Around The Diamond

(From Phillies.com)

Exactly how I like my Charlie Manuel... slumped in a chair, sunglasses on, with what could possibly be an empty beer can under his chair, fist bumping Jim Thome. 

Those of you who emailed me with Hector Luna as the first Phillies player to hit a Homerun this season will receive a free DroppedStrikeThree.com T-shirt! (no one emailed, and those shirts don't exist). The Phillies won today's exhibition game in Clearwater this afternoon against the Florida State Seminoles with a score of 6-1. Not much worth commenting on other than the fact that Juan Pierre led off the game with an incredibly uncharacteristic strikeout and Domonic Brown took a ball off the hand he injured last year. For two guys that need a lot of things to go their way to earn a spot on the team, this probably wasn't the start they were hoping for. Pierre was an interesting get mostly because he's a contact hitter who rarely ever strikes out. He'll be competing with a near mirror image of himself in Scott Podsednik for a 5th OF spot and a likely frequent pinch running gig. A healthy Podsednik has a leg up due to his 2010 success, though last year he battled through multiple injuries. Keep an eye out for this one. Brown, on the other hand, practically needs to have a flawless spring and while he did steal a base in that same inning, the HBP just gives management one more thing to point at should he struggle for a few brief moments this spring. His only real chance lies with an injury to either of the two mentioned above or Laynce Nix. The real Grapefruit League action begins in two more days with a Saturday afternoon game against the Yankees. Anything to get this image off my Yahoo home page:

Another fantasy baseball freebie here for you from the folks at ClubhouseGM.com. Check out their 35 page draft kit, as well as their player rankings and tier projections. I find you can never have too many opinions when it comes to fantasy. 

Mike Stanton is now Giancarlo Cruz Michael Stanton... add this one to the list of name changes this season. 

Poor David Wright... stuck on a team that dumped 50% of its salary and just about every asset they have to fend off the bill collectors. Now, to top it all off, he has to wear orange and blue shirts with the Underdog logo on the front. As if they weren't already the punchline of just about every joke in baseball, now they've chosen to promote their struggles. This isn't a team that has struggled to attract free agents or sustained years of reduced payroll. This is a team that was has been auctioned off over the past year because the Wilpons are desperate to maintain ownership of the team. It's going to take a team full of superhero dogs to save the Mets. Sorry, David Wright... there is very much a "need to fear."

The Cure Baseball is a pretty non-profit organization with the goal of raising money for cancer research groups and families affected by cancer through the game of baseball. They are raising money to support a traveling summer baseball team that will in turn use every summer game to act as a fundraiser. I think it's a pretty cool outreach that all baseball fans could get behind. How do you support from Philadelphia? Well donate, or buy some merchandise!

Around The Diamond

Because this video never gets old... a 46 year old in his final season getting a guy 20 years his junior in a headlock for a few knuckle sandwiches.

Firstly, since I've been asked about fantasy baseball advice from a few people, let me steer you towards the folks at Fantasy Baseball Crackerjacks and their free draft kit. Their site is chock full of draft strategies, player rankings, and prospect reports. I'm not going to float all of my secrets out there, but consider this one me throwing you guys a bone!

Yours truly has thus far landed in 4 different Fantasy Baseball Leagues for the upcoming season. New to me this year are The 06010 Board Dynasty League, fan board for the world famous ESPN Fantasy Focus podcast, and the COSFBA Blog/Twitter League hosted by a gentleman that now writes for Full Spectrum Baseball. I'm pretty stoked to be invited into a couple of highly competitive leagues like this and I'll surely keep everyone posted as to how the season progresses. This is of course in addition to my usual Pop's Fantasy League that I've been in for almost two decades.

Speaking of Full Spectrum Baseball, they had an interesting article the other day on why baseball could use a little "linsanity?" Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about basketball star Jeremy Lin and his rise to fame. ESPN mentioned his name on Sports Center 350 times last week, Knicks tickets have tripled in price in the secondary market, and this past weekend Saturday Night Live spent 4 minutes exhausting every Jeremy Lin pun in the book. In just a few weeks, his rise from an unknown guy destined for D League has transcended the game and turned basketball into a pop culture topic. And I think that's exactly the kind of thing baseball is in need of for two different reasons. First of all, baseball is ripe with Asian born players, but very few of them have reached a level of pop culture stardom similar to Lin. The one who has had the most success on the field, Ichiro, has spent his entire major league career in the Pacific Northwest where baseball is an afterthought. The mild success had by Hideki Matsui was met with international popularity. Just imagine if he had a Barry Bonds like career.  But above all, baseball simply needs a player who can invigorate fans with the chase of a major record. The world tuned in when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased down the single season home run record. Chris Berman announced the game on national TV when Cal Ripken played in game 2,131 to break Lou Gherig's consecutive games played record. And fans stormed the field when Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth for the all time home run record. But it's been more than a decade since baseball has had anything nearly as memorable as any of those moments. Seeing someone chase a .400 batting average or notch a hit in 50+ consecutive games would put baseball in a spotlight it just hasn't seen in recent years. Matt Kemp having a 50-50 season would be a good start! "Linsanity" is out there for baseball in one form or another.

Another interesting read this week is Deadspin's take on the classic Simpsons episode, "Homer at Bat" which was the first show to vault the Fox network to the top of the ratings and an episode that was nearly a year in the making. This article gives a behind the scenes look at how baseball's biggest stars came together in 1992 and the eerie foreshadowing that episode really had for many of their careers. Wade Boggs in a bar fight, check. Don Mattingly with long hair, check. An obscenely muscular Jose Canseco, check.

