Tuesday: Timing is everything for improving Phillies

How did the Phillies arrive at a five-game winning streak, matching the longest mark of the season? Here are five reasons.

1. Research has shown that when an entire team is locked in a slump, they'll lose. Imagine that. Players rarely stay consistent through all 162 games and the Phillies house a bevy of streaky hitters. Unfortunately, the personal lulls were clumped together over exactly the same period. So now that they appear to be emerging from the doldrums, they've seen an uptick in production: more hits, more extra-base hits, more hard-hit balls, more runs and more wins. Although nobody in the lineup can be described as "red-hot," most of them have settled into a steady groove, including Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, Jayson Werth, Jimmy Rollins and a number of bench players, including Greg Dobbs and Ross Gload. Plus, they’re finally getting their feet back. (X-rays negative on J-Roll’s toe, but he was clearly gimping around yesterday).

2. Did Milt Thompson's ouster light a fire? It's hard to argue against it. It certainly appears that the Phils have been taking better at bats since Thursday, the day Charlie Manuel replaced Thompson with Greg Gross. Perhaps “GG” has the golden touch, but more likely, it sent a message that the offense is being held accountable for the Phillies backslide. It looked like amateur hour at the plate during their last roadtrip. So the timing and severity was appropriate.

3. Credit Manuel for the Ibanez-three-hitter lineup, his pseudo-platoon with Ben Francisco and the decision to sit Wilson Valdez in favor of more offense. As a result, the bench is hitting for the first time all season, with Francisco, Dobbs, Ross Gload and Brian Schneider coming through with big hits and productive games over the last few days. It also helps that the Phillies finally took out the trash by handing Juan Castro his walking papers.

4. The Phillies caught the road-weary Rockies at the best-possible time. Roy Halladay set the tone with a shutout in Game 1. Ubaldo Jimenez picked Saturday to pitch the worst game of his career. And in the last two games, Colorado fell all over themselves with crucial mistakes. Plus, Troy Tulowitzki was out with a fractured wrist. So when we talk about the Phillies’ win streak, it’s really what they did against one, beleaguered team at the tail-end of an 11-game road trip.

5. Starting pitching and middle relief tossed quality frames, offering a thumbnail of this entire season: Sharp for eight innings, dicey at the end.

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Comments

[Heather]

"How long till Torre starts Castro over a better option for a significant amount of time...not that I'm accusing Torre of falling in love with a veteran infielder and then using that player over a more talented guy or anything."

Starting Castro with his abysmal slash line over someone else would take a leap of ridiculousness that is unlikely even for Torre.

[Sophist]

Jimmy Rollins (bruised foot, ERD 7/29) Jamie Moyer (sprained elbow, ERD 10/4) It hasn't been a good year for Rollins in a lot of respects, so maybe a bit of good news is warranted. Rollins had images taken of his foot after fouling a ball off it, and while some early reports were very negative, but the tests came back showing that there was no fracture. Rollins still has a bruised foot at the least and sources tell me that it was very sore and swollen. He stayed in the game, with his shoe acting as a bit of a compress. His body's reaction to the injury and treatment will determine how much time, if any, he misses, but expect a couple days and some loss of mobility. The Phillies are also waiting for Jamie Moyer to get more opinions on his sprained elbow. It's not a good sign that he's had to wait. I'm told the elbow is still swollen and tender, though Moyer is starting the typical rehab that would be prescribed, whether or not he has surgery. Those visits and a decision should come by early next week

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=11586

[clout]

Castro was signed to Triple A contract as insurance. He won't play for the Dodgers unless there's an injury.

[Rob]

Don't trade JA Happ:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/425732-phillies-look-to-trade-rookie-of-the-year

[cjp]

LA picks up Philly's trash: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/07/dodgers-sign-juan-castro.html

[cjp]

Okay, I guess everyone already knew that.

[NEPP]

****Starting Castro with his abysmal slash line over someone else would take a leap of ridiculousness that is unlikely even for Torre.****

Like when he started Ronnie Belliard over Orlando Hudson last year and basically drove Hudson out of town based on a couple hot weeks by Belliard.

Or like when he basically gave Luis Sojo half a decade of playing time with the Yankees...

[DPatrone]

Old Phan~ It could be RAJ is working on something else...sure. Maybe he is and we are not hearng of it. If he is, lwt's hope it's good.

[CJ]

Most hilarious part of that Bleacher Report article on Happ and Hamels?

"Unlike Hamels, Happ has shown a greater resiliency to push through bad innings or starts when he doesn't have his "A+" stuff."

Yep, that's right. Hamels is just a mental midget.

[clout]

Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com reports that the Phillies and Rangers "have some interest" in Nationals infielder Cristian Guzman.

Guzman is now a bad fielder, although he is less bad at 2B than anywhere else. He would be an upgrade over Valdez.

