Game chat: Phillies feed their veteran addiction

Placido Polanco replaces Kevin Frandsen, who played an incredible game Tuesday, when the Phillies play the third of four with the Reds.

Maybe I misread this, but Frandsen looked physically spent when they cut to a shot of him in the dugout following his second highlight reel defensive play Tuesday. So I'm not sure if that's behind Charlie Manuel's decision to go with Polanco tonight. If not, it's veteran loyalty; an addiction the Phils' probably need to break with their 36-year-old injury prone third baseman. Veterans are the crack cocaine of the Phillies, man. Meantime, Vance Worley searches for his first good start since Aug. 1. He's really been one of the weaker links of this team the second half of the season.

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Comments

[E]

I certainly wouldn't be disappointed if Frandsen is back with this team next year. Hustles and I'm guessing a reasonable contract. Certainly at least holds the line for a team with other bigger issues

[Willard Preacher]

Ugh, it's a Schneider game...

Even more egregious of a lineup failure than the Frandsen omission.

[MG]

Worley start? Radio game. I am surprised the Phils are strong favorites though. Even with Arroyo on the mound, figured the Phils would have been slight underdogs especially with how Worley has pitched lately.

[curt]

Yes, it's easy to make a case that only 2 or 3 of these guys should be in the lineup at this point. A couple of them will certainly be gone next year. A few will hopefully be healthier next year, something that is not promoted by everyday play this year. The pitcher needs surgery, so why not sooner rather than later. It's almost like there's no one on the farm they actually want to check out. And like they're doing all they can to p*ss away that protected draft pick.

It's always interesting to discover late in the game whether Cholly is playing to win or not. Seems like they should have a strategy, and field a team accordingly.

[GTown_Dave]

Apparently the Phillies are going all-out w/ their 90s Retro Night theme by starting as many players 90 years of age or more as possible.

[SLO Phan]

Not sure I understand the Schneider/Worley connection this year. Last year, IIRC, some BLers proclaimed that Schneider was the reason for Worley's success. Right or wrong, UC appeared to agree. Since I think we can all agree Worley is not having the same success this year (at least in the second half), not sure why UC is still pairing the two.

[MG]

Cholly explaining the lineup card:

I er yum tried to kick... but the veterans just be callin' me man, it is ur callin' me, man... I just got to go to it!

[Willard Preacher]

With 90's retro night, Cholly might as well throw Hollins and Eisenreich into the lineup. It won't be much worse than the Polly, Schneider, Worley black hole he's trotting out there anyway.

[GTown_Dave]

Preacher: Solid chance of a brawl, too. Would make for a far more entertaining product.

[HammRadio]

@MG -- Radio game for Worley... no... it should be because its Retro night. I expect Tmac and Wheels at their most awful. Filled with in game interviews, produce-helped teases for things that happened in the 90s, tosses to Greg Murphy talking to the Wolfpack... Should be AWFUL...

I look forward to Tmac and Wheels discussing Pop Culture events in the 90s with their usual deftness...

TMac "Wheels... Spacehog played before tonight's game, big fan of them weren't you..."

Wheels "Can't say I know them... who else were big in the 90s?"
[The following is almost an exact quote from a game a couple weeks ago]
TMac "Well I graduated college in 1990, so I should know some band... but for the life of me... I couldn't tell you" Seriously, a guy who spent most of his 20s during the 90s couldn't name one band... FINALLY, we are talking like 3 minutes as they try to name bands that MIGHT have been big during the 90s... a producer played Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and both "woke up"... Brutal...

and for the next 5 minutes both men will enlighten us with their complete in ability to be "cool" in anyway...

[GTown_Dave]

By-the-by, if no one attends this game dressed as a giant hypodermic needle I will be greatly disappointed.

[The Evil Ed Wade]

Yu Darvish to sit tomorrow night. Oswalt gets start unless he is needed elsewhere on a tractor rescue stunt.

[MG]

Odds on Wheels & Sarge bringing up 'Whoomp There It is' by Tag Team? Singing it?

[Bill]

Polanco is going to start at least every other game.

[MG]

It would be amusing though to see TMac do the Macarena with a Carmen Miranda fake bowl of fruit on his head.

[Iceman]

Bottalico thinks Frandsen should be used as trade bait in the off-season.

Does this guy go on the air loaded on crack? You're not going to get jack for a career minor leaguer with flashes of big league ability. He and Kratz have basically fell into the Phillies laps as cheap options for the bench next year. No way you trade him away for Kash Konsiderations.

I'm certainly not on the bandwagon to give him a chance to start, but you certainly couldn't get worse than some of the utility guys they've had this year, and Frandsen appears worlds better than them. Keep him on the bench. This is so easy, I'm convinced even the FO can't screw it up. Ricky Bo is a moron.

[Section 134]

Loving the 90s unis for both teams. Hoping for the entertainment like last night, with a W.

And WTF is Frandsen not playing? C mon Charlie

[wes covington's ghost]

MG- and a coconut bra holding in his massive rack.

