Tag: Philadelphia Phillies

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MLB General

The Full Count: Yankees get a baby step


1. Boo Me Now: Alex Rodriguez was ridiculed by the Red Sox fans every at-bat over the weekend. On Sunday, he made them shut up by hitting what proved to be a game-winning homer in a 6-5 victory for the Yankees. A-Rod hit a solo shot off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth, his league-leading 20th big fly of the year. The win gave the Yankees a series victory over Boston, but they are still 12.5 games back and just one game out of last place. The projected pitcher’s duel between Andy Pettitte and Josh Beckett did not occur, as both aces did not pitch their best. Both teams have one more series before starting Interleague play later this week.

2. West Coast Showdown: The weekend did nothing to separate the top teams in the NL West. The Diamondbacks, Padres, and Dodgers remain tied in the league’s most heated divisional battle. The streaky D-backs have won 9 of their last 10 games, including two of three from the Mets over the weekend. Doug Davis pitched 7 2/3 excellent innings in a 4-1 win on Sunday. The Padres won as well, with David Wells picking up the win and Josh Bard driving in four runs. The Dodgers rallied in the seventh and eighth innings to beat the Pirates 5-4. According to ESPN.com, the Dodgers are 27-0 when leading after eight innings. This is a testament to the outstanding play of closer Takashi Saito, who is 16-16 on save chances and has a 1.50 ERA. All three of these teams have an overachieving offense, solid bullpen, and a capable array of starters. Though the NL West race usually doesn’t get much attention, it should this year.

3. MVP Resurgence: The last two National League MVPs, Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols, were very disappointing early on this year. However, both have picked it up in the last week or so, and they will likely return to superstardom as the year goes on. On Sunday, Howard hit his fourth homer in nine games since returning from the DL. He was one of four Phillies to go deep in a crazy 9-8 win over the Giants. Though he is still hitting just .224, Howard is still on pace for 38 homers and 133 RBIs on the year. Pujols, meanwhile, hit two homers to help the Cardinals win 8-6. He had his fifth multi-hit game in his last ten games. Neither Pujols nor Howard are atop the leaderboards like they were last year, but expect that to change very soon.

Player of the Day: Gary Sheffield, Tigers: 2-4, HR (13), 3 runs. Sheffield’s April struggles are now a distant memory thanks to 11 homers and 24 RBIs since May 2.

Stat of the Day: Giants phenom Tim Lincecum has a 9.00 ERA in two starts against the Phillies this year. In his other four starts he is 2-0 with a 2.17 ERA.

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Philadelphia Phillies

Nobody enjoys losing more than Philadelphia



The Phillies have been losing for a really long
time now

There’s not a whole lot to cheer about these days in Philly. QB controversy is already coming down on Eagles camp, Allen Iverson split town and the Sixers have no real future to speak of at the moment, and then you have the Phillies. Actually, they are having a fairly decent year so far but that doesn’t mean that haven’t stunk something fierce in the past. In fact, as of this moment the Phillies are just 21 losses away from reaching the 10,000 loss plateau. And Charley DeBow thinks that is something to celebrate.

DeBow started up Celebrate10000.com because, as he says, “Real phans love their losers.”

This year, the Philadelphia Phillies are poised to accomplish what no other team in professional sports history has before: 10,000 losses.

Not only is Philadelphia home to the franchise that has lost the most games in any sport, it’s also the city (with four major sports teams) that’s gone the longest without a championship.

This website is not about celebrating the Phillies 10,000th loss. It’s about celebrating the Phans. We’re the ones who suffer the most. Let’s celebrate each other because without each other we would be watching the games alone, high fiving the wall. Let’s make sure we keep our presence known.

Now, we understand that this site wasn’t intended to poke fun at the town’s loveable losers but, c’mon, there’s a huge ticker that is racking up the losses for cryin’ out loud. If enduring through 10,000 defeats is what it takes to be a good fan then we’d rather jump on the Mets bandwagon. DeBow is also planning a “celebration march” after the team finally loses that historical contest. Wow, and we thought that Raiders fans had lost their minds.

Links:

[Philly.com]: You have to love a team a lot to devote a Web site to its 10,000 losses
[Celebrate10000.com]: Celebrate 10,000 Home Page

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Philadelphia Phillies

Letting it all hang out in Philly


Most TV broadcasts won’t show fans who run onto the field. It’s a smart policy to deter any other fans from doing the same thing in order to get their 15 seconds of fame. So for the guy who risks a $1500 fine and up to a year in prison just to show off his goods to a baseball stadium, the blogs are the last place to turn for some infamy. And we’re happy to comply.