And lastly, I encourage all of you to check out the NQA Podcast for a "somewhat weekly, somewhat Phillies related podcast for the Philadelphia fan experience." Those guys podcast for much the same reason I write a blog. They have fun, don't take themselves too seriously, and genuinely embody the common Phillies fan experience. Where most Phillies podcasters (and most bloggers and podcasters in general) attempt to play the part of amateur reporters or analysts, these guys just put on a fun and entertaining show. Plus NQA Dutch vows to go T-Mac Free for the entire 2012 season so that alone is enough to get my endorsement. Season three will kick off any day now, but don't be afraid to check out a few of their old episodes on iTunes!

Catching Up for December

DroppedStrikeThree is not dead! I'm just taking it slow this offseason. If you were expecting knee jerk commentary to every piddly signing the Phillies make, then I'm sorry but you've been reading the wrong blog! If you insist, I'll summarize my thoughts on the Phillies hot stove as follows:

• Jim Thome - cheap bench bat
• Ty Wigginton - plays everywhere and our team gets injured everywhere
• Laynce Nix - Ben Francisco with different color skin
• Jonathan Papelbon - best closer available, but paid a bit too much
• Michael Cuddyer - not worth what he's looking for
• Jimmy Rollins - time to move on, even a 3 year deal blocks Galvis
• Cole Hamels - pay this man
• Dontrelle Willis - great value as LOOGY
• Aramis Ramirez - we blew this one, total steal at 3/$36
• Ryan Madson - Scott Boras strikes again

But I digress... The fact of the matter is, I won't rush to judgement until I at least see a few batting cage swings during Spring Training. In the mean time, I give you another round of links to tide you over:

• Someone who DOES chronicle the Phillies every move in a much more refined writing style than you'll ever find on my blog is Tim over at "Dawn in Philadelphia." It reads more like a chapter book than a blog, but it's incredibly well done. Bookmark this one because if the Phils go on to win a World Series in 2012, this will become the kind of bedtime reading you can whisper to your grandchildren. 

• Today is the last day to get your vote in for the final player on the Phillies mural that will face the Schuylkill River at 24th and Walnut. Personally, I think they went a little heavy with new players so I voted for Del Ennis. His career in a Phillies uniform was just as impressive as the rest, but he has local roots.

• About a dozen Philadelphia and national sports writers will be in the area tonight signing various books. Pick up some new bathroom reading material for dad!

• Speaking of books... best friend of the Phillie Phanatic and author of his adventures, Tom Burgoyne, must be making a killing off the sale of Phanatic related reading material. The latest installment shows the Phanatic making a trip back to the Galapagos Islands where he learns it's okay to be different. I'm sure it's a great read on the heels of all of the anti-bullying laws that are being enacted around the country. Grab yourself a copy or 3 along with the rest of the Phanatic's library here. 

• Amazin Avenue has put together an incredible account of the financial woes of the NY Mets. Long story short, the Mets were screwed long before Bernie Madoff ripped them off. It certainly doesn't help that they still owe Bobby Bonilla about $30M over the next 25 years!

• Finally, two of my greatest passions in life have finally come together: The Phillies and Legos! Well, not Lego brand "legos" but it's close enough. Lego men can't bend at the knee or elbow anyway so Advantage = OYO. For $12 a pop, though, I sure hope these guys are taller than 1.5". Stocking stuffers perhaps?

Lunch Time Link Dump

I thought I was over my baseball funk, but I'm not. Truth is, I'm having a hard time getting interested in the post season hot stove news. Over pay for Papelbon? Resign an utterly useless Schneider? Yeah, sure why not. I've even found myself contemplating on more than one occasion how hard it would be to turn my Phillies man room into a Flyers room. But perhaps this being the eve of my yearly end of season fantasy baseball party, some stimulating baseball talk this weekend will get me back into baseball shape. In the mean time, chew on some links...

• Clayton Kershaw won the NL Cy Young yesterday becoming the youngest pitcher since Doc Gooden to do so. You may recall my late August rant in which I said it was all but locked up for him, but FanGraphs doesn't seem to agree. Until there's a massive changing of the guard in the BBWAA, don't expect to see xFIP or SIERA lines accounted for in award season voting. Hell, voters are just now starting to contemplate the concept of WAR. Roy Halladay can win the advanced metrics battle for the next decade, but if someone else comes out on top with the pitching triple crown, he's going home with the hardware in November. I'll be more than happy to settle having 3 pitchers finish in the top 5 every year. And speaking of voting, who are the two jokers who tossed Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong 5th place votes? On no planet are those two pitchers even top ten material. 

• Phuture Phillies is a great site for tracking the up and coming prospects within the organization, but if you're looking for an outsider's perspective on some of the same guys, I suggest Seedlings to Stars.  A lot of the more recent guys they've been looking at are your potential bullpen arms for next year in Joe Savery, Justin DeFratus, and Michael Schwimmer. 

• If you haven't had a chance yet, you might want to check out the Yoenis Cespedes highlight reel. He's looking for a monster contract, but the Phillies have apparently kicked the tires on him. Potential left fielder? Doubtful, with all the interest the Phillies have shown in Grady Sizemore and Michael Cuddyer. But he's worth keeping an eye on because a few other teams in the division are looking at him as well...

 

• Considering the fact that most of my childhood baseball favorites are now at or nearing retirement, I always find "Will they get in the HOF?" articles to be interesting. Beyond the Box Score does a great analysis of Who's Next? using weighted WAR numbers that coincide with their adjusted Hall of Fame based on wWAR. 

