Game chat: Unbeaten Oswalt gives it a whirl tonight

Brian Schneider and Pete Orr replace struggling regulars Carlos Ruiz and Wilson Valdez tonight when the Phillies play the second of three against the D-Backs. Right-handers Roy Oswalt (3-0, 1.88) and Daniel Hudson (0-4, 5.92) have the ball.

Before the game, the Phillies offered several key injury updates. Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. revealed Jose Contreras' elbow injury to be a Grade 1 strain. CSNPhilly's Jim Salisbury reports that the interim closer will be shut down 10 days with a three-to-four-week timetable for a return. ... In other news, second-base prospect Harold Garcia, a member of the 40-man roster and starter in Reading, will miss the rest of the season with an ACL tear, as reported by Matt Gelb of the Inquirer. Garcia broke the Florida State League record with a 37-game hitting streak last season. The 24-year-old Venezuelan was hitting .300/.327/.807 with a pair of homers in 52 plate appearances for Double-A Reading. Tough setback for a hard-working and fast-rising young prospect. ... In happier news, Domonic Brown is set to begin a rehab assignment in Clearwater. The Phillies' top prospect is expected to make a full recovery from hamate bone surgery, but has missed significant, regular playing time, dating back to late last season when he sat on the Phillies' bench. According to reports, he's making very good progress, but may not make it back with the big club for some time.

Tonight's lineup: Victorino, Polanco, Rollins, Howard, Francisco, Ibanez, Orr, Schneider. Schneider has two hits on the season, both home runs. Oswalt lasted six innings his last start, piling up pitches due to some long at bats by the Padres.

Comments

[NEPP]

Sucks for Garcia...guess we can cross him off the list.

[Mike]

Does that open a spot on the 40 man, or does he stay there?

[NEPP]

I know with MLB guys that if they go on the 60 day DL, it opens a spot. No idea on MiLB guys...gotta assume something similar.

[Mike]

I wonder if the Phils fill that spot?

[NEPP]

Here's the answer, Mike:

(From PhuturePhillies)

Garcia will retain the 40 man roster spot. In order for the Phillies to DL him they would have to promote him, and he would accrue service time. The Phillies will almost certainly call up Garcia on August 31st however. They will immediately put him on the 60 day DL. That move will give them flexibility with their postseason roster (assuming they get there of course).

[Mike]

That's what I was wondering about. The postseason roster.

[aksmith]

Jorge Cantu actually had one at bat that ruined Oswalt's night in San Diego. I don't know if it was discussed at the time because I was freezing my butt off in the stadium, but it was a Lenny Dykstra special where he fouled off 10 pitches in a 13 pitch at bat. Seemed to last forever.

So, Chooch and Valdez get a night off, but Ibanez still gets trotted out there to embarrass himself. If the man had an ounce of integrity he'd retire. But that's the nature of athletes. They almost never figure out they're done until at least a year after they are.

[GTown_Dave]

Remember Chone Figgins? Remember when people wanted Rube to go after him, & were disappointed by the Polanco deal? Have you checked in on Chone lately?

'10 - 161 G, 602 AB, .259 BA /.340 OBP /.306 SLG /.646 OPS

'11 - 21 G, 81 AB, .160 BA /.207 OBP /.247 SLG /.454 OPS

He's almost making Ibañez look restaurant quality by comparison.

[Iceman]

awh (from the last thread): I feel like I'm falling into clout's "Looked Good" trap here, but did you get a chance to watch Lee last night? He stuff was very good. His curve wasn't as sharp as I've seen it but he was locating everything. It really was a case of him making only a few mistakes and getting punished every time. It happens.

I agree that 7 IP/4ER is not what we expect from him but I'd give him about 10 starts or so before scrutinizing him for not performing the way we expected him to. Plus, from what I've read he is pitching with the back a senior citizen.

[GTown_Dave]

Matt Gelb (via Twitter): "Listen to Franzke and L.A. tonight. They'll be telling a good Chris Wheeler story from earlier today."

Don't have to tell me twice ...

[Jack]

If Kendrick pitched 7 innings and gave up 4 runs, Clout would spend all day defending his performance.

[Iceman]

back of a senior citizen*

Also, if the Phils get shut down by Ian Kennedy and Daniel Hudson in consecutive nights and I lose sleep as a result again, I'm not going to be thrilled.

[NEPP]

GTown, I really wonder what the hell's up with Chone. He was never as good as that final year in LA but its insane how he fell off the cliff like that. Playing in SEA shouldn't hurt his offense all that much as he's not a power hitter anyway.

[Iceman]

GTown- if it's anything regarding Scott Graham (or anyone for that matter) strangling him, count me in.

