Exciting start to Spring Training

The phrist two weeks of spring training are in the books and I'm very impressed with the early play of our Phightin Phils.  Yes I know its only spring training and yes I know it doesn't mean anything, but reality, it means one very important thing....HOPE.

Real hope in Philadelphia has been missing for many years now.  We hoped Ryan Howard would recover, we hoped Dominic Brown would heat up like in May of 2013, hope that Cliff Lee would be healthy; hope that we could catch lightning in a bottle and squeeze out one more good season with the stars of that brought us so much joy and phun.  But as we all know that didn't happen.  We did happen is we finally saw the rebuild needed to bring on the next chapter of our proud franchise.  The McPhail/Klentak era is off to a good start.  Our new leadership has restored hope, all be it early.  The pharm system has the most top 100 in MLB, and ranked 7th in baseball.  Just a year ago, the Phightins were ranked 25th.  Once again, the recurring theme of this article is one thing HOPE.  

In the phrist two weeks we have seen the Phillies play very well.  They have the second best record in the Grapefruit league, just .5 behind the Bluejays.  

Maikel Franco is picking up right where he left off.  In 26 at bats, he has 9 hits, 4 home runs, 10 rbis and slugging percentage of .808. 

Darin Ruf is also off to a great start.  He is making his case to take over the every day phrist base job of Ryan Howard.  So far this spring Ruf has 8 hits, 3 homers, 10 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .741 in 27 at bats.

 

Caser Hernandez is bouncing back nicely from injury with a .345 batting average in 29 at bats with 3 stolen bases.

The excitement doesn't end with these three.  Cameron Rupp is clearly on track to have to torch passed to him by Chooch as our new everyday catcher.  Rupp is showing some power with 2 home runs out of his 6 hits and 14 at bats for a slugging percentage of 1.000.  Peter Bourjos is have batting over ,400 with  3 doubles and 9 hits to make his case to be one of the starting outfielders.  

Again, its only spring training, but its exciting and its filled with hope.  Hope is what should drive the Phans to the ballpark this season, hope is what should make us believe that great days at the ballpark will be here sooner than later.  The young team is out to prove something and they have one thing in common with us...

HOPE

Follow the 700level's lead and make Nationals fans get what they deserve!

http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/700-level/help-nationals-fans-get-jonathan-papelbon-bobblehead

The 700Level has a great idea.  They are urging Phillies Phans to help the Nationals with their great promotion...picking their September 9th Fan Choice Bobblehead.   I agree with their writer, Enrico Campitelli that we should troll the Nationals and vote for none other than All Time Phillies saves leader Jonathan Papelbon.

Here is the link to vote http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/fan_forum/fanchoice.jsp?partnerId=as_mlb_20160310_59180036&adbid=707945538310709248&adbpl=tw&adbpr=39419180  You can click refresh and vote 10x.  Let's give National fans what the deserve; a take home giveaway of the crotch grabbing, throat choking, straight cash baby. Voting ends tomorrow at 10:00am!

 No better way for us to show our appreciation for:

and

Thank you to the 700level for this great idea.

Phrist Spring Training Game - We are back in business at Everybody Hits!

Good Morning Phillies Phans!

Today is a great day for all Phillies Phans, today is the day we phinally get to look to the phuture of the franchise and once again have true hope that the Phightin Phils will return to glory once again soon.

In 2015, the Phillies phinally moved from the past and looked to the phuture by training away the rest of the championship but two and restocked the pharm system with high valued prospects to drive the Phillies from the MLB cellar to respectability and contention and high hopes for a third Championship in Phillies history.

After last year's miserable season, one that had zero excitement, we now have something to look phorward to.  We will contend this year....probably not.  Will it be exciting to watch our new younger core...no doubt.  As a phan, can we not be excited for a phull season, barring injury, of our everyday players Maikel Franco, Peter Bourjos, Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera and our young pitching staff of lead by Aaron Nola, Jeremy Hellickson, Adam Morgan and Jerad Eickhoff.  Plus there is a lot of potential in the Pharm system with players like J.P. Crawford, Nick Williams, Roman Quinn and Jorge Alfaro.  

