Signs of Life?

Last time the Phillies were discussed in this space, Roy Halladay had pitched a perfect game following an eked out 3-2 win the night before. Not much of note has happened since then, except the fact that the Phillies are out of first place, having been shut out 1-0 by the Marlins following Halladay's perfecto then losing three straight to the Braves, the new team atop the NL East. Chase Utley is having the slump of his career and has to simply wait it out, and Ryan Howard isn't too far behind. That, coupled with the fact that many of the other bats have fallen silent, Jimmy Rollins is still disabled, and Placido Polanco was out for a few games, has spelled offensive disaster.

Chase Utley, wondering where the hits have gone
(Photo courtesy of Wilfredo Lee/AP)

All is not lost, however. The Phillies won 3-2 last night over the Padres, the team with the best record in the National League. Roy Halladay followed up his perfecto with a fine seven inning, two run performance, and he even singled and scored the first Phillies run of the night on a two run homer by Shane Victorino in the 3rd. Victorino later doubled and scored the go ahead run on Jayson Werth's bases loaded walk off Padres starter Mat Latos in the 5th. This was only the third win for the Phillies in two weeks, but the offensive has ended the streak of repeated shutouts. The team still hasn't scored more than three runs in a games since their May 21st 5-1 victory over the Red Sox, the night before Daisuke Matsuzaka nearly no-hit the Phillies and the slump of all slumps began.

 (Photo courtesy of David Warren/Philly.com staff photographer)

In the midst of all this offensive impotence, the strength of the pitching staff has been a bit overlooked. Pitching was arguably the biggest question mark going into this season for the Phillies, but the rotation has for the most part been solid through these hellish last two weeks.

We all know the offense will come out of this. Contact has been made more frequently, the runs have started trickling in, and luck will start swinging back towards the Phillies soon enough. The Braves have been on an absurd hot streak, and it would certainly be nice for that to end soon. I don't have as much confidence in the Braves getting a lot worse as I do in the Phillies getting a lot better, but I do believe things will even out. I'd like to think that by the All-Star break in a little over a month, we'll all look back on these last two weeks and wonder where this hiccup in an otherwise great season came from.

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.

Unhappy Halladay

I don't have time for a full recap of the games since I last posted, but last night's loss was a tough one. The offense and defense was shoddy, and Halladay's 132 pitch complete game was a waste behind an offense that couldn't score more than one run against the Pirates though they had their share of opportunities. Roy Halladay may be different from any other pitcher in the game today, but at some point he's still human. He says not to worry about the fact that he's pitched an insane amount so far this year, and for now I'll take him at his word. For more on that check out Matt Gelb's piece over in the Phillies Zone.

Let's hope the Phillies can bounce back and support Jamie Moyer tonight. I'll be off tonight and tomorrow watching the Nats take on the Mets here in DC, and though the Nats are in 2nd place and the Mets are in last, I can't possibly root for the Mets. I'm mostly hoping to catch some fun baseball and maybe a glimpse of recent Nats call-up Drew Storen. I'll try and get a full post about the last few games up before the Phillies take on the Red Sox this weekend in the start of 2010 interleague play. Until then, I'll leave you with the following picture of Roy Halladay after he threw his 132nd pitch last night. I hope the offense thinks long and hard about what it did and gives Halladay all the run support he needs from now on. Oh and Roy, take some bunting lessons before next time, will you?

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

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.

Señor Mayo!

Carlos Ruiz is leading all of baseball in on base percentage (.481), and he's third in the NL and fifth overall in batting average (.354). Take a moment to read that. Read it a few times. If that's not a sign of how weird this baseball season is so far, I don't know what is. Not that I'm complaining. We've all known about the phenomenon of Choochtobre for the last two years, and the bat of the Phillies usually light hitting catcher suddenly catches fire faster than a forest in California. We've long wondered why he couldn't seem to carry those hot postseason streaks over to the regular season. Well Chooch seems to have figured out a way for now, and his plate discipline is second in the NL only to Jayson Werth, who led the majors in pitches seen per plate appearance last year.

 (Photo courtesy of David Zalubowski/AP)

Even hitting in front of the out-making machine that is Wilson Valdez didn't stop Chooch from providing key hits against the Rockies last night. As a few people pointed out last night, Wilson Valdez has made an average of one out per plate appearance, offsetting each of his five hits with five double play balls. That's not an easy feat to accomplish, and has made me wishing for the return of Juan Castro while playing the even longer "Waiting for Rollins" game. Shane Victorino also had quite the night at the plate, reaching base five times with three walks and two triples, which looks like what a good leadoff hitter should be doing if you ask me. Finally, Ross Gload hit a three run pinch hit homer in the top of the ninth to seal the deal, putting the Phillies up 9-5, a lead that the seemingly dominant Jose Contreras easily preserved.

  (Photo courtesy of David Zalubowski/AP)

Kyle Kendrick had another solidly mediocre performance, pitching six innings and giving up four runs. It was certainly not his worst performance, but not his best. Though we've seen Kendrick pitch seven and eight shutout innings, that seems to be the exception, just as his entire 2007 season now seems to have been the exception, not the norm for his pitching. As for the bullpen, J.C. Romero blew the one run lead in the 7th, but luckily for him David Herndon came in and induced a groundball that looked to be a base hit until future gold-glover Chase Utley made a spectacular diving catch to start the double play. Danys Baez pitched a scoreless but shaky 8th to preserve the 5-5 tie.

The only matter of concern from last night's game, other than the ongoing concerns about Baez and Romero, was that Brad Lidge was unavailable to pitch in the 9th due to elbow stiffness. He claimed this was nothing to worry about and that he would be fine. I seem to remember him saying similar things a lot last year, and we all know how that turned out. For now it's best to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it is a cause for concern. Tonight, none of that matters, since Roy Halladay is on the mound. Tune in at 8:40 PM to watch Roy and the boys do what they do best.

