Phils fall to Bucs in opener; Ruiz inks split deal

The Phillies reached agreement with catcher Carlos Ruiz on a split contract that will pay him $475,000 in the Major Leagues and $255,000 in the Minor Leagues, according to the team Web site.

The deal means everyone is now signed. Catchers Chris Coste and Ronny Paulino also signed split deals recently. Meanwhile in Bradenton, the Pirates knocked around the Phillies' bullpen in defeating the hometown nine 8-2 this afternoon. What a bunch of bums. Am I right? Reliever Joe Bisenius, who is not on included on my list of players awaiting special artwork, took the loss. Jamie Moyer pitched two shutout innings, walking a pair, striking out a pair and allowing a hit. Raul Ibanez and John Mayberry Jr. accounted for the Phillies’ scoring with a pair of RBI hits. Outfielder Jeremy Slayden, a guy I could easily see becoming the token “head turner” of spring training, contributed a pair of hits.

Comments

[NEPP]

Slayden will have to hit over .400 for them to even think about him in a serious manner...ashame he's a lefty, otherwise he might have a shot.

[thephaithful]

From Last Thread:

Today ended the drawing for Opening Night tickets. They have tomorrow listed as the time of the drawing. You think they will start emailing out the winners right away?

If so, whenever someone gets an e-mail that they did/didn't win, could you post? My personal e-mail is blocked at work so i have to go through other devices to check, so i dont want to miss out if I recieve a winning e-mail and then blow it by not responding in time (like my friend for NLCS Tickets).

Thanks.

[NEPP]

3B Andy Marte completely cleared waivers...talk about a fall from grace.

[Bob]

Couldn't be on the blog with other Bl's today, which I regret, but I did have the game on the radio, and it was sure great to hear baseball again! Also not bad that it coincided with the first somewhat warm, sunny day we've had for a while.

Great to be back in the game!

[curt]

Interesting that even Ruiz got stuck with a split deal. With 4 legit candidates and 2 slots, I'm predicting 10000 posts in the next 7 months regarding who should be making the ML paychecks.

[AWH]

Phils lose ST opener.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

NEPP, Marte is going to have to do A LOT to rebuild his value.

[AWH]

curt. obviously the club wants to have the flexibility to send any one thethe catchers down.

As all three still have options, they really had no choice but to agree.

Also, it sends a subtle message to all three that there is real competition for the two jobs.

It tells me that if Paulino proves himself to be a good defensive catcher, that the Phils will not tolerate a .217 average from Chooch this season, despite the fact that he was the starter on the WFC.

That would mean Chooch would have to compete for the backup spot with Coste, and so far, at least, Coste has proven he has a better stick than Chooch.

So, we'll see how much they will emphasize defense, and how the whole thing plays out.

Regardless, they may all be keeping Marson's spot warm until he's ready.

Fortunately for the Phils, they have depth at the position. Texas also appears to have similar depth, but with players who probably have more upside.

Still, there are many teams looking for catching help and/or depth, so any one of the three couls be traded if the Phils could get an adequate return.

IMO, the one with the most trade value right now is Chooch.

It will be fun to watch.

[Andy]

AWH - And even Marson is keeping D'Arnaud's place warm.

[mm]

I don't really think chooch is any danger of losing his job. At the end of the day, the most important consideration should be what catcher the pitching staff feels the most comfortable with. I would say chooch leads that race by a mile. Lidge, is a great example: his sliders got quite a bit of break to it, when he puts it down, it drops of the table pretty hard, and chooch handles it perfectly every time.

Considering the phils season last year had more to do with pitching than the offense(which is solid of course), i don't really care how much offensive production i'm getting out of the eigth spot in the lineup if it means defering to the guy who handles the staff the best. Also, he's had clutch hits, especially in the playoffs, so i think we may be making a molehill out of nothing.

Now, if paulino hits well in ST, i do see coste being demoted. His story(coste's) is a great one, but, if theres somneone better, then sorry but, so long Coste.

[mm]

"mole hill out of nothing". I mean, "A mountain out of a molehill".

It seems my use of metaphor is just as adept as Dubya's today

[Len39]

This team sucks. Season is over. They can't even beat the Pirates.

I'm watching the Marlins 30 In 30 show on MLB Network. I guess their pitching is better than I realized. Hanley batting 3rd will be a monster and perhaps the most dynamic offensive force in the NL. If Maybin delivers they'll have a scary, pain-in-the-neck top of the order.

[Pops]

If Maybin produces.... Didn't he just turn 21?

[EastFallowfield]

Spring records, thru 1 gm:

2009: 0-1

2008: 1-0

2007: 1-0

Uh oh, bad omen.

[dutch oven]

Did you guys see the mets latest injury.

http://thesportshernia.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/tatis-just-couldnt-believe-cinemax-had-a-four-hour-block-of-tera-patrick.html

[Chick]

You need to calm down about Jeremy Slayden. He'll never make an impact with the Phillies. He's a DH at best. Dangerous to his own health in RF.

