Balls, Sticks, & Stuff | Phillies, Eagles, golf and other matters of great importance...

Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino Win Gold Gloves, Chase Utley Shafted Again

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Every year, there are winners of Gold Glove awards who are frankly, undeserving [see "Abreu, Bobby"], and so the award has lost some of its luster. However, all of those mistakes shouldn't take away from the fact that if you win a Gold Glove, it's because the powers-that-be [in this case, coaches and managers] felt you were the best at what you do. And who among us wouldn't want that?

For Rollins, it is his third Gold Glove in a row and the second in a row for Victorino.

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You have to wonder when Chase Utley will win a Gold Glove, if ever.  Statistically speaking, the objective play-by-play data like Ultimate Zone Rating and the Plus/Minus system love Utley's play at second base, but for some reason, the voters don't see it that way.

If you are a Phillies fan, you certainy do see it that way.

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Thought You'd Want to Know, the Eric Bruntlett Era is Over

Even though it's all over Twitter, I'm struggling to find an actual link for the news other than Bruntlett's CBSSports.com page, but Eric Bruntlett has filed for free-agency.

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I won't remind you of Bruntlett's ineptitude at the plate with statistics [.462 OPS! Are you f#$%ing kidding me?!?!]. Instead, lets say the glass is 1/17th full and focus on Bruntlett's game-ending unassisted triple play...

Phillies Revisiting the Roy Halladay Thing

As the members of baseball's front offices convene in Chicago for the general managers' meetings, Jim Salisbury of the Inquirer reports that the Phillies are "in the running" for Roy Halladay [link].

Despite the fact that J.P. Riccardi is no longer running things in Toronto, there's no doubt the Blue Jays will still want quite a few high-level prospects and you can bet with Riccardi gone, they'll be more shrewd in their dealings.

On top of that, there's the fact that there'll be plenty of other teams sniffing around Halladay, plus, the Phillies have other holes to fill including third base, bench and bullpen.

In other words, don't hold your breath on Roy Halladay coming to Philly, but still, it's interesting to see how the Phillies are really thinking "win now".

By the way, think Rich Hoffman is chuckling over all of the abuse he took for his column on Monday? 

Groundhog Day for Eagles Fans

As usual, Igglesblog.com does a great job of summarizing last evening's defeat of the Eagles in Philadelphia by the Cowboys in an entry entitled "Blame 'Em All" [link].

"...the Eagles really look like a basketball team that lives and dies by the three-ball. They look great when their shots are falling, but if balls are clanging off the rim, suddenly everything's out of sync and they just don't look good."

That's a great analogy and I'm surprised Derek or anyone else hasn't come up with it sooner.  Why?  Because this loss was classic McReid.  If you look back over the last decade, 9 out of 10 Eagles losses have at least one if not all of the following characteristics:

• Incorrect referee challenges on the part of Andy Reid, resulting in a shortage of timeouts late in the game because of...
• Poor clock management.
• Inability to convert on 3rd down and short yardage situations.
• Inaccurate passing by Donovan McNabb.
• Inability and/or desire to establish a running game.
• Not that it affects the final score at all, but a mind-numbing, obtuse and rude post-game conference by Andy Reid

Time and again, year after year, the same issues rear their ugly heads and turn what could potentially be a 12-4 or 13-3 team into a 10-6 team.

Prediction:  The Eagles, at 5-3, will now go on a nice little hot-streak that will get them to 10-5, they'll rest key players during the final game and finish 10-6, enter the playoffs and get eliminated short of the Super Bowl and then finally, we will be told that with just a little bit better luck they would have gone to the Super Bowl where, they might have won.

How can I safely make this prediction?

Because we've seen it all before.

Muy Interesante: Phillies Decline Option on Pedro Feliz

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The Phillies' front office is wasting no time whatsoever assembling a roster for 2010.  Late last week, Brett Myers was informed the Phillies would not negotiate a new contract with him and today brings word that the Phillies have declined the $5.5 million option for Pedro Feliz.

Technically, declining the option doesn't necessarily close the book on Feliz in Philadelphia.  The team could still close bring Feliz back at a much lower rate, something more in line with his performance [Fangraphs.com credits Feliz with 1.3 wins above replacement level, meaning, he's worth one win more than a AAAA-type player -- Andy Tracy if you will].