• Big news out of Major League Baseball yesterday with the sale of the Astros leading to a move to the AL. For those not familiar, this creates two 15 team leagues with 3 divisions of 5, something baseball have been pining for for years. But it also creates the opportunity for MLB to add a 2nd Wild Card position into the mix and this is where the debate begins. On one hand, a second Wild Card position would take away the entire storyline of a September collapse and wrap it into one game around October 1st. The Braves and the Red Sox could have had their collapse and still had a last ditch effort against the Cardinals and the Rays to get into the playoffs. In that respect, the whole month can come down to a one game push and the build up to September 28th that we had this year may never have happened. On the other hand, this change truly puts a premium on winning your division. The Yankees-Rays-Red Sox no longer have the luxury of coming in first or second and still finding themselves automatically in the October mix. If you want to live to fight for more than one more day, win the division. Regardless of which side you take, between this and the collective bargaining agreement talks, the next few seasons are bound to shake out differently than what we're used to. Jayson Stark breaks it all down on ESPN in regards to scheduling.

Lunch Time Link Dump: First Off Season Edition

• Hot off the presses is Baseball America's Prospect rankings. The biggest surprises to me are Catcher, Sebastian Valle coming in at 3rd and Pitcher, Jonathan Pettibone jumping all the way up to Number 4. The Phillies have a handful of strong pitching prospects, but the Pettibone promotion seems to come out of left field to me. May, Biddle, Aumont, DeFratus, and Colvin are the more commonly talked about names which leads me to believe that Pettibone must have really impressed some scouts with velocity or movement to elevate his status so much. Also take a look at that 2015 projected lineup. A lot of familiar faces mixed in with a lot of high upside talent!

 

• Shane Victorino is a #Belieber 

• A growing rumor I've heard on a few sites is the idea of Jose Reyes to the Marlins. The Phillies are the model of success when it comes to signing a superstar free agent to a middle of the road team that's moving into a new stadium. But then what do they do with Hanley Ramirez? One option is to move him to third base which gives you a powerful lineup of Reyes, Gaby Sanchez, Hanley, LoMo, Bonifacio, and Stanton with a healthy Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez. But with Emilio Bonfacio playing a lot of games at 3rd Base for the Marlins last season, maybe either he or Hanley become expendable pieces for the Marlins. Either would be solid top of the lineup SS options for a whole host of teams, including the Phillies.

• Adding insult to an already insulting October/November, the Cardinals have asked for permission from the Phillies to interview Ryne Sandberg for their now vacant head coaching position. When word got out that the Cubs were looking for a manager with a little more experience than Sandberg, I was a bit giddy over the idea of keeping him in our organization. With Pete Mackanan interviewing for a handful of other coaching jobs, there's likely to be an opening just to the left of Charlie on the top of the dugout steps. At the very least, the AAA job is surely Sandberg's to keep. Maybe I'm just daydreaming alongside Justin from TBOH when I imagine Sandberg grooming Phillies minor leaguers for two more years after Charlie can ride off into the sunset of retirement and Ryne can take over a team largely made up of his own guys.  

• Citi Field is in the midst of a make-over. No, not some sort of noise suppressing dome to eliminate the sound of airplanes landing at Laguardia, but instead they'll be moving in the outfield walls to address the significant drop in HRs that they've experienced since moving from Shea. Perhaps they don't realize that a deep outfield isn't necessarily a bad thing for a team that led the league in extra base hits that didn't clear the wall and has enough speed to rank 3rd in SBs. Do the 10-12 extra HRs a year make up for the likely reduction in doubles and triples that drive in runs? No one else in baseball can quite screw things up like the Mets. With their aforementioned noise pollution problems, the ridiculous Jason Bay contract, the revolving door of management, having to watch their best player leave via free agency, and finishing 3.5 games behind the Washington Nationals, it's only getting worse to be a Mets fan.

• It's not too early to start Christmas shopping for me:

Game 3 Link Dump

 Previews are abundant on other blogs, and quite frankly my nerves are too shot to come up with a coherent analysis of my own, so I present to you a series of links to mull over for the next 4 hours...

•  77 degrees and Sunny for game time, just beware of those afternoon shadows that creep across new Busch Stadium.

•  Phillies & Eagles PA announcer, Dan Baker, celebrated his 40th year as the voice of the Phillies in 2011. He gets bonus points in my book for sharing a hometown with me, but 40 years announcing some of the game's greats is truly a remarkable feat. It's one thing to stumble into a job like that, but it's a whole other thing to hone your craft to a point where you're probably the 3rd most recognizable voice in town (behind Merrill Reese and Harry, of course.) Here's to 40 more!

• The 10 Most Amazing Feats of Derek Jeter

• Infographics for the 2011 playoffs? Sure. One of the biggest surprises is the fact that the Phillies have the fewest players that signed as Free Agents as any of the teams in the playoffs with 5. Also worth noting how similar the head to head records are amongst all the teams in the playoffs.

• I wouldn't be doing my job if I let the Braves off the hook so easily for their September collapse... Seamheads does a great job at compiling the dozens of factors that contributed to their late season failure. Maybe they just weren't that good to begin with. A team can only win so many 3-2 or 2-0 games before they run out of steam. I said midseason that Michael Bourn just wouldn't be enough to get them over the hump and in the end, the blame has to lie with GM Frank Wren for not sparking his team with enough offense to support his young pitching staff.

• The Hardball Times put out a couple of comprehensive reports last week on the top 100 prospects at seasons' end. While the Phillies had a couple of young arms on the list with Trevor May at 73 and Jesse Biddle at 87, one of the biggest surprises to me was former Phillies minor leaguer Travis d'Arnaud all the way up at #12. Losing him in the Roy Halladay deal was well worth the price, but offensive catchers who hold their own behind the plate are a pretty rare bird. It might sting a little bit if he's hitting the 25 HRs, THT is predicting once he reaches the bigs.