[cut_fastball]

GTown -- I just got it... wow.

[Sil Campusano]

Frandsen as trade bait? Lolololol. Who would they get foe him? Chad Qualls?

[Stocky Vance]

Frandsen for Scott Posednik? /s

[denny b.]

You play Polanco now, so you can showcase him (that he's healthy) and move him next week.

Should be a fun game, with CB Bucknor (stinks) behind the plate.

[bay_area_phan]

If this isn't the worst defensive team in baseball, I would sure as heck hate to see the ones who are worse.

[Iceman]

Pretty clear that Rollins error is going to cost them, keeping with the theme of last night.

[curt]

bap - Remember that error in a few innings when people are wondering why Worley can't get past the 5th inning. It cost him an extra 11 pitches.

[bay_area_phan]

Nice pitch. Unfortunately, they will still pay for Rollins' error down the road, when Worley -- not particularly durable to start out with -- ends up imploding in the 5th inning instead of the 6th.

[bay_area_phan]

curt: Seems we're on the same wave length.

[GTown_Dave]

"You'd think after about 75 of those you'd make some adjustments."

-L.A., on J-Roll's pop-ups

[Replacement Level Poster]

As someone who had to deal with Spacehog when "In the Meantime" was a hit, I'm pleased to see them playing before a sparse, indifferent crowd at the ballpark.

[MG]

Only good thing about the Phils in the 90s is that you could go to games at the Vet for free or damn close to it if you were willing to wait out the scalpers until the end of the 1st inning/start of the 2nd inning.

[GTown_Dave]

Speaking of the 90s, remember when Harry did a promo for 'Beverly Hills, 90210' & called it "Beverly Hills Ninety-Thousand Two Ten"? Good times ...

[GTown_Dave]

MG: Checked out StubHub lately? It's pretty much that way again now.

[MG]

Dave - I mean 'real cheap' like 3-4 tickets for $10 bucks if you waited out the scalpers a bit and got 600/700 level seats and then just moved down a bit.

[DH Phils]

GTown: Can you picture Harry gleefully jabbering about 90's TV with Gregg Murphy? Every day I miss Harry more and more as I watch the steaming pile of "fan-friendly" corporate bull8hit that the Phillies' TV broadcast has become.

[GTown_Dave]

MG: We'll know the Phillies are back to rock bottom when tickets once again become available in packages of Phillies Franks.

DH: Amen. From one of the best in all of MLB to practically unwatchable.

Nice play, Dom!

[DH Phils]

Dom Brown turning routine fly balls into diving catches is certainly preferable to him dropping routine fly balls. Baby steps.

[MG]

Nice catch Brown.

[The Perils of Thinking]

Worst defensive team in baseball, right there.

[MG]

Dave - Your right. Lots of tickets in the single digit range even in the 400 level behind home plate.

[Cyclic]

Dom-fense!

[Stocky Vance]

. domo gold glove candidate

[bay_area_phan]

That was one of those bad-good catches. It looks like a highlight-reel catch, but only because he broke the wrong way & turned an utterly routine play into an adventure.

[MG]

Not sure if it is funny/sad on how culturally unaware Wheels is.

[GTown_Dave]

Dom needs to hit a HR & celebrate by doing the Carlton Dance tonight.

[bay_area_phan]

When Mickey Morandini is your team's hit leader for the decade, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that your team had a pretty sorry-ass decade of baseball.

[The Perils of Thinking]

I missed it (or they didn't show it), but please tell me that JMJ was Urkel on the scoreboard...

[DH Phils]

The fact that Mickey Morandini led the team with 835 hits in the 90s does a pretty good job of summing up 90s Phillies baseball.

[MG]

The Perils of Thinking - Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

[MG]

Really is kind of ridiculous how much Cozart crowds the plate with his hands/elbows. Even 20-25 years ago, he would have almost certainly would have been brushed back off the plate. Basically can't throw an inside fastball to him.

[The Perils of Thinking]

To compare, Jimmy had more than twice as many hits (1697) from 2001 to 2010...

[GTown_Dave]

How slow do you have to be to get gunned down by Schneider?

[MG]

Dave - Schneider has been better this year (8/17 on 32% CS).

[Willard Preacher]

"How slow do you have to be to get gunned down by Schneider?"

Just a step ahead of Ryan Howard speed.

[DH Phils]

BAP: The fact that it is Morandini is pretty incredible, but I think the 835 number is even more remarkable. If they had a single player hit ~.270 for 6 years, he would've topped that. Rollins, Burrell, Abreu, and Utley all comfortably topped that in the 2000s for the Phillies.

[curt]

Teams run on our pitchers, who generally blow at holding runners. Blanton was the best of the bunch.

[Willard Preacher]

Well, to be fair, this game does make me long for the 90's. As is, I can't wait til I'm in my nineties, because there's no way in hell TBag can still be around and if so, I shouldn't be able to hear him.

[MG]

Willard Preacher - More fake/forced laughter tonight than a week's worse from TMac.

[Willard Preacher]

"The Usual Broadcasters," really? It's like the creative department is even less creative than the Manager and GM combined.

