed on bad luck. For more on that, see the phenomenal run down of Cole over the last two years at Crashburn Alley: Cole's Curious Conundrum.
  
  
• Also Brad Lidge will have a better season in 2010. He was clearly injured and whether he admitted it or not, and that's now been reportedly taken care of. It's clear that the injuries physically hindered him from pitching up to his full potential, and it was made worse by the fact that he was in denial about the extent of the injuries and tried to push through, losing speed on his fastball and control on his slider. Watch for those returning consistently and then we'll know he's back. Not that I'm saying he'll be 2008 Brad Lidge, but he'll be a reliable closer again.
  

This is, of course, all speculation. I could be totally wrong about Hamels and Lidge, but I hope I'm not. In the end, you gotta have a little phaith.