Running Down the Dream: Phils Offseason Moves

In this first installment, we'll look at who came and who left. We'll save all the contract extensions for another post. Moves rated as "Boo," "Eh," or "High Five!"

Who left:

Pat Burrell: Verdict: Eh. Tough to get excited about this one. Pat takes his .250 batting average and robust walkability down to Tampa, where the DH role suits his physical abilities better than left field. Of course, a lot of things suit Pat the Bat better than playing the field; try anything that doesn't involve running.

Adam Eaton. Verdict: High Five! He was a mistake when the Phils drafted him in 1996, and he was a mistake ten years later when they signed him to a three year, 25 million dollar contract. The Phils released him today, but are still on the hook for his approx. 8.5 million dollar salary, plus a $500,000 buyout of a club option next year. Interesting how that world championship absolves Gillick of this atrocious signing.

Who's New:

Raul Ibanez. Verdict: Eh. Signing Ibanez as Burrell's replacement in Left would be a wash - if Ibanez batted righty. Since he bats lefty, that puts 3 lefthanded bats in a row in the middle of our lineup. Amaro pointed out that Ibanez batted over .300 against lefties last year. What Amaro fails to mention is that from 2006-2008, Ibanez batted .269 against lefties. And he strikes out 100 times a year, like everyone else on this team. And the man's 37, so we signed him to a three year, 31 million dollar deal. This is not going to end well. But the name "Raul" is kinda fun.

Manny Ramirez: Verdict: high five! locking up the most dangerous line drive hitter of his generation with a relatively meager two year, $47 million dollar deal could be the move that puts this group over the top in their bid to repeat. Batting between Utley and Howard, Ramirez protects both lefties, and is poised to...what's that? we signed the guy from the Mariners instead, even though he's just as old? Crap.

Does This Look Familiar?

Are the 2008 Brewers the 2007 Phillies?

2008 Phillies, meet your 2007 dopplegangers. A team that goes on a run down the stretch to make the playoffs for the first time in a long time? Check. Dominant starting pitcher in the regular season who loses his playoff start? Check. General "Just Happy to Be Here" Attitude? Check. High-scoring, HR-based offense that disappeared in the postseason? Check.

Phils Win 5-2.

In the playoffs, you need someone to step up besides your all stars. Enter Shane Victorino and Jason Werth. We know them well, but they're far from household names. First four times these two got to the plate resulted in 3 doubles and a Grand Slam. That's a good day.

Charlie Manuel also got props from the announcers for switching Victorino and Werth in the lineup. Werth went on to get two doubles in the game. Of course, Utley and Howard are a combined 1-8 in the series, which is keeping me up at night. Unfortunately, that's not a joke.

The Good: Victorino, Myers, Werth, Feliz. It was a righties day at the ballpark. Lidge needed only 12 pitches to record his second save of the postseason. Maybe Mitch Williams was right, and Lidge was too well rested for his pitches to be effective. Maybe Milwaukee has already given up on this series. Maybe this was the one-game quiet before the Lidge-implosion storm. I'll take it.

The Bad: Myers first inning, in which he had the bases loaded with one out and got a miracle double play ball. Wow. That could have been a lot worse. Kudos to Myers for shaking it off and pitching a good game. Myers also walked in a run, which is generally frowned upon in baseball circles.

The Hero: Shane Victorino. A Grand Slam off of the unhittable CC Sabathia in the playoffs? If you made it up, no one would believe you. Runner up to Brett Myers. 7 strong innings, gave up only 2 runs.

The Goat: CC Sabathia. He struggled with his location (and the umpire's strike zone) all day, only lasting 3 2/3 innings and throwing 98 pitches. Of course, he single-handedly got Milwaukee here. This was his fourth consecutive start in three days rest.

The Take-Away Point: This Phillies team is for real. Now, if we can only get Utley and Howard to start hitting, and if we face the Dodgers in the NLCS...

Is the Long Nightmare Finally Over?

For those of you just emerging from your bomb shelters after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Phillies won Game 1 of their NLDS series with the Brewers yesterday, 3-1. This game featured 8 shutout innings buy Cole Hamels, a heart attack save by Brad Lidge, a crappy offense, and miscues by the Brewers that basically gave us the three runs.

(Also, as an aside, a lot has happened since then. Kennedy got assasinated, his little brother ran for President and also got shot, their was this big bruhaha about a conspiracy. Also, the Phillies won a World Series! Crazy, right? There was this third baseman, Mike Schmidt, who was pretty much the best in the history of the game. But we're pissed again, cause that was 28 years ago. We'll catch up more later.)