We wonder if part of the job description for “ballpark security guard” includes covering up the junk of pasty streakers. The Phillies all got a laugh out of it though:


It was funny,” Nunez said. “I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He was dancing and moving. He was all skin. I never saw anything like that in my life. The guy is crazy. He either won some money or was very intoxicated.

Links:
[Philly Burbs]: Streaker brings smiles after loss
[Shoutfan]: The Phillies Are Streaking

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Return of the Rocket


1. He’s (almost) baaaacck: Roger Clemens is back with the team he won two World Series titles with. The Yankees, who have been desperate for starting pitching since the beginning of the season, signed the Rocket in a $28 million deal pro-rated over four months (so he’ll make $18.5 million). While this deal comes as unsurprising, it could have a huge effect on the league this season. When Clemens returns to the mound within the next month or so, the Yankees with have a solid rotation: Clemens, Mussina, Ming-Wang, Pettitte, and Hughes. But since an already old team is adding a 45-year-old pitcher, it also shows the Yankees need a World Series title this year. As Clemens moves from the National League back to the American, he’ll see a rise in ERA from the past two seasons. But with increased run support, he will have a better record than he did with the Astros, and he will help make the Yankees at least competitive with the Red Sox for the division title. I still favor Boston to win it, but Clemens certainly makes the race more interesting.

2. Phenom meets phenom: Barry Bonds didn’t play on Sunday Night Baseball against the Phillies, but the game was still interesting due to a lot of offense and a matchup of young pitchers. The Phillies sent their ace-to-be Cole Hamels to the mound to face the Giants’ Tim Lincecum in his major league debut. Lincecum had lit up the minor leagues for a 0.29 ERA in five starts this year, but he allowed two homers (including a shot to Ryan Howard) and struggled with his control. After four innings and 100 pitches, Lincecum left with 5 runs and 5 walks allowed. Hamels allowed 5 runs as well, but only 3 of them were earned and he had 9 strikeouts. He was credited with the win and improved to 4-1 on the year. Another thing worth noting for the Phillies was the emergence of a new weapon on the basepaths. Pinch-runner Michael Bourn came in on first, stole two bases on two consecutive pitches, then scored on a routine grounder to short that usually would have been an out. The Phillies may only be 14-17, but they certainly have a lot of offensive weapons.

3. Detroit Dominance: The Tigers may have just faced the pitiful Royals over the weekend, but they took advantage of them and extended their winning streak to 7 games. A three-game sweep of Kansas City gave Detroit a share of the division lead with Cleveland. On Sunday they dominated 13-4 and had four different players with a homerun. Gary Sheffield hit his third homer of the past five games and has suddenly heated up after a cold April. Also, rookie pitcher Chad Durbin had one of his better starts with 7.2 innings and just 2 runs allowed. The 19-11 Tigers will be tested with back-to-back road series against the Red Sox and Twins over the next week.

Player of the Day: Trot Nixon, Indians: 5-5, 4 RBIs in a 9-6 win over Baltimore.

Stat of the Day: Padres starter Jake Peavy has struck out at least 10 batters in three consecutive games, while throwing for only seven innings in each game.

Walk Off: An ESPN poll about Barry Bonds shows only 58% of people think he should be in the Hall of Fame. This goes to show the complete unintelligence of baseball fans. Even if you think Bonds cheated in every way possible, he was a Hall of Famer before his alleged steroid use. His is the best hitter in a generation, and should be a unanimous Hall of Fame selection in addition to being considered one of the greatest hitters ever. He has broken more records than anybody since Babe Ruth. Don’t let the crappy person Bonds is diminish his unbelievable numbers.

Categories
MLB General

Luke Scott doesn’t like your wiener near his face


Here’s another one for the “This is why Philly fans get a bad rap” file. During last night’s game, the fans were harassing Luke Scott all night but play finally had to be stopped in the eighth inning when someone threw a hot dog that almost hit him.


The umpire’s like, ‘What’s happening?’ I said, ‘They’re throwing coins and hot dogs in my direction. If they want to throw stuff whatever. But if it’s a couple inches from my head, that’s not right. They did say that they were taking someone (out of the stadium).

Now why would someone waste a perfectly good hot dog at the ballpark. (It certainly looked good on TV, even though it was lying broken on the ground.) Oh right, it was dollar dog night. Good thing it wasn’t dollar car battery night. By the way, when this incident is spoken of years later, it’ll turn into a story about how a gang of Phillies fans sodomized Luke Scott with a polish kielbasa.

[Houston Chronicle]: Philly fans get unruly with Astros OF Scott

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Losing the Arms Race


1. All Bats, No Arms: The Yankees have a problem. Their lineup is great — probably the best in the majors — and Alex Rodriguez is already breaking records this season. But, due to injuries and bad trades, they have awful pitching. After allowing four homeruns in a row in a Sunday loss to the Red Sox, the Yanks were torched by the Devil Rays on Monday night. Kei Igawa allowed 7 earned runs and could make it out of the 5th inning. His ERA in four starts is 7.84. Rocco Baldelli, BJ Upton, and other youngsters took advantage as the D-Rays continued their offensive success with a 10-run performance.

