Game chat: Skipper stays the course with offense

Brian Schneider subs for Chooch, but the rest of the lineup remains intact tonight when Kyle Kendrick (8-7, 4.64) and the Phillies face former farmhand Carlos Monasterios (3-4, 3.54) and the Dodgers.

Beerleaguer: I'm disappointed that Domonic Brown can't get on the field even against an unproven right-hander like Monasterios. Between Raul Ibanez, who's hitless in his last three games, and Shane Victorino's .667 OPS against right-handed pitching, there's room. Brown gave the offense a boost when he was in the starting lineup, and if the offense ever needed a spark, now's the time. Nevertheless, the lack of production takes root in the heart of the lineup where Chase Utley and Ryan Howard have seen their OPS totals fall .100 points from last year's final tally (Utley .801 currently, Howard .831). That's weak no matter how you spin it for a set of 3-4 hitters. To think: Utley's OPS could sink below .800 after tonight, the last day of August.

Hoover returns: Paul Hoover has won the bid to become the Phillies' third catcher in September. The Triple-A veteran will likely join the Phillies tomorrow as the first official September call-up. According to Morning Call beat writer Jeff Schuler, he's swinging a hot bat lately, hitting .385 in his last 12 games.

[Jump to the newest comments] [In-Game Live!]

Comments

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Belliard needs to get a job in Queens. I'd like to see that more often.

[td]

I only said what everyone was thinking.

[The Truth Injection]

Remember when Jeff Weaver was the stud young pitcher with the Tigers that was a guy everyone was saying was a future top 10 pitcher in baseball?

[GTown_Dave]

dlhunter: The one & only moment of joy I experienced during last night's game came courtesy of the Phillies' Radio Duo. Top 6th, Phillies being No-Hit, Hiroki has surrendered a Walk ...

L.A.: "Well, barring a pick-off he'll be over the minimum after 6 inning pitched."

Franzke: "Wear it! Take that, Kuroda!"

I couldn't help but bust out laughing.

[Matt]

Can someone please buzz a pitch past Rod Barajas' head?

[phlipper]

"Could it be that she knows a good deal about baseball and frequents a baseball blog and watches every game....because women NEVER do that!!"

Double H was a women who was knowledgeable about baseball and posted here quite frequently and I can't recall ANYONE attacking her personally, let alone questioning her womanhood. Heather deliberately posts provocative comments and she gets flack for doing so. The same thing happens to anyone here at BL that goes out of their way to piss people off. I may have had that happen once or twice myself, even.

[Fatalotti]

TTI, anyone can be anything on the internet, but unless you actually know something abou the person, the only reasonable assumption you can make about said person's gender is based upon the name they use.

Being such a fan of truth, as your handle suggests, you obviously know about Occam's Razor, and should be a fan of it.

In this case, Occam's Razor demands that you assume that Heather is a woman unless you are given sufficient reason to doubt that is the case.

Has she given you any legitimate reason to doubt that she is a woman? If so, what are those reasons? Do you automatically assume that all posters with androgynous or non-gender specific names are males? Do you doubt that Jack is a man? (based on your reasoning above, you should).

Just wondering.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

dp remains in order. time for the sinkerballer to throw some more good sinkers

[The Truth Injection]

God I wasn't attacking Heather's womanhood. People jumped on me because how dare I criticize a woman for not knowing anything about baseball. I wasn't doing that. I was disagreeing with her particular point of view and frequently I do. But it's not because she is a female- it's just because I disagree with her point of view.

I disagree with Jack's point of view quite a bit as well and with BAP. Why am I not attacking them personally in those instances? You guys may not think it but what you are doing is far more condescending to Heather.

And a handle is just that. Jack may not be a guy for all we know. I presume he is.

[NEPP]

At least the worst 5th pitcher on earth is doing well.

[MG]

Dave - Contrast that to Wheels often terrible jokes and TMac overly forced and prolonged laughter.

You can't fake chemistry.

[Fatalotti]

td, I wasn't thinking that at all, and it's quite sad that you were. Also, Heather has been attacked here because of her womanhood several times, and I've seen several people question whether she is a woman.