Getting It Done

Over the last week, the Phillies have figured out how to get it done, one way or another. The starters seem to finally be settling in, and, since Nelson Figueroa gave up a few runs last Monday against the Cardinals, the bullpen has remembered how to pitch. Since my last post, the Cardinals series finished up with Roy Halladay turning in a pretty disappointing performance: 7 IP, 9 K, 3 BB, 2 R, 1 ER. I say "pretty disappointing" mostly facetiously, but it is a credit to his high level of talent that many of us considered that outing a disappointment. Still, the offense continued to look alive and scored seven runs to provide more than enough insurance to get Halladay the win, his sixth on the season.

(Photo courtesy of Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Friday night was easily the highlight of the Phillies season thus far. Jamie Moyer pitched a complete game, two hit shutout. Yes, that Jamie Moyer. The who only said "cool, just doing my job" after finding out how his performance made history. The one who is nearly a year older than the previous record holder for oldest player to pitch a shutout, Phil Niekro, was when he threw a four hitter in 1986. Which happens to be the year Jamie Moyer had his major league debut. I just want to emphasize that so you don't lose track of how old he is. Yes, Moyer, at the age of 47 years, 188 days pitched a shutout, and this is not a record that's likely to ever be broken. Except if Moyer does it again. As I've mentioned before, he's one of only four pitchers to be making starts at his age in all of baseball history. And two of those four only made one start, so he's already in uncharted territory. Moyer performed this feat a day after Robin Roberts, one of the greatest pitchers in Philadelphia history and a master at finishing games, passed away at the age of 83. Roberts must have been smiling down on Jamie Moyer Friday night.

Moyer with the jersey of Robin Roberts, which will hang in memoriam for the rest of the 2010 season

(Photo courtesy of Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Saturday afternoon was another loss from lack of offense. Joe Blanton had a quality start, and he didn't give up a hit until the fifth inning, but the Phillies missed opportunity after opportunity to drive in some runs, and the Braves scored the three runs they needed in the sixth. The bullpen was solid, except for the always-a-concern Danys Baez giving up a run in the ninth. The bullpen limited the damage, but it didn't really matter without any runs to back that up. It did matter the next day...

Say it ain't so, Joe

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

Cole Hamels came to the mound to go for the series win against the Braves, hoping to replicate his 8+ inning gem from last Tuesday night. Unfortunately, he had one of his bad innings today in the fifth, though he limited the damage to three runs after beginning the inning with a walk to Braves pitcher Kenshin Kawakami. The Phillies scored five runs, including one on Jayson Werth's 100th career homer in the third inning. The bullpen had to pitch four innings today, and they did so without giving up a hit. Chad Durbin pitched a perfect sixth and seventh and continues to look like he's back in 2008 form. Jose Contreras continued to look unhittable in the eighth. Finally, Brad Lidge had his first save of 2010, and he is doing a good job at raising our hopes that his 2009 pitching is a thing of the past. I hope that's not false hope.

 (Photo courtesy of H. Rumph Jr./AP)

Around baseball, the second no-hitter of the season and the 19th perfect game in baseball history was thrown today by... Dallas "#$#@ A-Rod" Braden of the Oakland A's. For the second season in a row, the Tampa Bay Rays were on the losing end of a perfect game. If this year should come to another Phillies-Rays World Series, as Sports Illustrated predicted before the start of the season, I sure hope the Rays offense of today shows up and not the Rays offense of nearly every other game this season. But I'm getting far ahead of myself. For now, it's on to Colorado for another road trip, and may this one go better than the last one.

Hitting Their Stride

For now, the Phillies offense appears to be back, after a lackluster road trip that saw some poor pitching and poor offense. Friday night's game looked to continue that trend, with the Phillies losing 9-1 to the Mets. However, after a 10-0 shutout behind Halladay's pitching and a much needed resurrection of the Phillies hitting, they took the series from the Mets on Sunday night with an 11-5 win that included Johan Santana's worst outing of his career. Here's how it all went down.

Welcome to Philly, Johan

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

Friday night was one of those nights that Phillies fans would rather forget. After their crazy, improbable comeback win over the Giants on Wednesday, the team was looking to build momentum and stop the Mets' 7-game winning streak. The Phillies apparently forgot that in order to do this, they would need to: A) score runs, and B) prevent the other team from scoring runs. Kyle Kendrick had another outing that saw homers flying on sinkers that forgot to sink. He only gave up four of the nine runs that the Mets would score, with four more going squarely on Danys Baez' shoulders in an awful 7th inning. Brad Lidge, fresh off the DL, gave up a solo homer in the 9th to complete the rout. The Phillies were held to six mostly scattered hits, none of which were for extra bases. They ended the night a half game behind the Nationals and 1.5 games behind the Mets in the standings, which, no matter how early it is in the season, is a painful sight to behold.

Kendrick proving that Spring Training can't be trusted

(Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Philly.com staff photographer)

On Saturday night, the ball and the need for momentum went to Roy Halladay, and he did his best job of pretending that his previous five run outing at the Giants never happened. Bolstered by an offense that remembered how to hit, he had his third complete game and second shutout of the year. From ESPN, I learned that he now has more complete games than most other teams as a whole do, and I expect the year to end with that still being the case. Just a quick update from Todd Zolecki from this recent post about Mr. Halladay's season: "Halladay is 5-1 with a 1.43 ERA. He leads the majors in wins, shutouts, complete games, innings (49) and strikeout/walk ratio (9.75).  He is fourth in strikeouts (39)." The offense did its part and broke the game open with a six run 4th inning against Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, who entered the game leading the league in ERA. The victory was a much needed rout and it ended the Mets 8-game winning streak and put the Phillies only a half game back in the standings. Their big inning against Pelfrey foreshadowed an even bigger one against an even bigger pitcher last night.