The Good: The Phils offense did nothing, and they won.

The Bad: The Phils offense did nothing. Also, Brad Lidge is no longer "Lights Out" but more "Is Someone Messing With The Dimmer Switch, 'Cause I'm Trying to Read the Paper."

The Hero: Cole Hamels. 8 shutout innings, 2 hits. Good thing they didn't let him come out in the ninth.

The Goat: Mike Cameron/Rickie Weeks. Weeks misplayed a bunt by Hamels for an error, allowing Hamels to get on base and the runner to move to second. Cameron then misplayed a line drive by Chase Utley, in what should have been an error, allowing the Phillies first two runs to score. Gotta love that hometown scoring!

The Take-Away Point: Undecided. On one hand, you need things to go your way to win in the playoffs. On the other, your offense is going to have to eventually score some runs to win, also. We'll see.

Win it For...

Ok, allow me to preface this post, my first in quite some time, by saying that I'm stealing the idea for this column. Bill Simmons wrote a column prior to the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 in which he listed all of the people who would benefit from a Red Sox championship. Granted, the Phillies haven't gone nearly 100 years without a title, but the city of Brotherly Love has endured a losing streak in the triple digits when you combine all of our pro sports franchises. And, specifically for the contributors to this blog, that means no Philadelphia championships in our conscious fan-lives. Anyway, the point here is that while the idea for this column is not original, the thoughts are and I'm certain the Mr. Simmons would see this imitation as flattery and nothing more. And with that....

Win it for all of us Philadelphia sports fans under the age of 30 who have never truly experienced a championship (sorry Soul, Kixx & Wings supporters).

Win it for Charlie Manuel. Listen, I was and remain one of the biggest critics of Uncle Charlie's strategic management of a baseball game. But he has done the unthinkable. He has managed to turn the country-bumpkin attitude into an endearing quality, managed to guide this team to the playoffs in back to back seasons and managed to win over the fans of this town against all odds.

Win it for Donovan McNabb, Allen Iverson, Eric Lindros, et al. A Philadelphia championship of any kind will diminish the amount of abuse that Philadelphians lump on all of our superstars because we are so desperate for a parade.

Win it for Doug Parker. A Phillies title would go a long ways to ending the incessant E-A-G-L-E-S chants heard during mid-summer Phills games. The more he laments these incidents, the more I agree with my angry, hippy friend.

Win it for Terry Francona. And beat the Red Sox to do it. F-you, Terry. We haven't forgotten how you basically gave up on this town, how you continued to show loyalty to guys like Kevin Sefcik who must've had pictures or performed unspeakable acts on you and how you called your time here a mulligan. Listen ass, maybe your heart wasn't in it here, but ours was.

Win it for the Phillie Phanatic. Can you imagine the belly thrust he's gonna do if they won this thing?

Win it for Pat Burrell. Pat has certainly had his ups and downs with this team, but this is undoubtedly his last year in Philadelphia. In hindsight, this was a guy who never got in trouble off the field, never turned on the fans, even when they turned on him and who loves it here.

Win it for the Phillies fans in North Jersey and New York or just those who associate with others from those areas and who constantly have to listen to how the Mets (and Marlins) have one more World Series title then the Phillies, despite far fewer years of existence.

Win it for my Dad. He's always loved baseball and he's the reason I love baseball. I'd love nothing more then to celebrate with him, even without the guarantee that he would buy the beer.

Win it for Broad Street. It's been a long time since something positive rolled down that street.

Win it for the flag pole. That 1980 banner looks awfully lonely in centerfield.

Win it for ESPN. We need something to change the national media perception of Philadelphia fans as the slime of the earth. I think a title would do that.

Win it for all those sissy athletes who have thought it was too difficult to play in front of our passionate fan base, some of those who even went so far as to say the fans are one of the reasons for the championship drought. No one says that in Cleveland or Chicago and they've gone a lot longer then us without a World Series victory.

Win it for Ed Wade. Wade was always scared to make that big move and that, along with no-trade clauses, will be his legacy here. But don't forget, the Ed Wade regime brought us Hamels, Utley, Rollins, Howard, Myers, Burrell and Victorino. Pat Gillick has brought us Jamie Moyer and Brad Lidge. And Wes Helms, Geoff Jenkins, So Taguchi, Joe Blanton, Adam Eaton, etc. I'm not trying to deify Wade, but let's remember that he did do some things well. If you recall, the year that the Mets traded Scott Kazmir to the Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano, Wade declined to move Ryan Howard for Kris Benson.