I would expect the Phillies already have an idea of who they will target as their everyday -- or almost-everyday -- third sacker.  Free-agents include:

         2010 Age  2009 WAR*  
Chone Figgins   32    6.1 
Adrian Beltre   31    1.9
Mark DeRosa    35    1.7
Troy Glaus    33   -0.2 
Joe Crede     31    1.9
Melvin Mora    38    0.9
Placido Polanco  34    3.1
   * wins above replacement

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Obviously, Chone Figgins is the best player of the free-agent crop.  Beltre, DeRosa, Glaus and Crede are definite injury risks having missed all or significant portions of 2009.  Mora, given his age is probably an injury risk as well.  Polanco isn't even really a third baseman having not played there since 2005.

If it were me, I would target Figgins not only because of his on-base average, but also because of his ability to play multiple positions.  In theory, you could make him your pretty-much everyday third baseman while once in a while giving him a start at second base or shortstop, giving Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins a rest and hopefully avoiding the typical September slides.  Heck, maybe even first base too.  A man as big as Ryan Howard doesn't need to play every day the way he did in 2009.

Should Figgins demand too much money or sign elsewhere, DeRosa may be a good fall-back for similar reasons that make Figgins interesting.  Good on-base-ness and the ability to move around the diamond.

Brett Myers Will Not Return to the Phillies in 2010

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Before many, including myself, have had a chance to do a post-mortem on the Phillies season and their valiant attempt to repeat as World Champions, the team has already begun to work on the roster for 2010.

Multiple sources are reporting that Brett Myers was told by general manager Ruben Amaro that the Phillies would not try to negotiate a contract with the free agent-to-be.

Really, it should come as no surprise.  Many on the Phillies team are becoming expensive in terms of salaries, and when you think about it, the Phillies essentially spent $12 million on Myers this season with nothing to show for it. Myers made a just a few starts before going down with a hip injury and though he returned to relief, he really had no impact on the outcome of the season.

In some ways, I'll miss Myers.  He was a total nutcase, but he definitely tried hard.  If anything, he may have been guilty of trying too hard.

Thanks for 2008, Brett.

Manuel Willing to Use the Kitchen Sink Tonight

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told reporters this afternoon, "...We'll use anybody except Lee tonight." [link]

Wow, even Cole Hamels? Does that mean Manuel is planning on using Cliff Lee to start a possible Game 7 on two days of rest?

Shane Victorino WILL Start in Centerfield Tonight

Despite taking a fastball off his right fore-finger, Shane Victorino will in fact be start the game.

This is incredibly important, because if he had not been able to go, the Phillies would have been forced to use Matt Stairs, who has been in a slump as deep as a Mad Men script since the All-Star break, or Eric Bruntlett who has been in a slump since his career started.

Lets go Phillies!  Clap, clap, clapclapclap!

Hamels, Myers Verbally Spar [Updated]

Make no mistake, the real story this morning is how Chase Utley and Cliff Lee threw the hopes of a repeat World Series title on their backs and extended the series for at least one, hopefully two, games in New York.

Chase Utley had two home runs and Lee lasted 7 innings against a relentless Yankee lineup.  No matter how the series turns out, we'll talk about how those two have performed to our grandchildren.

But what will also make headlines this morning is a story about two Phillies players who have had more of a love/hate relationship with fans.  According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Brett Myers and Cole Hamels got into a bit of a verbal altercation over Cole's "just put me out of my misery"-type comments following Game 4.

As Myers walked past Hamels near Hamels’ locker he said, mocking, “What are you doing here? I thought you quit.”

Hamels, the witness said, responded with an expletive.

Before the situation escalated, Myers was guided away by a team official.

It's an easy story to believe, after all, Brett Myers and Cole Hamels definitely operate on two entirely different plane of existence.  Brett has tattoos, Cole has delicate bangs.  Brett shoots first, asks questions later while Cole wouldn't pull a trigger without 4 days of rest.

The true personality of the team is really somewhere in the middle and while I'm glad somebody said something to Cole, I'd be more curious to see how Chase Utley or Jamie Moyer or Charlie Manuel or Jimmy Rollins would have handled it [or, for all we know, did handle it].

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Update: Multiple sources are now debunking the story above. Not sure who to believe at this point. My guess is that Myers did actually say that to Hamels, but jokingly, and Hamels took it that way.