(Photo courtesy of Todd Zolecki/The Zo Zone)

Sunday's series finale match-up of Johan Santana and Jamie Moyer looked to be an easy win for the Mets, pitting their ace and one of the better pitchers in baseball in recent years against, well, Jamie Moyer. For the first three innings, Santana looked like a decent if not stellar version of himself and Moyer looked like Moyer, giving up two homers for a 5-2 ball game entering the bottom of the 4th. Santana was an out away from getting out of the inning after giving up a leadoff double to Chase Utley, when the Phillies decided it was time to really look like the Phillies again. Ibanez singled. 5-3 ball game. Carlos Ruiz walked, but that was okay for the Mets since Jamie Moyer was coming up with the bases loaded and two outs. Seven pitches later, Jamie Moyer was walking over to first base and Ibanez was walking over home plate. 5-4 ball game. Then Shane Victorino hit a grand slam, the second of his career. His first came under eerily similar circumstances, albeit in a more important ball game, game two of the 2008 NLDS, after Brett Myers heroically worked a walk against C.C. Sabathia. 8-5 Phillies. How many players in baseball have had their only grand slams come after pitchers worked walks against former Cy Young winners? Probably not too many. Following Vic, Polanco singled and Utley homered, making it 10-5. For some extra icing on the Mets-destroying cake, Howard singled and Werth doubled him home, to make it 11-5, which would be the final score of the ball game. Johan Santana had the worst night of his career, and Jamie Moyer had a typical night on the mound and an extraordinary night at the plate. As of 11 PM, when the game ended, the Phillies were back in 1st place and all seemed right in the world of baseball.

(Photo courtesy of Tim Shaffer/Reuters)

Going forward, we know that all is not right for the Phillies. Starters not named Roy Halladay remain a concern, though I'm still convinced that Cole Hamels is on the verge of returning to his 2007 and 2008 form. His strikeout and walk numbers are phenomenal, the problem is that opposing hitters seem to pounce on every bad pitch he makes, though they've been aided by a little luck. The bullpen also hasn't calmed down at all, with the revolving door still open for business between the Phillies pitching staff and the disabled list. The latest casualty was Ryan Madson, who of course would go on the DL by breaking his toe kicking a folding chair after his blown save against the Giants last Wednesday. Poor Antonio Bastardo has now been optioned to AAA, called back up, and optioned again in the last five days. This last optioning was to make room for Joe Blanton, who makes his first start of the season tonight in the series opener against the Cardinals. Hopefully Blanton will return as the solid, reliable presence in the rotation that he was for most of last year. And hopefully the wave of injuries ends with Madson and his broken toe.

A Loss and a Contract

There isn't too much about last night's game to make a Phillies fan happy. Roy Halladay had his first loss. Interestingly enough, in three career starts in San Francisco, Halladay has given up exactly five earned runs each time. The Phillies offense seemed equally cursed last night, and came up with a less than pitiful performance, considering how many opportunities they had to score. They left the bases loaded three times, and the only run they scored was on a ground out, and even that needed a double steal by Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco following a rare walk of Polanco (only his second of the season). I have to give credit where credit is due, and the Giants offense and pitching were both effective. It was a tough game to watch on all accounts, and if it hasn't come time for this already, I imagine Charlie's going to have a bit of a chat with the team before long.

(Photo courtesy of Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Now that that bad news is out of the way, it's time to talk about something that happened yesterday of much greater significance than one bad game. That something was the biggest contract in franchise history, handed out to Ryan Howard: a five year extension worth a guaranteed $125 million, plus an option for a sixth year that would bring the total dollar value to $138 million. I have mixed feelings about this. I have written in this space before that Ryan Howard is overrated, but he still remains a great player. Even if all the numbers in the world show that Howard should not be paid such large sums, the market would undoubtedly net him at least as much if he had become a free agent after next season. In the short term, this does not change the payroll flexibility for the Phillies, since Howard will not receive a the bump in pay to $25 million until 2014. Additionally, I have no problem with him being paid $20 million a year in the short term, as the market demands. I, along with most everyone else watching this, do have concerns about Howard being paid $25 million a year when he's 34, 35, and 36 years old. However, what's done is done, and only time will tell now if this deal is a huge success or a huge burden for the Phillies. In the immediate future, on the other hand, this deal puts the spotlight squarely on on another player who is slated to become a free agent after this season: Jayson Werth.

 (Photo courtesy of Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

The looming free agency of Werth has long be a subject of discussion, and I wrote a while ago that he is worthy the value people are assigning to him. It has been something of an accepted fact in many circles of Phillies analysts that Werth will walk after this year and become the subject of yet another Red Sox-Yankees bidding war. The Phillies organization itself has not conceded defeat, however. Even yesterday, as many immediately jumped to the conclusion that this Howard deal means a definite farewell to Werth, Ruben Amaro hinted that this was not necessarily so. Todd Zolecki also wrote that he's "gotten the sense recently that the Phillies think they can sign Jayson Werth to a contract extension." I would have no problem with the team raising the payroll ceiling to accommodate this. It will be interesting to see how the Werth situation develops in the coming months, especially in light of the Howard deal. If nothing else, the Howard deal means that the Ruben Amaro and the front office see much of this current team as the core for many years to come, and it remains to be seen if Werth will be a part of that or not.

(Photo courtesy of Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Putting on a Show

Roy Halladay. 4-0 for the first time in his career. So far he's got a 0.82 ERA (which Cliff Lee also had in his first four games as a Phillie), 33 innings, three walks, and 29 strikeouts. Just to be clear, half of his starts are complete games, which his first shutout coming tonight. The other two games could have been shutouts: he was only taken out on opening day because the Phillies had a 10 run lead and it was important to give the bullpen some time. Last Friday, he probably would have come out to finish the game if the infield had not been a puddle. To be clear, Roy Halladay was not taken out of those two games because he was struggling. In the last three games, Phillies starters have pitched 26+ innings and gave up two earned runs. Unfortunately the Phillies were only 1-2 in those games. Still, it's good to see Doc getting some company going deeper into games.

