Lunch Time Link Dump

Yawn... sorry for the lack of material lately, but even Incredibly amateurish bloggers need to go on a vacation every now and then. Special thanks to the many of you who pointed out just how "incredibly amateurish" I am when it comes to this! With the Phillies rolling right along winning everything except their B squad game against the Mets this past weekend, there isn't much to complain about... so on with the Links!

• The MLB draft is just a few days away and while it's nothing like the NFL version (and usually quite boring to watch), there are a handful of familiar names sitting out there. Rivals did an article on Bobby Bonilla's son, Brandon, but I'm just as interested seeing Dante Bichette Jr play at the next level. You may remember him as the star of the Little League World Series from a few years back, but the kid can play. As a High School Senior, he hits the ball hard, has plus speed, doesn't miss a lot, and plays a solid SS and 3B. Every mock draft I read through shows him going in the early rounds, but he's still not among the best overall. That title goes to either college players Gerrit Cole or Anthony Rendon. Cole projects as a rock solid front line starter, and Rendon projects as a top tier third baseman. Either are a safe choice for the Pirates, who get top billing this year, but I'm more intrigued to see where the children of Pudge Rodgigurez, Sid Bream, Shawon Dunston, and Steve Garvey land.

• Another story from last week is Barry Bonds offering to pay for college for the children of Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was beaten within inches of his life at Dodger Stadium over Opening Weekend. The way I see this story, it's a completely selfless act on the part of Bonds. At no point did he make a media circus out of the situation, nor did he take advantage of the circumstances. In fact, we may never have even known about the gesture had it not been for the Stow family lawyer who mentioned Bonds' generosity during a press conference about their lawsuit against the Dodgers organization. Bonds isn't exactly hard up for cash, as Baseball-Reference notes his career earnings push the $200M mark, plus countless dollars worth of endorsements. And he's not the only player with Giants ties to reach out to the family, as Tim Lincecum dipped into his piggy bank for $25K as well. But... for a guy who has a terrible reputation as a people-person, and who has more than his own share of personal problems to deal with right now, spending more than an hour in a hospital room with a fan over a month ago and with no public campaign is a classy move. It won't be the final straw that gets him into the HoF without controversy, but it's certainly a fine gesture. 

• Jayson Werth is already showing signs of aggravation in Washington. At 9 games under .500, 11.5 back from the lead, and in the midst of a 2-8 stretch, who could really blame him. But Werth hasn't really held up his end of the bargain either. There aren't many .255 hitters that are worthy of an $18M/year average salary, and I can assure you Werth isn't one of them. He's even gone as far as suggesting that the Nationals led Teddy win a race! Blasphemy! The Nationals are losing ballgames because they create almost no offense. Their pitching has been league average and they maintain some power despite being without Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Laroche, but a .230 team BA and the 2nd fewest hits in all of baseball isn't exactly a recipe for winning baseball. You made your $126M bed, enjoy sleeping in it Jayson!

• We Should Be GM's provides a solid scouting report on how the Phillies minor league systems are looking at this point in the season. With all the injuries and rehab appearances by guys from the big club, it's been a bit tough to keep a steady lineup in tact for most of the teams, but the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs under the advisement of Ryne Sandberg have been on a tear!

• I really liked David Murphy's piece last week on the evaluation of the base coaches, and particularly, Juan Samuel's job at third so far this year. The eye test tells me that Samuel has been less than aggressive at sending runners home from third and that some of his gambles have been outright terrible. The numbers have, surprisingly, been very similar to years past. But seeing Jimmy Rollins thrown out by about six feet last week was pretty terrible. The Phillies stolen base numbers 8th in the NL, but their runs scored from 1st or 2nd numbers rank a handful of spots lower. That, to me suggests that the runners aren't significantly slower, so much as they really aren't getting the job done coming around 3rd. Though, the sample size is still small and Samuel may still be getting a feel for his players. 

• Someone with a far better understanding of the luxury cap system, a far better grasp on the English language, and far more free time than myself, Eric Seidman of BrotherlyGlove.com goes in depth regarding the Phillies ability to add payroll in the coming months as the trade deadline approaches. Two weeks ago, people in town were going nuts over finding another bat to add to the lineup, but that talk has mostly cooled down with this current stretch. But should the need arise once again, there are more than a handful of viable options out there to target and as Eric points out, there are a number of creative solutions for keeping the Phillies total tax number below the luxury tax threshold. Ruben Amaro has said recently that the Phillies could potentially add payroll if they need to, but you can pretty much rest assured that the luxury tax number is as high as you'll ever see this team go. Nevertheless, it begs the question... how would you feel about the likes of Carlos Beltran, Hunter Pence, or Carlos Quentin playing in this outfield?

The Greatest Game Ever Played.

No, I'm not talking about golf. And I'm not naive enough to say that last night's 19 inning Phillies game was actually the greatest game ever played. But the sport of baseball in general is. Nothing is as unpredictable as this game. 2,430 of them are played each year and the game has been around since 1846, and yet at any given point in time there's a distinct chance you'll see something you've never seen before. There is no clock, there is no sudden death, and there is no tie. And that's what makes the game so special. So when the Phillies take the field at 7:05 on a Wednesday night and I'm hoping that I can get home and get my first decent night's sleep in over a week, I have no idea what kind of a treat I'm in for.

• Second longest (continuous) game in Phillies history timewise (6 hrs, 11 min). Four minutes shy of the record! 45,706 people started out there, but I'd estimate about 1/3 of them were gone by the 10th, and another 1/3 left on the Bruce HR. All in, if I had to guess, I'd say less than 10,000 were there to see Ibanez drive the ball to center and Jimmy trot home. If you know someone who claims to have been there, chances are they're lying (except me, you know me!)

• A bad day from Roy Halladay beats a good day from just about anyone else. The Reds were a singles machine for much of the first 7 innings which ran up Roy's pitch count and did some damage to his WHIP, but not a single ball was hit all that hard. A handful of well placed slap hits through gaps led to 3 runs, which was only the 3rd time all year that Roy had let up more than two.