The Phillies might not win a lot of games in 2016, but they will be 100% more phun to watch than the 2015 product.  It will be exciting to watch the Phillies phuture unfolding before our eyes.  It will be phun to have to have hope and dreams of a championship again.  It will be phun to watch these young players play with a phire we haven't seen since we won in 2008.  This team will play with hunger, this team will play with excitement, this team will be PHUN!

The 2016 team motto should be having Phun at the ballpark again!

Enjoy the 2016 season, I know I will.

Happy Phirst Day of Spring Training Phans!

Phuture Ace and Cy Young? Aaron Nola

Phutre All Star and MVP?  Maikel Franco

You're Fired!

Ruben Amaro Trump has a message for 

Chris Wheeler and "The Sarge" Gary Matthews

What a shame, the Hall of Fame is without the Home-run King,

Well another year has gone by and another year the Baseball Writers' Association of America has disappointment me as a fan of the game.  Yes Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas deserve to be elected into to Hall of Fame, there is no question of that.  But where the 571 Baseball Writers' have it all wrong is they have decided to be the judge and jury for players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire.   This morning I was listening to MLB on XM and they were doing around the diamond and I heard one of the voting members talk about the innocent until proven guilty argument for these guy and he said, well that is the US judicial system, we don't have to adhere to that.  I find this completely disgusting.  Every one deserves the benefit of the doubt until that doubt is taken away.  These sportswriters are depriving me, a baseball fan of over 30 years the opportunity of seeing the some of the great players I grew up watching enshrined into the Hall of Fame.


First, Barry Bonds...Bonds was one of the most feared, if not the most feared hitters of the 90's and 00's.  He was probably the best player to walk on a diamond in the last 50 years!

Watching him chase Hank Aaron was truly amazing to watch as a fan.  I was rooting for him to do it.  In fact, I was one of the few who would give him a standing ovation at Citizens Bank Park after he homered.  I knew watching him was special and I enjoyed every minute of it.

What really grinds my gears is that the Baseball Writers had no problem voting him a 7 time NL MVP.  So despite the allegations during his playing days, these same arrogant morons voted for Bonds, but when it comes time to elect the Home Run King, he only get's 34.7% of the vote.

Look at Bonds' accomplishments (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Records held

• Home runs in a single season (73), 2001
• Home runs (career) (762)
• Home runs against different pitchers (449)
• Consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs (13), 1992–2004
• Slugging percentage in a single season (.863), 2001
• Consecutive seasons with .600 slugging percentage or higher (8), 1998–2005
• On-base percentage in a single season (.609), 2004
• Walks in a single season (232), 2004
• Intentional walks in a single season (120), 2004
• Consecutive games with a walk (18)
• MVP awards (7—closest competitors trail with 3), 1990, 1992–93, 2001–04
• Consecutive MVP awards (4), 2001–04
• National League Player of the Month selections (13—2nd place: 8 – Frank Thomas; 2nd place (N.L.) – George Foster, Pete Rose and Dale Murphy)
• Oldest player (age 38) to win the National League batting title (.370) for the first time, 2002

Records shared

• Consecutive plate appearances with a walk (7)
• Consecutive plate appearances reaching base (15)
• Tied with his father, Bobby, for most seasons with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases (5) and are the only father-son members of the 30–30 club
• Home runs in a single post-season (8), 2002

Other accomplishments

• 7-time Baseball America NL All-Star (1993, 1998, 2000–04)
• 3-Time Major League Player of the Year (1990, 2001, 2004)
• 3-Time Baseball America MLB Player of the Year (2001, 2003–04)
• 8-Time Gold Glove winner for NL Outfielder (1990–94, 1996–98).
• 12-Time Silver Slugger winner for NL Outfielder (1990–94, 1996–97, 2000–04)
• 14-time All-Star (1990, 1992–98, 2000–04, 2007)

Looking at the accomplishments of Barry Bonds, how do you NOT vote him into the Hall of Fame!  