• I was at the game on Sunday so I didn't catch LaRusa's in game comments until Monday, but it sounds like he's been fined for criticizing umpire Jerry Meals on the TBS cameras. It sounds like he was right in stating that there were 2 different strike zones being employed... only he probably should have kept his mouth shut because the Cardinals were the benefactors of the unbalanced strike calls.  According to Phillies Nation and BrooksBaseball.net, the Phillies had 7 pitches thrown for strikes that were called balls and their hitters saw 6 pitches outside the strikezone that were called strikes. I noticed Cliff Lee get himself into a handful of 0-2 counts and follow up with what appeared to be a strike only to see it called a ball. Some of those 0-2 counts came back to hurt him late in the game.

Four Versus The Brew Crew: Links!

• The Phils face the guys pictured above (in baseball, not bull riding) for a 4 game series starting tonight in Milwaukee for what could very well be a NLCS preview. Guys in flannel shirts just don't scare me.

• Hot topic over the weekend was obviously the Double/HR/Fan Interference that happened to Hunter Pence down in Florida. Kulp from the700level.com issues a Public Service Announcement for all of you would be fan interferers. Now my first reaction to the fan interference call on that play was "so what, it's still a ground rule double, right?" Setting aside the whole argument about whether the umpires had the right to review the play and whether or not Joe West is an arrogant d-bag, how is it that a fan interfering with the home team's outfielder is an automatic out? Sure, the kid was wearing some Phillies gear, but he could very easily be a Marlins fan in disguise who intentionally swatted at Bryan Peterson's glove to get the automatic out. Yeah, okay that's far fetched... but if he were a Marlins fan, he'd actually have done his team a favor on a play like that. If Howard was on third instead of first and fan interference was called, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to tag up. Seems like there's a hole in that rule to me...

• CBS Philly is running a "Most Valuable Blogger" contest. Quite frankly, I'm disappointed in all of you for failing to nominate me. I can guarantee that I'm better than a surf fishing website! There are more than a handful of other subpar blogs on the list as well. My votes have been going to ThatBallsOuttaHere.com because 1) the dude comes up with some hilarious stories, 2) he's self deprecating enough about his own blog to have let me guest post once. I believe today is the last day to vote, so get on it! 

• A lengthy piece by phuturephillies on why Charlie Manuel is probably the best candidate for Manager of the Year but probably won't win it. As of late, the award has been going to a manager that overachieves the most from year to year, but there's really something to be said for a guy who wills his team through tons of injuries, gets the most out of his players, and performs exactly as well as expected. This season is on pace to be the greatest in franchise history and though Charlie was given all the tools to succeed by the front office, let's give the guy some credit for the way he's used Raul Ibanez this year, his acumen with the starting pitchers, and somehow turning Wilson Valdez/Michael Martinez into a useful utility platoon. How many times have you heard the phrase "players manager" in reference to guys like Bud Black and Tony Larusa? 

• So John Mayberry Jr wants a date with a chick who played a mermaid in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, though I'm assuming everyone has heard this story by now. First of all, I didn't even know that movie came out already... wasn't there a huge buildup for the first one? Are they churning them out like Saw movies now? And while the whole story is a bit embarassing, there is a silver lining... Someone at Yahoo actually considers Mayberry a "slugger!" The whole story would have been way more demoralizing had they said "Phillies AAAA/4th outfielder asks for date." Congratulations, Mayberry. You have arrived! Unfortunately, your mermaid is married.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• 33 Games in 31 Days, including 2 double headers. The good news: No more 10pm West Coast start times! Take a breather now because baseball is non-stop until the season ends. Playoff magic number is right around 16.

• With so much free time on his hands due to his DL trip, Jimmy Rollins has been very active on the internets lately. He keeps his status updated on Facebook, engages his fans on Twitter, and hocks a crap load of merchandise on his own webpage. Now of course the money probably all goes to charity, but damn Jimmy Rollins' fans must have some deep pockets (they do, I know one). $750 for a game used bat? $1,250 for a batting practice jersey? Cmon Jimmy, your contract situation isn't that bad! Someone will give you at least $40M guaranteed this offseason. No need to sell cheesy t-shirts with your face plastered on them! The show will go on!

• Of all the stories in baseball, the one that is most surprising, and perhaps most overlooked is just how pathetic of a season Adam Dunn is having in Chicago. I was never a big fan of his in Cincinnati or Washington. His swing is a bigger hack than even Ryan Howard's. But his ability to draw a walk and consistent 40HR/100RBI approach made his value relatively close to the 4yr-$56M that the White Sox paid him. But dear god, who in their right mind could have predicted that he'd only have 60 hits in 400+ ABs? The Flagrant Fan puts it into historical context. No one in the history of Major League Baseball has ever had a season in which they batted under .170 for the season and only twice has someone batted under .180. Dunn would need to have an MVP caliber final 5 weeks just to see his BA creep over the mendoza line. Even Dan Uggla feels bad for Dunn. 

• Matt Gelb wrote a couple of awesome articles on Vance Worley over the past few days (lots of free time with all that rain, I suppose!). Includes the story behind his Oakleys, the origin of the mohawk, and plenty of details about his journey to the majors.

• Equally hard hitting journalism is this Philly.com piece on baseball socks! In all honesty, though, Michael Vitez is spot on with his analysis of the changes in footwear in baseball over the past 30 years or so. The long socks look is all but dead. Most baseball purists will tell you that they love the high socks look, and while I agree, stirrups were just stupid. I remember having to wear those over regular socks in little league and I never understood the purpose. They dryrot easily and they're always falling down. Then they tried to replicate the look by just having regular socks with a colored stripe on the side. Who do they think they were kidding? And, I'm sorry but the ones that the Phillies wore with the liberty bell on the side were super cheesy. Did stirrups ever serve a purpose?Am I missing something here?