(Photo courtesy of Gregory Smith/AP)

The other half of this game for the Phillies was not the offense, which only put up two runs on a pair of RBI doubles by Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth, who has quietly put together nine doubles in 14 games. No, the other half of the game for the Phillies was the defense. If ESPN was short on material for web gems tonight, they aren't after this game. The highlights were definitely Shane Victorino making a sprinting leaping catch to rob Troy Glaus of a homer in the 2nd and Chase Utley's incredible diving catch to start the inning ending, bases-loaded double play in the 7th. Ryan Howard also had quite the diving stop in the bottom of the 9th to prevent the tying run from coming to the plate. Even Wilson Valdez, who came in for Placido Polanco after he was beaned on the elbow and suffered a contusion in the 1st, made a solid play at 3rd base to end the game. The defense has long been the unsung strength of this Phillies team, and today they showed why they've consistently been one of the best in the league.

Jamie Moyer is on the mound tomorrow night to go for the series win against the Braves. Let's hope he pitches like he did in innings two through six of Saturday night and not like he did in the 1st. Let's also hope that whoever is inevitably called in from the bullpen does his job well. Finally, let's hope the offense gets galvanized by tonight's win and destroys Derek Lowe.

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?

First Series Loss: Reflections Looking Forward

Today was the first series loss for the Phillies this year, and the torrid offense of just days ago decided to take the weekend off, scoring only one run in the last two games. While offenses go through ups and downs, this was quite the precipitous dropoff for a team that went into yesterday's game averaging 7.7 runs a game. If not for a Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the ninth yesterday, the Phillies would have been completely shut out by the Marlins this weekend. First for some recaps of this series against the Fish and then some general thoughts.

Friday's game was Roy Halladay's third start as a Phillie, and once again he did not disappoint. He went 8 strong innings and only gave up two runs. He probably would have completed another game if the field had not turned into a giant puddle by that point from all the rain, a puddle that no amount of Diamond Dry seemed to be able to quell. David Herndon came in for the 9th to protect the 8-2 Phillies lead, and proceeded to get charged with four runs on five hits, only two of which left the infield. The soaking wet infield. Herndon did what the Phillies have kept him around to do: induce groundballs. Unfortunately, ground balls hit into soaking wet turf don't tend to have the same bounce that they would get on dry ground. Madson had to come in to the record the save, which he did, thankfully. It was one quite an ugly 9th inning for the Phillies even though it resulted in a win, but once that win was notched, it was easy to look back and say it was mostly bad luck. It was certainly hard to do that as it was happening. Fortunately the offense had provided more than enough insurance against such bad luck, including solo homers by Polanco and Utley (his fifth in four games) and three RBI on two Juan Castro singles. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of most of the Phillies offense.

(Photo courtesy of Tom Mihalek/AP)

Saturday night was Jamie Moyer's second start of the year, and as I've pointed out before, he made history with this start by being the first non-knuckleballer to make more than one start at the age of 47 or older. Unfortunately, he showed his age in the first inning, giving five runs including a three run shot to Ronny Paulino, who the Phillies possessed for the 2008-2009 winter but traded him to the Giants for Jack Taschner. In retrospect, not one of the best moves that Ruben has made. Back to the game at hand, Moyer then looked stunning for the next five innings, giving up two hits, no runs, and striking out seven. If that Jamie Moyer takes the mound all the time, he'll be able to keep his career alive a good while longer. If not, we'll see. The other story of the game was the lack of a Phillies offense, except for the Jayson Werth solo homer in the bottom of the 9th, making the final score 5-1 Marlins. I'd say that became the bigger story of the game after today's performance.

Today's game was at times painful and at times great to watch. Specifically, the Phillies offense was painful and Cole Hamels was great. Despite losing 2-0 to the Marlins, I consider this game to be a net positive going forward. The offensive slump is annoying, to be sure, but seeing Cole Hamels pitch 8+ innings with 2 ER (one of which was credited to him but batted in on a double given up by Madson) and  8 Ks was reassuring. First, Hamels is now the only pitcher other than Roy Halladay to pitch past the 6th inning so far this year, and he not only went past it, but he blew past it, throwing devastating change-ups and largely settling into a rhythm after giving up a solo homer to Dan Uggla in the 2nd. The offense, on the other hand, had some issues beyond the fact that they scored 0 runs. A ground rule double by Ben Francisco cost Jayson Werth the chance to score the tying run from first base in the 6th.  He could have scored later on in the inning when Ruiz flied out to center and Cameron Maybin's throw went to the backstop. However, Werth was too tentative in his running and stayed at third, and Hamels grounded out to end the inning. A forgettable day for the bats, but a great day for Cole Hamels.

 (Photo courtesy of Ron Cortes/Inquirer Staff Photographer)

With this latest loss, the Phillies have now lost three of their last four games. This is not cause for alarm, but certainly cause for concern, with the shaky Kyle Kendrick starting the next game at Atlanta on Tuesday and the probable starters after that being something of a murky situation. This murkiness came after it was announced that J.A. Happ has had some left arm soreness which could cause him to miss his last start. That arm trouble could definitely explain why his velocity was a little off in his start last Thursday and why he walked six batters in 5.1 innings. The last thing the Phillies need right now is another player to succumb to the injury bug. Here's hoping for good news when Happ throws a side session during the off day tomorrow. For now, the Phillies leave Philadelphia on a low note after an otherwise great season so far. The question marks are there for this team, but so is incredible potential.

In an un-Phillies related note, last night was quite the crazy night around baseball. First, the Cardinals and the Mets played a 20 inning game, where the first run of the game was not scored until the top of the 19th inning. I had been watching the game in the 9th inning and left my house for a few hours, got back and turned on my TV again, and assumed that Fox was replaying the game. Until I saw that it was the top of the 18th. And Felipe Lopez, a position player, was pitching for the Cardinals. I enjoyed the ride from there until the end of the 20th, and if you missed out on this game, go read the recap. Jayson Stark will undoubtedly write something about it as well in the coming days.