• In 2010, that Jay Bruce HR is the straw that breaks the camel's back. In 2008, the Ryan Howard return shot is a foregone conclusion. It's nice to see shades of 2008 again...

• The stolen bases are a bit concerning. Three guys stole 2nd off Chooch last night and none of the plays were really all that close. 

• 9 1/3 IP, 5Ks, 1 Hit. That's the combined stat line of Kyle Kendrick, JC Romero, David Herndon, Danys Baez, and Wilson Valdez. The crowd groaned as each of them ran in from the bullpen, but collectively they got the job done. 

• Defense saved this game. Jimmy Rollins, whose defense has been questioned on more than one occasion this season, makes no fewer than 3 plays from short that completely save the game. Ryan Howard stretches and scoops everything that comes near him at first base. David Herndon makes a play in the 11th with the bases loaded that goes down in the scorecard as (1-3), but is far from routine and he's the only guy on the field with a shot at getting the out. 

• As the innings wear on, you go through a roller coaster of emotions. 1-3: Well, the offense is hitting tonight, that's certainly better than the last time we saw Travis Wood! 4-9: Man, Roy is really getting dinked and dunked here. There's a good chance this one get's away from us! 10: That HR is the game... no wait! 11-13: Come on! It's been almost an hour since the last time either team got a hit! 14-17: This could be something special. 18-19: This IS something special. Confidence --> Pessimism --> Annoyance --> Optimism -->Pride --> Feeling like you witnessed history.

• The Upper Deck was completely cleared by the 15th. The Rooftop wasn't far behind. Doc's Patients came down from their perch and parked right near us. Another two or three innings and I could have seen them closing Ashburn Alley and the outfield all-together just to get the place clean for the 1PM start today!

• Baez was told he was done after 3 innings, at which point he said "No." Usually that trick only works for Roy Halladays, but Charlie was out of other options. At that point, Valdez would have likely came in the game anyway as they were completely out of other options. The fact that Baez went the longest outing of his career, and threw 73 pitches earns him a complete reprieve from any negative comments until at least the All-Star Break. 

• Valdez throws 10 pitches, 5 for strikes. Romero throws 16, 4 for strikes. I would suspect that JC Romero is dangerously close to being cut... if he wasn't a lefty.

• Around the 11th inning, it became pretty clear that a position player was likely to pitch. Chances are Charlie had already sent today's starter, Cliff Lee, home for the night and with Oswalt coming off a recent injury, Hamels being a creature of routine, and Worley already complaining about tiredness, there were no other options. When Baez goes 5, it's only delaying the inevitable. My first thought is that Valdez is the likely candidate. He has a cannon for an arm at 2nd and there is literally no one else on the team who has pitched. I later heard on Twitter that Valdez had thrown a few years back in a Dominican League game and that Ross Gload had tossed one in 2008, but with a torn hip muscle he wasn't an option.

• Chooch moving to third was the surprise of the night, though. I thought I remembered hearing that he was a 2nd baseman in some past/minor league life, but BaseballReference only shows 1B and OF as positions he's played. Moving him to 3rd and putting Polanco at 2nd was a shocker for me. Watching him motor down the third base line after a foul ball was baseball at it's finest.

• I can't help but think that the Reds had another pitcher available. I haven't heard any word on it, but they only tossed 7 guys and they used 21 players total. Assuming 4 starters weren't available, was Carlos Fisher really the last guy they had left in the pen? When he stepped to the plate in the top of the 19th I was shocked that they were going to march him back out there for a 6th inning.  He was visibly done.

• Before stepping foot on the mound, Valdez is already having a career night. 3 for 6 with a double, and two amazing take out slides at second base. I give the guy crap all the time for his propensity to ground into a double play, but he's otherwise fundamentally sound. I could see him coaching somewhere when his career wraps up. 

• But then the guy threw 90MPH. 90! Tim Wakefield keeps finding work and I'm not sure he's ever sniffed 90! Valdez even shook off signs from catcher Dane Sardhina! According to his post game interview, he mixed a high 80s fastball with a low 80s sinker. He got the reigning NL MVP to fly out, he pegged Scott Rolen to much delight, and he got Jay Bruce (who was 3-7 with 3 RBI at that point) to pop up. Unbelievable and worthy of this T-shirt (coincidentally, it was available WELL before last night's game.)

• According to ESPN, Wilson Valdez is the first person to start a game in the field and earn the win as a pitcher since Babe Ruth. Yes, Wilson Valdez will forever find himself as part of a trivia question that includes BABE RUTH. 

It might be premature to say that last night's game will be the one to define the season, but my knee jerk reaction is to say it already has.

For even more tidbits of information and statistical oddities, check Jason Stark's column over at ESPN.com

On The Disaster That Is Wilpon/Madoff and the Mets...

I've been sitting on the story for a few days now thinking about what angle I want to write about. The more I read through the article in the New Yorker, the more tragic the story sounded to me. Here's a man who put his faith (and money) with a family friend, and now he's about to go down with the ship, most likely as a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Fred Wilpon is by all accounts an inspiring person. A self made man, raised in a middle class family,  friend of Sandy Koufax, an avid fan of the game of baseball, and a great ambassador for the sport. Born and bred in Brooklyn, his admiration for Jackie Robinson is second to none and his ties to the Dodgers and Ebbets Field are obvious (as noted by anyone who visits the Citi Field rotunda)

His successes range from skyscrapers to television networks and he amassed all of his fortunes without stepping on the kind of toes many of his fellow millionaires would have done. And yet, after 31 years of ownership, Wilpon finds himself on the brink of losing his most prized possession, the Mets. His motives seem pure and his intentions seem honest, but somehow Wilpon got himself mixed into the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme of 2008 and now an army of lawyers have come to the table to take their pound of flesh. For Wilpon, that likely means his ownership stake in the Mets is chopped into tiny bits in order to cover the nearly $1Billion in returns that prosecutors are looking for in compensation for fellow victims.

