May 1, 2011: Phillies Lose but the World Wins!

Cliff Lee was on the mound against the hated NY Mets and the game started off as many Phillies' game have started in 2011. Lee got into trouble early but got out of it. But Lee's pitch count was climbing. Finally in the 5th inning, the Mets broke the scoreless game to take a 1-0 lead. The game was actually quite boring and Cliff Lee was again not sharp. He was in serious pitch count trouble come the 5th inning. Then the Phillies started to get on base and even loaded the bases and then game got real exciting.

At 10:35, as the Phillies were trying to tie the game I got a text from a loved one that said, "Obama is making a speech in a few...But no one knows why or about what." Now, I have never told you all what my background is, you just know I love the Phightin Phils, but I have a degree in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration and love the world of politics. So to hear that the President is making a surprise speech this late at night, was very odd and I knew it was going to be momentous. I asked my loved one to stay up, as she was getting ready to go to sleep and she did. I thought to myself, maybe we were going to invade Libya or maybe the whole birth certificate thing was proven to be a fake and that Obama was going to resign. Never did the thought of Usama Bin Laden come to mind. Then she told me the reporters where reporting "a grave CIA op overseas" and they kept using the word "grave" then the name "Bin Laden." As all this is happening I am telling my section about the President's upcoming speech and that it is about Obama. People thought I was messing with them. Then at 10:41 PM, she sent "They got him." I said "Really?" She responded with "No other reason to call a press conf at 10:30" and she was right and as I thought, something momentous. As this is going on, the Phillies tied the game on a Ryan Howard R.B.I single, the crowd is going nuts and the word of Usama is spreading through the Bank quickly. You could see people checking their phones and then at 10:48 I got the following message "Bin Laden is dead" "We have body. DNA confirmation." As I am getting the message, thousands of others are getting the same message and the crowd goes wild. Chants of USA started ringing out through out the stadium. U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A section by section getting louder and louder! I got the chills, I am getting the chills just thinking about it and typing this! During this you could see the players had know idea what was going on, then the Phillies put up two Phans in Team USA jerseys and the crowd went nuts. No joke, I am getting the chills as I write this. If you didn't see it, check it out here:



For those that have read my blog before, you know I have talked about some of my historical moments attending Phillies Baseball, from Game 6 of the 1993 NLCS, Kevin Millwood's No Hitter, Game 5 of the 2008 World Series, to Roy Halladay's Post- Season No Hitter last October, now I have another moment that will live on forever in my heart. I was with 45,000 plus of my closest family members, the moment I found out the man who orchestrated the worst act of war on American soil in the history of our country was brought to justice and the world no longer had to fear Usama Bin Laden.

In closing I want to thank all the brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line everyday to allow me to write this message. I want to also thank President Bush for laying the groundwork for this great day and President Obama for keeping the country on course and getting Usama Bin Laden! To quote Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com "Bush gets the W and Obama gets the save."

Trade Lee!

Now that I have your attention! Of course I don't want to trade Cliff Lee, nor am I worried that Lee has an ERA over 4 (4.18), third highest on the team behind Big Joe Blanton (5.92) and David Herndon (8.22). Despite his 2-2 record and 4.18 ERA, Lee has eaten up innings (32.1) and is tied with Roy Halladay with 39 strikeouts. On the downside, Lee is tied with Blanton with allowing 16 runs, 15 of them earned and leads the team in home runs against with 4. But, it's only April and last night was only his 5 start. Lee will still be the pitcher we expect him to be and will locate his pitches better as the season moves forward. So for any Phan who are easily rattled, no reason to worry about Cliff Lee, he will be lights out come October as he has been the past 2 seasons.

The Phorgotten One

R2C2, Phantastic Phour, Phab Phour, Phour Aces...ect.....Lost in all the nicknames is one pitcher, big Joe Blanton. Since the signing of Cliff Lee, all the hype, all the expectations have rested on the shoulders of Roy Halladay, Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, but people forget about Blanton. Blanton, is not a scrub, nor would he be a 5 on a majority of major league rosters. Big Joe was a 1/2 when we acquired him from the Oakland A's. So far this season, Blanton hasn't pitched terribily, nor has he pitched extremely well. But he is going out there, keeping the game close and eating up innings. Blanton is 0-1 on the season, but the Phightins are 2-2 in games Joe has started. Joe has improved tremendously since allowing 7 earned runs in his first start of the season against the NY Mutts. In his last two starts, Blanton has gone 7 innings each time and has an ERA of 2.57, not to shabby for your #5 starter! After the signing of Lee, rumors were running wild all over the internet that Joe Blanton and his $17 million contract for the next 2 years were going to be traded. These rumors upset me quite a bit. I wanted Big Joe to stay and am very happy he is still here. Last year, the Phillies traded away Cliff Lee to save on salary, as well as replenish the farm system. As we all know, this was seen as a huge mistake. However looking back, we would not have Roy Oswalt if Cliff Lee has not been traded. I was hoping the Phillies Phront Office would repeat the mistake of trading a proven starter. Though I think Kyle Kendrick will be a decent starter in the future, for right now, I want Big Joe in the back of the rotation. Joe is a gamer, who knows how to win. Let's face it, Joe Blanton has something the 3/4 of R2C2 don't have, but hope to have soon, a WORLD SERIES RING!