If you don't agree with her provocative comments, call her out on it, sure. I have. I fail to where her gender should ever enter the conversation, yet it constantly seems to come up. Strange, no?

[Hugh Mulcahy]

My name's not really Hugh. I had tits.

But, I started doing some push-ups and sh!t and they kinda went away.

[td]

HEATHER IS A WOMAN BECAUSE EARLIER SHE SAID THAT HER HUSBAND WAS A FAN OF THE TEXAS RANGERS.

[MG]

Conversation is better on here than just any other Phils' blog you would find with many the exception of GoodPhight and PhuturePhillies.

[GTown_Dave]

If I just went ahead & accused Heather (regardless of her/his gender) of being a Nazi, might we all be able to move on from this particular discussion, à la the Reductio ad Hitlerum method of ending pointless web-based arguments?

[dlhunter]

On Beach Balls at Baseball Games:

Franzke- I wonder how that started?
LA- Somebody brought a beach ball to a baseball game.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

TD - I HTINK THEY HAVE GAY MARRIAGE IN TEXAS

[NEPP]

TTI, you have to watch out for those internet white knights sometimes.

[The Truth Injection]

Fatalotti: I don't think you have a handle on what "presumably" means. So let me help. It means that it is very likely Heather is a woman but not certain. The only way to be certain is to outright meet Heather face to face. But using her handle I am assuming she is a woman.

And no, I don't assume anyone's gender based on their handle. I just debate what they write. That's the only certainty I see on the Internet.

[EastFallowfield]

Can we direct some of this negativity to our Phillies, please? I'm not feeling the hate so much tonight after the first barrage of 'I'm going to bed' posts.

[phlipper]

" Also, Heather has been attacked here because of her womanhood several times,... "

I think you're taking it a bit too seriously. Heather's gets a lot of grief because she writes provocative comments.

[GTown_Dave]

"You can't fake chemistry."

MG: Amen! Above all else, that's what's been most sorely missing from the Phillies' TV broadcast booth since Harry died.

[Jack]

Male or female?

We're all much closer to figments of each other's imaginations than we are representative of any gender.

Post-modern Beerleaguer.

[dlhunter]

EF brings the hate.

[The Truth Injection]

NEPP: I always forget that. Thank you for some levity.

[The Truth Injection]

Jack: That sounds like something out of my Literary Criticism grad class last semester.

I will say this- the only person I've talked to off this board is MG but that was over the phone. From those conversations I can say he is either a male or a very masculine sounding female. I'm leaning towards the former though.

[Fatalotti]

TTI, my original comment about misogyny was in response to td's comment about women having poor vocabularies. I didn't even have you in mind when I made that comment. I only criticized you becuase you felt it necessary to make light of your doubt that Heather is a woman.

And I'm not particularly concerned about defending Heather's honor, or anything overly chivalrous like that. I just despise mysoginists.

I'm done with this subject now.

[Matt]

I assume Fatalotti has a lot of fat on his/her body. Occam's Razor and all.

[The Truth Injection]

Brian Schneider is quietly having a decent little game out of the 8 hole tonight.

[Jack]

Schneider is 1-1 with a 3-run HR, IBB and BB.

Howard is 1-3 with a 3-run HR.

Yet something tells me most people will consider Howard the offensive hero of the night. Schneider's night shouldn't get lost in the shuffle here.

[The Truth Injection]

Fatalotti: Whether you want to believe this or not- I am not a misogynist. Pure and simply: if I disagree with Heather's opinion I will say so. If I agree- I'll say so.

I do however physically inject people with the truth.

[td]

Fatalotti: What about misogynist women? If you despise ALL misogynists, then that would make YOU a misogynist.
GSM

[Fatalotti]

Matt, Fatalotti is an amalgamation of the word fat and my last name, Bertolotti. I was quite corpulent in high school, and I decided to embrace a nickname that may have been created to denigrate me (though it was thought up by a friend).

Good job on the keen use of the Razor.

[phlipper]

"Schneider's night shouldn't get lost in the shuffle here. "

I only hope it doesn't prompt the BL Debby Downers to start saying that Chooch should be benched in favor of Schneider.

[Lincoln Hawkes]

You know the Phils are finally scoring when the conversation moves from b*tching about the offense to who may/may not be a transsexual Nazi.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Chooch should be benched for Schneider.