• Quietly having one of the greatest seasons of any player in recent memory, Curtis Granderson is putting himself in position to be a virtual lock for AL MVP. Back in 2007 when Granderson became the 3rd player to ever hit 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 homeruns, and steal 20 bases. When Jimmy Rollins got his 20th triple on the final day of the season, he used his stats to earn himself an MVP award. Granderson finished a disappointing 10th that year in AL voting! Today, he leads all of baseball in runs scored, RBI, and HRs. His batting average has hovered around .280 most of the season and the speed is still there. And he's putting up all these numbers while being something like the 11th highest paid player on his team. That's less money than Raul Ibanez.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• Adding to his resume, Jimmy Rollins will be appearing as a cartoon character on the Cleveland show this fall. The list of Phillies players appearing on television is getting pretty lengthy. With the Philly Phanatic appearing on the Simpsons, Ryan Howard on Entourage, and Chase Utley & Howard on It's Always Sunny, I have to ask myself who could be next? Shane Victorino on Hawaii Five-0 perhaps... though I'm not sure that show even survived it's first season. Hunter Pence as crazed serial killer on Dexter? Chooch on a Telemundo soap opera?

• A bit of a sad story about former Cubs great and current Lehigh Valley Iron Pig manager Ryne Sandberg. Drafted by the Phillies and traded after just a few major league at bats as a throw in piece to get Ivan DeJesus, Sandberg has come full circle in his major league career as the manager of the Phils AAA affiliate. His being overlooked for the Cubs big league job last winter was a major mistake and the thought of many baseball people seems to be that it has soured him on the organization altogether. Charlie Manuel is signed on as the Phillies manager for two more years after this one. Sandberg has been doing a solid job with the Iron Pigs this year and is looking to lead the team on a playoff run. My thought is that the Phillies pursuit of him in the offseason could somehow be as the grooming as a replacement for Charlie Manuel after 2013. This would assume that Charlie hangs up the spikes after his contract is up (he'll be almost 70 afterall), and also assumes that Sandberg is willing to wait in the weeds for 2 more years with the Phillies. But it sure would be awesome to see Sandberg back in red pinstripes and it would make for a much more upbeat story.

• I think I've posted about LegendarySportsPrints.com before, but their website doesn't seem to offer the one that I want the most. So head on over to Phillies Nation and buy me one (or 4). Cmon, my birthday is coming up and I'm well worth the $25!

• In other collectible news, the US Post Office (surprisingly, they still exist) is going to have a series of forever stamps in 2012 with four "All Star Stamps." Joe Dimaggio will be one, but they haven't released the names of the others just yet. Then again, if his current streak continues, they may need to replace Dimaggio's with a Dan Uggla stamp!

• I'll always maintain that the greatest thing about baseball is its unpredictability. So be sure to check out You Can't Predict Baseball for daily roundups of baseball tidbits that will make you shake your head. For instance, "The Tigers lead the AL Central, with a -14 run differential. —– The Padres are in last place in the tragic NL West. They have a -4 run differential."

• I drove by the Kansas City Royals Stadium last week and was surprised to see that the All-Star game will be held there in 2012. It's a decent looking place that has apparently gone under a huge renovation so I'll probably stop by there on one of my next trips. The Royals are a pretty nice young team, though so anything that can drum up interest for them is probably good for baseball. Mix in a little fanfare with a roster that has Billy Butler, Jeff Francouer, Alex Gordon, Melky Cabrera, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Joakim Soria, Danny Duffy, and Aaron Crow all 27 years or younger and you mgiht just have a foundation for something big. They've retooled themselves with great drafts much in the way that the Rays did about 5 years ago. Speaking of All-Star games, keep an eye out for an upcoming post on All-Star game jerseys!

Lunch Time Link Dump

• Despite having a pretty disappointing season power wise, Ryan Howard is still among the league leaders in RBI. There has been tons of discussion about whether or not the RBI is overvalued, but it's tough to argue with the fact that Ryan Howard has produced runs in big situations. He's a bit of the Anti-Abreu in that respect. Fan Graphs took a look at Howard's numbers and determined that he has come to bat a league leading 141 times with runners in scoring position. So there's plenty of luck associated with his productivity. But as a lot of the commenters have pointed out, his .313/.418/.509 stat line during those situations is very telling about the way defenses have to play him with runners on second or third base. As Mike Schmidt pointed out in the interview I posted a few weeks ago, Ryan Howard desperately needs to learn to put the ball to the opposite field in order to improve his rate stats. The Good Phight looks at his OBI% over the last few years to determine that he is really efficient at driving in runners in front of him. But his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) with bases empty is a solid 24 points lower than with a runner in scoring position (.316 versus .340). It's not just strikeouts that are making Howard's contract look like a looming black cloud, but you can expect gaudy RBI numbers to continue at the same clip.

• Wanna hit homeruns like... Jose Canseco? Then buy his slowpitch softball bat!

"The Bass Jose Canseco Juiced features a one-piece construction made from Bass' new Anabolic Composite material. This composite design will inject a new level of power into your game and gives the bat added strength and toughness that won't wear down."

For the record, I'm rolling my eyes right now. It's a step above celebrity boxing, but clearly this man's desperation knows no ends. 

• On the prospect front, Bullpen Banter recently posted up their Top 100 Prospects report that features 5 Phillies in the top 100. Any player who has had an at bat or thrown a pitch was deemed ineligible for this list so it's a true list of prospects. The one that excites me the most right now is catcher Sebastian Valle. While his defensive skills seem to need a little more refinement, every report indicates that his athleticism is top notch for a catcher. At the All Star Futures game a few weeks back, he had two solid at bats roping a double down the line and flying out to CF. Scouts seem to indicate that he is transitioning very well against top notch pitching. While Chooch has surprised a lot of people with his offense, I don't believe he was ever thought of as a long term catching prospect. If Valle continues to produce, I think he could be wearing pinstripes by 2013. Check out Phuture Phillies midseason prospect report for even more Phillies news.

