Game chat: Phillies tighten the screws against NY

Wearing their green St. Patrick’s Day unis, Joe Blanton and the Phillies play their 13th Grapefruit League game today when they host the Yankees in Clearwater.

Summary: Along with Blanton, Jose Contreras, Sergio Escalona, Chad Durbin and David Herndon are scheduled to throw, according to the team’s Web site. Todd Zolecki notes that it’s an important game for the lefty Escalona, who’s struggled. Meanwhile, Phillies fans may need to start getting acquainted with Rule 5 pick David Herndon, who’s been terrific. Offensively, Domonic Brown’s play has overshadowed a slow start to spring by the other outfield corners. Raul Ibanez, who underwent offseason sports hernia surgery, is 4-for-28 (.143), one of them a homer. Jayson Werth and his giant, bearded head is 5-for-25 (.200) with a homer. I despise the green jerseys.

Comments

[Gsl]

Good leadoff approach followed by Rollins in the first at-bat.

[NEPP]

If Herndon stays...who goes?

[the spectre of mvp]

From the previous thread:

"For my money, Beerleaguer is a shoe-in for the final four, assuming it can get by crashburnalley. That guy tweets like a mo-fo, and writes some really sound stats-oriented pieces."

NO, NO, NO, you can't have stat oriented pieces. Certain people who troll Phillies' blogs do not like stats and if you do it that way it will drive traffic down.

(I heard that from a very reliable source.)

[Gsl]

Followed by pretty bad approaches by Victorino and Werth.

[loctastic]

Is this game on tv/radio in the PHL area?

[Zach Morris]

What a play by Rollins.

[Kutztown Fan]

The only thing affiliated with the Phillies that should be green is the Phanatic.

"Jayson Werth and his giant, bearded head..." LOL

[Cliff]

How come Utley is out of the lineup every other day?

[Jonesman]

Game is on CN8 in Philly

[That Dude]

just please dont lett the700level.com win..PLEASE GOD

[Bubba]

I read 5that Uts has "a respiratory infection".
Remember the World Series flu last year?
Good Health for St Pat's day to All!

[strange]

Weitzel, this is a classic summary. Pithy yet insightful.

[loctastic]

thanks Jonesman.

regarding the brackets, I picked Beerleaguer / 700 Level / TheFightins / Zoo With Roy. Got to go with some favorites, an underdog, and a cinderella story..

[MG]

JW - Ditto on the green jerseys. No team looks good in them even the Red Sox. Just a way for a team to make a few extra bucks on merchandising.

[SJPjoed]

Does anyone have any suggestions of bars in Clearwater to watch the Temple game Friday afternoon?

[MG]

For stats-oriented pieces on the Phils, I like the CrashburnAlley and PhilliesFlow. GoodPhight isn't bad either in that department depending upon the post either.

So many Phils blogs now that it is impossible to keep up with them though. Phils' success the past 3 years and the ease of putting up a blog using Wordpress though really have made it pretty easy for just about anyone to put up a blog though now.

Frankly, I am kind of amazed that JW has been able to keep up even with the new arrival in his household.

[TTI]

That pick by Rollins earlier in the game was spectacular.

Also, some nice base running by Cody Ransom to get them a run in the inning earlier.

[Gsl]

I don't mind the jerseys but the unfitted hats are pretty bad.

[awh]

Ditto on the green jerseys.

Besides, I think it's discriminatory in that they don't have different colored jerseys for other ethnic group celebrations.

[awh]

How'd we miss this nearly an hour ago:

Martin Frank says that Romero says he could be ready for the opener.

http://blogs.delawareonline.com/philledin/2010/03/17/romero-says-opener-is-possible/

[Gsl]

I don't envy Marte today. That looked like it sucked. Great to see Howard continue to hit the ball hard back through the box and the other way.

[Andy]

Tug McGraw looked great in the green jerseys.

I'm looking forward to the pink ones for Breast Cancer Awareness, the lavender ones for Gay Rights, the Desert Camo ones to support our troops, the plain orange ones for whatever that day is when the protestants march through sections of Belfast just to get people mad, and, of course, day glow orange for the first day of hunting season.

[clout]

In the prior thread, Slocs predicts that all 4 of the prospects dealt for Lee will be big leaguers AND that all of the players received for Lee from the Mariners will also have big league careers. In other words, the prospects in the two deals will be 7 for 7 in success.

I'll take the under.

[NEPP]

Not only will they all be MLBers, all will be All-Stars and several might just be inner-circle HoFers!!!

Or, in reality, maybe 1 or 2 of them will actually have legit MLB careers.

[Gsl]

Escalona comes in and walks the first guy he faces on 4 pitches. That doesn't help his cause.

[R.Billingsly]

clout: I'd take the under as well. The likelihood of all 7 players all having big league careers is very slim. I just can't see it happening.

[awh]

"the lavender ones for Gay Rights"

I thought the symbol for gay rights was a rainbow?

If so, THAT would be an interesting jersey, no?

[Jack]

Clout: I'd bet all 7 appear in a major league game (the biggest question mark probably being Knapp.) But extended careers? Of course not.

[awh]

clout, if slocs turns out to be right, that may very well be the first time in MLB history that it has happened.

[Aaron]

Hey SJPjoed... I live in St. Pete. You might want to try Matt Geiger's bar -- called Courtside Grille. It's about a 10 minute drive from Bright House Networks. great place to watch a game.