So while most writers and bloggers out there are either laughing at his plight, or slamming him for his remarks about his own players and team, I can't help but feel a little bit of pity for the man. Here's a guy who has poured more money into his own club in recent years than anyone not named Steinbrenner or Henry. Everytime his GM came to the well wanting to throw ridiculous contract offers towards the likes of Carlos Delgado and Oliver Perez, Wilpon said "Where do I sign?" The Mets have been bad in recent years, but certainly not due to Wilpon being cheap or any lack of effort on his part.

The fact of the matter is that when teams like the Mets and Dodgers go through these sort of financial meltdowns, it's bad news for baseball. Baseball needs to be successful in the largest markets in the country in order for the smaller markets to thrive. So while I don't condone Wilpon saying his team is "lousy" and that David Wright is a "good kid, but not a superstar," I can't help but feel those words are the result of the frustration of a 74 yr old man who is being taken down an ugly path.

A year or two from now, it's likely that the current Mets team is blown to bits. Jose Reyes is a free agent at the end of the year, Carlos Beltran is likely to be shopped around at the deadline, and David Wright is equal trade bait. K-Rod is due a huge salary bump unless he misses certain incentives (which you can bet the Mets will avoid), and Johan Santana is still on a slow recovery from Tommy John. What good does a team of Justin Turners and Ike Davises do for baseball? Are Phillies fans excited to see the Mets roll into town with a AAA roster just so we can beat up on them? Does baseball thrive when the biggest market in the country can't sell out a single game? It's a sad story for Mets fans, and baseball fans alike.

Ugggghhhhhh...

 

Ripped Grey Sweatpants in public

A visibly dirty Cole Hamels Shirsey

A backwards, non-fitted, Baltimore Orioles Hat (stickers still included)

The Tri-Fecta of terrible clothing? I think so.

Dom Brown Returns... And Other Links

 

• Domonic Brown gets the call up for tonight's game versus the Texas Rangers with Shane Victorino hitting the DL. So much for the constant "Dom Brown isn't ready!" hyperbole we've heard coming out of the Phillies camp. Scott Mathieson was optioned to AAA Leigh Valley and David Herndon was recalled (likely just because Mathieson pitched last night and wouldn't be available tonight anyway). Still no decision on whether Blanton will be sent to the DL. Obviously the Brown move is the most surprising considering the double talk coming from Ruben Amaro Jr. but I suspect that Charlie convinced him that giving the offense a jolt right now is more important than getting Brown a handful of ABs in the minors. Brown was raking the ball at Lehigh Valley much the same way he had been last year before he was called up. His hand and thumb injuries are supposedly behind him and he brings a .341 BA with 2HRs and 10RBI up from Lehigh. Victorino's DL stint can only be retroactive to Thursday since Charlie used him as a pinch hitter on Wednesday night (Charlie's use of pinch hitters as of late is another topic for another day!) Welcome back Dom!

• Where's Weems? has resorted to posting a Craigslist advertisement soliciting a new Phillies offense. It's no stranger than Phillies Nation putting the offense on a Milk Container! I haven't given much attention to the total lack of Phillies offense the past week or so because I'm confident that things will turn around. Last year was an ugly year for injuries, but this year is proving to be even worse. With pitching locked down, you have to assume Ruben will use the ace up his sleeve this year for some offensive help. Chase Utley and Dom Brown are right around the corner too!

• Interleague play kicks off tonight. The Phillies get a nice matchup with Texas, the defending AL Champs. Cliff Lee will get a crack at his old team on Saturday, and Roy Halladay goes tonight. But Interleague play has always been something that divided baseball fans. And while most people gripe about pitchers hitting and the NL using the DH, Jayson Stark points out the scheduling disparity as the biggest flaw in Interleague Baseball. While it's nice to get the big time matchups every years with the Red Sox or the Yankees, it sure would be nice to beat up on the Orioles and the Royals every now and then and get a few easy W's during this stretch. The Mariners and the Padres have a 3 game snoozefest for the 15th season in a row. And the Cubs play the top teams in the AL East while the Cardinals play the bottom 3. Seems fair, right?

• I haven't decided yet if the above video is hilarious or disrespectful. But I'm leaning towards hilarious. I'm highly suspicious of the statement that Jason Voorhees and Optimus Prime could not take Lou Gehrig in a fight.

Why is Kyle Kendrick STILL on your TV?

Like many of you, I find myself frequently muttering the question "Why is Kyle Kendrick still on this Phillies team?" While the most likely explanation is that he has pictures of Charlie Manuel in a compromising position, probably from a party at Pat Burrell's house in which "The Machine" made an appearance, there may be other reasons...

• Regarding Vance Worley, he may be a better option right now, but conventional baseball wisdom says that it's better to keep a starter of his caliber in the minors for the time being. It's far more valuable for him to be pitching regular innings in Lehigh Valley than seeing sporadic work with the big club. His value to the Phillies is as a starter when needed... be it at some point this season or next. The story is the same with other long man options out of the bullpen (Andrew Carpenter, Eddie Bonie, etc).

• Kendrick's contract this year is worth $2.45M. It's chump change compared to most of the team, but guys making that kind of money are given every opportunity to lose their job.If they send him to the minors, they must still pay him according to the terms of his contract.

• Sending a contracted player down to the minors isn't really that simple either. I'm not even sure I completely understand it, but I'll give it a shot... Kendrick has what I believe qualifies as almost 4 years of major league service time. I believe that means that he can be sent down, but must consent to being sent to the minors. If he declines, he must be kept with the big team or released outright. A player can be sent down once in his career without being subject to player approval, but I believe the Phillies have already used that option with Kendrick. If you want to try to make sense of it yourself, take a look here and here.