Living up to the hype? A comparison of the 4 aces after 3 starts

Well hello Phils phans! I apologize for not being my die hard philly phanatical self since my first post on April 2nd, but what better day to return then on the Phanatic's birthday! Happy birthday Philly Phanatic!

Living up to the HYPE

With April 17th's game coming to a close, the four aces have completed 3 turns each against teams including the Astros, the Mets, the Braves, and the Marlins. Some may argue three of those teams are not poised to win and will remain below .500 the entire season. Regardless, teams play 162 games for a reason. Presuming that each of our starters carry an even load throughout the year, our four aces are poised to pitch approximately 32 games each. Therefore, the first 3 game comparison would represent about 1/11 of their total contribution. Now please keep in mind, this is a long season, and I certainly will not be holding my breath for every start one of our aces take the mound. I simply thought it would be interesting to do a 3 game comparison. Although I could have showcased a number of stats, I focused on the basics.

Here we go...

W L ERA CG IP H R ER BB SO
* Roy Halladay 2 0 1.23 1 22.0 17 3 3 3 22
* Cliff Lee 2 1 4.19 1 19.1 17 9 9 2 26
* Roy Oswalt 2 0 2.50 0 18.0 14 6 5 4 14
* Cole Hamels 1 1 4.32 0 16.2 18 8 8 5 18

Clearly Roy Halladay continues to reign as the true staff ace. If the Phillies didn't wait til the 9th inning of game 1 against the Astros to put together their offense, Roy would be 3 and 0. Regardless, the stats speak about how under the radar Roy Oswalt has been. You've heard a great deal about Halladay and Lee in the national media, but Oswalt has done well out of the gate. For this reason alone, Roy's back pain becomes something to keep an eye on. Fortunately, according to comments made earlier today, he expects to be ready to go on Thursday as scheduled for his next start. However, Roy Oswalt's durability will be on the minds of the Phillies coaching staff, especially in these colder April nights. Maybe that means he pitches 5 or 6 innings instead of 7. Either way, Oswalt is just as important to this rotation as Halladay or Lee.

When analyzing the first 3 games, it's also important to touch on the 2008 World Series MVP, Mr. Hollywood, Cole Hamels. To his credit, he hasn't pitched poorly to this point. Yes, he had a really bad start against the Mets. But in his second start of the season, he dominated the Nationals, and today, he looked good through 6 innings. He hit a snag in the 7th, leading to two runs, and an inability to secure his second win of the season. Ironically, this is nothing new... My friend, Tamer G (this website's creator) and I often joke about Cole. The reason being, almost every start, he is guaranteed to have one bad inning. That inning we typically label the "Quintessential Cole" inning. Quintessence is defined as "the pure and concentrated essence of a substance," or "the most perfect embodiment of something." The irony is that the "Quintessential Cole" inning usually results from his psyche getting rattled. And it doesn't take much. Our use of the term is a play on words and pokes fun at Cole's lack of concentration resulting in his inability to embody a true ace. Earlier today, the quintessential Cole inning was clearly the 7th, but he was fortunate in that he didn't let it get out of control (which can happen from time to time with him). So from this point forward this season, consider yourself warned. And be sure to look for the"Quintessential Cole" inning during each of his starts.

Pocket Aces

How awesome have the last two nights been? Watching Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee completely baffle the Washington Nationals was just incredible for me as a phan with high hopes for the 2011 season. It was great to see Roy and Cliff in just their 3rd start of the year look like they were in mid season form. Granted it was only the Washington Nationals, it was still fun to watch.

I especially loved how Phillies Phan took over Rightfield and showed WERTHless what we think of him...BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Here WERTHless thought he was going to be embraced for his contributions to our previous successes. I think he realizes now, he probably should have kept his trap shut. I for one, can't wait till I am in attendance for a Nationals game, because I fully intend to should WERTHless how much I miss him, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Anyone else get much pleasure from WERTHless look stupid in his at bats against Halladay and Lee? I loved it! Sure he won game 1 against Joe Blanton, but we got the last laugh in completely dominated then next two games.

It was great to see Lee bounce back from his second start in Atlanta with such as dominating performance tonight. Lee struck out 12, at one point he had 5 in a row,
gave up only 3 hits in his complete game shutout. This on the night after Halladay carried a shutout into the 9th, where he surrendered 2 run but still getting a complete game victory. These back to back complete games gave the Phillies their first back to back complete games since May 1999 when Paul Byrd and Curt Schilling did it. Fasten your seatbelts Phillies Phan! This 2011 Phillies team is going to take us on a wonderful and excited ride that will hopefully end with another parade down Board Street into another Stadium Rally!

LET'S GO PHIGHTIN' PHILS!!!

