Results tagged ‘ Roy Halladay ’
Can the Phillies Save Themselves?
There is a lot of chatter and trade rumors creeping around the Phillies right now. Who will stay and who will go? And, do they even have any real choices here?
One of the predominant theories says that if the Phillies make a strong run in the 2nd half, they may be able to keep guys like Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino. But to do so would mean winning a LOT of games.
Last night’s win over the Dodgers gave the Phillies a 3-game winning streak. That is nice, but not exactly a season-saving run just yet. Yet there were reasons to hope; Joe Blanton pitched extremely well, allowing just 2 runs in 8 innings, keeping the unreliable bullpen at bay. Ryan Howard hit his first home run of the year. And Victorino had 3 hits in the game.
But even if this short streak of better baseball continues, is it enough to keep the team together beyond the trade deadline?
Sadly, I believe the answer is no.
The Phillies bullpen needs serious help and a guy like Victorino is exactly what many teams will want in exchange for a solid pitcher or two. Even a player like Juan Pierre could help out a team ready to make a run at the playoffs. With Domonic Brown healthy again in Triple-A, the possibility of trading an outfielder greatly increases. Plus, both Pierre and Victorino have contracts that expire after this season.
And then there is the sad tale of Cole Hamels. The Phillies failed to get a long-term contract done last year, leaving Hamels close enough to free-agency for him to get a really big whiff of the huge piles of money waiting for him. If they cannot come to terms, Hamels will be traded before the deadline.
The Phillies really have little choice. If they know that Hamels will test free agency, the odds of retaining him are slim to none. Other teams who are not on the brink of the luxury tax and whose teams did not suck this year will be gunning for Hamels. And if you are going to lose him, you might as well get something for him in exchange.
I am not happy about this and I am sure many of you feel the same way. But the cold, hard truth is that a very large, steaming pile of poo is about to hit the fan. I hope I am wrong, but brace yourselves, just in case I am not.
The good news is that Roy Halladay returns to the mound tonight! In his first start off the DL, Halladay will face the Dodgers at 10:10pm.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies Showing Signs of Life
The Phillies had not won a series since June 20th, the last time they faced the Rockies. It is fitting then that almost a month later, their next series win also came against the Rockies.
On Saturday, Vance Worley led the team pitching 6.2 innings and allowing only 2 runs. The game was almost a rout as the Phillies led 6-2 going into the 8th inning. But the bullpen struck again, allowing 3 Rockies runs and cutting the lead to a very uncomfortable 6-5. Jonathan Papelbon was forced into the game for a 5 out close attempt. The Phillies gave him 2 more runs to play with in the 9th and they walked away with an 8-5 victory.
Then today, Cole Hamels led the charge, pitching 8 innings with only 1 run allowed. For the first time in a long time, everything was clicking for the Phillies. Even without Chase Utley or Ryan Howard in the line-up, as it had been pretty much all year, they still scraped out 5 runs.
Carlos Ruiz normally sits for Sunday day games, but he has been so hot, manager Charlie Manuel had to play him. Chooch did not disappoint and went 2-for-4 with an RBI. He is now hitting an unbelievable .353…in the middle of July. Wow.
And Hunter Pence finally broke and 0-for-13 streak with a 3-run homer in the 5th inning. That had to be a huge relief for him.
Speaking of relief, no one was more relieved to have a little success than Antonio Bastardo. After allowing 5 runs in his last 2/3 of an inning pitched, Bastardo finally pitched a 1-2-3 inning using only 7 pitches, all strikes. That 9th inning performance may be the injection of life Bastardo has been looking for all season.
Now I do not mean to be a Debbie Downer here, but keep in mind, the Phillies just beat the 2nd worst team in the National League. The Dodgers are up next and that team is hanging right in there with the Giants for first place in the NL West. This will be a much bigger test for the Phillies.
The pitchers schedule to go against the Dodgers are in this order: Joe Blanton, Roy Halladay (his 1st start off the DL!) and Cliff Lee. This looks like a very solid opportunity for the Phillies if they can continue to build on this momentum.