Another note around baseball: Ubaldo Jimenez, the Rockies number one starter and flamethrower, pitched the season's first no-hitter last night. In case you were wondering, the last time a no-hitter and a 20 inning game happened on the same night was back in 2003 when Kevin Millwood pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies against the Giants and the Cardinals beat the Marlins 7-6 in 20 innings. I mention that mostly to bring up the fact that no one has pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies since. I, for one, would have no problem with another no-no from one of our starters one of this days.

The Bullpen Rears Its Ugly Head

We knew it couldn't last forever. The offense and bullpen simply could not cover up forever the fact that every starter not named Halladay has gone 6 or fewer innings in each of his starts. The offense didn't get it going until the 6th inning, other than yet another homer by Utley early on. They scored 3 more runs in the 6th, but Shane Victorino left the bases loaded, which would become one of many crucial stranding of runners throughout the game. Still, at the time the Phillies were up 4-1 against a lackluster Nationals offense, Ryan Zimmerman-less, that had only managed one unearned run up until that point, despite the fact that J.A. Happ walked 6 men. He may have a 0.00 ERA through 10.1 IP, but he has a pretty poor WHIP, or walks and hits per innings pitched, at 1.65. Just shows how some of the more traditional stats like ERA don't tell the whole story.

Anyway, on most days, going into the 7th with a 4-1 score against the Nationals would have been just fine. Only it became 4-2 with Bastardo pitching. A little worrisome but not terrible. Then it came apart in the 8th. Danys Baez gave up a home run to Adam Dunn, his first of the year, to lead off the inning. 3 batters later, after walking Ivan Rodriguez, an injured Ryan Zimmerman hobbled to the plate (okay, I'm exaggerating) as a pinch hitter, and of course hit a home run. 5-4 Nationals. Bad, but hey, this is the Phillies offense that scored 64 runs through 8 games so far this season. So after the Phillies were retired in the bottom of the 8th, it was up to Ryan Madson to hold it to a 1 run lead for the top of the order coming up in the bottom of the inning. Instead, he continued the first Phillies bullpen collapse of 2009, allowing batters on 2nd and 3rd for Rodriguez to bat them in with a single. 7-4 Nationals. Still, we believed when Victorino led off the bottom of the 9th with a 405 foot homer and Polanco followed with a single. Then Utley, Howard, and Werth were retired in order. 7-5 Nationals.

(Photo courtesy of Yong Kim/Inquirer staff photographer)

There's nothing left to do after a game like this but dust off and move on. The pitching was ugly, no doubt about that. Roy Halladay will be back on the mound tomorrow, and ideally that will give the bullpen much needed rest after today's implosion. As for the rest of the starters, Hamels has his issues but nothing major as of yet. Kendrick is clearly not going to last very long in the rotation, especially with Charlie moving Halladay up to tomorrow from Saturday, since there was an off day this week. This sets up the possibility that Kendrick's next scheduled start can simply be skipped with another off day next week. Joe Blanton should be close to recovered by then. Jamie Moyer's next start will be against the Marlins on Saturday, and it will be interesting to see how he fares against that lineup. In his last start against the Fish last year, he pitched 7 innings and gave up 1 hit, striking out 4. It will also be his day to make history, becoming the first non-knuckleballer in major league history to start more than one game at his age or older.

(Photo courtesy of Pat Sullivan/AP)

Many consider tomorrow night to be the real beginning of the Phillies season, after warming up against the Nationals and Astros for the first 3 series of the season. I don't buy this, but I do agree that the next series against the Marlins then after that against the Braves and Giants will be a truer measure of what the Phillies 2010 season will turn out to be. Game on.

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.

Oh What a Day It Has Been!

I just wanted a fun game. I already knew I was getting a Presidential first pitch, and Roy Halladay's start as a Phillie. For all the hype and talk this preseason, I just wanted a decent win. Little did I know I would get so much more.

Presidents, real (top) and fake (bottom).

For starters, Ryan Howard had quite the 2 run blast to put the Phillies on the board in the 4th. When he walked up to the plate with Utley on 1st, I turned to my friend and said "I have a good feeling about this at bat." Then he Howard proceeded to kill a baseball. I won't mention the other times today that I said I had good feelings and nothing happened. That was the only good feeling that I actually felt, clearly.

The Polanco grand slam was another fine moment. I seem to remember us signing him for his contact hitting abilities, not so much any hitting for power. Looks like he sure knows how to (re-)endear himself to a fan base.

Then there was Roy. Roy threw 7 innings. Roy gave up one run early in the game before settling down and mowing down the Nationals lineup. That mowing took the form of a solid 9 Ks over those 7 innings. Sure he gave up a run in the first inning, but in the end that almost seemed like he was toying with the Nats. He did a nice job of getting their hopes up before crushing them entirely. Not too shabby, Mr. Halladay.

Doc, the one and only.

Overall, this day was incredible. I got to the ball park early and got to see some of the pitchers not in today's game, including our once and future ace:

Cole Hamels, plotting his comeback.

After a day like today, I can't stop thinking about how much I love baseball and I love the Phillies. Starting the season on such a high note inevitably leaves us fans open to disappointment, but I'm not worrying about that right now. For now, I'm just glowing from this win (and literally from sunburn). Until Wednesday, over and out.

These Are the Good Old Days

With less than 24 hours to go before the Phillies' 2010 season begins, I wanted to put down some final thoughts. I've blogged plenty about day to day Phillies happenings, about the good and bad of individual players, and about a competition that captured the attention of the Phillies blogosphere. I'm new to the blogging business, but I do have the distinction of having lost that competition to the eventual overall champion, so I can rest on my laurels a bit for that.