[GTown_Dave]

NEPP: Agreed. I never drank the Kool-Aid w/ regard to Figgins, but I also never envisioned this much of a drop. I can only assume he'll rebound at some point & drag his avg. back to ~.260-.265, but the longer he slumps the more difficult even that is going to be. I don't watch nearly enough AL baseball to make an informed guess, so mostly I'm left relieved r00b went a different way,

[dlhunter]

Franzke's contract is up at the end of the season, so you would do well to start listening to him and LA while you still can.

They make any game infinitely more enjoyable.

[bay_area_phan]

awh, let us recall, is the guy who spent the entire 2009 season telling us that we weren't allowed to criticize Rollins' .250/.296/.423 stat line because his second half numbers were in line with his career norms & his bad numbers all arose from one terrible, and supposedly anomalous, half season. But if a guy throws 100 good pitches in a game, and 2 bad ones, then his performance was an abomination.

[GTown_Dave]

dlhunter: I believe Franzke re-signed a multi-year before the current season began. TBag can continue to languish unlistened to in my household.

[bay_area_phan]

I'm already disgusted with tonight's performance & it hasn't even started yet.

[The Truth Injection]

Did everyone see the story about Charlie Sheen posting bail for Lenny Dykstra today? (it may have been in the other thread I didn't go through)

That has to be a real meeting of the minds.

[GBrettfan]

Oh wow--A hit! To start the game! By a Phillie! Not named Polanco!

And a run!

[bay_area_phan]

Don't get me wrong. I'll take that run. But it's just amazing the percentage of the Phillies' total runs that are coming as a result of horrible defense.

[GBrettfan]

Polanco w/16 RBIs to Rollins' 2? Ouch, Jimmy

[bay_area_phan]

It's equally amazing that the official scorer credited Polanco with a hit.

[GBrettfan]

Double for Howard! It feels like a feast!

[GTown_Dave]

b_a_p: There is no "Bad Defense" any longer. Bud hath decreed the Era of Great Offense.

[GBrettfan]

So we'll strand 2...

[Marc]

Good non-productive out, JRoll.

[Iceman]

Francisco-Ibanez-Orr-Schneider. That's quite the black hole.

[bay_area_phan]

When a team is hitting like the Phillies, I really think you've got to send Polanco on Howard's double. The second Samuel held him at third, anyone who has been following the Phillies had to know with 100% certainty that he would never cross home plate.

[GBrettfan]

At least he hit it very well. Darn, woulda been nice to spot Roy O. a 3-run lead.

[GTown_Dave]

.177 0-22

[Bobby Cocks]

Benny and Raul quickly squash the hopes of a big inning.

[dlhunter]

Raul Ibanez looking more and more every day like that 700-year-old knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And yet somehow more feeble.

[GTown_Dave]

dlhunter: r00b chose poorly.

[GBrettfan]

Nice catch

[dlhunter]

GTown- I wonder who was the true grail that year? Burrell?

[JAY]

good job roy#2

[GTown_Dave]

dlhunter: Burrell? The True Gimp, maybe ...

[GBrettfan]

Team minus Polly hitting .176 -in what stretch? Missed that. But it can't possibly remain that dreadful a majority of the season. Right?

[Iceman]

T-Mac immediately correcting Wheels that Johan Santana threw today. He must've gotten one of his Mets text alerts.

[GBrettfan]

Well, guess the offense has no choice but to step up more. Or lose.

[Iceman]

Burned by the #8 hitter. Ugh.

[Marc]

...and by #9

[Jack]

Uh-oh.

[Iceman]

And the pitcher.

[Bobby Cocks]

Wow, wonderful defense by Franny.

[bay_area_phan]

It's over

[DH Phils]

Sometimes the Beerleaguer debate of the last 2 days is moot: a pitcher performs poorly, both in looks and results.

[Steve]

Feels like a loss

[GBrettfan]

A double from their pitcher?? Groan.

This may be a rare loss for Oswalt. Did they say still no loss as a Phillie?

[Ron Jones]

The Fish take over first place tonight.

[mainerob]

Oh, no. Can the Phillies catch up to the seemingly insurmountable lead the vaunted Diamondbacks juggernaut has built up in the bottom of the third? Stay tuned.

[Jack]

This is crazy. I was told that our pitching would be so good every night it wouldn't matter what our offense did.

Now our offense actually has to produce? This is really weird.

[Cyclic]

Flyers will definitely outscore the Phillies tonight.

[Malcolm]

mainerob: Obviously you haven't been watching the Phillies lately.

By the way, the answer is no.

[GTown_Dave]

The Flyers have scored 22 Goals in their past 7 games. With 6 Innings left in their final game of the same span, the Phillies have scored 17 Runs. Ouch.

[Marc]

Besides Howard and Polanco, would you take any other Phillie over his Marlin counterpart?

[Iceman]

I have to get up in 6 hours. There's no way I can stay up at the risk it's as much of a waste of time as last night.