Instant Classic: Chase Utley's 1st Inning Homer

Our Worst Fears Realized

As autumn came, the playoffs drew closer and closer and Brad Lidge's struggles continued, you wondered just how long it would go on.  You didn't think that it would go into the playoffs, either he'd figure himself out or he'd be removed from the closer's role by the time October rolled around.

As it turns out, both happened, he lost his closer's job, but gradually re-earned the trust of Charlie Manuel and many of us.  He regained his control and kept batters off base more consistently.

And so there we were tonight, the Phillies having come back against the Yankees after trailing for the entire game, a tie game in the 9th.  Lidge came to the mound and got two quick outs.  But as we saw so many times in April, May, June... all the way through September, Lidge couldn't seal the deal.  A single from Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira hit-by-pitch, and then the dagger, a double by the centaurian Alex Rodriguez.  Jorge Posada would add two insurance runs with a single of his own.

There will be a lot of talk about the defensive infield shift that allowed Johnny Damon to get to third base after stealing second base, but really, there were enough hard hit balls by the Yankees that Damon would have scored from any base.  Forget the shift, it's a red-herring.

Down 3 games to 1, the Phillies are really in a hole.  In the past, Jayson Werth called the Phillies a "team of necessity".  Now, every game is necessary.

A Conversation Between Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez

 

[Original image taken from this excellent photo gallery at Philly.com]

Since I'm obviously lashing out at A-Fraud, might as well publish this one too:

Cole Hamels Can't Wait for this Season to be Over

He actually said that.

He actually said that.

And then chuckled.

This comes from Cole's post-game meet-up with the press, after he gave up 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings in Game 3 of the World Series.  He also threw in that he is anxious for a fresh start.

Tell you what Cole, why don't you just go home now.

Trick or Treat, Game 3

[posted by Twitter user @jrubillo]

Was Chase Utley Safe or Out?

A crucial moment in last night's Game 2 of the World Series came in the top of the 8th.  The Phillies were down 3-1 and Jimmy Rollins was on second base, Shane Victorino on first.  Chase Utley was at the plate, Mariano Rivera on the mound.

With Tim McCarver clamoring for the Phillies to send the runners once Rivera had two strikes on Utley, almost on cue, Utley grounds into a 4-6-3 double-play, ending the Phillies rally before it really got started.  Rivera would go on to lock down the game for the Yankees in the 9th.

Afterwards, in the press conference, Charlie Manuel was peppered with questions about his decision on that play.  He explained his reasoning for not running on the pitch, which was just as good as the reasoning to send the runners, and took another question.  But then, unsolicited, Manuel offered, "By the way, if you want to know the truth, go back and look at it, Utley was safe."

Take a look for yourself [click to enlarge]:

Looks like Charlie's right again.

Scouting Report: A.J. Burnett

The fine folks at Fangraphs.com examined the post-season starts for Yankees Game 2 starter A.J. Burnett and came away with this [link]:

Here is what we know: Burnett is going to throw you either a fastball or a curveball. He’s going to try and get ahead with the fastball before finishing batters off with a curve. He tends to stick with the fastball until (a) he gets two strikes, or (b) the hitters start to make contact with the heater on foul balls. If he gives up a hit on the fastball, he tends to come back with a first-pitch curveball in the next at-bat. If Burnett is facing a batter that is a strong fastball hitter but with a weakness for off-speed pitches, then he’ll put the heater in his back pocket.

If Burnett is commanding both the fastball and the curveball, then it’s going to be a long night for the Phillies hitters. However, because he only throws two pitches, the loss of command on just one pitch can cause havoc for Burnett. If his command starts to falter, the hitters must show some patience against the right-hander, which the Angels club failed to do; as a result, they were unable to hammer the final nail in Burnett’s coffin and get into the bullpen. The lefty-heavy Phillies lineup is in tough considering the Yankees pitcher’s regular-season splits (.217/.310/.344 vs left-handed batters, .282/.366/.450 vs right-handed).

It's the splits that really jump out at me.  It seems to me that even if Burnett does have control of both pitches, he still doesn't really have a change-up to neutralize the left-handed thumbers in the Phillies lineup.  If you think about it, 5 of the Phillies first 6 batters will stand on the left side of the plate.

Lets go Phillies, clap, clap, clapclapclap.