Anyhow, here it is: the 2010 season. After questions asked were answered and questions asked remained unanswered, tomorrow is when it all starts to matter again. Forget those Grapefruit league batting averages, ERAs, and exciting walkoff wins over the Yankees. None of that matters as soon as Harry Leroy Halladay III throws out the first pitch tomorrow to Nyjer Morgan. I will be there to witness what will hopefully be a dazzling debut for Philadelphia's new ace.

People love to talk about the good old days of anything, whether it be politics, music, sports, or even the world in general. It is truly rare to be able to recognize the good old days as they are happening, in any of those areas of life. The current crop of Phillies is one such occasion, when we fans can say without a shadow of a doubt that these are the good old days.

On the eve of this 2010 season, I don't know what the future will bring for this team that has capture the hearts and minds of a city. I could make predictions for the coming season, as many have (incidentally, you should check out some of those predictions here and here, and also the always insightful Jayson Stark's take on the upcoming season). I could say that I think the Phillies will win the NL East, beat, say, the Cardinals in the NLDS then the Rockies in the NLCS, then beat the Red Sox in the World Series. That would be awesome if that came to pass.

In the end, I don't really know what will happen between now and October, so I'll sit back and enjoy the ride over the course of the next six, hopefully seven months.What I do know is that these are, truly, the good old days for Phillies fans everywhere. Now let's get out there and win some baseball!

Everybody's a Winner!

Well the 5th starter battled ended as predicted, with Jamie Moyer getting the nod on Tuesday, and Kyle Kendrick going to the bullpen. Everyone said all the right things and the team looked ready to start the season with a fairly set roster. But wait! Faster than you can say pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis, Joe Blanton decided to help out Kyle Kendrick by getting himself a mild oblique strain while throwing in the bullpen, so Kendrick gets to be in the rotation after all! Everyone wins! Except for the Phillies who just lost a reliable no. 3 starter who had never spent a day on the DL before now. It appears he'll be out for 3-6 weeks.

You may remember our friend, the oblique strain, from Clay Condrey's three month absence last year. Team doctors are assuring everyone that Blanton's injury is far milder and more localized than Condrey's, but it seems that they want to be safe by not risking an aggravation to the injury. Am I the only one who thinks "mild oblique strain" doesn't really sound all that bad? I don't doubt that it's serious and good reason to sideline Blanton, but maybe that injury needs some rebranding.

Say it ain't so, Joe

(Photo courtesy of David Swanson / Daily News Staff Photographer)

Assuming Blanton is out for a while, we can continue the battle for the 5th starter just a little longer and see what Kendrick and Moyer do in the regular season. I think they'll both make fairly strong cases out of the gate. Kendrick's move to the rotation does create a hole in a bullpen that's already cause for concern, and it will be interesting to see if Ruben picks up anyone to fill that void or promotes from within. For now, signs point to Drew Carpenter being promoted from within. BJ Rosenberg is also with the team for this weekend's exhibition game, and he's a player I think could make a big league contribution sooner than people expect.

Back to good news, the countdown is now down to less than four days until Roy Halladay pitches against the Nationals in DC, after someone fairly important throws out the first pitch. Now, I don't mind our President being a White Sox fans, but if he starts rooting for the Nats then we'll have to talk.

I just got the baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated, and might have drooled a bit over the cover:

I learned from Tom Verducci that Roy Halladay might just be the greatest thing to hit Philadelphia since Ben Franklin. Halladay is "the Lance Armstrong of pitchers...the Peyton Manning of pitchers...the Babe Ruth of pitchers...the Cy Young of pitching..." Wow. And here I thought I was getting overexcited by this guy. I hope Tom Verducci didn't hyperventilate from excitement while writing this article. Not that I can blame him. Did you know Roy Halladay has thrown nine complete games in a season more times than all other active pitchers combined? You do now. Did you know Roy Halladay both struck out over 200 batters and had fewer walks than starts in his 2003 Cy Young season? You do now. I'll paraphrase what I've previously said: if you are a Phillies fan and not excited by this guy, you clearly have no capacity for human emotion and may be dead.

Looking ahead, the Grapefruit League is now finished, and of course there were ups and downs. I'm more happy with the ups (Polanco, the starting rotation, to name a few) than I am concerned with the downs (the bullpen, Ibanez, to name a few). Maybe that's holding a double standard on my part, but I'll wait for the regular season to confirm any conclusions I could draw from spring training. All I know is that it's going to be a fun year and I can't wait for Monday.

15 Days and Counting...

15 days from today at 1:05 PM, I (and many other excited fans) will probably get to see Roy Halladay take the mound for the first time as Phillie in a regular season game. You would think that there's been adequate time to prepare for this eventuality, and yet I know it's still going to send chills through Phillies fans everywhere. Luckily I'll be kept warm from these chills by my brand new Roy Halladay t-shirt. I imagine my outfit will match a few others in the DC crowd on April 5th.

 (Photo courtesy of mlb.com)

That same Roy Halladay did show his human side yesterday, giving up 3 runs, 6 hits, and 2 walks in five innings. He admitted that he was inconsistent and was still working out a few kinks in his mechanics in the process. If an outing like that is what an off day for Roy Halladay looks like, I think we'll be alright. On the other hand it would still be nice for him to go out on April 5th and absolutely destroy the Nationals line-up. Of course, beating the Nationals is more like winning an exhibition game against a nice upstart AAA team. Still if Roy Halladay pitches at even 75% of his potential in that game, it'll be damn fun to watch.

Moving back to my perennial blog topic, the resurgence of Cole Hamels, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly has a great piece up today discussing a rival team's scout's appreciation of Hamels' pitching so far in spring training. Of course, it's easy to let expectations get out of control with a team like the current crop of Phillies and the hype surrounding them going into the 2010 season. Personally, I like to get my expectations built up because it's more fun to feel great about every part of your team. If Cole Hamels doesn't pitch like he did in 2008, I'll take that in stride, but I'd rather start out with the hope that he will, and all signs I've seen point to that.