Except, not against lefties.

Or, not in any game that's not a day game after a night game.

Or a night game before a day game where there's a lefty pitching hte day game.

[Fatalotti]

no td, misogynists are people who hate all women BECAUSE they are women. If I only despire females who are misogynists, and not because they are females, then I would be despising them BECAUSE they are misogynists, and I suppose that would make me a misogynogynist. Not sure what the word is for that.

TTI, do you have some sort of truth-giving serum?

[The Truth Injection]

I am surprised if they had Durbin up they didn't go to him there before Loney hit.

[Matt]

Phlipper, just because Heather has been leading the charge to bench all the starters doesn't mean you have to use the "Debbie Downer" expression. Stop being a misogynist.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

I was hoping to get 5 out of Kendrick after the first. I was not hoping for "five plus" innings.

[Jack]

TTI: What would Derrida say about this Phils offense?

Anyway, I never discussed it, but I'd just like to say I agree with JW on wishing Brown had gotten the start tonight. I don't like seeing him sit every single night, barely getting used, especially while Raul struggles. And now with Kershaw starting tomorrow, another day will go by without Dom.

Also, I would've brought in Bastardo for Loney there. Easy to say after the fact, but no way I would've let Kendrick pitch to him there.

[seattlephan]

why the fvck do we even have bastardo or romero if we don't use them in those situations? wtf charlie?

[GTown_Dave]

Way to take a nice start & f*ck it all up, Kendrick. I really, truly do not like watching you pitch.

[Fatalotti]

And what looked like it could've been a nice easy win and a chance to get some decent sleep tonight, has the potential to turn ugly.

Come on bullpen, keep up the good work of late.

[MG]

Any body else notice that the Dodgers have crept back into this game?

[The Truth Injection]

Jack: I'm sure Derrida- since he was a huge fan of deconstruction- would get a huge kick out of all the sabermetric stats surrounding baseball.

[Fatalotti]

Wait, Barajas didn't crush a meatball to tie the game and once again hurt the Phillies. Inconceivable.

[EastFallowfield]

MG: There's a game tonight?

[The Truth Injection]

Great job by Durbin to quell the flames there. Now it would be nice to tack at least another run on this game off Jeff Weaver.

[Heather]

TTI, I don't care that you disagree with my point of view. If you had kept all your comments on the topic of to what extent MLB hitters can control where they hit the ball, fine.

It's that you then bring up an unrelated point and tell me you wonder if I'm smart enough to know what nuanced means.

But keep telling yourself you kept on topic and all your points were related to what I wrote.

[PhilliesDude]

I'm really impressed that Derrida got mentioned on Beerleaguer! Who's next? - Wittgenstein.

[The Truth Injection]

Heather: It was two different threads running there.

I also said I would retract the statement because it was poorly conceived.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

That's Old Phan trying to catch that ball in play . . .

Get off the phone!!

[The Truth Injection]

Wheels is trying to be the Phillies broadcast version of Lewis Black.

Good job by Howard on that walk.

[rauls grandpa]

I am sick as a dog and tired as a MFer. Now wheels is yapping about cell phone use.
I don't know if I can take these west coast games anymore.

[td]

Heather: Get over it! This is why I go for dudes.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

first base is not scoring position
we're good here

[bay_area_phan]

This should be required reading for anyone who frequently posts on Beerleaguer:

http://psy.otago.ac.nz/r_oshea/WFP/WFP2e/argument.html

[The Truth Injection]

That 3-1 swing by Werth is something I talked about the other day. That is a hitter's count so you should be looking in a spot or just generally get a better swing at that pitch. Werth fouled it back slightly to the right of home plate. He missed it, but that shouldn't happen as often as it does in that situation.

[PhilliesDude]

I think Franzke is awesome and Anderson a cool counterpart to him. Really wish they would sync TV and radio. Guess Comcast doesn't want that to happen as people would tune out the TV sound.

[rauls grandpa]

Why can't he lay off the high fastball away?

[bay_area_phan]

Personally, I would have brought up Francisco there. We need some more runs.

[bay_area_phan]

And Ruiz here.