[Andy]

Len39
The proper DUdian phraseology is
"Season=over"

If you want to be a typical downer Philly cynic, be a proper typical downer Philly cynic.

[Andy]

Yeah, but, Chick - the more hits he gets, the higher amount of Cash Considerations we'll receive some day.

[bay_area_phan]

Just asking. Do we have to wait for clout Day to say that Joe Bisenius sucks?

[Phlipper]

New season!

Maybe this season clout will post on some issue other than whether his man-crush Dobbs starts at 3b?

Oh, and Vic is actively hurting the team. Again.

[mikes77phillies]

Does anyone know if Mayberry got his hit off a RH or LH pitcher? Just curious.

[philsphan]

The Phillies should take Bisenius and Nestor off the 40 man roster and replace them with Koplove and Slayden.

[philsphan]

mikes77phillies: Believe it or not it was off a righty.

[J. Weitzel]

Chick didn't understand what I was getting at in the post. Because if he did, he'd understand that it wasn't a compliment. Last years head turner was Casey Smith.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

WE're doomed.

In other news, the Pirates are really good.

[MG]

Pirates scored 8 runs today. I wonder how long before they score 8 runs in a game once the regular season starts. My guess is that it will be a while.

[mvptommyd]

Just a reminder. We were 12-18-1 last year in the grapefruit league. So everyone calm down.

[MG]

mvp - Hate to break it to you but I would imagine everybody is kidding around. Guess you missed it.

[AWH]

tommy, who's upset? It's a ST game, who really gives a sh*t? I don't sense anyone else really cares either.

The only thing I care about in ST is talent evaluation. I suspect everyone else feels the same way.

You know, who's going to be the 5th SP, who's going to fill out the bullpen, who the catchers are, and who eventually winds up manning the bench?

And even that can change, as the Phillies got game deciding contributions last season from players like Chris Snelling (key pinch hit), TJ Bohn (catch), JA Happ, and even Greg Golson (with his legs), all players who were not on the 25 man roster to start the season.

As much as I hate to say it, some of the talent that does not go North with the team when the Phils break camp will inevitably get called upon to perform during 2009 for various reasons.

So, the depth and the evaluation of such is really what matters.

I could care less about their Grapefruit League record.

[doubleh]

Going to Phils-Blue Jays tomorrow. Looking forward to some baseball!

On another note, saw the Yanks/Jays today--the A-Rod booing story is a bit overblown. He got just as many cheers as boos, but the media loves their controversy. He isn't worth the breath either way in my opinion.

[JEff]

MajorLEagueBlogging.com is looking for 1(one) author to represent the phillies this season on a very popular MLB blog.

Please send an email to MajorLEagueBlogging@gmail.com with the subject: "Lock In My Phillies Author Spot"

Remember, one spot only, please only serious Phillies fans need apply!

[EastFallowfield]

“We did choke,” outfielder Ryan Church said. “You’ve got to be a man about it. We struggled and didn’t get it done, and that’s two years in a row.”

Church calls his own team chokers

Gotta remember this next time a Met fan gets all hissy about Hamels.

[NEPP]

"Fernando Tatis was scratched from the lineup after waking up at 3 a.m. with a sore right palm."

LOL...Okay...that beats Kaz Matsui's anal fissures from last year for the "WTF" injury of the season so far.

[NEPP]

Today's lineup:

SS Jimmy Rollins
3B Jason Donald
LF Raul Ibanez
DH Ryan Howard
RF John Mayberry
1B Greg Dobbs
2B Marcus Giles
CF Jason Ellison
C Carlos Ruiz

Everyone can relax as Jason Donald will start at 3B today against the Bluejays...

[AWH]

Hmmmmm, John Mayberry in the starting lineup.

I don't want to read too much into it, but is he going to get a legitimate shot to make this team?

[Hugh Mulcahy]

I think Manuel definitely intends to give Mayberry alot of action with an eye toward evaluating him as a bench player.

[clout]

Of far more interest to me is Marcus Giles. This is a guy who's already proven he can play and at a pretty high level. The Phils need to find out if he's washed up at age 30. If not, there's your RH bat with decent speed who can play 2B and 3B. To me, outside of the 5th starter and bullpen, that's the most interesting story line.

[NEPP]

they do NEED a RH bat that can play OF...he seems to be the only internal option that avoids us having Bruntlett out there on a regular basis.

[NEPP]

Not to suggest anything but Giles' statistics hit a steady decline from 03 (his peak, and coincidentally when PED testing began) till present. If he find a way to recapture what seemed to be a very good MLB career, then his signing could be huge. If not, it costs us nothing.

[clout]

NEPP: Agreed. Giles has been pretty streaky. In 7 seasons, he's had 3 good ones, two mediocre ones and two bad ones. It would be most curious if he were washed up at age 30.

[EastFallowfield]

Yo, new thread