Phillies host Yankees Sunday in broadcast opener

More importantly, it’s time to belly up to the bar for another season of Beerleaguer in-game discussion. Game starts at 1:05 p.m EST.

It’s baseball time again, and for readers of this space, time to get back to what we do best, and that's chat about Howard, Cholly, the Sausage Assassin, Weird Beard, Donut Taster, that thing on Wheeler's head, your favorite Bobby Scales fantasy, the human trash acquired in the Abreu deal. Whatever. The batboys could scrimmage Bill Conlin and the media all-stars and it wouldn’t matter. Beerleaguer is running well below Typepad's alloted monthly bandwidth, so the floor is your's. I hope the missing posters return: Maverick; SamDracula; Ed; Bloodstripes, etc. All except the bored guy who kept posting as Bailey, the exotic dancer from Show 'n Tel.

First up: An early March treat when the hometown nine entertain A-Rod, Jeter and that whole circus. It’s the first of two consecutive televised games against the Yanks, the other is on March 17, also at 1:05 p.m. And good news for out-of-market readers: ESPN is slated to broadcast back-to-back weekday games March 22 and 23, which is good news if you work in a home office. Here’s the complete EST spring schedule.

March 4, Yankees at Phillies, CSN, 1:05 p.m.
March 17, Yankees at Phillies, CSN, 1:05 p.m.
March 18, Devil Rays at Phillies (ss), CW, 1:05 p.m.
March 22, Red Sox at Phillies, ESPN, 1:05 p.m.
March 23, Braves at Phillies, ESPN, 1:05 p.m.
March 25, Twins at Phillies, CSN, 1:05 p.m.
March 31, Red Sox at Phillies (From CBP), CW, 1:05 p.m.

Comments

[ignotia]

bailey the exotic from show n tel. would not post on this board, i would know i worked at show n tel for 10 years and know bailey and i dont think she likes sports that much

ignotia

[RickSchuBlues]

Wow...

[Inky's cousin]

Anybody seen this website yet? We're going to hit the number this year, because there's no chance of us going 119-43.

http://www.celebrate10000.com/home.asp

[ae]

time to warm up my Alt+Tab reflexes for work...

[clout]

I was really enjoying the debate between RSB and ae on Ron Santo and the HOF on the previous thread. I'm not sure where I come down on the issue of position. Should Dick Allen be penalized because he was a bad fielder who played several different positions? Does that make him a worse baseball player than Ron Santo? Their offensive numbers are quite similar (Allen's BA and SLG were higher) and they played in the same years. I'd put 'em both in.

[ae]

anything's better than arguing about Bobby Abreu for the 6549871238th time...

[Mike H.]

I find Hall entry a slippery slope. You start talking about Allen and Santo, and then Dave Kingman, Dale Murphy, and the Bull enter the conversation. Then again, the 70s and 80s are really underrepresented (and will be when the guys who played in the 90s and 2000s are in.) The best of their time win the MVP and the best of all time go into the Hall.

[The Reverend]

Von Hayes shold be in the HOF. No arguments needed, we all know it's true.

[BloodStripes]

I've been checking in everyday reading all the posts. Have enjoyed them all. Just sitting quite for a while. Your doing the Phils proud J. Top work. Ain't no better source for Phillies information.

Looking forward to the season and the Beerleaguer game threads.

Go Phillies!!!

[GM-Carson]

BloodStripes- you lying cheating bastard!...just kidding.

Anyway- I'm excited for some games to be played, even if they don't truly count. Gives me material at the least.

[Tim from Williamsport]

Ain't no party like a Weitzel party......

My friend named his car weird beard before, don't know what reference that is to the Phils but I liked it.

So I am going to make a bold prediction and say Burrell starts off hitting .300 for April AND May then fizzle.

[GM-Carson]

Tim- "Weird Beard" was the President Rick White from last season's bullpen.

Burrell for MVP...j/k.

[clout]

Hey GM-Carson, I know you do the Pirates on your site, so I have a question for ya: Freddy Sanchez, fluke or real deal?

[Mike]

Well, I am in Rome for school this semester, and I've been reading every post, but not really commenting because I didn't want to get too into it. Now that they're back with games on TV, I'm feeling a little homesick. I can appreciate soccer, but a 0-0 draw between Roma and Lyon doesn't have quite the excitement of a walkoff from Chase or Ryan.

[GM-Carson]

Clout- I like Freddy Sanchez, but I do not expect ol' club foot to be the batting leader again. He's a .290-.310 hitter, which is good, but offers little power, although he is a double machine. The Pirates are considering moving him to 2nd, but Jose Castillo will re-earn his job there and Sanchez will stay at 3rd. I look at him as a good 2 or 3 whole hitter because he makes excellent contact as well.

[AWH]

clout, Santo and Allen are the type of marginal players that don't belong in the Hall. The only additional argument for Allen is that he did win an MVP award. But so did many players who don't belong.

Of course if you adjust their numbers for the kind of pitching THEY faced in the '60s when ERAs and scoring were much lower, the pitching mound was 5 inches higher, and expansion and the lure of other sports hadn't diluted the talent level, then maybe they, and a lot of other players, probably belong.

Just look at the HR/G #s and compare them to the steroid era, then adjust the steroid boys #s downward and you can make a case that very few of the 'roid boys of summer will merit consideration.

Then again, what about pitchers? How do you honestly compare Don Drysdale or Bob Gibson to Roger Clemens or Greg Maddux when the older guys were pitching off a mound that was higher?