• Coming up on August 13th, a pretty huge Phillies Autograph signing at Bucks County Technical School. I've been to a couple of these in the past and while they're populated by the scurveyest people you'll ever come across and they generally smell like gymnasium full of old Italian hoagies, they're a great place for autograph and memorabilia seekers. Looks like Scott Mathieson, Mike Stutes, and John Mayberry Jr will be there from the current squad along with a host of former Phils.

Keep an eye out over the next few days. Hopefully we'll have a few more writers contributing to the site!

Lunch Time Link Dump: All Star Break Edition!

• Despite the 14 run whipping they received yesterday from the Phillies, The Atlanta Braves have a pretty solid team. COSFBA makes the argument that their talent puts them in the position to begin another dynasty run as they did in the mid 90s. They're absolutely right and the Braves team/organization is downright scary right now. But while the talent may be there, I would argue that the financial landscape of the game has created a situation where a team like the Braves really can't build a decade long dynasty without some serious elevated commitment from the owners. Great scouting and player development is what it takes to build a pitching staff like Atlanta has right now. Truck loads of burlap bags with dollar signs on the side is what it takes to keep those players. With guys like Heyward, Jurrjens, Hanson, etc are cornerstones of this team who will all be looking at hefty arbitration cases in the coming years. During those same years, the Braves will be paying 8 figure salaries to guys like Uggla, McCann, and possibly still Chipper Jones. For 2012, the Braves already have about $60M dedicated to only 5 players. If their payroll sits under $100M and they still can't draw more than 20,000 people into the stands despite being one of the top 5 teams in the game, what chance do they have of going much higher than that threshold?

• I was pretty intrigued by this Deadspin story last week about Barry Halper and his mostly fraudulent collection of merchandise. I had read stories in the past about the collector whose collection almost rivaled what was in the hall of fame itself, but this was the first I had heard about half of that collection being stolen, forged, or otherwise illegitimate. I even remember seeing some of these items displayed proudly in the HoF during my last visit. It's fascinating that someone could produce such believable forgeries and fool even the most astute authenticators. I'll definitely be checking out the "Hauls of Shame" book when it is released.

• Here's another guy living out my dream of a baseball road trip around the country. I did this whole "adult" thing all wrong by getting a job, buying a house, and getting married right out of college. I really should have just taken a few months of "me time" and driven around the country for a baseball season. Back then, gas was still reasonable and I didn't have all of these responsibilities!

• For a cool $205M, you could own your very own All Star Team! According to Off Base Percentage, that's about what this year's teams will be making. Of course, that just refers to this years starters in the All-Star Game, not the whole host of people who were elected but won't be playing... which is a whole other complaint of mine. Why do we bother calling these guys All-Stars if seemingly 1/4th of the league makes the team anyway? Some of these guys have rather hefty bonuses tied to making the team so when Shane Victorino and Ryan Braun come up limp, an outfielder who might have been #8 in the voting suddenly finds himself with an extra $75,000 in the bank. That doesn't sound suspicious to anyone else? And while I'm griping here, I've talked to a lot of people in the past week about the All-Star Game dictating home field advantage in the World Series. I don't like it, but I think "best record overall" is an even worse system. The leagues simply aren't balanced enough to think that having the best record is worthy of homefield advantage in the WS. More often than not, the team with the best record doesn't even make the World Series. I've been in support of what Ernie over at FenwayNation put up this morning: Use Interleague play records as the bar for home field advantage. This coming from an NL guy who wouldn't have had homefield in the last decade, too. The sample size is adequate and it adds a little spice to a series of games that has started to become a bit mundane. The novelty of seeing a new team is nice, but even I can't get too excited for the Oakland Athletics coming to town.

• Through The Fence offers some tips for making your significant other enjoy the game of baseball with you a little more. This pertains more to those of you who don't live in Philadelphia, where baseball is already the hippest thing around and Chase Utley in a pair of baseball pants is enough to make women flock to the ballpark. God forbid you live in Kansas City where the biggest star in town is Joakim Soria's eyebrows. Nicknames for players, "cute" t-shirts, and pop culture laden player antidotes have worked well for me!

Lunch Time Link Dump

• I'm pretty sure I've addressed this before, but Mandy Housenick from The Morning Call is probably the laziest, and most unfounded Phillies beat reporter out there. She frequently criticizes star players as a way of stirring the pot and almost always has no facts (or occasionally fabricated ones) to back her opinions. Earlier this week was nothing different when Housenick and Marcus Hayes were on Daily News Live and had the gall to come out and say that "you're not losing anything by playing Wilson Valdez at second base over Chase Utley." Crashburn Alley does a great job at breaking it down with a nice video mashup, but I don't think I need to bring up statistics like WAR or UZR to show you how asinine that statement is. How do people like them get paid to cover baseball while I sit here and blog about it for free?

 

• Ever want to stick your hand inside Chase Utley? Sicko. Well, now you can, thanks to these completely ambiguous and maybe even slightly racist puppets and stuffed creatures. Seriously, cover the names for a second and tell me that the Ryan Howard plush doll doesn't look more like Ben Francisco and the Chase Utley 7" plush doesn't look more like Brett Myers than anyone capable of playing 2nd Base. Still though, these dolls are officially licensed and they're cheaper than the stuffed goods you can get on the 2nd floor of the Majestic Clubhouse Store so if you don't mind your kids thinking all white people look the same, go for it! 

 

• I found a neat little daily fantasy game on FanGraphs while reading through some twitter posts this morning. Just grab six players for the day under a salary cap and see how well you score. It's free to play, so if anyone wants in, I'll gladly set up a little daily group.