Game time Monday night is 10:10pm (yikes!). Bust out the caffeine…
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Phillies All-Stars Contribute to NL Shut-Out Win Over the AL
In an 8-0 win over the American League, 3 Phillies All-Stars made big contributions for the National League. Cole Hamels pitched a perfect 7th inning, probably driving up his free agent value a little bit more. Carlos Ruiz caught the final 4 innings and had one at-bat, a fly-out to left field. And Jonathan Papelbon recorded the final out of the game, sealing the NL victory.
Here are a few MLB photos from the game:
And this next set of MLB photos show Ruiz holding his glove and then the glove R.A. Dickey gave him to use in order to catch his crazy knuckle balls. That glove is almost as big as Chooch! There is also a nice shot of Papelbon and then more adorable Chooch getting a hug from the Nationals teenage rookie, Bryce Harper:
Melky Cabrera of the Cardinals got the MVP award for the game. He had 2 hits, including a homer, and 2 RBI. Some rare events occurred during the game, including 3 triples, 5 rookies playing in the game, and the first shut-out during an All-Star game since 1996, when the game was played in Philadelphia.
The biggest blunder of the game came from 19-year old Harper who lost a routine fly ball in the outfield, which eventually landed behind him. He also got caught leaning too far off base in a fielder’s choice and was tagged out.
So now we wait until the Phillies return on Friday to see if they have any gas left to rescue their dreadful season. Roy Halladay will make a rehab start tomorrow so, hopefully, that means he will be back very soon.
In the meantime, here is a fun blast from the All-Star past. These are a few of my favorite All-Star photos from 2008. The top one will never get old…it is Dan Uggla goosing Chase Utley to the surprise of many around them, as you can see by my marker edits. Below that is Utley and Brad Lidge, who appear to be trying to club David Wright. And then there is Mike Schmidt standing up in a moving vehicle (next to Utley) during the All-Star parade to point me out and say hello. I was one Phillies jersey in a sea of Yankees jersey’s so I was easy to spot and he was clearly excited to see a Phillies fan! Utley yelled out to me right after that as well. And yes, that was one of the highlights of my simple existence ;o)
By the way, I am hoping to have my video interview with Ryan Howard posted in the next few days, so stay tuned for that!
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2012 photos by MLB; 2008 photos by Jenn Zambri Photography
Blanton’s Complete Game Gives Phillies Series Win
After allowing a minimum of 5 runs in each of his last 5 starts, no one expected a stand-out performance from Joe Blanton last night against the Twins. But the oddities this Phillies season seemingly never cease.
Going the whole 9 innings, Blanton allowed only 1 run on a solo homer, 7 hits and struck out 7. Blanton’s season has gone from great to awful and now, back to great again. Of the 3 complete games for Phillies pitchers this year, Blanton has 2 and Kyle Kendrick, who has been terrible lately, has the other. And this is on a staff of pitchers that includes Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. Go figure.
Continuing to terrorize American League pitching, Jim Thome added 3 more RBI to his stats last night with yet another bomb. The best part was watching fans dig through the flower beds in the outfield trying to recover the home run ball. That went on for several innings until security put a stop to it for fear of someone bending over too far and falling onto the field.
The mysterious, disappearing ball was never found. I guess those plants were really hungry. Either that or the ball was hit so hard, it ricocheted off into space and is currently in orbit.
While the mystery ball remains at large, the Phillies are moving right along. In fact, they are leaving the country. It is off to Toronto for 3 games with the Blue Jays next.
Perhaps these 2 wins will be the boost they needed to get their season back on track? Let us hope so. Game time tonight is 7:07pm.
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Blanton photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Pitching a Fit Over Phils Pitching
At the start of the season, everyone was worried about the Phillies offense being strong enough to carry a solid starting pitching staff to wins. Now that the offense is slowly piecing runs together, the entire pitching staff has fallen apart. Let us examine the grisly evidence:
Roy Halladay is on the DL. Vance Worley is pitching will bone chips in his elbow. Cliff Lee has no wins and is recently making a habit of blowing leads. Cole Hamels has been hit or miss. Kyle Kendrick and Joe Blanton keep see-sawing between okay and downright horrible.
