The .500 Mark

As Hector Luna puts this game out of reach with his 1st career Grand Slam in his first AB in a Phillies uniform, I'm reminded that a victory brings the Phillies back to even baseball. 38 games into the season, 4 consecutive wins, and now the entire NL East is .500.

But what does the number .500 mean? Well it had been almost 3 years since the Phillies had a full month of baseball that was below .500 when they finished April at the 11-12 mark.

More importantly, I steer you towards an article on The Hardball Times that shows it's been 90 years (and 2 days) since the Phillies were last at the .500 mark as a franchise! The "Losing-est team in professional sports" as they've been called currently sits at 1055 games below the .500 mark with a 9256-10311 record. That's good for a .473 mark. Not the worst Win % in pro sports, but when you've been at it since 1883, the numbers tend to pile up.

I'm no Isaac Newton here, but I believe my math is correct...
If the Phils were to average the same record as they have for the last 5 seasons in which they've won the NL East, you end up with a 94-68 record good for a .584 Win %. It would STILL take 40+ years of .584 baseball (and likely 40 more playoff appearances which would make me completely broke) before the Phillies would be back at .500 as a franchise. So what if they just managed to win 85 games a year as they have managed to eek out for each year of the past decade... It would take almost 132 full seasons before they hit the .500 mark. I'll be sure to tell my great grand kids to throw a parade for that event! A more attainable goal? Catch the Orioles who at 895 games below .500 are the next closest team in terms of futility.

Around The Diamond

They stitch those things by hand? No wonder Official MLB balls cost like $12 each. 

Though I bet those dudes make about $.17 an hour...

Dimitri Young made about $53M dollars during 13 year career. And while the Young brothers have quite a history of childlike behavior on the field, there’s nothing childish abouthis massive collection of unblemished rookie cards from some of baseball’sall-time greats. I collect cards, though not as crazily as I once did. I’ll buy a few packs a year, and always pick up the Topps hobby set and the Phillies team set at the end of the year. But a collection of 500+ PSA Gem Mint 10 rated rookie cards is something I can’t even fathom. I own one card that’s rated even an 8. It’s a nice to see a ballplayer as interested in the industry that surrounds his sport as much as the fans are. 

Speaking of the sports memorabilia collections, one of the most valuable collections in history was auctioned off last week as song writer and author Seth Swirsky parted ways with items that ranged from the hat worn by Jose Canseco when a ball bounced off his head for a homerun to the original letter sent by Kennesaw Landis to Shoeless Joe Jackson telling him that he would not be reinstated into baseball following the Blacksox Scandal. The Hall of Very Good interviewed Swirsky prior to the auction. One of the more popular draws to the auction ended up being the infamous Bill Buckner ballthat sold for more than $400,000!  Poor Buckner...

Last week, baseball manager evaluation expert (seriously, he has an award from The Sporting News for writing a book on the topic!), Chris Jaffe from the Hardball Times steered me towards an article he wrote on Evaluating Charlie Manuel. It seems like perfect timing for all the Cholly hate that seems to be creeping up right now. Most telling line of the piece for me:

“In his nine full seasons on the job, he’s never had a losing record. Six times his teams won the division, and three others times they came in second place. Only once in those nine full seasons has one of his teams finished more than a game out of the postseason hunt, and that squad was just three games out of the wild card race.”

Not bad for a guy some want to run out of town. The article begs the question as to whether Manuel is lucky for having so much talent at his disposal or whether the talent is lucky to have been developed by a lifelong baseball guy like Manuel. I would suspect that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Manuel sure milked guys like Jayson Werth and JC Romero for everything they were worth, didn’t he?

Another Hardball Times link and all-around fun topic to follow is their anniversary series. Fortyyears ago (plus 2.5 weeks now that it’s taken me so long to get this post up),Steve Carlton threw the most dominant game of his most dominant season. 300+ wins and not a single no-hitter, but his 14K, 1 hit, 1 BB performance was every bit as impressive as most no-hitters.  Read the article for a nice play by play and check out the series of anniversaries and day-versaries for a cool walk down memory lane.

Not that I have anywhere left in my man cave to hang things, but I picked up the above Phillies print by local artist Stan Ping throughPhilliesNation.com the other day. It should go well with my Dan Duffy canvas wrapped print. Grab one, they look cool.

I've Advised My Client, Mr. Charles Fuqua Manuel Jr., to Plead Insanity

When 68 year olds start to make silly decisions, we point to their age. Dementia or Alzheimer's is starting to kick in. When they do it night in and night out, we send them to a retirement home. If Charlie Manuel stepped out of the dugout without any pants on, it would be both hilarious and harmless.  But when he calls for bunts by the dozens, marches out 25 different lineups in 25 different games, and misuses his bullpen it might be time for him to pack his bags too.

Even I, one of the most steadfast Cholly supporters, am running out of excuses. In fact, if I were his defense attorney in the case of The People of The Delaware Valley v. Charlie Manuel, I'd just simply point to the bench/bullpen and say "What do you want me to do with that?" and rest my case.

It's not all his fault... Roy Halladay labors during the 5th inning of tonight's game, but who do you bring in? Joe Savery who was a minor league hitter this time last year? Brian Sanchez who's on his 2nd or 3rd stint with the team without ever hanging on? Jose Contreras whose Cuban to American age exchange rate likely means he's 57 instead of 40? Schwimmer, Bastardo, Qualls? Or should he just bring in Papelbon in the 5th and hope he can go 4+ strong? A one lung-ed, blindfolded Halladay is still likely going to perform better than just about every other option out of the bullpen and in a game where you have a solid lead and can afford to give up a few runs, you let your ace (107-0 when given a 4 run lead) try to work his way out of a jamb... it just didn't work so well tonight.

That said, there is plenty to be critical of:

• Bunting for Base-hits: Small ball is a necessity right now, but averaging almost two bunt for a base hit attempts per game takes any element of surprise out of the play. Bunt hits have only been successful 6 times all season.
• Constantly slotting your best hitter in the 7 hole: Chooch leads the team in every offensive statistic other than SBs, yet has the fewer plate appearances than Freddy Galvis and only 4 more than Ty Wigginton. Meanwhile the SS position has been the least productive on the field offensively for the Phillies and has only batted in the top 3 lineup spots. Fewer RBI than anyone other than the pitcher and zero HRs on the season from the SS.
• Signing  Using Jim Thome... ever: His homecoming was a heartwarming story, but to put things into perspective: The last time Jim Thome had an extra base hit in a Phillies uniform, Cory Lidle was the losing pitcher (and was still alive). 
• Lineup Juggling: This isn't the circus, it's baseball! March the same two teams out there two days in a row, will you! I'm tired of this pull names out of a hat while in the locker room to see who is going to play where and bat when.
• Saving your closer for a lead: Traditional baseball wisdom suggests... blah blah blah. When your 6-7-8 guys can't hold a lead, dig into the Tony LaRusa bag of tricks (not the lineup juggling bag, the other one!) and have your closer make 5 or 6 outs. 1) He's making $50M 2) If he's unavailable, he shouldn't be warming up in the pen multiple times and 3) Chances are he's going to sit on the bench later in the season and watch more complete game efforts from his starters than any other closer in baseball. You cannot in one breath say that Cliff Lee pitching ten innings is no big deal (and I don't think it is) because his pitch count was still low, and then in another say that you refuse to use Jonathan Papelbon for more than one inning this early in the season. Which is your pitcher freshness criteria, innings or pitches? It can't be both.

I'm tired, it's late... feel free to contribute to the list yourselves!