• Did you know that the Marlins new manager is old? It's true, 80 full years to be exact. What would possess a guy like that to come out of retirement is beyond me unless he has some sense of debt owed to help the Marlins out for the rest of the season. With a team full of guys that could easily be his great grandchildren, you can expect a lot of age gap jokes like the one Logan Morrison tweeted last night:

• With Interleague play in full swing, the yearly argument erupts once again: DH or no DH? It's a subject that splits baseball fans pretty much right down the middle depending on whether or not their team plays in the AL or the NL. Personally, I like the idea of having a pitcher pitch because it adds an extra challenge to the game that NL managers have to work around. That little caveat leads to some of baseball's greatest nuances; the sac bunt, the double switch, the pitcher actually getting a hit, etc. But then again, I'd probably pissed if my team strolled into an NL park and my best hitter was riding the pine because he's completely useless with a glove on his hand and my pitcher hasn't swung a bat since little league. Fans of the AL love the added offense and the lack of an "automatic out" at the bottom of the lineup. Fans of the NL love the purity of having every player on the field play two way ball.

• Lastly, this is too weird not to share...

Lunch Time Link Dump

• Next week, Phillies Nation is hosting a tour of the ballpark followed by a block party for Kisses for Kyle. I don't think I can make the tour (though I really want to), but you can bet I'll be watching the Phils v. Cardinals from McFaddens. $25 gets you an open bar from 7-9pm and $1 beers afterwards with tons of giveaways, auctions, raffles, and live music. Be there!

• Phuture Phillies put together the master of all 2011 Phillies draft recaps. They've had fantastic coverage all along and their recap really gives you a way to manage your expectations for these guys as far as ceiling and signability. Give it a read!

• You think you know your own backyard ballpark better than anyone, and then someone like Kurt Smith comes along and shows you just how wrong you are. I've browsed a few pages from the Citizens Bank Park Ballpark E-Guide, and I can assure you that there are some intricacies to the stadium that even season ticket holders don't know. Want to know where to get a $1 hot dog even when it's NOT dollar dog night? Spend $5 on this E-Guide!

• If you play fantasy baseball, chances are your league probably sucks. COSFBA runs through a list of features in fantasy baseball leagues that really knock the sport down a few notches. If making a few mouse-clicks to set your lineup each day is too much work, go play fantasy football. I'm happy to report that the world famous "Pop's Fantasy Baseball League" seems to have all managers still active and attentive this late in the season. I've been at it for about15 years and I'm pretty sure this is a first. Normally, Bean would have a team full of Phillies players on the DL right now, but even he's paying attention.

• Imagine for a second if they built Citizens Bank Park on the banks of the Delaware. I mean, sure there would hundreds of alcohol related drowning deaths each year. But is that really any different than the stabbing deaths we have outside of McFaddens now? Catching a game from McCovey Cove (preferable on a platform that also provides grilling sustenance) is definitely one for my baseball bucket list.

• Now that the end of the world has come and gone without ending, it's nice to look ahead five years to see who the best players in the game will be. I would agree that baseball seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts with the fresh crop of young talent entering the league over the last few seasons and into the future. I've even heard this year referred to as the "year of the prospect." Gone are most of my childhood heroes, and in comes a new crop of studs. The list provided by MLBBlogBuzz is sadly lacking Phillies players other than Domonic Brown, but half of the guys on this list will play their way out of their current situation anyway. Bookmark this one and revisit it in 5 years to see where they stand. That is, unless we're all driving around in flying cars and we're playing baseball on the moon by then.   

• I've linked in the past to the Casual Fan project where one man is catching 100+ games in a season, but equally impressive is this guy who is completing a baseball biking tour of all 30 MLB stadiums over the course of a season. I rode about 2 miles yesterday and had enough. This guy logs 30+ every day and he's only on day 65. Both tours are great examples of a free spirit just going out and living a dream. If I didn't have all this baggage holding me down (a job, a house, a wife, etc...) I'd be right there with them! 

• Lastly, did you know that this summer marks the 50th anniversary of alcohol being sold at Phillies games? Baseball in general didn't allow beer sales until the 1930s, but Philadelphia was especially dry due to the state's ridiculous (still) alcohol sale laws. In fact, beer sales at ballparks only opened up because belligerent drunk fans were sneaking their own bottles into the park and using them as projectiles. So in that respect, not much has changed.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• Spotted: Dane Sardinha face down on a Pittsburgh bar. If you haven't been to PNC Park, then you don't realize that there is a plethora of bars within a 2 block radius of the stadium. It's part of the charm, but it may also explain why the Phillies are so terrible there. The Phils are now 13-32 at PNC following yesterday's win. When I was out there last year, following the game (another loss), we spotted Jayson Werth and Ryan Madson getting the VIP treatment to the upstairs lounge at a place called Mullen's accross the street from the Stadium. I made a poor attempt to slip by security and sneak through the kitchen to big dog it with the rest of them, but I wasn't successful. Still, I'd like to see someone compile a Phillies record when playing at stadiums that have nightlife within a 2 block perimeter. My guess is that when the "Philly Live" thing opens up at the site of the old Spectrum, we're looking at a 0-162 season. 

• The MLB Draft starts tonight. I don't claim to be a scout, but from what I hear, it's an incredibly deep crop of players. Specifically, there are supposed to be a ton of available pitchers. Everything I'm reading this morning seems to indicate that the Pirates have chosen to use their #1 overall pick on UCLA RHP Gerrit Cole. He projects to be on the fast track to the big leagues and could really benefit a developing Pirates team that already features Charlie Morton. The Phillies forfeited their first round pick when acquiring Cliff Lee, but they do have a supplementary pick at #39 overall. They've been good drafters as of late, but I still can't forgive them for choosing Jeff Jackson over Frank Thomas in 1989. Zero games in the majors or a Hall of Fame career. Nice choice! The Phillies will also draft at 66, 90, and 120. Not a ton of early picks, but a good mix to throw in with an already budding farm system. I would expect them to target depth and middle infield and catching over everything else. Of course, the MLB draft is pretty much a crap shoot anyway, but seeing as how I have nothing to do tonight, I'll probably tune in for a while.