As for the bullpen, 5 out of 7 pitchers have little big league experience. 4 of those are rookies in their first (3) year or second (1) year in the majors. Chad Qualls, a veteran, has basically been a bust. And their $50 million closer hardly ever pitches because the save situations are slim and they are afraid to use him in non-save situations.
Last night in a horrible 11-7 loss to the Twins, 3 of 4 bullpen guys who pitched combined to allow 5 runs. Kendrick started the game allowing 6 runs in only 4 innings. He was beyond awful. Meanwhile, closer Jonathan Papelbon has not thrown a single pitch since 4 days and 3 games ago.
Making matters worse, Hunter Pence has officially lost his mind in right field. He only has 3 official errors on the year, but if you add in the mental mistakes and plays that he clearly should have made despite not being an “official” error, he probably has at least 10 by now.
In fact, my favorite moment of last night’s game was a comment by announcer Tom McCarthy. After Pence failed to field a routine hopper in the 5th inning, turning a single into a triple, McCarthy said, “I think it is safe to say he needs to stop doing that.” He hit that nail on the head.
Right now, the Phillies are a very BAD team. Now 9.5 games back of the Nationals in the NL East, they do not have time to wait for Chase Utley and Ryan Howard to return. If they do not turn it around right now, this season is over.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Injuries and Questions Plaguing the Phillies
As I am sure many of you are already aware, Roy Halladay has been placed on the DL with a right latissimus dorsi strain. His projected time for recovery is 6-8 weeks. The good news is that the strain is a Grade ½ which means he just needs rest for the muscle to heal. The bad news is he will be gone probably until August. Yikes.
In regards to how long this has been going on, pitching coach Rich Dubee told the media, “I’ve thought since spring training that there was an issue.” My question then is, why was nothing done about this sooner? Why no MRI in spring training?
Of course, Halladay probably down-played the issue thinking it was nothing serious. But if you are paying a guy $60 million dollars, isn’t it your obligation to do everything possible to ensure the health of that player? In my opinion, this should have been handled in March. Luckily, the muscle did not tear in the meantime, but damage to the team was certainly done by allowing this to drag on.
The overwhelming sentiment in the press has been, “It could be worse,” referring to a potential tear or rotator cuff injury. But really, any injury with any player “could be worse.” What they should be doing instead of telling us how great it is that this is not worse is asking some real questions. Like, why was this not addressed earlier?
This also raises questions for me about the team management, from the top brass to the training staff. Because the Halladay issue does not seem to be the only thing they missed. What about Chase Utley? Should they have done more in the offseason to ensure Utley was healthy, especially after the 2011 knee problem?
But it is also easy to see why the team was maybe playing the “ignore it and it may go away” game. Imagine for a minute if they did check Halladay out in spring training. Now imagine having Halladay, Utley and Ryan Howard on the DL to start the season. How many fans do you think would have immediately written the team off with that kind of start? I would assume the Phillies would have asked themselves the exact same question.
As it stands now, those 3 players make up 32% of the entire team $174.5 million payroll. That is $55 million sitting on the DL. Ouch.
So, you still want to look on the bright side? Ok, think of it like this: Halladay is not really hurt. He is simply having his bionic parts tuned-up. As with most bionic men, this procedure can take some time.
Then when Halladay returns, he should be right back to his robot-self! Awesome.
My next question is, could the Phillies be playing the same “ignore it and it may go away” game with Joe Blanton? Missing most of last season with a sore elbow, Blanton was also seemingly left to his own devices all off-season and did not have surgery.
Blanton came back and appeared healthy and pitched very well in April. But then May rolled around and it all went downhill. In his last 3 starts, Blanton has not made it past the 5th inning and given up a total of 19 runs. That is an ERA of 12.52 in 3 starts. Last night against the Mets, he allowed 6 runs in 5 innings which lead to a 6-3 loss. Am I really the only one who finds this pattern disturbing?