I'm going to keep this post brief, and start doing briefer posts from now on (unless events call for more) so I can update more regularly. As the season gets underway in a little over two weeks, I'll be trying to update on a daily basis, and I'll hope to add an interesting perspective to all things Phillies-related during the season. As The Phield pointed out, with so many Phillies blogs, it's hard for any one to distinguish itself. While I won't be able to provide any news you can't read elsewhere, I hope to at least inject a little insight and humor into the Phillies conversation. Maybe next year I'll get myself put in a better matchup than against The Fightins, who trounced me pretty well on Friday. Thanks to all of those of you who did vote for me. If The Phield is back next year, I hope to be back in it, with a stronger voice and a year's experience under my belt.

King Cole or Hollywood Hamels?

I've mentioned a few times over the course of this blog that I firmly believe Cole Hamels is due for a better year than 2009. However, the fact that he has shown us two different versions of himself in begs the question: which pitcher is Cole Hamels?

Warning: Prolonged exposure to photo on the right can cause health problems

(Right: Photo courtesy of the AP;
Left: Photo courtesy of phinallyphilly.com)

On the one hand we have King Cole, the pitcher who had a breakout year in 2007 with a 15-5 record, a 3.39 ERA, 177 K, and 43 BB in 183.1 innings. He followed that in 2008 with a 14-10 record, a 3.09 ERA, 196 K, and 53 BB in 227.1 innings in the regular season, plus a postseason pitching performance that ranked among baseball's best.

In case you wondering, Hamels is one of only 5 players (including some guy named Orel Hershiser) to win two postseason MVP awards in the same year, and one of only 10 pitchers (including the aforementioned Hershiser, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, and a few other guys you've heard of) at the time to win 4 games in one. Since then, one other guy has earned that latter distinction, though he currently seems pissed that his former team traded him this offseason.

Going into the 2009 season, Cole Hamels worked his way into being a Cy Young and fantasy favorite. He had a magical offseason otherwise, and by magical I mean doing many things not related to baseball. This included posing for the dangerously creepy picture above, and doing some weird ads, including this and a few fake sounding ads for Comcast that seem to have been removed from YouTube. In one of them he talked about how great it was to talk to his grandma in California. I'm all for that, but I'm still struggling to figure out what that has to do with working on his arm strength and breaking ball.

Despite the baseball hype and Charlie calling him the opening day starter, he left spring training with elbow tightness and ended up pitching in the fourth game of the year, at Colorado. He got off to a disappointing start, giving up 7 runs in 3.2 innings. He managed to bring his ERA down to 5.04 by his 6th start, and it continued to hover between 4 and 5 for the rest of the season. Not bad for an average pitcher, but not the Cole Hamels we had come to know.

We also saw a pitcher who seemed to get visibly fed up on the mound, culminating with a disheartening show of emotion in game 1 of the NLCS after Chase Utley botched a double play attempt. That and the following quote that got just a little bit of coverage: "I can't wait for it to end. It's been mentally draining... It's one of those things, a year in, you just can't wait for a fresh start." Whatever Hamels meant by this, and I believe it was blown out of proportion, he should have thought more carefully before saying anything like "I can't wait for it to end."

Hamels finished 2009 with a 10-11 record, a 4.32 ERA, 168 K, 43 BB in 193.2 regular season innings. His postseason included a forgettable 1-2 record and a 7.58 ERA.

Now I wrote in my very first blog entry many reasons why Hamels 2009 season wasn't as bad as it appeared, and that bad luck, including an unusually high BABIP and an ERA higher than his FIP, contributed to his mediocre numbers. However, I also said that the mental aspect of his game did not do him any favors. When  he started looking frustrated, as he did in game 1 of the NLCS, it became more likely that he would be pulled early, including in situations with runners on base that he was responsible for. I think that Cole Hamels could have simply worked to keep his physical game at the same high level that it had always been at, worked to improve his mental game, and he would have shown improvement over 2009. Instead he's done much more.

Cole Hamels commercial offseason and emotional season helped reinforceto the "Hollywood Hamels" image. The difference between the 2009 and 2010 offseasons for Hamels was stark, and spring training thus far has been no different from this time last year. Not only did he seriously work on, of all things, baseball during the winter, he worked on being more than just a two pitch pitcher with a good fastball and a great change-up. He's confident in his brand new cutter and seems to be more confident in a curveball that up until now he's pitched more to reassure himself than to get batters out. So far he's given up two earned runs, both solo homers to Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays. Even then he looked more confident on the mound than I've seen him in a long time. Don't just take my word for it though:

ESPN's Buster Olney: "I get asked all the time by friends for fantasy tips, and I've been telling them this over the last few days: Take Cole Hamels."

Fox Sport's Ken Rosenthal: "Scout on Phillies' Hamels: 'The way he is trending, the rest of the National League should be worried.'"

Paul Hagen also wrote an excellent piece in The Daily News comparing Hamels' career to that of Justin Verlander so far, and that's definitely worth a read. If Hamels has a Verlander-like bounce back this year and he's not even the Phillies' no. 1 starter, Ken Rosenthal's scout is damn right that the rest of the NL should be worried. A 1-2 punch of Doc Halladay and a returned to form King Cole could be as formidable as any in baseball. I didn't even cover the Verducci Effect in this post, which predicted a slump in 2009 for Hamels and a return to form in 2010.

That's just a brief portrait of Cole Hamels, a man who could still be the ace for a number of teams in baseball. With new pitches in hand and better emotional control, Hamels has the chance to put "Hollywood Hamels" to rest this season and assume the mantle of "King Cole" once again.

In other news today, The Phield released its previews of tomorrow's match-ups, including the one between yours truly and The Fightins. The Phield had the following to say about Phillibustering:

"Aaron’s Phillibustering has under 30 posts, and is not updated every day, but it’s a worthy entry to the tournament because of its content. He asks the tough questions, like 'Is Ryan Howard overrated?' (the answer is no) and throws some humor into the pot once in a while. Does it distinguish itself? No. But Aaron has a nice template here. Refine and fire. Refine and fire."