[MaDubbs]

I think if RAJ is going to make a move for Oswalt it will probably be after tomorrow because tonight you have Hamels and tomorrow you have Halladay, and with Oswalt pitching on Saturday his next scheduled day to pitch would be Thursday. I don't know what to think anymore though, way to many false rumors. I def think the Phillies are going to do something, what well that remains to be seen.

[clout]

CJ: What they also don't mention is that Happ's Grade A+ stuff, as compared to Hamels' is Grade D.

[Heather]

Actually CJ, I'm wondering how you got past this: "He won to Rookie of The Year awards."

[Chris in VT]

"Like when he started Ronnie Belliard over Orlando Hudson last year and basically drove Hudson out of town based on a couple hot weeks by Belliard."

This was one of my favorite Torre moves ever...Just mind-boggling to anyone besides Joe, but he stuck with it and nobody really questioned it all that much, cause Joe Torre won a bunch of titles over a decade ago. While managing the most talented team in baseball.

[Meyer]

The regular season starts tonight and I'm looking for Oswalt to have a win by Saturday morning.

[Heather]

I think the guy from the bleacher report has a man crush on Happ.

[Schmitty's Stache]

Maybe Strasburg can get into the year-of-the pitcher mode tonight...

[Sophist]

There's definitely a good argument for keeping Happ. That dude didn't make it. He made the stupid argument for keeping Happ.

[Meyer]

I hope Strasburg runs out of pitches after the last out in the ninth tonight.

[NEPP]

****Guzman is now a bad fielder, although he is less bad at 2B than anywhere else. He would be an upgrade over Valdez.****

Agreed. Guzman would be a nice upgrade and this most recent Rollins injury reemphasizes Rube's glaring failure to get a legitimate utility infielder.

[Heather]

"Maybe Strasburg can get into the year-of-the pitcher mode tonight..."

That'd be nice. Tommy Hanson, despite posting decent numbers his last three games has really struggled and got into some jams that the bullpen got him out of...

He's looking a bit more inconsistent...hopefully he keeps it up and honks against the Nats.

[KevinLin]

Man there are 3 guys on the Pirates unlikely to be traded that I would take a stab at if I was the phils. Duke(horrible this year), Meek(too good), Hanrahan(why not?).

And than there is Gorzelanny like I mentioned before. The not going to happen unless we give up lakewood and clearwater and + Greinke possibility.

From that list is where I think the RAJ will make his move. In order of odds of it happening probably Gorzelanny, Hanrahan, Meek, Duke, and way way way down the list Greinke.

[Sophist]

Rangers have Rich Harden hidden away in AAA, and apparently made a run at Haren too. Will be an interesting team to watch this Summer/Fall.

[NEPP]

I love how the Rangers can go from a Bankruptcy filing to attempting multiple big trades with no issues...how is that being allowed again?

[Sophist]

Zach Duke is a very small upgrade from Kyle Kendrick, if one at all. No thanks.

[Heather]

"Rangers have Rich Harden hidden away in AAA, and apparently made a run at Haren too. Will be an interesting team to watch this Summer/Fall. "

If the Rangers could add a decent bat at first base, they'd be a very scary team in the playoffs.

Cliff Lee at the top of the rotation, then Tommy Hunter, Colby Lewis, and C.J. Wilson have all pitched very well this year. Plus that lineup has no real holes in it. The weakest links are Andrus, Borbon, and Molina...but even those guys can hit some. And a very good bullpen with a guy with a 98+ mph heater as the closer?

I think a lot of people are still underestimating the Rangers, and they shouldn't be. They have a legitimate argument for best team in baseball at the moment.

[KevinLin]

Maybe this years Duke, but I think Duke in the right situation is a good pitcher. I think Pittsburgh has finally worn him down after the years of no help.

[Uh Oh]

From HighCheese: " Someone who saw Jimmy Rollins today said he came in on crutches -- we'll find out the deal in about 10 minutes."

[Heather]

"I love how the Rangers can go from a Bankruptcy filing to attempting multiple big trades with no issues...how is that being allowed again"

From my understanding, they're giving up more in the way of prospects so the other team eats most, if not all, of the salary.

[Sophist]

NEPP - Ch 11 is a funny thing, but with MLB providing the cash, and trades just being a part of the annual operations of a club, the moves probably aren't all that controversial. Pretty sure what spear-headed the filing to begin with was the sale of the team anyway.

[NEPP]

Smells like another 15 days on the DL...thankfully, Rube was proactive and dealt for a utility infielder during the last round of IF injuries.

[Schmitty's Stache]

You mean like how I love not having $9mill to spend on the best lefty in the game, but then propose trades for a guy who costs $6mill the rest of this year and $16mill next year, is that the kind of love you're talking about...