[The Truth Injection]

I would go to Sweeney in this spot and see if they change and go to Broxton. If they do counter with Brown.

[bay_area_phan]

Truth: Why Sweeney? Ruiz is a better hitter & you need to bring him into the game anyhow, if you're taking Schneider out.

[Fatalotti]

Agreed TTI. That 3-1 pitch was slightly high and on the outer part of the plate, and it looked like Werth was trying to pull that ball.

Not a good swing, but overall, a good AB. Let's hope Ruiz can regain his RISP form here.

[The Truth Injection]

Ruiz's career numbers vs Broxton (small sample size alert):

1.000/2.000/3.000

3 for 3 with a walk and 4 RBI

[The Truth Injection]

BAP: I was thinking if you use Sweeney (or Ben Fran) the Dodgers will still probably go to Broxton then you go with Brown.

Put Ruiz in the 9 hole then.

But I don't have a problem with the way they played it necessarily.

[Fatalotti]

I'm surprised Torre would ever let Broxton face the Phillies. Ever.

[Matt]

Wow.

[BloodStripes]

Cchhooooooooooooooch owns Broxton

[Hugh Mulcahy]

walk to Ruiz, bring up Brown

[seattlephan]

chooch is the man

[Hugh Mulcahy]

never mind. Werth needs to rub chooch's head before he bats with men on

[GTown_Dave]

Chooch is so f*ckin' money!

Of course, so is Broxton, albeit in a different, negative way.

[EastFallowfield]

Joe Torre manages to get the pitcher in the game who has confidence issues, against a team that has owned him, and against a guy he's never gotten out who had a signature moment in the game that knocked the pitcher out of the closer's role.

And, oh yeah, with the bases loaded.

[Heather]

LOL, it just put a big smile on my face when Torre put in Broxton to face Chooch. What was he thinking?

[bay_area_phan]

Well, that's why he doesn't start more. The Phillies are trying to win games & he hasn't exactly taken the league by storm.

[The Truth Injection]

Well I said it'd be nice to get at least one run now that half inning. We got 2. Nice job by the offense.

[seattlephan]

the rockies are crapping away any chance of winning against the giants. thank god for chooch

[Fatalotti]

Colorado tied SF at 2. If Colorado can hang on and win, and the Phillies win, the Phils will have a 3 game lead in the loss column in the WC. That's a nice little cushion.

Nice job of the Phils to get back the two runs that were given up in the 6th.

[Fatalotti]

Nevermind on the Rockies. They coughed up the lead.

[gobaystars!]

どうして私たちできない？

[EastFallowfield]

Se lyödä taas kaus1!

[seattlephan]

5-2 giants, rockies pen in total meltdown. it's looking like it will be us and SF for the WC (should we not catch ATL)

[...]

Good god Finnish

[...]

And what was with the Hiragana is it 3rd grade?

[dlhunter]

Rollins is washed up™.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Utley's thumb is feeling better.

[gobaystars!]

I'll admit it was a touch crude, but please give me your version of "why can't us?".
I'll be waiting.

[...]

Journey WTF

[DH Phils]

Of all the dumb Wheeler sayings, I think the dumbest by far is the emphasis on "keeping the grand slam in play", as if the marginal value of the 5th run is worth more than the 4th run.

A four-run lead cannot be made up with just one swing of the bat. You need 3 baserunners and then a swing of the bat. To make up a five-run lead, you need 4 baserunners and then a swing of the bat.

[bay_area_phan]

Countdown until someone complains about the use of Lidge in this situation: 10, 9, 8, 7 . . .

[Noah]

In terms of amount I hate a player to baseball skill ratio, Rod Barajas is far and away number one.

[bay_area_phan]

A crisp 21-pitch 1-2-3 inning. Now he probably won't be available tomorrow.

[EastFallowfield]

Lidgetastic again.

Yawn

[GTown_Dave]

Great Starting Pitching, No Runs. Bad Starting Pitching, Lotsa Runs. Makes no damn sense to me. Oh well, a Win is a Win.

[BloodStripes]

Some interesting numbers on C____ L__

Winless in his past five starts with an 8.28 ERA while allowing 27 earned runs on 44 hits in 29 1-3 innings.