Even in a winning effort, the Devil Rays could not stop Alex Rodriguez. He hit two homers, giving him 14 on the year. That ties Albert Pujols’ record for homers in the month of April (set last year), and A-Rod still has six games left in the month. He also now has 34 RBIs, one short of the record. But still, despite scoring 8 runs, the Yankees lost their fourth in a row and are now just a half game ahead of Tampa for last place in the division.

2. Fluke or no Fluke?: Could the Brewers actually be a good team? At 12-7, they lead the NL Central division easily and have won 4 out of their last 5 games. Milwaukee beat the Cubs on Monday in 12 innings. They were down 4-0 but rallied back to tie the game in the eighth. Then Prince Fielder had a solo homerun to win the game, his second of the day. Shortstop JJ Hardy homered, giving him 6 on the year which ranks second in the league. I’m still not sold on this team, but their upcoming series against the Astros and Cardinals will help show if they are for real.

3. AL Central Delivers: The division race that seemed exciting even before the season started — the AL Central — has not disappointed. The top four teams (the Tigers, Twins, Indians, and White Sox) are all within a half-game of the division lead. On Monday the White Sox and Tigers beat the Royals and Angels, while the Indians beat the Twins. Minnesota has led the division most of the season, but they just lost a series to the Royals. Maybe when Johan Santana pitches tonight they’ll do better. Upcoming interdivision series include Tigers-White Sox and Tigers-Twins.

Co-Players of the Day: Alex Rodriguez, Yankees: 4-5, 2 HR (14), 3 RBIs in 8-10 loss to the Devil Rays. Jimmie Rollins, Phillies: 4-5, HR (7), 4 runs, 2 RBIs in an 11-4 win over Houston.

Stat of the Day: The Yankees starting pitchers have averaged 4.8 innings per start, the worst mark in the majors.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Almost Perfect — 27 up, 27 down


1. Surprise of the Year: Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox strugged enormously the second half of last year and wasn’t so great in his first two starts of 2007. But, in a surprising performance to say the least, he tossed a no-hitter against the Rangers, a good-hitting team. Buehrle went the distance ans was only one walk shy of perfection. He struck out 8 and picked off the only baserunner he allowed. The no-no was the 16th in White Sox history but their first since 1991. On the offensive side, Jim Thome hit two homers and Jermaine Dye had a grand slam to supply all of the White Sox’s 6 runs. Another major league pitcher, the Mets’ John Maine, went into the seventh inning with a no-hitter going as well. Maine and the Mets disposed of the Marlins, 9-2.

2. Worst team in the league: Many would be surprised to find that the worst team in the entire majors is the Philadelphia Phillies so far this year. They fell to 3-10 after a loss to the terrible Nationals in 13 innings on Wednesday. Nothing has gone well for the Phils this season. Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, their two best offensive players, are hitting under .230. Brett Myers was so bad as a starting pitcher that they moved him to the bullpen. Absolutely nothing has gone right for the Phillies, except for Jimmy Rollins’ surprising power.

3. Star Power: Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds faced each other on Wednesday,. and they both showed why they are two of the game’s most feared hitters. Pujols, who has been struggling, hit his fourth homer of the season and increased his average 40 points via three hits. Bonds, meanwhile, hit a solo homer in the eighth to tie the game, which the Giants eventually won in 12 innings. The Bonds homer was his fourth of the year, and number 738 on his career. He’s had a fantastic start to the season, and ranks first in the NL in slugging and OPS.

Player of the Day: Mark Buehrle, White Sox: 9 innings, no-hitter, 8 strikeouts.

Walk Off: Ryan on Poor Man’s PTI had a great idea: the best snub ever for a sports editor on a major newspaper would be to bury the story to a blurb when Barry breaks Hank Aaron’s record (by now, it’s inevitable) next to some story about womens water polo or something. “And in other news, Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record.”

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Philadelphia Phillies

Charlie Manuel threatens to kick Howard Eskin’s ass



Someone kick his ass

Things are going from bad to worse here in Philly as the Fightins dropped to 3-9 after losing 8-1 to the Mets. But the story of the night was when things got all John Chaney in the post-game press conference and beyond when Charlie Manuel offered to kick Howard Eskin’s ass.