• If they were to cut ties with him altogether, they're still on the hook for his salary. I doubt that any other team would be willing to take on his salary by claiming him off waivers (if required, again I still don't fully understand the "options" process). Trading him isn't viable for pretty much the same reason. No one wants to take on $2.45M for a middle reliever.

• I roll my eyes at him as much as you do, but his 38 wins over the past 4+ years is actually pretty decent. It's almost certainly what has kept him employed this long. Geeks like us laugh at his 1.46 K/BB ratio, or his 1.42 WHIP, but those wins mean a whole lot more to management than anything else. He gets the opportunity BECAUSE he has so many wins.

• The Phillies don't throw away money. It took a collapse of epic proportions for them to cut ties with the likes of Adam Eaton and Geoff Jenkins. And they've held on to Danys Baez far longer than he's deserved. The Phillies simply refuse to pay someone to sit at home. 

Why did the Phillies avoid arbitration by signing him to a $2.45M contract for this year is a whole other question...

Bet You Wish You Had Vance Worley Now....

It seems like pretty simple math... You bring back Roy Oswalt from the DL knowing full well that his first start or two is going to be limited. Five to Six innings is really a best case scenario. So who do you send down to make room for him? The best long relief option you have in Vance Worley. As I write this, the Phillies Post Game folks are echoing the same sentiment.

Michael Stutes looked great in the spring has shown flashes of brilliance so far this season, but his skill set as a future major league pitcher is as a one inning type of guy. Vance Worley is the guy you need right now to kill multiple innings. Kyle Kendrick simply cannot be your only option for multiple innings out of the bullpen. When two fifths of your starting rotation is battling through injuries, you HAVE to maintain a bullpen that can get you multiple innings on multiple nights. ESPECIALLY when you're in the midst of a 20 games in 20 days stretch. It's really fundamental.

And don't get me started on the Lance Berkman play at the plate. Berkman, who moves with the speed of a glacier, was sent home on what should have been an easy play at the plate. John Mayberry Jr. makes a reasonable, but not perfect throw to the plate. Dane Sardinha makes an absolutely terrible attempt at a tag, reaching out with the kind of effort that would earn you a seat on the bench on my slowpitch softball team.

As big of a crapfest as that game was, without that run, the Phils are up a run in the 9th inning, Martinez is playing deeper, and that Berkman fly ball ties it up with runners on 1st and third with a very good shot at extra innings... then again, Romero probably would have just served up another 1st pitch volleyball.

Ugh. Frustrating loss.

Real Life "Mr. 3000"

The premise is a solid one: A ballplayer who retired abruptly upon reaching the hallowed 3,000 hit mark returns to the big leagues at age 47 after a clerical error reveals he really only hit 2,997. Unfortunately, the execution was terrible. Bernie Mac plays the same exaggerated role he does in all of his movies, and nothing about the baseball action is believable. But Mac's character, Stan Ross, shares a fate with a number of real life baseball players whose numbers fall just short. Like Ross, the following guys have had borderline hall of fame careers but will likely fall short due to statistical shortcomings in a category...

Harold Baines played in All-Star Games almost 15 years apart from one another. Six AS appearances and 22 seasons total put him in pretty rare territory to begin with. Factor in his 384 HRs and career .289 BA and you'd have to assume he's already a borderline Hall of Famer. And he might be... if he had another 134 hits. Aside from Pete Rose (Banned from Baseball) and Rafael Palmeiro (Steroid user), every eligible player (retired for 5 yrs) higher than him on the career hit list is in the HOF. His 2,866 hits rank 41st all time and only one other player in the top 50 is absent from Cooperstown. What kind of players has Baines out-hit? Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Reggie Jackson, and Richie Ashburn to name a few... Would 3,000 hits get him in the Hall of Fame? Sure, if he bought a ticket... but considering his 162 game average of 164 Hits a year, one more average season would have put him at 23rd all time. He retired at the age of 42...You have to assume that he's had his Mr. 3000 moment at least once...

 

By all accounts, Kenny Lofton was about as abrasive of a player as they come; not unlike the protagonist in Mr. 3000. Still, his speed and defensive prowess made him an employable ballplayer into his 40s. Lofton brought home 4 Gold Gloves and made 6 All Star game appearances. His defensive WAR places him within the Top 50 of all players for his career and his 622 stolen bases rank 15th all time. 8 of the 14 guys ahead of him are in the HOF. And while a lot of his other numbers fall a bit short, his career batting average sits on the brink of greatness at .299. Drawing the number out another decimal point, if Lofton were to latch on to another major league team at age 43 and go 7 for his first 7, he would eclipse the .300 mark. That kind of hit rate is near impossible, but then again if anyone could do the impossible it would probably be Kenny Lofton.

But the master of all Mr. 3000 moments has to go to Fred McGriff. The Crime Dog had an amazing career during the steroid riddled 90s. And to the best of my knowledge, not once has his name been associated with any of the usual suspects. McGriff led the league in HRs twice in his career, and after a few down years in the late 90s, rejuvenated his career in the early 2000s. After a 30 HR campaign in 2002 that left him just 22 HRs shy of the coveted 500 mark, injuries killed his 2003 and 2004 seasons as he hit only 15 more. Still, sitting just 7 dingers shy of the 500 HR mark, NO ONE offered McGriff a deal in Spring Training of 2005. A reluctant McGriff retired that year at age 41. As he now sits at the same age 47 as Bernie Mac's character in Mr. 3000, you have to assume that those final 7 HRs haunt him daily. The real shame in all of this... guys with half of his talent keep finding work in this league. Matt Stairs has played off the bench for all of his 40s and has more than 7 HRs in those years. Admitted steroid user Jason Giambi has prolonged his all but dead career with Colorado. But the mild mannered, and by all accounts, good team player Fred McGriff didn't receive a single job offer when he was on the cusp of greatness. Every qualified, non-steroid related player with 500 HRs has his plaque on the wall in Cooperstown. Most analysts believe that the 500 mark is about as sure of a thing as there is. But McGriff, who ranks 26th all time, received only 17.9% of the Hall of Fame vote for 2011. It's a shame, really. Seven more bombs, and instead of seeing McGriff in Tom Emanski Baseball commercials, we could see his face forever shaped in bronze in Cooperstown.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• I wear Cooperstown Collection caps almost religiously. I'd like to wear the 59fifty authentic caps, but my head is huge and I look like Placido Polanco when I put one on. That said, you'll never catch me in one of these. The obsession with stylized and fashion caps is something I will never understand. I don't mind the hats that take some liberties with the pattern, but when you start using colors the team has never donned, you've gone too far.