[Heather]

Also, supposedly Daniels (the GM) squirrled away some of the money MLB authorized them at the beginning of the year so they have a little bit to play with at trade deadline time without having to get any more re-authorized thru MLB.

[Meyer]

Does Texas need a different piece to finish off the division?

[Heather]

"Smells like another 15 days on the DL...thankfully, Rube was proactive and dealt for a utility infielder during the last round of IF injuries."

At this point, I'd rather have Jimmy patrolling the SS position on crutches than any of our available options.

[Heather]

"Does Texas need a different piece to finish off the division"

Probably not to finish off the division, but I think they're setting their sights a little bit higher than that.

I think they want to get to at least the ALCS or WS with this team because they think they're potentially that good.

[Sophist]

Yeah, the league approves a budget for the Rangers. If the move had put the team over budget, they could have asked MLB to change it or gone to BK court. Instead, they gave up a bigger package for cash considerations.

[NEPP]

Its actually good business when you think about it...a deep playoff run would really help their bottom line. I can definitely see how MLB would be okay with it in the end.

[Chris in VT]

"I can definitely see how MLB would be okay with it in the end."

Not sure about the teams that make up MLB, though. I doubt the Angels and A's were all too excited to see MLB approve the Lee trade, for instance, considering they are (partially) footing the bill for it.

[Schmitty's Stache]

smells like Bush to me...

[RK]

I wonder what Rollins as well as others were ingesting given all the injuries. Many of these are associated with certain substances. Rollins coming from the middle of nowhere hitting 30 HR a while back may have something to do with becoming injured warming up before a game (source of original injury).
In fact I would not be surprised if all those odd injuries so many players have now are due to substance abuse.
Finally you gotta hand it Cholly for keeping Rollins in the game the other day even though he was visibly limping. That is one hell of a manager. Isn’t Rollins a valuable property, doesn’t the team want to preserve him. I wonder what would have happened if he was taken out and treated immediately. What is the matter with these people.

[MG]

It is kind of ironic though that the people opposed trading Happ for Oswalt and bring up Oswalt's medical history yet genuinely gloss over the fact of Happ's checkered injury history.

If I had to bet who is a bigger injury risk going ahead forward over the next ~2 years, my money is on Happ.

[Chris in VT]

From MLBTradeRumors.com

"The problem with Guzman is that he has a cool $3MM left on his contract. And regarding the Phillies, ESPN's Jayson Stark says Miguel Tejada is their primary infield target. Tejada has $2.25MM in base salary remaining, with another $250K in bonuses coming if he's traded and reaches 630 plate appearances."

Tejada makes a pretty useless utility IF, since he can't play SS or 2B...

[Schmitty's Stache]

@RK Or maybe we're having so many injuries because the average age of our players is so high and we've had extended seasons the last 3 years in a row...

There's a reason teams don't repeat...

[KevinLin]

Maybe we can find out what Tomas Perez is up to...he knows how to pie without getting injured.

[Chris in VT]

BTW, the Phils had scouts watching the Royals yesterday.

I know it's a pipedream, but I'd love to see Soria coming out of the BP for the next few years...

[Colin_K]

Anybody thought about using Lidge to get the first two outs in the 9th then bringing in a matchup'd lefty or righty? There were quite a few people mentioning that most, if not all of Lidge's problems happening with 2 outs.
I know he wouldn't get the Save, but his ERA and WHIP would be happy with that arrangement...

[MG]

We all know what the Phils will likely do with JRoll.

They won't put him on the DH yet they will foolishly instead play a man down for at least 5-6 days and with a 12-man pitching roster.

That has been the modus operandi the last few years when a guy is 'day-to-day' and the Phils play a man short for at least 4-5 days.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

Royals had scouts in Reading a few weeks back, if I remember correctly.

[Jbird]

Everything I've seen says the other owners aren't happy about the Rangers buying spree b/c the other owners are essentially funding it thought MLB. On the flip side, the Rangers weren't allowed to sign their top pick last year (Purke) despite having a deal in place b/c mlb wouldn't approve an overslot deal. Purke's been very, very good in college too. That was unfortunate for them to lose out on him.

[clout]

A Phillies-Rangers World Series would be interesting. Would it fuel some speculation on Beerleaguer regarding one of the Rangers' starting pitchers? Would there be some ill-will toward ownership and management?

[NEPP]

****Tejada makes a pretty useless utility IF, since he can't play SS or 2B...****

Yeah but he's CHEAPER and thus more appealing.

****They won't put him on the DH yet they will foolishly instead play a man down for at least 5-6 days and with a 12-man pitching roster. ****

Pretty much THIS

[clout]

Chris: "Tejada makes a pretty useless utility IF, since he can't play SS or 2B..."