For a blog as young as this one, I'll take it. I'm definitely going to be updating more frequently once the season starts, ideally on a daily or more often basis. But as someone new to blogging and sportswriting, I'm flattered to get high marks on content. Remember to vote for me tomorrow and at least give The Fightins a Robert Morris-like scare.

Doc and Mini-Doc: A Tale of Two Pitchers

The Grapefruit League has now begun, with the Phillies playing their official spring training game against some team from the Bronx today. The name of that team escapes me right now, but I'm sure I'll remember it sometime this October. The funniest comment I saw today on that subject:

@djforbes77: #Phillies beat the #Yankees today, 3-2. So now it's 4-3, Yankees, in the best of 9 World Series....Go Phillies!!! You can do it!!!!

If only... Anyhow, much has already been made about the work ethic of Roy Halladay and the effect that it's had on Kyle Kendrick, from his early-rising dedication to his new red Halladay-esque beard. We got to see them both put on some good performances today:

Halladay: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Kendrick: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

Looks pretty similar, just like the men themselves:

(Left: Photo courtesy of the AP;
Right: Photo courtesy of philly.com)

I couldn't resist putting that photo of Kendrick in, but you'll have to take my word that he looks like a Mini-Halladay. He almost pitched like one too, but giving up that one hit in two innings probably caused him to go and cry because he didn't live up to his man crush's performance in the previous two innings. It's okay, they can always play a little more father-son catch:

(Photo courtesy of Yong Kim/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Maybe Kendrick purposely got himself sent down to the minors to further mirror Roy Halladay's career path. Kendrick already missed having a no hitter broken up on the last out in his second major league appearance, so he's got some catching up to do.

If Kendrick can gain greater confidence and better control than we've seen in the past, he can be a great anchor at the back of our rotation. Today's performance means that the battle for the 5th starter spot has officially begun. Jamie Moyer pitches tomorrow in the B game against Roy Halladay's former team, and people will undoubtedly be comparing his performance to Kendrick's today. The best thing that can happen for the team is that both pitchers perform above expectations and Charlie has a tough choice ahead of him. Ball's in your court, Jamie.

Back with our new ace, Harry Leroy Halladay, he showed some awesome control for this time of year. Hell, he showed some awesome control for any time of year. Out of 24 pitches, 21 were strikes, and almost none of those were over the middle of the plate. To paraphrase myself, if this guy doesn't make you excited yet as a Phillies fan, please consult a doctor.

If pictures are not enough for you, check out some video of Doc pitching today. If you feel butterflies in your stomach watching it, that's okay. It's a common side effect.

If you have ESPN Insider Access, see the initimable Jayson Stark's take on Roy Halladay's transition to his new team.

I almost forgot to include this, but I can't leave out phillygameday.com: 
Report: Halladay retires six Yankee batters on two pitches

An Electrifying Olympics Ends. Time for Some Baseball

Well, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics have ended, and I have to say that this year did not disappoint. I can easily say that I just witnessed one of the most unearthly athletic performances and one of the most incredible sports games of any I've ever seen. That would be Kim Yu-Na's figure skating performances and the U.S.-Canada gold medal hockey game. Yes, I did just say a figure skater gave one of the most unearthly athletic performances I've ever seen, and in the words of my friend Angel, "I don't care if that loses me man points." As for hockey, the U.S. may have gone home with silver in the end, but that game was something else. Ryan Miller is easily the MVP, and Sidney Crosby continues to do whatever the opposite is of "endear himself to" many American sports fans not from Pittsburgh.

(Top: Photo courtesy of The Chosun Ilbo/Yonhap; 

Bottom: Photo courtesty of Harry How/Getty Images)

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: baseball.

With the first actual spring training games of the 2010 Grapefruit League almost upon us, it's time for another look at what's been happening down in Clearwater and elsewhere in the world of baseball. Here's a quick rundown:

• Chan Ho Park said that "Philadelphia was the no. 1 choice." For more on that, see my previous entry, "The Changing of the Beard." I have nothing to add to what I wrote last week except that if that's what he wanted, he blew it even more than I originally thought.

• Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels threw some live batting practice Thursday and Friday, respectively. Hitters generally don't swing at pitches this early on, but one young upstart by the name of Domonic Brown decided to try. That went really well for him. Check out some video of that here.
  
  The other good news was that, out of 40 pitches Cole Hamels threw on Friday, 4 were curveballs and 5 were that cutter he's reportedly been working on. Not only did he throw them, but he impressed pitching coach Rich Dubee in the process, Looks like, both physically and mentally, he's well on his way to returning to good form.
  
  
• The pitching line-ups for the aforementioned Spring Training games have been announced. Some highlights: Roy Halladay against the Yankees this coming Thursday, Jamie Moyer in the B game against the Jays on Friday, and the chance to see what some of the up and coming prospects can do going into this year. I think it's fairly obvious by now why Roy Halladay is a highlight; I included Jamie Moyer because this 47-year-old man is pitching at all at this point after three, count 'em, three surgeries since we last saw him pitch. He's determined and resilient, if nothing else.
  
  
• Finally, Brad Lidge and J.C. Romero have both thrown off a mound, with little discomfort. This is great news, and signals that the back end of our bullpen might stop giving us all heart palpitations whenever one of them steps up to the mound. Plus, there won't be a TV show to jinx them this year.

 Of course, no post would be complete without some pictures of Roy Halladay to get excited for the coming season:

 

(Photos courtesty of Todd Zolecki)

That's all for now. Barring any unforeseen events, there will be actual baseball games (even if they're just exhibition games) to discuss by the next time I post. Watching Roy Halladay mow down some Yankees in four days will hopefully make for an exciting transition back into the baseball season.