• Uni-Watch dissects the uniforms worn during Yesterday's Civil Rights game. It's a shame to see the Phillies bastardize their jersey so badly. From the comically large P on the hat, to the lack of a zipper front, this was a pretty poor attempt at Throwback gear. It looked more like something they ordered off some illegal website from China. Close enough that most people won't give a damn, but far from authentic.And would it really have been that hard to get a few cans of maroon spray paint for the helmets and a couple of maroon undershirts? The Braves wore authentic helmets, why couldn't we? I was, however, impressed with the Phila-Stars jerseys worn on Saturday.

•  A daring escape made by a fan out in Houston on Friday. It's dumb to run onto the field, but at least this dude seemed to have an exit strategy. It's highly doubtful that any ballpark security guard is going to be trained in the art of parkour. Unfortunately, it seems as though he was apprehended a few minutes later. 

• A few fantasy baseball tidbits for the day... Lance Berkman is coming back down to reality this month, Matt Joyce's power is for real, Adrien Beltre is still a good 3rd base option, Chipper Jones is old and falling apart again, Jose Bautista has something like 64 HRs over his last 162 games, and Matt Latos isn't as good as last year would indicate. 

• With Jimmy Rollins being the only one who doesn't know that Jimmy Rollins is in decline, I've heard a lot of talk about the Phillies taking a run at Jose Reyes this offseason. It's a fair idea and it's worth noting that while Reyes has seemingly been around for a while, he's still just entering his prime at 27. He's quietly having a very productive season by stealing tons of bases and hitting for a high average. He's a better player right now than Jimmy was at his age. The problem is likely to be the kind of money he commands. If he's looking for Carl Crawford type money, you can forget about it. But if he wants something around 5 years, $90M, the Phillies might be in the picture. Rollins will be looking for $10M+/year so the jump from Rollins to Reyes might be justifiable. The Phillies have a recent track record of taking care of their own, but Jimmy's declining production might just be the exception to the rule. 

• Former Phillie Perdro Feliz is now a Camden Rivershark. It's a true story of a guy who just loves the game too much to step away from it. While his body is aging and his skills are diminishing, Pedro didn't think it was time to hang up the spikes just yet. I commend him for continuing to play with hopes that a big league team will come calling down the road. I might even try to make it out to a Riversharks game and cheer him on. 

Fantasy Baseball, 6 Week Report

It's been a while since I've broached the fantasy baseball topic on the blog. That's primarily because all of my genius picks are either injured or performing like slugs. Naturally, the league I'm performing the best in is my 20 team, 10x10 Roto Keeper League that is worth zero dollars if I win. Big money league... I'm somewhere around 8th. Ahh, the beauty of fantasy sports: Where a month before the season, we're all winners!

Thoughts so far...

• There are very few reliable players this year. Guys who are annual locks for AVG, RBI, and HR are few and far between this year.
• You're probably winning if you quickly jumped onto the right bandwagon. Anyone who hitched their wagon to Jered Weaver and Lance Berkman are probably running away with it right now. If you locked onto Sam Fuld and Ike Davis, you're probably headed in the wrong direction.
• Injuries are as frequent as ever and have depleted some already weak positions (3B)
• Stolen bases are coming from some pretty strange places. Ian Desmond leads the majors and his career best is 17.
• Saves are as tricky as ever. The list of reliable closers is no more than 5-7. Every other job is up for grabs and managers are going with a committee more than I've ever seen.
• I was right about cheap pitching being the way to go. The Bud Norris and Justin Mastersons the world have been just as reliable as the perrenial aces.

On this day where I finally decided it's time to "blow the whole damn thing up" with a couple of my teams, here's some educational fantasy baseball links. 

• Elmhurst Pub Roundtable is a blog that I stumbled upon via a retweet. Excellent, yet quick, read for daily league players looking for matchup advice and good leads on spot starters. 

• An article from h2h Corner got me thinking about the beauty of Roto Leagues being a full year drag race to the finish. While some h2h leagues in baseball and football crown a regular season champion, then go into the playoffs, Rotisserie Baseball is the best because for the most part playoffs aren't involved. In professional sports, the best team over the course of a season doesn't win a championship very often. You can go 162-0 in baseball and get swept out of the first round by a Wild Card team. The idea of adding more teams to the playoffs only increases these odds. But in Roto Leagues, you can't just back into the playoffs and hope for a couple of monster weeks from Ryan Howard and win the whole thing. Roto Leagues keep you interested for a full 162 games when playoff teams may otherwise be set by August.

• Imaginary Diamond features semi daily fantasy profiles on players that might be worth taking a second look at. They have a ton of rankings, lists, and draft kit style information that's worth reading too. 

• Advanced Fantasy Baseball has weekly pickup advice that as far as I'm concerned has been pretty spot on. If only I followed the advice a little more. A few weeks ago I was looking at his suggestion to pick up Ryan Roberts and I thought it was nuts. .283/.400/.511 later and now I feel crazy. 

• Roto Savants is probably a little more in depth than anyone would need in a standard league. But if you have the free time to analyze how certain umpire crews and the weather are going to impact your players, this is probably your kind of site.  