• This was too good not to share... a local duo has developed a self published comic series called "Dugout Phunnies" featuring tales and adventures of the 2011 Phillies. So far, Charlie Manuel has appeared with a mullet possessed by the devil and the starting five have gone on a camping trip. Definitely worth your $5 immediately! Also check them out on Facebook.

• I had a few people ask me this weekend about the Phillies debt situation as the LA Times and ESPN outed 9 MLB teams for violating the MLB Debt Policies. I think David Murphy from the Daily News sums it up perfectly. Comparing the Phillies financial situation to that of the Mets, Dodgers, and Cubs is not accurate. And the debt leverage situation has nothing to do with this year's increase in payroll or the luxury tax or the possibility of trading for another player or two at the deadline. Player salaries do not count against the debt ceiling and unlike other teams, the only debt that the Phillies carry is a result of the operation of the team itself (read: They own the team outright). Long story short, nothing to see here, folks.  

• Lastly, if you're not using Twitter to get your baseball news by now, you're a fool. Here's a list of people you need to get out and follow ASAP!
• @PhoulBallz - writer for PhoulBallz.com and Phillies Nation
• @keithlaw - renowned baseball writer
• @EricSeidman - Co-founder and writer for BrotherlyGlove.com
• @CWHager - writer for FantasyPros911.com and Elmhurst Pub Rountable
• @COSFBA - writer of Colorado Springs Fantasy Baseball Addict Blog
• @PhilliesWheeler - not the official Chris Wheeler, but a humorous tribute
• @PHLSportHistory - a virtual almanac of all Philly sports history
• @DroppedStrike3 - me, and I'm awesome.

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?

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.

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. 

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.

Lunch Time Link Dump

• From the Platoon Advantage, I've gained a new perspective on the "mallparks" that are modern day baseball stadiums. Sure, the Build-A-Bear Workshops and EA Sports Video Game booths may be a distraction from what you just spent $30+ to see, but with a child's attention span what it is, easing him into the game might just be the best approach. I know I couldn't sit still for 3 hours when I was a kid and there are times even today where I just want to walk around and people watch a bit. Old parks have charm and history, but little else to occupy your time if you're a child. Thinking of "mallparks" as an investment in the future of baseball fans is actually kind of brilliant... Not that this means I'm having a kid any time soon.   

• The more I read and write about baseball, the more I want to learn. So while doing a little digging into some local baseball history, I stumbled across a monumental bit of baseball history that is practically in my own back yard. Hinchliffe Stadium was one of the first Negro League stadiums and one of only three that still stand today. It was used by the Patterson school district until 1997 and it currently sits high on the list of America's most endangered historic sites, but there appears to be a plan in place to renovate the site. It's a graffiti covered, overgrown mess right now, but I'm definitely adding a visit to this site to my list of lazy Sunday projects.

• Who is the most hated player in your team's history? An interesting question if you're a Phillies fan. JD Drew gets votes for refusing to sign with the Phillies. Scott Rolen gets votes for basically whining his way out of town. Adam Eaton gets votes for crapping the bed for 3 years and somehow still getting a World Series ring. Ivan DeJesus cost us Ryne Sandberg. Danny Tartabull cost $2M and never got a single hit. Von Hayes never lived up to the 5-4-1 hype. Mitch Williams choked in the World Series. Billy Wagner and Curt Schilling thought they were too good for this town. Freddy Garcia earned $10M for one single win. Rod Barajas and Wes Helms couldn't hit worth a lick in red pinstripes, but come back to haunt us year after year... man, this list is getting long. Who would you choose? 

• Someone with the Yankees "accidentally" forwarded private info of all their season ticket holders to about 2,000 contacts. The list of info has popped up all over the internet in the past few days. Apparently, should some less than honest individual come across this list and decide to log into an account that isn't theirs, they could easily steal tickets by forwarding them to a different email address. Fortunately, Yankees fans are all upstanding citizens... right?

• Apparently attendance numbers are at record lows for most MLB stadiums so far this year. The Yankees set a new low water mark in three consecutive days and teams in the midwest have been drawing crowds of under 10,000 regularly. No issues in Philadelphia where I'm still crammed in like a sardine in my outfield seats. But some would argue that baseball is as healthy as ever right now. How? Cable TV revenue. Blackout restrictions are a bit difficult to explain, but the general idea is that the MLB Extra Innings package does not air games when a cable network in that area considers the team to be local to the area and has rights to the game themselves. Which basically means MLB Network gives way to PHL17 in South Jersey and the Phillies can instead cash in on cable revenue. For teams like the Houston Astros who might have down attendance, they cash in on most of the state of Texas getting their games as part of the cable package. Even worse are teams like Boston who have a controlling stake in their own cable network. NESN charges somewhere in the $3 range for each cable bill in the New England area that carries their channel. So every cable subscriber in the New England area pays about $30/year to an arm of the Red Sox... so who says baseball is failing?

• Tickets go on sale on May 9th for the Phillies ALS Phestival. I've gone a few times in the past, and while prices went up and options went down for this year, $25 for a handful of autographs and a meet and greet with some players is a pretty good deal. I'd recommend ordering at 9am on the dot, because this thing typically sells out in like 10 minutes. Maybe Cole Hamels will be less of a D-bag this year.

• I grabbed this book on Half.com the other day called "The Baseball Fan's Bucket List." It's exactly what it sounds like and while a lot of the items are a little obvious (visit Fenway), or far fetched (throw out a first pitch), there are definitely a few items I would really like to do. Attend a Little League and College World Series is among them. I'm going to work on compiling a list of 100 items for my own baseball bucket list (some of which I've already completed) and hopefully have something up in the next week or two.