I'll give it another 2 innings. On the bright side I haven't turned off a Phils game voluntarily in a long, long time, and the last time I did was the comeback win against the Braves where Howard hit a 3-run bomb against Gonzalez. So if I turn it off, they will probably win.

[The Truth Injection]

Well that is some flat out shitty luck there.

[GTown_Dave]

Marc: Chooch. Even w/ the horrible slumps.

[DH Phils]

Marc: Ruiz and Utley too, as well as starters #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

[Ron Jones]

Time for Franny and Ibanez to come thru!!

[RSB]

Francisco is killing them tonight.

[Jack]

Classic Francisco. Hilarious watching him swing as hard as he can on every pitch.

[Fatalotti]

Francisco the new certified rally killer.

[Cyclic]

Nice rip, Benny.

[Marc]

Chooch ok--maybe. Utley, if you haven't noticed, doesn't play. Of course didn't count the starters, but theirs are pretty good, too

[Ron Jones]

Everybody working the counts and Ben swings out of his cleats at the first pitch.

[Fatalotti]

Excellent play. Hope he's not injured, because that was awkward how his arm hit the railing.

[GTown_Dave]

.175 0-23

[Cyclic]

Black hole

[mainerob]

Frigging rally killers: Francisco and Ibañez!!!

[Jack]

Francisco and Ibanez. Just amazing.

[J. Weitzel]

That's unbelievably stupid, what Francisco did there.

[Fatalotti]

Per my prediction, Raul should get a hit in his next AB. I claimed that he would get as low as .175 before getting a hit.

[Marc]

Werth's .220 would fit in well.

[krukker]

You know how sometimes you're both lucky and good? Raul's both unlucky and bad right now.

[DH Phils]

Jack: I understand what you're getting at with that joke, but since the Phillies have won 9 of 14 (.643) despite not scoring 5 runs in any of those games, I think there is some support for the popular sentiment that you're trying to mock.

[Fatalotti]

How many bats has Oswalt missed? I don't think he's going to fare very well in this game.

[The Truth Injection]

if Raul keeps this up then at some point when Brown is healthy don't you have a really tough decision to make?

Mayberry and Francisco really shouldn't be sent down and Brown would keep the lefty there in place of Raul. You almost have to swallow the contract and either send him down or ship him out right?

[Iceman]

The Marlins aren't even officially in first and we already have people using the b00b method in trying to argue that they're a better team.

Ruiz "maybe" over Buck? The crazies are gonna come out of the woodwork tonight.

[mainerob]

Has a Phils catcher thrown out a basestealer yet this season?

[clout]

Jack: I agree with you that peripherals trump wins and runs allowed. What more can I say?

[Bobby Cocks]

Oswalt is not looking good, this could get out of hand quickly.

[GTown_Dave]

TTI: But Charlie <3 <3 <3 Raul, soooooooooo much!

[Jack]

Clout: You think Raul will hit his career norms this year?

[Fatalotti]

Oswalt finally laying an egg. Took him long enough.

[GTown_Dave]

Let me try the "criticize the pitcher" angle:

"Four Runs?! We traded J.A. Happ for this stooge?!"

Nah. It ain't stickin'. The Offense owes this team an 8+ Run outburst.

[Jack]

The thing is, at some point, Raul will have a little hot streak and people will talk about how the Phils were right to stick with him, and how he was never washed up.

But my guess is his overall numbers for the year will be pretty terrible (like 90-95 OPS+), and combined with his bad defense, will be basically a replacement-level player for the year overall.

But he will have a hot streak that will make people think he was actually decent.

[Cyclic]

Seems like teams are running wild on us.

[Fatalotti]

Good thing Rollins was covering second.

[Bobby Cocks]

What is the deal with guys on first running freely against this team, anybody with any speed on first goes??

[The Truth Injection]

This is crazy. I was told that our pitching would be so good every night it wouldn't matter what our offense did.

This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday with covertly rooting against the team. The concept is more about coming on here and being right then actually wanting them to do well.

[Marc]

Iceman:
Comparing for fun, and to do something while I wait for a run. Calm down--your favorite team is still great.

[MG]

Phils should be able to put at least another 2 runs against Hudson. He is one of the crapper starters they have faced this year.

[Jack]

TTI: It was a joke. Relax, bud.

[Milt]

Game = Over

[Hope SE]

Franzke makes these hits sound like bloops. Are they?

[Fatalotti]

GTown, who's criticizing the pitcher? Oswalt doesn't have swing and miss stuff tonight, and if balls keep getting put in play, hits happen. Nature of the game. Oswalt has been nothing short of stellar since joining the Phillies, and his bad outing tonight doesn't change that.

It happens. Still doesn't excuse the offense if it only puts up 2 runs, but Oswalt is not good tonight.