No Baseball Tonight? WRONG!

Just when you think it's safe to relax without a nerve-wrecking night in front of the TV playing the Delaware Valley's new favorite game: "Which Phillie will come up limp today?" you were wrong!

Comcast Sports Net will be airing tonight's Class A Clearwater game at 7pm that features Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, and Roy Oswalt. Attendance and viewership are expected to be significantly higher than this week's Marlins series. Oswalt is scheduled to be back with the big club pitching on Tuesday and you can expect Ruiz to be called back up shortly due to the hamstring injury suffered by Brian Schneider today. Utley seems likely to make a return by the end of the month.

Not a moment too soon for any of these guys as the next 20 game stretch will require a healthy rotation and the fill ins at 2B and C aren't exactly pulling their own weight. As PhilliesNation.com points out, the combined OPS from Second Base (.547) and Catcher (.574) is less than what Lance Berkman is doing alone (1.131)!

Hump Day Phillies Thoughts

• I was a believer at first and if I were to scroll back through the archives, I'm sure I  said more than once that Ben Francisco would be just fine in RF for the Phillies. Well, I was wrong. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I'm usually very wrong. This is one of those cases. The power swing that we saw in Spring Training has resulted in a ton of long fly balls so far this season. His line drive rate just isn't high enough to sustain any sort of success as an every day player. Fortunately, Domonic Brown seems just about ready to go. So long as Brown puts the ball in play and improves his OBP from last year, the upgrade is more than marginal. In fact, if Brown plays exactly as he did last year, he's essentially the same as Francisco and John Mayberry Jr anyway. The power may not manifest itself right away (as is usually the case with a broken hamate bone), but Brown's .300 AVG potential, stolen base threat, and defensive prowess in RF should compensate for any shortcomings he has. I'm thinking that Brown is a 5 day a week player by mid June. 

•  General Soreness himself, Chase Utley has been enjoying the Florida sun the past week or so with some extended Spring Training work and his first minor league assignment with Clearwater yesterday. A lot of people pointed to his 5 for 7 performance with 2 HRs as a great sign in his first game, but I'm focusing in on the fact that he hit an infield single. It sounds to me like the wheels are working. moving left and right might prove to be the biggest challenge, but it certainly seems like Utley has been easing himself into a full workload while trying to maintain the basics. Still, I can't help but wonder if Joe Blanton would have gotten so lucky with 4 double play balls the other night had Utley been turning them over instead of Pete Orr. Sounds like most of the beat writers are expecting an Utley return for the two game series against Colorado starting on the 18th, which means we could possibly be seeing the end of the Pete Orr/Wilson Valdez offensive disaster at 2B. Utley started in Cleawater yesterday, but not today so don't expect to see 6 games a week of Utley when he first returns, but anything from 26 would be nice!

• I read an article this morning from The Talented Mr. Roto that said to take the under on 50 combined HRs from Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Utley. So I did a little research... Howard's 8 HRs right now put him on pace for about 37 for the season. Probably not enough to win a HR title, but certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. But looking at his career numbers through 35 games, here's his yearly totals: 
• 2006 - 10 (52 total)
• 2007 - 9 (47 total)
• 2008 - 6 (48 total)
• 2009 - 8 (45 total)
• 2010 - 6 (31 total)

I don't see how 40 HRs isn't a given. His .274 BA is about his career average at this point and his RBI numbers project him right up into the 150 range he usually is. There is nothing to be concerned with here. Rollins and Utley will contribute another 25-30 between them making 50 HRs a mark easily attainable before the end of August.

• The injury bug is back this year, but the team has kept trucking along. Considering that your All Star 2nd baseman and Closer haven't played a game, your expert game caller hasn't been behind the plate in 2 weeks, your #3 and #5 pitchers have missed starts due to injury, and your backup closer hit the DL as well, you'd think there would be a little more panic in the air. But 23-12 is tops in the NL and 2nd best in baseball. The Phils enter tonight with a good chance to take 2 out of 3 from the team chasing them in the standings and finish out their month with what I would call their toughest stretch of the season with series against Atlanta, St Louis, Colorado, Texas, Cincinnati, and 2 division opponents in a 20 games in 20 days marathon. The first five opponents site right now with a record of 99-66 and a winning percentage of exactly .600. This is the first true test of the season and coming out with a 12-8 record would have to be considered a success.... But the stars are all aligning for this stretch with Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Roy Oswalt, Blanton, and Brown all likely to see some action. It's certainly shaping up to be an exciting end to the spring. By Memorial Day Weekend, we should know exactly what this team is made of!

There Is No Such Thing as a Bad Dog, Just Bad Owners.

When a 10 lb, poorly shaven, skin and bones mess of a dog showed up on our doorstep last year looking for hand outs, it felt like destiny unfolding. Our current dog was terminally ill with breast cancer and it was obvious from the way they intereacted that she wanted her new friend to take care of us when she was gone. So we took the necessary steps to adopt the Miniature Schnauzer, aptly named Scrappy, and give him the loving home that he deserved. "The Scrapman" has become as much a member of my family as a child would. The last thing he deserved was to be chomped on by a neighboring dog.

Whether owners want to admit it or not, owning a pitbull is a greater responsibility than your common pup. While they can be loyal, friendly, and protective animals, their power makes them dangerous for those very same reasons. So when Scrappy was wandering the side yard at my Mom's house on Sunday night looking for a place to do his business, it was a total surprise to see a fully grown pitbull hop a 4' fence and attack. Maybe the pit felt my dog was wandering too close to his yard, but the possibility of such an event is something that pitbull owners need to factor in when preparing their yard for ownership. Instead, the scumbags next to my mom's house felt that a thin cable tied off to a rusted old railing and a 4' post & rail fence that my mom installed herself to keep the riff raff neighborhood kids out of her yard would be enough to stop "Diva" the pitbull.