Ok, let’s examine the bright side once again…Cliff Lee pitches tonight! Yes, it is Lee vs. Gee once again. And Lee could actually pick up his first win of the year before May ends! Cross your fingers…
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
Career Day for Wigginton Leads to Phillies Win
After a rough day on Sunday with a loss to the Cardinals and Roy Halladay pulled early due to shoulder soreness, the Phillies needed a serious lift. Seeing Carlos Ruiz scratched from today’s line-up with a sore hamstring was also not the good news this team was looking for.
But with Cole Hamels on the mound, you had to think the Phillies had a shot against the Mets. Hamels delivered again with 4 runs allowed in 8 innings. Technically Hamels’ worst outing of the season, this would have been a great day for most other pitchers.
Still, 4 runs has been no small challenge for this Phillies team and their up and down offense. But one guy came through in the clutch; Ty Wigginton. With a career high 6 RBI in the game, including a 3-run homer and a double, Wigginton put the team on his back and carried them to a victory. Wiggy was also walked twice and went 3-for-3 overall, putting him on base in all 5 at-bats.
John Mayberry Jr. also had a multi-hit day with a single and a 2-run homer. Wiggy and Mayberry combined for all 8 of the Phillies runs in the 8-4 win.
Going forward, the starting rotation still has some question marks. Halladay will be examined when the team returns to Philly later this week. And Vance Worley, although still on the DL, appears to be making progress.
Joe Blanton is another question mark as he has allowed 13 runs in his last 2 starts. If he can bounce back Tuesday night against the Mets, that would be a big relief for everyone concerned about the starting pitching right now. Game time is 7:10pm.
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Photoshopping by Jenn Zambri Photography
From Extreme Highs to Extreme Lows
This has been an up and down year so far for the Phillies; feast or famine. And we never know which one is coming and when. They win 6 in a row, lose 4 in a row and then win 4 in row. Up, down, up down…repeat…
Someone needs to stop the roller coaster and let me catch a break. This has been exhausting.
On Saturday, another extreme high occurred when Kyle Kendrick pitched his first career complete game shut-out for a 4-0 win over the Cardinals. Kendrick’s season has mirrored the team as a whole; some ups and some downs.
But after winning that 4th straight game, Sunday brought on another extreme low. Roy Halladay got blown up in the first inning against the Cards with a grand slam, putting the Phillies in a quick 4-0 hole. But worse than that, after just 2 innings of work, Pete Orr suddenly appeared in the on-deck circle to bat for Halladay. This left many scratching their collective heads…
As it turns out, Halladay was pulled for having “right shoulder soreness.” There has been no word yet on what exactly this means or how serious it may be. However, one can surmise based on Halladay’s last several outings, that this is not a new issue. Halladay has not looked right for some time now.
After a 1.95 ERA in the month of May, Halladay pitched to the tune of a 6.11 ERA in May. Obviously, something is going on. But with the cloak and dagger routine the Phillies brass has employed this year in regards to injured players, like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, we may never know the full truth.
And as if that was not enough drama for one day, Utley got hit with a foul ball while sitting in the dugout during the 7th inning. It appears to have hit his hand and then knocked his sunglasses off his face. No one looked terribly concerned afterwards, so we shall assume for now that he is fine….aside from 2 bum knees, of course.
The Phillies walked away with an 8-3 loss today, although they did win the series 3 games to 1, which is the good news. But as has been the case all season long, what lies ahead next is anyone’s guess.
A 3-game series with the Mets begins tomorrow in New York. The Memorial Day game time is 1:10pm; Cole Hamels will pitch.
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Photoshopping and head shots by Jenn Zambri Photography
Wikipedia Appears to Side With Ruiz on Ejection
In last night’s 5-2 loss to the Nationals, Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz was thrown out by umpire Gary Cederstrom in the 3rd inning for looking at him. According to reporter Jim Salisbury, Ruiz did not cuss, yell or even say anything offensive.