Tejada can play SS, but he is horrendously bad there. He'd be slightly better at 2B or 3B, but probably not as good as Guzman. On the other hand, he'd probably pop a HR now and again, which Guzman wouldn't.

[Chris in VT]

"Yeah but he's CHEAPER and thus more appealing."

If the Phils are really breaking the bank over ~500k at this point, they shouldn't bother making any trades really.

[MaDubbs]

Rollins out of tonights lineup, no further info..
Dobbs at 3rd and Valdez at shortstop.

[Heather]

"Tejada can play SS, but he is horrendously bad there"

Isn't this what people mean when they say that a player can't play a position? That he is horrendously bad there?

[Heather]

"Rollins out of tonights lineup, no further info..
Dobbs at 3rd and Valdez at shortstop."

And here, silly me, I thought no broken bones = no time lost.

[NEPP]

That's a hell of a left side of an infield there.

[Chris in VT]

clout - I know Tejada CAN play SS, but that's not saying much. Like you said, he's horrendously bad, and I'd probably rather have Valdez at SS, despite his offensive shortcomings. It's not like Tejada's crushing the ball this year either, with his 670 OPS. He's never played a game in his career at 2B, I don't think I'd want him learning in the midst of a pennant race.

If forced to choose between Guzman and Tejada at the utility IF slot, I don't think there's any real argument that Tejada's the better choice.

[MaDubbs]

Heather, I guess since Rod Lopez is pitching he figures it is ok to give Jimmy the night off, which I agree with but Mr. Lopez is the type pitcher that usually makes us look silly.

[Chris in VT]

Sorry, that should be "Guzman's the better choice."

[Sam Fan]

Reportedly (per philly.com), Werth is not in tonight's lineup. Something brewing?

[NEPP]

Werth gets another day off? WTF...

[Chris in VT]

Werth out back to back days with the trade deadline looming?

Now that everything I've read says that Werth won't be traded, Rube will probably deal him...

[CJ]

And Jack wins the stuffed rabbit from the "Pick the Lineup" carnival stand.

Victorino
Polanco
Ibanez
Howard
Werth
Dobbs
Ruiz
Valdez

[CJ]

Zolecki says J-Roll may miss a couple of days with a bruised foot and that he wasn't on crutches.

[NEPP]

So is Werth in the lineup or not then?

[Sophist]

Rollins power bump is no different than that of Alan Trammell. Going year by year, his HR/FB bump in 2006 and 2007 wasn't that anomalous.

JBird, The Rangers didn't need MLB approval for the Lee deal, since it didn't involve going outside the prescribed budget. In any case, the owners are probably happy in the end with MLB acting as DIP lender, even though it involved a $40M loan, because it allowed them to control the bankruptcy process (ie keep competing bids/offers off the table). The team's creditors made better loan offers, and MLB kept improving their own because the creditor's offers were conditioned on allowing competing bids (The other owners don't want Jim Crane buying the team).

Seems like a move designed to avoid protracted litigation after the sale, really. The BK judge in the Phoenix Coyotes case allowed NHL a right to veto the sale to a group that wanted to move the club from ARI. A similar story unfolded in the BoSox sale to Henry &c. a few years ago. Dolan's group actually had the higher bid, but the team was given to Henry & co.. I'm not sure why the same couldn't happen here, esp. since the plan was supposed to be an 100 cents/dollar plan (ie a higher sale value wouldn't put more money in the creditor's pockets than the Ryan bid). That was all true a week ago when I looked into it anyway.

[GBrettfan]

Valdez is good at SS, I think. Dobbs is Dobbs at 3B.

I can't believe Jimmy's down for the 3rd time this season! Didn't the same thing happen to Chase's foot in recent history, and didn't that foot bother him for a long time? Chase being Chase, he played through it and never let on, but there was speculation it was affecting him, if I remember correctly. - Jimmy isn't Chase, and playing through pain doesn't seem to come as easily to him. (If it's fair to either one of them to put it like that.)

At any rate, I really hope it doesn't cause Jimmy too much pain for too long. It couldn't be someone like Baez or Herndon who gets hurt, someone we can do without for a period of time and not even notice.
(Apologies to those two for suggesting indifference to any pain they might suffer.)

[clout]

Chris: I agree. Especially since Guzman can hit lefties pretty well (and thus platoon with Dobbs with Polly switching begin 3B and 2B.)

[HammRadio]

@MG -- you do realize that a day to day injury is um... day to day... in your scenario that forces you to have valdez AND bocock on the roster for 15 straight days.

that makes sense.

[Lake Fred]

Wow! Cholly actually moved Chooch from 8th to 7th. Great! This lineup looks to be in some sort of decent order (except for Raul at 3rd, which I can't see).

[Sam Fan]

My bad, looking at yesterday's news on Phils website. I'm an idiot.

[EastFallowfield]

Yo, new thread