I punched the pitbull in the side to separate the two and the site of 5 adults charging at him was enough to separate the two, but hearing my adopted pup scream in pain and seeing the blood oozing out of a half dozen puncture wounds will haunt me for the rest of my life. Scrappy required surgery on both the inside and outside of his right rear leg and some stitching on a couple of other bite marks. It could be quite a while, if ever,  before my 11 year old pup is back to normal. No dog deserves that, especially not one who has already had such a tough life and finally got the family he deserved. When he looks me in the eye I can feel him saying "Why did this happen to me?" And the answer lies with the careless and irresponsible owners of the pitbull. I don't wish any ill on the dog, but I hope the army of vagrants that live at that house get what's coming to them. You can rest assured that I'll be taking my "pound of flesh" in the form of compensation for Vet Bills, missed time at work, and travel expenses. Let's hope the next time the pitbull decides to attack that it's not one of the owner's latchkey kids on the other side of those jaws. It's taken every bit of energy I have for me to hold down the rage and anger I have for this owner.

DUIs: Everyone's Doing It!

Major League Baseball has a problem... and I'm not talking steroids, inflated salaries, or declining attendance. I'm talking DUIs. It's tough for me to climb up on my high horse and criticize ballplayers for their drinking and driving habits since I earned myself one when I was 18 years old. But 18 year old me also didn't have  millions of dollars in the bank and couldn't afford a cab ride home from a house party the way Shin Soo Choo probably could. Not acceptable behavior on my part, but even more asinine for Choo, who blew 2.5 times the legal limit (Sobriety test on video!). I paid my pennance for my crime, and you can bet $3,000 and 6 months without a license did more damage to me than it does for a major league ballplayer. 

The point is, we're all human and humans tend to be drawn towards adult beverages. The NFL has known this for years. They offer a free car service for any player in any major city that has been drinking. The system is said to be completely anonymous and the drivers are said to be mostly retired police officers and trained security personnel rather than just Joe the Cabbie. It's a brilliant system that needs to be adopted in all professional sports immediately. Whether athletes want to believe it or not, they are public figures. When I was arrested, I disappointed my family, my friends, and myself (collectively, only a handful of people). When Miguel Cabrera gets arrested for the second time with a bottle of scotch in his hands and asks police officers to shoot him, he sets a bad example for millions of fans both in the US and back home in Venezuela.

We're 5 months into the year and six MLB players have already been tagged with DUIs in 2011. Cabrera, Derek Lowe, Adam Kennedy, Coco Crisp, Austin Kearns, and Choo have all been nailed. Total amount of fines/punishments levied by the office of the commissioner: ZERO. A little over a year after a budding MLB star was killed by a drunk driver in Nick Adenhardt and still MLB turns the other cheek to this nonsense.

Fortunately, the MLBPA and the owners appear to be having some preliminary discussions regarding the topic. Too little, too late? Let's hope not. So as Derek Lowe comes to town tonight following an arrest that saw the 37 year old driving drunk while drag racing through the streets of Atlanta (a grown ass man street racing is a whole other issue), I can honestly say that I've never been more in favor of booing. I'm hoping to see some well thought out signs and hear stories of creative heckling tonight at the ballpark! Let these guys know that their personal conduct obligations don't end when they step into the dugout.

The Worley-Bird!

Get it? Because those things on your roof are called whirleybirds and Vance Worley pitched for the Phillies last night? Yeah, I agree... not as funny as it first sounded in my head.

But Vance Worley did get the job done last night and that's what really matters. In fact, he was riding a 21 inning scoreless streak until a few borderline ball/strike calls let him to give up a run. Not a bad start for a career, but I wouldn't get used to it. The fact remains that while Vance Worley is looking like a stud right now, the minute Joe Blanton is healthy, Worley will be back down in the minors. He's 23 years old with plenty of time left to develop and the best opportunity for regular action will be in the minors. With 3 or our 4 starters throwing complete games pretty much whenever they feel like it, some of our bullpen arms are already under-worked. Kyle Kendrick only pitches once a week and Dany Baez has thankfully been left to ride the pine pretty often. Worley will continue to be your #1 "In Case of Emergency, Call Reading" guy for the better part of the season.

Also, in case you hadn't noticed, Raul did exactly what I said he would... fail at becoming the world worst slumper. Naturally, that's a good thing for the Phillies and it's nice to see some semblance of power from the $12M man in left field. It also gives Ruben and Charlie some piece of mind knowing that they can let Domonic Brown get daily at bats in the minors for a few more weeks before pressing the panic button.

So Cole Hamels Pitched Well...

... which means only one thing: Get ready for a meltdown next time out!

All kidding aside (am I kidding?), Cole was lights out last night on pretty much everything but one ball left up in the zone to Mike Morse that found its way into the seats. It was an impressive outing in what has been an impressive start to the season. A 4-1 record this early in the season is certainly something Cole isn't terribly used to. If we were to erase his first ugly start of the season, his peripheral stats would be up there among the best in the league, even rivaling those of Roy Halladay. Are we finally seeing the Cole Hamels of 2008 make a sustained run at it? Like I said above...let's give it one more start.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• Roger McDowell is apparently a homophobe. The Braves pitching coach has been suspended two weeks for some interactions with fans where he made some gay slurs and insulted a father in front of his two kids... and this is all alleged to have occurred during batting practice. AT&T Park in San Francisco is one of the few ballparks in the majors that still maintains a "bullpen" in foul territory along the base lines rather than in its own area of the outfield. Without some sort of barrier between fans and players, relief pitchers are pretty much heckle-bait all game long. Not that I'm making an excuse for McDowell, who is probably more famous for the Hotfoot and other dugout antics than his pitching acumen. 

