Saturday chat: Weather threatens Phillies, R-Phillies

Cole Hamels and the big Phillies try to continue their climb toward .500 in the second of three against the Rockies. Meanwhile in nearby Trenton, the Double-A Reading Phillies try to stave off elimination by sending southpaw Adam Morgan to the hill. Both games get underway at 7:05, with strong storms expected to pepper the Delaware Valley.

Friday night, around the time the parent club staged their comeback, Ethan Martin gave up a game-winning, seeing-eye single that put Trenton a win away from advancing to the Eastern League Championship Series. Otherwise, Martin, who came to the Phillies from the Dodgers in the Shane Victorino deal and has been terrific, pitched an amazing game, striking out 11 while walking none. The same can be said of Phillippe Aumont, who pitched a key 8th inning to set up Nate Schierholtz's walk-off hit in Friday's 3-2 win.

Lineup: Rollins, SS, Schierholtz, RF, Utley, 2B, Howard, 1B, Mayberry, CF, Brown, LF, Kratz, C, Martinez, 3B, Hamels, P.

Injury updates: Phillies.com reports that Brian Schneider (strained left hamstring and injured right ankle) might not return to the Phillies before the end of the season, making it likely that both Schneider and Placido Polanco have played their last games as Phillies. In an unforgivable brain lapse, Beerleaguer forgot Schneider was on the DL in yesterday’s post. My sincerest apologies to Steven Lerud. In other news, the Phillies announced that an MRI revealed a stress fracture in Kevin Frandsen's left fibula. He’s not expected to play this series. Finally, Leslie Gudel of Comcast SportsNet reports the Phillies are planning to place Raul Valdes on DL retroactive to his last appearance with a meniscus issue that will require a Monday surgery.

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Comments

[bay_area_phan]

Someone asked this on yesterday's thread & I wondered the same thing. Is there any advantage to putting guys on the 15-day DL after September 1, when you can call up anyone on your 40-man roster anyhow?

[Bake McBride was Here]

"making it likely that . . . Schneider . . . ha[s] played [his] last [game] as [a Phillie]"

All the editing was worth it just to see that statement.

[NEPP]

15 day DL? Nope.

60 day DL helps but not the 15 man in Sept.

[NEPP]

In both cases (Schneider and Polly) it might be Rube's way of saying "so long"...gets them both out of the clubhouse basically.

[bay_area_phan]

60-day, yes -- although there's no point to using the 60-day DL unless there's someone not presently on the 40-man roster whom you'd like to call up. Also, if you put someone on the 60-day DL after August 1, he can't participate in the post-season. While the odds of our being in the post-season are something like 1 in a zillion, I can't see any good reason why you'd want to foreclose the possibility of having Polanco and/or Valdes on your playoff roster in the event that, through some miracle, we did manage to get in.

[Corn]

Great, so MiniMart will be starting even more now at 3B.

He goes 0-3 with a error. Then starts the next 3 games

[Cole Handsome]

They can always put Stutes on the 60-man DL to make a spot for a call-up. I'm not sure about the drawback of bringing up Ruf (adding him to the 40-man). They will have to protect him for the Rule 5 Draft after this season.

[lorecore]

Any idea when this game starts? I've been drinking in my car for about 3hrs now.

[SLO Phan]

MM is going to be starting for awhile now. He's white hot after getting 2 hits yesterday. Charlie doesn't know the saying "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile".

[Fan from Fifty]

NEPP: "In both cases (Schneider and Polly) it might be Rube's way of saying "so long"...gets them both out of the clubhouse basically."

But you can still hang in the dugout (let alone the clubhouse) while on the DL. Saint Utley was often around while on the DL. I recall someone on some team, last year maybe, who took the roll of batboy while on the DL 'cause he was bored and wanted something to do.

[RadarMan]

Looks like there's a break in the rain coming, but it will be brief, then I'd estimate another 2 hours before it clears out.

I hope Hamels doesn't get started up for a very brief appearance then get stalled out in a second delay.

[Conway Twitty]

They are playing in NY and Baltimore. How about Trenton? Any links to Reading games?

[buy sell]

Postponed- Reading/Trenton postponed.

I was reading that there was a lot of thunder in the area..

(thank you thank you,,,Drum roll, cymbals)

[NEPP]

***But you can still hang in the dugout (let alone the clubhouse) while on the DL. ***

You can but if those tweets are to be believed, both have cleaned out their lockers and are gone.

It might have somethign to do with medical care...no idea really.

[Conway Twitty]

buy sell: Thanks. Plenty time for Ruf to grab a cab to CBP.

[Gregm]

Looks like a 10:47 Game start time, based on my expertise of using Weather.com maps :P

[Cyclic]

Brewers are allowed to win, as long as they are beating St. Louis.

Wish the Giants had beaten the Dodgers.

[aksmith]

Ending on the 15 day DL might come into play if a player's contract reads that they get a buyout or an option is picked up if they don't end the season on the DL. However, I doubt either of those contracts had such clauses.

Did everyone see that Strasburg has been shut down for the season because Johnson said his head wasn't in the last game? Wow. Way to dump on your ace. But the way he's pitching, it looks like he may actually be wearing down right on schedule.

[Conway Twitty]

Sending them home saves 2 hotel rooms and meal money for 13 remaining road games. Gotta save money for 2 FA OFers.

[bay_area_phan]

I am not the slightest bit concerned about the Brewers or D-Backs. To pass up St. Louis, Pittsburgh & L.A., who are all 5.5+ games ahead of us, we would have to go something like 21-3 over the rest of our games. As improbable as such a scenario may be, it is not nearly as improbable as a scenario in which we go 21-3 and pass up St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and L.A. only to have Arizona or Milwaukee go 20-4 and keep pace with us.

[lorecore]

Drinking in the car for 5 hrs now, still no word of game time

[desert phan]

gotta be concerned with every team in front of us dude

[denny b.]

John the Idiot now on the Rain Delay Show with JJ and Scott.

[can_of_corn]

I don't know the policy, but exactly how late can a delay go? MLB is still saying "delay" and not "postponed"

[denny b.]

Gnome really, really wants to make an appearance tonight.

Management seems to want to start this at midnight, if they have to though.

[Conway Twitty]

This game is meaningless in the standings, but it's all about gate receipts.

lorecore: Where are you pi$$ing?

[GTown_Dave]

Game called. Day/Night DH tomorrow (1.05PM & 6.05PM).

[GTown_Dave]

Edit: Game 2 at 6.35PM

[NEPP]

Well, at least they get to keep the gate receipts this way.

[AlexRosie]

What does anybody think about the trading Cliff Lee to he Rangers for Elvis Andrus. We can move Jimmy Rollins to third and Andrus has pretty good numbers to be a leadoff guy. I know Jimmy Rollins would throw a fit over this scenario but I just thought this would be an interesting longshot scenario since Rangers were said to be thinking of moving Andrus and making Profar the shortstop. Any thoughts?

[Conway Twitty]

This means that they will need a 6th starter on Thursday. Pigs players have gone home.

[AlexRosie]

to the* Rangers

[AFish]

There must be some advantage to putting players on the 15-day dl in September, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe it is a collective bargaining requirement.

[Conway Twitty]

Hope they save Cole for the night game, for MG's betting interests.

[Philadelphia Bus accident lawyer]

This game is meaningless in the standings, but it's all about gate receipts.