Win it for William Penn. A Phillies hat looks really good on that statue.

And finally, win it for me. I need this. I need to know it can happen. This window is going to close before you know it. And if it does...if it does...I'll still be there.

Preliminary Verdict- Field Position

The Bears scored three touchdowns tonight. The lenght of these drives-59, 60, and 24 yards. The offense did not have the consistency necessary to move the ball enough to win the field position battle. Blame the run game, blame the recievers, blame whomever.

The papers will talk about the goaline stand, but field position carried the day. That and DeSean Jackson's terrible dropped punt.

Dear 610 WIP: You're Retarded.

Heard this morning on 610, spoken by Angelo Cataldi (paraphrase) "I don't know about Cole Hamels. He seems like a California boy, a little soft. I don't know if I want him pitching Sunday, if it comes down to that."

Now, we all know Angelo is a moron. I've come to believe (hope) that the Angelo we hear on the radio is a character he plays up as a reactionary, overemotional Philly fan. Otherwise, he's a big tranny with frontal lobe problems. And by that I mean his brain.

Let's leave out for a second the fact that there is no one else on the team you'd rather have pitcher in this situation. Save that Brett Myers stuff for someone else. He's a wackjob, and he's gotten shelled his last two starts.

Cole Hamels is the best pitcher on your team. He's one of the best pitchers in the NL. I'm no stats geek, but the way this is often determined is by using a stat called ERA+. This stat shows how good a pitcher's ERA is above average in that league, and makes adjustments for parks, etc. Average ERA+ is 100. Higher than 100 is good, lower is bad. (all stats courtesy of baseball-reference.com).

Cole Hamels' ERA+ is 145, good for fifth in the NL. His ERA is 3.09, good for sixth in the league. He leads the league in innings pitched and starts made. He goes seven innings every time he takes the ball. He's fourth in the league in strikeout to walk ratio. HE LEADS THE LEAGUE IN WHIP.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Easy LoveTron. Settle down. The point, simply put, is this; Elite athletes oftentimes leave Philly because of unfair criticism. Cole Hamels is one of BEST PITCHERS IN THE MOTHEREFFING GAME OF BASEBALL AND OUR SPORTS RADIO HOST DOESN'T WANT HIM PITCHING A GAME TO GET INTO THE PLAYOFFS BECAUSE HE'S FROM CALIFORNIA.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Who Wants Jim Leyland Now?

Much ado has been made in the past that the Phillies picked the affable, pot bellied, national league challenged Charlie Manuel as their skipper back in 2005. Many people did not like this choice, instead wanting Jim Leyland, the chain smoking national league genius. Leyland, of course, quickly paid dividends for The Tigers in 2006, taking them to the World Series. As we all know, the Tigers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games, allowing the Cardinals to become the worst team to ever win a World Series (83 wins). No time to go over fielding bunts in Spring Training, apparently.

Since that time, the Tigers have not played to their potential. Despite the addition of several big ticket free agents, the Tigers have been haunted by the onset of age in their older roster, a bullpen that has never performed the same as 2006, and the haunting feeling that 2006 might have just been lightning in a bottle, and the Tigers simply aren't as good as we (and they) thought they were. And maybe Zumaya's obsession with Guitar Hero.

Conversely, since 2006, the Phillies appeared in their first postseason in 14 years (and were quickly swept out). They are in place to make the playoffs again this year. Uncle Chuck has adeptly managed this team through various injuries, starting pitching woes, and a lineup that is consistently hitting worse than they did last year, from Howard and Utley to Rollins and Ruiz.

Since 2005, Charlie Manuel has gone 351-294 as the Phillies' manager, for a 54.4 winning %. In one less season, Jim Leyland has gone 255-227, for a 52.9 winning %. More wins, more playoff appearances (hopefully), same number of championships. So Why did we want Leyland again?

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Gavin Floyd Update: Basically, he'd still be your #2 starter at this point.

Pitcher Record(Starts) ERA (ERA+)
Gavin Floyd 16-8(31) 3.84(119)
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Phillies Starting Pitchers
Cole Hamels 14-10(33) 3.09(145)
Joe Blanton 8-12(32) 4.79(87)*
Jamie Moyer 15-7(32) 3.78(118)
Kyle Kendrick 11-9 (30) 5.46(82)**
Adam Eaton 4-8(21) 5.80(77)***
Brett Myers 10-13(30) 4.55(98)

* Stats using both AL and NL numbers for this year.
**I know he doesn't start anymore.
***I know he doesn't start anymore either. Does not include minor league numbers.