•  I've discovered an old SI.com article of things we miss in baseball and for the exact same reasons I mentioned above, they seem to miss the bullpens being in foul territory. They also miss "fans running into the field" and "wimpy middle infielders" to put into perspective what kind of writer we're dealing with. I do, however, find the first item on the list intriguing: Stirrups. Not just colored socks, or those white socks with a vertical stripe up the side. Actual stirrups you wear over your socks. I never really understood the reason for them, but hell if I didn't make sure my stirrups were pulled as high as possible during little league. Of course they were usually stretched out and dry rotted from the years and years of other kids wearing them, but that's nothing a few safety pins didn't fix! Bullpen carts and Youppi were two other good ones from the list.

• Possibly the most surprising and under the radar news of the year so far is the impressive start by Bartolo Colon. I had him listed at the beginning of the season as a zero risk, high reward player and so far he's been the latter. He's averaging a K/IP and keeping the Yankees in every game he's played, last night's fine performance included. The fat man seemed destined to be hanging up the spikes for good, but a couple of Yankee injuries made way for a spot in the bullpen and now a Phil Hughes implosion has made it likely that he hangs onto a starting job for at least a little while longer. He throws with finesse and deception. He's not the CY Young winner he was in 2005, but he's eating innings as thoroughly as he's eating pizzas. 

• As successful as the Bartolo Colon move was, Derek Jeter's new contract is looking like just as big of a failure. $15M this year (and at least $34M the next three) isn't a terrible deal if your team leader is batting at a decent clip and playing stellar defense. But Jeter isn't really doing either. In his last calendar year of baseball, Jeter is batting .257 with 6 HRs. And yet though 26 games this season, Jeter has led off 16 of them. His defense is as sub par as ever (despite his Gold Glove awards that can only be attributed to blackmail). The Yankees are in a really tough spot right now. Do they risk moving Jeter down to 7 or 8 in the lineup to see if he can right the ship? Do they need to bring in another player to share time with their $15M man? A solid year of sub par performance at age 36 is more than a slump. 

• ZooWithRoy.com made the "Huge Butt" announcement last week that they'll be working with Iron Hill Brewery to produce a ZWR Beer this summer. Naturally, that means a trip to Iron Hill Brewery is in order. One of my biggest selling points when trying new beers is the art on the label and you can bet that "So Cuttered Hoppy Wheat" will have some sort of Penguin/MS Paint image worth the price alone. 

• Reading through an article on PhilliesNation the other day about Baseball Prospectus rankings for players kind of showed me that for the most part their top 5 rankings have panned out pretty well from season to season. But that got me thinking about how actual draft picks work out. Luckily it only took about 30 second worth of Googling before I found this article on the rankings for 40 years of #1 overall picks from 1964-2004. For every A-Rod, there's a Matt Bush. The list counts down from the outside and the median #1 overall pick turns out to be Phil Nevin. Which pretty much explains why the MLB draft is such a crap shoot.

• The Common Man  over on Platoon Advantage has been doing a series of family trees for trades and signings that produced other players. In the latest installment, he shows how a 1967 draft pick would eventually turn into David Wright. It's pretty wild to think about and certainly a little far fetched considering all the moving parts involved in the deal, but I'd love to see a Phillies family tree that traces Granny Hamner to Bobby Abreu or something... I'm just too lazy to do the research myself.

How do the bats stay sleeping with 45,000 people chanting U-S-A?

So the Osama Bin Laden thing happened. That was pretty cool. Text message alerts turning into fan's whispers turning into a bipartisan roar of U-S-A is much more listenable than Bobby Valentine and Orel Hershieser. Hacksaw Jim Duggan would be proud! Personally, I had all but forgotten about Bin Laden and figured he was destined to die in a cave somewhere in the Afghani mountains, but the breaking news last night (which subsequently took over Twitter and Facebook for about 12 hours) was pretty sweet (not to mention an assured reelection for any democrat up in 2012).

But this isn't a political blog. I don't care where they buried the body and I don't need to see DNA evidence. What I do need to see is RAUL IBANEZ HIT A FREAKING BASEBALL!?!?

His current 0-34 streak puts Raul just two away from the title of "All-Time Phillies Slump Master." The Phillies have lost more games than any other professional franchise for a reason. Consider for a second some of the all time bums and slump artists that have come through this town. Pat Burrell seemingly went for half seasons without getting a base hit, yet he doesn't even appear on the top 5 of this list. Danny Murtaugh (36), Len Matuszek (36), Desi Relaford (36), Denny Doyle (35), and Joe Morgan (35) are your leaders in the clubhouse. I don't think any of them would have let Chris Young's 85MPH fastball blow them away with such ease.

The major league record for 0'Fors is 46 ABs and I suspect that Ibanez will disappoint us with that record too by falling somewhere in the 42-45 game streak before he finally legs out an infield single on a ball that probably could have been called an error if the scorers didn't feel sympathy for Raul. The real fact of the matter is that Raul Ibanez, despite his best efforts, isn't a capable major league player anymore. We paid a lot of money for two half seasons of great play, but it's time to call a spade a spade here and cut your losses. Domonic Brown has officially been recalled from the DL and optioned to AAA so you have to assume that he'll be back with the Phillies within a few weeks. I've reached the point where I'm ready to give him the Old Yeller treatment behind grandpa's shed. I expect this kind of performance from Wilson Valdez! It's off to the glue factory for you, Ibanez!

Not so fast, Kyle Kendrick. Don't think you can just sneak away without any blame too! The Phillies have 9 losses and two of them are on your shoulders. You can point to your 2.08 ERA and your career low in WHIP all you want, but you're striking out absolutely no one and you can't get the job done in anything other than mop up duty. 3 innings against the last place Mets at home? is that really too much to ask for?

The rest of the bats didn't exactly hold up their end of the bargain either. I full expected a Placido Polanco double to the gap or a Ben Francisco moon shot would be the end of the night, but it wasn't to be. Still, with a NL Best 18 wins, a few injured guys with promising news, Blanton finally out of the rotation, and a pitching staff that is hitting their stride, things are still looking good. Forgive me if I've come to expect perfection!