(For those of you unfamiliar with Howard Eskin, consider yourself lucky, he’s the biggest douchebag in Philly sports. He’s a smug bastard with no redeeming qualities and we are convinced he’s only employed because of the sheer amount of idiots in the Philly area and the photos he has of various people in compromising positions. Just to give you an idea of the level of douchiness, Eskin makes Stephen A Smith look like a decent human being. If Howard was on fire, not only would you not piss on him to put it out, you’d make a beeline for the closest gas station.)

Anyway… according to reports, Eskin baited Charley into a confrontation by asking him why he never got angry and whether it would light a fire under the Phillies if he did.


Good-naturedly, Manuel said, “There are times and ways to do it. For me to just go in there and throw a fit — I can go in there and tear the whole [expletive] locker room up. I can come in here and throw over every chair. I don’t see where that’s going to do any good.

Eskin persisted with his questioning at which time Charley invited Howard Eskin to to his office (along with a Phillies PR person) where everyone could hear him screaming at Eskin from behind the closed door. The two then left the office and Charley said he would kick Eskin’s ass and Eskin responded by telling him to grow up.

If only this were on video. This incident might not or might not turn around an already dismal season but it’s good to see someone take Eskin to task for being the instigator that he is. On the flip side, Charlie Manual isn’t doing the job he’s supposed to do. A team as talented as the Phillies shouldn’t be playing such uninspired ball. They’re leading the league with an average of 9.8 left on base a game. And it’s not just the bottom of the lineup that’s responsible, it’s Utley and Howard too.

Our favorite Phillies blog, Beerleaguer, is doing a great job chronicling all this.

Links:
[Phillies.com]: Manuel confronts reporter after loss

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Not so fast on the Cy Young Award


1. Can’t beat the King: Dice-K Matsuzaka got all the attention in his Fenway debut start against the Mariners, particularly for the matchup with Ichiro. However, he got overshadowed by the other starting pitcher, ace Felix Hernandez. Through 7 innings, Matsuzaka had allowed 8 hits and 3 runs, while King Felix had a no-hitter going. While the no-no bid was broken up by JD Drew in the eighth, Hernandez still finished with a complete-game shutout and allowed just one hit. Hernandez’s first two starts have been as good as humanly possible: he’s 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, .47 WHIP, and .075 opponent’s average. As for Dice-K, at least he won the matchup with Ichiro (0-3).

2. Back down to earth: The Mets’ makeshift starting pitching had been quite effective this season. Until last night, that is. Oliver Perez, who had a great first start of the season, couldn’t make it out of the third inning against the Phillies. He allowed 3 runs and issued 7 walks. He threw more balls than strikes, and issued the majority of 11 walks by the Mets’ pitching. The Phillies scored three runs off bases-loaded walks and got some good pitching from Adam Eaton in a 5-2 win. The victory was just the second of the season for the Phillies, while the Mets lost another game to the division-leading Braves.

3. State of the Central: Before the season, it seemed as though the AL Central would be the MLB’s toughest division, with four playoff-caliber teams. Right now none of those teams have separated themselves, but they’ve all looked pretty good. The Tigers are 5-3 and are once again relying on their pitching. Justin Verlander and Nate Robertson have combined allowed only 3 runs this season in four starts. They are tied with the division lead with the Twins, who swept the Orioles to open the season but have gone 2-3 since then. The White Sox, a team likely to confound all year, sit at 4-4 after a series win over the A’s. The 3-2 Indians are also in the mix, but they’ve been snowed out so much that it’s hard to tell what they have.

Player of the Day: Felix Hernandez, Mariners: 9 IP, 0 runs, 1 hit, 6 K’s in a 3-0 win

Walk Off: Toronto leads the AL East right now by a game, and they’re actually a pretty solid team. However, their last two series have been against Tampa Bay and Kansas City, the two worst teams in the AL. Now they begin a stretch against Detroit and Boston, which should tell us more about this team. MY prediction right now for the AL East is the Red Sox will win it, the Yanks in second, and the Jays back to third.

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All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Help a fat man run the Boston Marathon


We’ve got a weird ebay auction for you today. The first is a fat guy who is going to run the Boston Marathon for charity. He is not officially entered in the marathon but will run behind as a “bandit”. If he can’t finish the marathon, the winning bidder can put any tattoo on his back.

OK, this guy weighs 438 pounds and has 3 months to prepare. You know what the chances of him finishing the marathon are? None. Slim was never even in the building. This auction benefits the American Cancer Society but we’re not sure how good the press is going to be when this guy drops dead after 2 miles.

In other news…

[Chicago Tribune]: The Blackhawks can’t even give tickets away

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Yankees minor league mascot busted for soliciting a 14-year-old boy for sex. How did Chris Hanson miss this opportunity?

[The Good Phight]: Protection: What the numbers say

[MLB Fanhouse]: Dontrelle Willis and Friends Made It Rain in Spring Training

[NBA.com]: Chinese nicknames for NBA players