My point in all this is to state the obvious, that Hall merit is subjective. Santo and Allen were not voted in by the writers or the vets, a great deal of whom saw them play every day.

BTW, I have a question regarding the lowering of the pitching mound. Is there any work being done as to whether the incidence of pitchers' arm injuries have risen since then? Does a lower mound cause more strain on a pitchers arm? Any one know?

[ae]

Mike H. - that's ridiculous. Kingman and Luzinski are not in the same class as Santo or Allen. I can't even understand why you would bring them up as comparable players - two incredibly poor fielders, one who literally could not do anything except hit HR and one who only had four great seasons.

I do think Murphy is at least worth considering, but his peak was too short. although he did win back-to-back MVPs, so by your criteria, I guess he's one of the best of his time?

[ae]

I love that Santo is a "marginal player." AWH, I asked this on the last page, but where do you rank Santo among all 3B of all time? by what standard is one of the top fraction of a percent of 3B in over a century of organized baseball "marginal"?

[AWH]

I beg your pardon. I meant to write "marginal HOFer at best".

[AWH]

Also, I don't buy Mike H's "UNDERREPRESENTED" argument. Smacks too much like affirmitive action. By that criteria if MLB goes through a down peroid talent wise, those players merit induction just because they happened to play "at that time".

[ae]

I agree AWH, and that's why Bill Nicholson and Bob Elliott aren't in the Hall, despite being two of the best hitters of the 1940s - the only reason they rank highly in the decade is that Williams, Musial, Dimaggio, Greenberg, etc. were serving for 2-3 years.

but there's a difference between a down period in terms of talent and a down period in the offensive production of the entire league. when Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 average, it's not because there weren't good hitters in the AL in 1968 (Frank Howard, Frank Robinson, Tony Oliva, Willie Horton), it's because offense in the late 1960s was down everywhere.

we don't disqualify pitchers in 2006 for comparatively astronomical HR rates and we don't disqualify hitters in 2006 for striking out 150 times. you make a correction for the era of baseball they play in. it's the same for a guy like Santo or Allen - and the fact that their numbers look so good even considering the era they played in says something.

[enrico]

Looks like Hamels and Segovia will be throwing on Sunday. That's from Segovia's online journal he's keeping at reading phillies. I linked to it this am.

[J. Weitzel]

Thanks, enrico - I was hoping to find that information today.

[clout]

ae, AWH: If I were an HOF elector, my criteria would be based on two things: What I saw of the player's performance and how his performance ranked in comparison to the rest of the league. The elite players consistently outperform the league average and that's what should be looked at. Is he +15 in a variety of categories or +5? Just how high above league average was the player? That would help determine my vote.

You really can't compare eras and shouldn't try. Obviously .301 in 1968 is radically different than .301 today.

[joe]

Pitching is not the same as it was during the Gibson era.

There are 3 major influences:

1. The lowering of the mound

2. Dilution of talent from expansion

3. Rules changes to prevent pitchers from knocking batters off the plate.

I'm all for raising the mound, and letting pitchers bring chin music again.

[ae]

John Sickels of the Minor League Ball blog is set to release a "crystal ball" (his educated guess at a player's possible career path based on minor/major league history) for Cole Hamels today. his predictions are always worth checking out and should inspire some interesting discussion.

[Jim]

I thought I read somewhere about tonight's game with FSU being on the radio. You'd think the link would be published again in the run-up to the game, though, right? No such luck. Anybody have any insight?

[Josh M]

Now this is no guarantee, but when I go to MLB.TV, to which I as an out-of-market Phillies fan am subscribed, there is a little clickable television icon next to every spring training game for February 28, including the Phillies vs. FSU game. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high... Twins/BoSox is showing for sure on MLB.TV this evening, and hopefully I'll get Tigers/Mets and Fish/Cards.

[GM-Carson]

With 6 starters that need work this spring and a bullpen that needs sorted out, it will be interesting to see how Manuel and staff get the guys their work. I'm not concerned that Hamels, Myers, Alfonseca, and others won't get innings, I'm just curious how Manuel plans to go about it, whether he tips his hand or not on the direction of how the organization see the pitching staff shaping up.

[Steve Jeltz]

I'm going to the game tonight so I'll try to provide a mini-report tomorrow. Be forewarned though: besides being a Phillies fan I double as an FSU alumnus and this is shaping up as quite the "social" event for all the FSU people in the area. I can't guarantee any in-depth analysis past the first couple innings.

[ae]

Hamels projection from Minor League Ball: here

[Tim]

since i had to ask for the link the other day i'll post it today.

http://seminoles.cstv.com/multimedia/baseball2007.html

i can't wait.

[GM-Carson]

AE- that link was depressing. If Hamels career turns out like that I will be shocked.

[GM-Carson]

From FoxSports- "First-base coach Davey Lopes has been working with the Phillies on baserunning all spring. He worked with Pat Burrell individually for a short time yesterday."

I'm saying it here and now, Burrell will steal 1, ONE, UNO base this season...and that's an improvement!

[enrico]

Thought some of you might enjoy this one, not likely reported on many places: Jimmy Rollins: Hip Hop Mogul.

[ae]

Carson, it's depressing, but I don't think it's all that unlikely. (and I like Hamels and hope his real career bears no resemblance, natch.)

[clout]

ae, Carson: Looks like a catastrophic arm injury after his 15-12 season ruined him. And he showed so much promise.