Manager Charlie Manuel stated, “[Ruiz] said he just told the umpire, ‘That was a strike,’ and when he looked up at him he threw him out of the game,” Manuel said. “When I went out there, the [umpire] said, ‘He was looking at me and I threw him out.’ “ So, he was tossed for making eye contact? Does Cederstrom think he is the Queen of England or something?
Apparently, the nice folks at Wikipedia seem to agree. If you look at the screen shot below, the line at the bottom says, “On May 22, 2012, Cederstrom threw Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz out of the game for arguing balls and strikes because everybody paid good money to see Gary Cederstrom throw people out.”
I added the screen shot because I was not sure how long it might be before Wikipedia decides to take the comment down. Or perhaps everyone there has a great sense of humor and will let the record stand as it is? It is pretty funny.
Roy Halladay also commented on the issue, as noted in Salisbury’s article. “I didn’t see anything wrong with what [Ruiz] did,” Halladay said. “He didn’t get in his face. He didn’t use obscene language. He simply said it was a strike. I’ve never seen one like that before. It’s unfortunate. He’s our best player and he got run out of the game for saying a ball was a strike. I’ve never seen that before.”
These umpires and their mega egos are simply out of control. This behavior is, or at least it should be, totally unacceptable. Will MLB respond? Doubtful.
As for the game, it sucked just as bad as the previous one. The Phillies offense went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men on base. And Halladay had another bad game, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings.
The clock is ticking…if this team does not find a way to win really quickly, they could wind up buried in ahole they cannot climb out of. Game 3 with the Nats starts at 7:05pm tonight. It will be a Cole Hamels – Bryce Harper reunion ;o) Joy.
UPDATE: I was correct; Wikipedia has taken the comment off the page. Good thing I took the screen shot ;o) Funny stuff!
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The Base Path Ball and Chain
In recent days, the Phillies seem to keep finding new ways to lose. After a 6-game winning streak, the offense went back to sleep and the team has lost 3 in a row. A 2-1 loss to the Nationals Monday night was the worst of the bunch.
While Kyle Kendrick started out shaky, filling in for the injured Vance Worley, he did settle in and keep the Phillies in the game. Kendrick allowed only 2 runs over 7 innings, which is more than was probably expected of him.
But again, the offense let Kendrick down and did so in every way they could have imagined. At the start of the year, no one was hitting. Now, they are hitting but not scoring. It actually appears as if Phillies hitters get on base and then are somehow magically chained down to the base path via an evil, invisible force. Because they just cannot seem to get as far as home plate.
Last night, they left 10 men on base and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. All by himself, Hunter Pence left 7 men on base, including a ground out with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 3rd.
Even Carlos Ruiz, who has been the hottest hitter this year, left 5 men on base. But the hitting alone was not the only issue. The Phillies managed to make several base running blunders to add to the chaos.
In the 6th, with no out and runners on 2nd and third, the Phillies again failed to score. Placido Polanco froze at third on a fly ball to center and did not tag up. Then in the 9th, John Mayberry Jr. also got chained to 3rd base and failed to score twice, once on what should have been a sac fly and then again on a wild pitch. He did finally score on a sac fly after that, but then Mike Fontenot found himself super-glued to second and did not advance to 3rd on the play.
With the base path ball and chain in place, the Phillies were “bound” to lose. Bound, tied and chained; in the world’s oldest profession, that may sound like fun to some of you. But in the world of baseball, it is not fun at all. And even worse, we are not getting paid to watch this crap!
Random Updates
- Pitcher Vance Worley has sought out a second opinion on his sore elbow, which appears to have a bone fragment floating around in it. No word yet on whether he will opt to have surgery.
- Congratulations to Jimmy and Johari Rollins! Johari gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday night. She is their first child :O)
- And if you can stomach it, Game 2 with the Nationals starts at 7:05pm tonight.
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Photo by Jenn Zambri Photography
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