A look back at the Phirst Week

Phirst full week of the Phillies 2011 season is in the books. In the phirst 9 games, the Phightins' are 7-2. In the phirst 9 game, the Phab Phour, R2C2, Phantastic Phour, or whatever you want to call them plus Joe Blanton, have gone 5-2, with 49.1 innings pitched, 52 K's, and only 10 walks. Cole Hamels, Blanton, Cliff Lee have all had one bad outing, but resulted in only 2 losses. Hamels had a disastrous start to the 2011 against the Mutts, going 2.2 innings, giving up 7 hits and 6 runs, which resulted in an E.R.A. of 20.25. Hamels then redeemed himself today with a masterful outing against the Braves. Cole went 7 innings, giving up only 4 hits, 1 walk and had 8 strikeouts! Cole's incredible performance dropped his E.R.A down to 5.59.

The forgotten one, Blanton opened his season on Wednesday night against the Mutts. Big Joe, looked great to start the game, but quickly came unglued. The Phillies bats, the true story of the phirst week, gave Blanton a 7-0 lead, which was quickly erased in the 4th and 5th innings. Blanton only survived 4.1, allowing 7 runs (5 in the 5th) on 10 hits, but had 6 k's. Despite blowing a 7-0 lead, the Phightins' phought back and score 2 runs in the the bottom of the 5th giving the Phils the lead phor good. Cliff Lee followed his return home to Philadelphia with a game he would like to forget against the Braves. Lee only lasted 3.1, surrendering 6 runs on 10 hits, but only had 1 walk.

Despite all the hype around the Phillies Starting Rotation, the biggest concern for the Phillies was there offense. I love listening to MLB on XM, when I am not listening to Howard Stern (Baba Booey, Baba Booey) and enjoy calling in. There was a consistent theme to the weeks leading up to the start of the season in regards to the Phillies and that was could the offense score runs. In 2008, we won because of timely hitting. In 2009, we lost the World Series because we were out hit and the same holds true for 2010 NLCS. The bats were silent in both those series, resulting in no champagne to end the season. So the baseball pundits have every right to voice their concerns for the Phillies offense, especially when arguably their best player Chase Utley was hurt indefinitely.

Well, one week before the season started, this topic was once again the focus and they were looking for callers, so I called in. I started off by agreeing with them that the lost of Utley was a concern and pointed out the points I just stated about the past three postseasons, but followed with that the Phillies have enough heart and talent to hold them till Utley returns. I pointed out that in 2010, 6 of 8 starters spent time on the DL, including Utley and despite that, the Phillies led the league in wins for the first time in the history of the franchise. I ended my point by saying that the bats would finally bounce back and that Rollins would turn it around, as would Ibanez and that Ben Fransisco would make everyone forget the previous WERTHless rightfielder. I was praised for the call, but they joked about my comment about Big Ben, which was expected and the ended the segment with if the bats turn it around and if Utley gets back.

Which leads me to the phirst 9 games. The Phillies Achilles heal scored a messily 59 runs in the phirst 9 games. Going into today, the Phillies lead the league in runs scored over the Reds who are in second with 53 runsand have already scored 4 today (they are in the 2nd inning at the time of me writing) and Diamondbacks are 3rd with only 34 runs. Following today's game, 7 of the Phillies starting 8 are batting over .300, combined for team average of .334. They have 8 homeruns and if weren't for the wind at the Bank, Big Ben would have added 2 more and 58 RBI's. So it is safe to say, that through 9 games, the offense is alive and well. There are still 153 game to go and a lot can happen, but in the phirst 9 games, the Phightin Phils have given us much to cheer for and many reasons to BELIEVE! LET'S GO PHIGHTIN' PHILS!!!

The Return of Cliff Lee

As mentioned in my previous post, December 13, 2010 was on of the craziest nights of Phillies Offseason history. As we all know, On December 13th, Cliff Lee decided to come back to Philadelphia and pitch in, what is regarded on paper, one of the best pitching staffs in history consisting of Cy Young Award Winners Roy Halladay(2003,2010) and Cliff Lee (2008); 2008 NLCS and WS MVP, Cole Hamels, Multiple Cy Young Award Top 5 finisher, Roy Oswalt, and Joe Blanton, who on another team could be a 1 or a 2. Well since that day, Philadelphia has been energized with visions of an incredible season.

On Opening Day, Roy Halladay and the Phillies offense didn't disappoint as they sent what remained of the sellout crowd home with a walk off win in the bottom of 9th. But now it was time for Cliff Lee to take the mound. The crowd in attendance last night was pumped for Cliff Lee. I was in attendance in 2009, when Cliff made his first home debut with the Phightins, and again last night for his return back to Philadelphia. As before every game, the starting lineups where announced, and as it was time to announce: "Batting 9th and Pitching, Number 33, Cliff Lee" the sellout crowd rose to their feet and welcomed back Cliff with one of the loudest standing ovations I have ever seen in Philadelphia. It was so loud in the stadium, you couldn't ever hear Cliff get announced. The place was nuts!

Well, Cliff didn't disappoint. He carried a no hitter through 3 and had the crowd energized through his 7 innings. Cliff gave up 3 runs, 4 hits but fanned 11 in his first win of 2011 season. It was excited throughout the game, even as the temperatures dropped, nothing would put a damper on the return of Cliff Lee!