[clout]

awh: Rainbow jerseys are old school. Remember the Astros from the 1970s?

[Winter]

hard to imagine any rainbow jersey being more interesting than this:

http://tinyurl.com/yhk9hhq

[doubleh]

clout: My Dad bought me an Astros jersey when he worked in Houston when I was a kid. Those things were hideous. And not the so ugly it's pretty kind of way like the old Padres unis, either.

[DPatrone]

It's a shme we couldn't trade a couple of these ST wins against the Yanks for 2 more last October. But that's ok. We sent the message.

[awh]

clout, nahhh, that 'stros jersey doesn't have all the colors - no purple, no green, no blue, etc.

Gotta look something like this:

http://www.gettysburgflag.com/images/OrigRainbow.jpg

[awh]

Dom P, I disagree.

IMHO there is no message sent in ST.

[J. Weitzel]

"Frankly, I am kind of amazed that JW has been able to keep up even with the new arrival in his household."

That makes two of us.

[DPatrone]

AWH~

I meant that we are most assuredly going to be a team to be reckoned with in the post-season. As a whole this team may be better than last year's. And maybe we'll just come out on top once again.

I was not talking about ST wins per se, which obviously mean nothing.

[John Wockenfuss]

"Tug McGraw looked great in the green jerseys"

I even recall him annually dropping his uniform pants to show off his green boxers.

[Brian G]

Jack: I agree. And slocs said that in comparison to the Abreu trade, where we got nothing but minor league filler, he never implied they'd have sustained careers.
That said, if it turns out that all 7 guys get a cup of coffee, that still doesn't tell us very much about whether the trades were good or not.

[MG]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2010/news/story?id=5004169

Lee got suspended for the first 5 games for throwing over the head of Snyder in a spring training game. Seems a bit harsh but the replay showed Lee was being pretty ridiculous too.

[clout]

Brian G, Jack: If seeing major league time equals success then Reggie Taylor was a great draft pick.

[clout]

Heck, Eric Valent was a great pick. He's the supplemental #1 they got when J.D. Drew refused to sign. He made it to the majors too.

[awh]

Dom, I agree that this team is better than last year's right now - on paper:

2008 Rotation: Hamels, Myers, Blanton, Moyer, Park

2009 Rotation: Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Moyer (with KK itching in the wings)

Halladay is an upgrade from Lee (or Hamels in April '09)and Moyer has been bumped to no better than #5. But, breaking camp, Halladay is an upgrade from Hamels, Hamels is an upgrade from Myers, Blanton is Blanton, and Happ is an upgrade from Moyer. It remains to be seen whether Moyer/KK are an upgrade from the combo of Park/Happ. And then, or course, there was Pedro's contribution.

Polanco is an upgrade from Feliz.

The bench appears to have been upgraded.

The bullpen could be better, just if Lidge returns to pre-2009 career norms. If the rest of the BP performs anywhere near expectations then the BP as a whole should be better.

So, yes, on paper, they're better.

But then again, there are a lot of teams that have been good on paper that have not panned out very well.

[Brian G]

clout: No one said it did. The only point is that the players exchanged aren't garbage, as was the case with the Abreu trade.

[Beer-a-Thone]

Green jerseys for one day is fine. I really wish they'd wear red during the regular season though. It really pops visually.

[clout]

Brian G: In that case, I concur.

[Jack]

Clout: Who said "success"? I said they'd probably all appear in an MLB game. Of course they won't all have successful careers--that was kind of the point of my post. I certainly never said I agreed with whoever said success.

[mikeh]

is this mvp guy really gone?

[William Schweitzer]

I hate to root against the guy, but a little dark corner of my mind is wishing for Lee to implode this year and drive his cost down to a level that the Phillies might reacquire him.

Chances of this happening = 0.0%, but a guy can dream.

While I'm hanging myself, I might as well add that I kind of like the 80s Astros jersey. Reminds me of childhood days with a pile of '83 Donruss cards.

[goody]

mikeh: March 16th, the day before St. Patty's Day, will henceforth be known as STATS DAY.
S-someone
T-told
A-(anaTOMIcal orifice)
T-tommy
S-sayonora(?)

[awh]

Schweitz, I'm not rooting against Lee. I hope he does well.

One thing for you to remember though, is that when he is at his best, Cole Hamels is just about Cliff Lee's equal. So, root for Cliff, and root for Cole too. He's around for two more seasons and it's essential for the Phils that he do well too.

[NEPP]

So, I have to share this. My FBB league did its auto-draft last night...here's my starting pitching (in a 10 team league mind you)

Halladay
Sabathia
Lackey
Wainwright

Mo Rivera
Heath Bell

Absolutely insane.

[Tim from Williamsport]

SJPJoed: Frenchy's is always fun, they have tons of TVs. There is also Dutch Daulton's bar. It wasn't open when I was down there last year but i'm sure it's up and running now.

[mvptommyd]

Testing...Testing...

Am I banned?

[mvptommyd]

Whooaa. Looks like JW lifted the ban or didn't place one into effect to begin with?

I promise I will be nice from now on and play by the rules.

[mvptommyd]

Interesting article in today's paper where Hagan talks about Ruiz possibly being the most important Phillie due to the lack of depth in the postion and how important he is to game in general because he is involved in every play.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20100318_Paul_Hagen__Ruiz_becoming_irreplaceable_for_Phillies.html

[EastFallowfield]

Yo, new thread