Tomorrow, I will give my case for another notable Hall of Fame Snub...Mark McGwire!


Please feel free comment below with your opinions on Barry Bonds.  I would love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading.

Tanaka or Bust?

In my last post, I focused on a salary comparison between the 2008 and 2014 Phillies. With pitchers and catchers reporting to Clearwater in 37 days, it begins to raise questions about what remains in the free agent period. Keep in mind, the Phillies have already spent $140.5 million on ten players through this date (i.e., Howard, Lee, Hamels, Utley, Papelbon, Rollins, Ruiz, Byrd, Adams, and Hernandez)*. Additional players that have been newly signed and will be on roster or are returning and are guaranteed to be on the opening day roster, per Ruben Amaro, Jr., include:

> Miguel Gonzalez (SP) = $4.0 million

> Wil Nieves (C) = $1.125 million

> Brad Lincoln (RP) = $500,000. 

> Domonic Brown (LF) = $500,000.

> Cody Asche (Util) = $500,000.

Brings overall team salary to $147.125 for 15 players


The Phillies also have five arbitration-eligible players** including:

> Kyle Kendrick (SP) = $6.7 million

> Antonio Bastardo (RP) = $2.0 million

> John Mayberry (Util) = $1.7 million

> Ben Revere (CF) = $1.5 million

> Kevin Frandsen (Util) = $1.3 million

Would bring overall team salary to $160.325 for 20 players

So, as much as a number of Philly hopefuls are wondering, it doesn't seem an attempt at Masahiro Tanaka will unfold. Granted, the Phillies could use a boost in the rotation. However, if we consider the following scenario, we begin to understand Ruben's thinking heading into the season. Here is a breakdown of other cost considerations and other players that will make the roster as the season progresses resulting in their salary being added to the overall payroll:

> player bonuses (e.g., All Star, incentives, etc.) = $2 million

> payroll flexibility for mid-season pick-ups = $6 million

> Jake Diekman (RP) = $500,000.

> Jonathan Pettibone (SP) = $500,000.

> Michael Stutes (RP) = $500,000.

> Freddy Galvis (Util) = $500,000.

> Darin Ruf (Util) = $500,000.

Would bring overall team salary to $170.825 million for 25 players and normal season costs

At this point in the offseason, the only certainty is that Ruben has not completed all of his roster moves. Traditionally, RAJ likes to make a few minor moves at the end of this month, but only a Magic 8 ball could tell you what specifically the management is thinking. Could Ruben Amaro, Jr. make a push to sign Tanaka without going over the salary cap? Yes, based on an anticipated annual salary of $17 million per season. Would signing Tanaka put the Phillies over the salary cap? It is decidedly so. And based on the adopted Boston Red Sox management logic (i.e., short-term contracts and a budget that does not flirt with the salary cap), Amaro and Montgomery have been preaching, it almost is a guarantee the only remaining moves to be made are minor ones. In fact, I'm speculating that where there is smoke there is fire, and the rumors related to a reunion with former closer Ryan Madson will lead to an incentive laden deal and a return to the Phillies bullpen. If Madson is healthy, then Papelbon will once again be dangled at the trade deadline. Simply put, Ruben has considered clearing payroll via trade, but it simply has not played out. So for the time being, be content with supporting player type transactions, keep your fingers crossed that players are still interested in playing in Philadelphia, and hope for addition by subtraction that will clear up some payroll issues that Ruben has created since taking the helm in November 2008.

*per Baseball Prospectus

**estimated salaries per MLB Trade Rumors

What's the Phanatic Say?

I found this to be quite amusing, I hope you do too!

37 days till Pitchers and Catchers!