[Willard Preacher]

Ty Wigginton as Forrest Gump does sound appropriate...

[GTown_Dave]

The Phillies can't hit a RHP w/ an 85 MPH fastball. Why does this seem all-too-familiar to me?

[MG]

These 'creative nights' built around a promotion are freaking brutal. Radio time. Basically are completely ignoring the game at times so Wheels/TMac can discuss irrelevant 90s facts with Murphy.

[Brian]

Arroyo is perfect through 3?

[Willard Preacher]

GTown, you'd think they'd learn and have the pitching staff pitch to their own lineup every once in awhile. We've got TONS of guys who tote and 85 MPH fastball.

[bay_area_phan]

DH: Yep, that's pretty pathetic. Speaking of pathetic, that would be an apt description for these first 3 innings.

[Willard Preacher]

MG, flipping over before Sarge has an opportunity to showcase his '90's "knowledge?" Bold move.

[DH Phils]

Maybe Arroyo will keep the perfect game going for a while so they'll talk about baseball.

[MG]

Brown getting some boos there.

[Willard Preacher]

Are we sure this isn't '80's retro night? WTF was that out there Dom Jeltz?

[GTown_Dave]

One step forward, two steps back.

[bay_area_phan]

Sarge: "You can't fault a player for not seeing the ball."

As this is about the 10th time that this has happened with this particular player, and it almost never happens with any other player, I'm thinking maybe you CAN fault him.

[Iceman]

D-FENCE!

[Willard Preacher]

BAP, I like how he's trying to fault Utley for not pointing to it. Like depth perception on the 2B pointing at a ball is the key to that.

[curt]

This defense isn't going to improve next year. Polly and Vic won't both be replaced by gold glovers. Utley and Rollins are in decline. Howard's Howard. And if Brown wins a job, well, let's just say it won't be with his glove.

[Hunter Pence]

I would have had that.

[Iceman]

ATONEMENT

[Cyclic]

Holy mother eff

what a throw

[MG]

Brown does have a good arm. Still better suited for LF where you live with his shaky defense.

[curt]

Nice recovery by Dom.

[DH Phils]

That throw was as good as the previous play was bad.

[NEPP]

DOMONATED!!!

[Willard Preacher]

For as terrible as he is making plays, that hose Dom is toting is effing ridiculous...

That alone will get him a job.

[GTown_Dave]

Gotta appreciate it when a guy makes up for his mistake. If nothing else Dom has one hell of an arm.

[lolwut]

HOSE!!

[bay_area_phan]

The Miami football program should have been recruiting Dom to play quarterback, not wide receiver.

[GBrettFan]

At least Dom shows some ability in the field now. That was a great throw. He's inconsistent, but that's an improvement from being consistently disappointing out there. He's been hitting a bit, too. Maybe there's hope for him. It's good to let him play now, gain experience in a relatively pressure-free situation.

[MG]

Throw was even more impressive on replay. On the money in the exact spot.

[NEPP]

Dom has always had a cannon...its part of what made scouts think he had 5 tool potential. I remember his first or second game up when he made a awesome throw from deep RF to get a guy at home.

I wonder how he'd do as a pitcher.

[bay_area_phan]

"Dom has always had a cannon...its part of what made scouts think he had 5 tool potential."

Having 1 tool gives you 5 tool potential?

[MG]

LA angst with CB Bucknor rising.

[NEPP]

Getting no-hit by Arroyo.

***Having 1 tool gives you 5 tool potential?***

That's where the "part" part of the sentence comes in.

[Iceman]

You guys are even more miserable than usual tonight. It's like the we're throwing it back to the 90s Phan mentality.

Didn't Arroyo take a no-no into the 7th/8th inning this year already?

[bay_area_phan]

NEPP: Was just yanking your chain -- and also trying to make the point that Dom's throwing arm is, unfortunately, the only part of his game in which his physical tools have actually translated to on-field production.

[clout]

GTown: Phillies franks?

I used to throw away the hot dogs and eat the tickets. Tasted better.

[curt]

Is their any doubt that Schneider will have to break up this perfect game? If Arroyo can pull it off, Cueto might go back to back.

[clout]

MG: 100% correct. I think half of Dom's defensive problems are because the Phillies won't put him in LF and just leave him the hell alone.

[NEPP]

LF does kinda waste his arm. It limits the other "minor" issues with his defense of course.

[CN]

So Sarge thinks Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell were prominant Phillies players of the 90s?

Huh.

[bay_area_phan]

Hey, I got the "most homeruns in the 90s" question right. Sarge, on the other hand, guessed Pat Burrell, whose rookie season was in 2000.

[GTown_Dave]

clout: With enough mustard both were nearly edible.

[CousinIT]

"I think half of Dom's defensive problems are because the Phillies won't put him in LF and just leave him the hell alone"

Yep. Guy is struggling in the field. Phillies' braintrust response - let's play him in LF. Let's play him in RF. Maybe we'll try him in CF tommorrow. Huh?