Finally, Run Support

This about sums up Hamels' lack of offensive support. Per Geib at the Inqy:

"The five runs represented more than the Phillies had scored in Hamels' previous four starts combined (four runs). Hamels won for the first time since July 11 despite a 2.47 ERA since the all-star break."

Cardinals QB Red Alert

Just another inexplicable reason as to why the NFC west teams - the Cardinals and especially the 49ers - didn't more aggressively pursue Donovan McNabb in the offseason. Both could be super bowl contenders with a halfway competent QB to say nothing of a top 10 talent like McNabb.

It's once again all so very strange where teams place a premium on draft picks at the expense of proven talent. It also makes you wonder why the league is so hell bent on establishing a rookie wage scale because they don't like to pay enormous contracts to untested college players when plenty of teams chose to pass up McNabb for a 1st round prospect.

Ricky Botched Save

Happy 41st birthday to Ricky Bottalico.

Foxy Hate

Nobody hates like Philly fans but usually the media (or at least the print media, i can't speak for the crazies on WIP) have been a little more moderated. But now comes Ashley Fox's bizarre column in which she feels compelled to trash Shawn Andrews and the Giants' signing of him. 

Strange It looks like a very good deal for the Giants - a minimal initial investment that will pay Andrews if he returns to his all-pro form over the next couple of years - which would be a win-win for one of the more star-crossed Eagles (and all NFL players) in recent years.

And yet, Fox's analysis that depression and a back injury make Andrews unsuitable to play, much less excel, or even deserving of a second chance are unbecoming. 

Before he got he got depressed, Andrews was talked about as a possible hall of fame lineman. Indeed, the next most mysterious thing in medical science besides the inner workings of the brain is the back, of which Andrews had a famously balky one. Still, if his claims to be healthy are to be believed (and why not, by all indications the Eagles got rid of Andrews because he became a distraction and Justice was playing well enough to take his spot, not because they didn't think he could recuperate from back surgery) than the Giants signing looks like a low-risk, high-reward proposition. The fact that it is a division foe and with an ex-Eagle only adds to the bitterness.

The larger issue for the media is why they are so quick to toe the corporate (i.e., official team line) when it comes to disputes with players. 

I live outside of Washington and everyday since the spring it seems there has been coverage of the Albert Haynesworth drama. What is so interesting is that from the very moment Haynesworth expressed displeasure with the team and asked for a trade, the papers and radio were filled with vitriol and demands and inquiries over how much the Redskins could recoup from their $100 million signing bonus given to him last year.

There simply is no other league where these discussions take place much less covered by mainstream journalists. Where was the outrage when the Sixers paid Chris Webber $48 million to cut him? There was never any talk much less groundswell of fan opprobrium that somehow not only shouldn't the Sixers pay him but that, in fact, Webber should pay the Sixers to part ways (as LaVar Arrington did to be able to leave the Redskins).

No one ever talks about the guaranteed contracts of baseball players and yet the double standard is that the signing bonus focus - and ways for teams to reclaim it - with full fan support - is always front and center during disgruntled pro football player discussions.

A Damaged Ford

Bob Ford attacks Donovan McNabb’s GQ interview in which McNabb blames the coaching staff for the lack of a no huddle offense at the end of the super bowl and complains that the team didn’t support him.

 

Oddly, Ford lays the lack of offensive urgency at McNabb’s feet and completely disregards the coaching staff’s culpability. It is famously, after all, head coach Andy Reid who calls the offensive plays. And presumably it is Reid who orders a no huddle offense. So I’m not sure what Wolf is suggesting, other than McNabb should have committed insubordination (for which he would now take him to task for as well) and gone no huddle regardless of Reid’s playcalling.

 

Ford also says that since the team paid McNabb $112 million that it supported him. No, actually. That is paying him. For services rendered. Supporting him would have been to defend him from the raft of criticism, much of racially motivated, that permeated his career in Philadelphia and even leaked into news stories. Supporting him would have meant going out and getting more than headcase Terrell Owens as his lone WR playmaker in his eleven seasons with the team.

 

Eagles and Vegas

My friend PK was in Vegas and reports back on the Eagles and Redskins odds to win the division and the NFC.

The Eags were dead last to win NFC East at 6-1. Their over/under win total was 8.5.

Also, the Phillies went from 9-1 to win WS at start of day to 8-1 by dinnertime (Howard was reactivated in the interim).

Lefty and Roy

A little late, but in honor of Halladay's shutdown performance on Friday (I heard on the radio that Halladay has allowed 1 run or fewer in 14 of his 26 starts this year) , my friend PK wanted to give him the honor of best Phillies pitching since Lefty's historical '72. Alas, Carlton had the best season of any Phils pitcher since his monster '72 year... in 1980.

PK again digs up the numbers.

in 1980 and at 35, Carlton went 24-9, with 304 innings - most ever in the last 30 MLB seasons - and a 2.34 ERA, with 13 CGs and 3 shutouts. At 16-8, with possibly 8 starts to go, Halladay can rival that season.

Of course, having eaten 200 innings so far this season, even if Halladay pitched complete games in each of his last 8 starts he would only get to 272 innings.

Raul a Roider?

What could explain Raul's resurgence? A 38 year-old getting stronger as the season progresses, hmmnn something could be fishy. Raul is a late bloomer but my friend PK wonders if there isn't some other explanation and wonders what the steroid testing protocol in MLB is:

If you get tested and your clean, do you know that you're free and clear for the rest of the season?

Because Ibanez is sooooo hot right now, I don't know what to make of it. Almost feels as if he got his test, finally, and he passed, so now he's back on his PED cycle and actually hitting homers.

Three months ago, even balls he hit hard only 1 hopped to the fence.

Now they're going over the fence. Here's MLB.com's breakdown of his

stats:

 Nearly no one in baseball has been a hotter hitter over the past two-plus weeks than Ibanez, who hit a three-run homer in the third inning to give the Phillies a three-run lead. Ibanez is hitting .407 (24-for-59) with four doubles, four home runs, 16 RBIs, 12 walks, a .500 on-base percentage and a .678 slugging percentage during his

career-high 16-game hitting streak. 

Ibanez was hitting .248 with a .331 on-base percentage and a .394 slugging percentage on July 21, and has since raised those marks to .274, .359 and .439, respectively.

Hamels

My friend PK digs through some numbers on Cole Hamels

Some relevant Hamels stats:

• Hamels is 1-2 with a 1.81 ERA in his last seven starts. He has

allowed one or fewer runs in five of those starts.

• He is 5-7 with a 2.85 ERA in 19 starts since April.

• Hamels has lost consecutive starts by a 1-0 score.

• Hamels ranked 92nd out of 104 qualifying pitchers in baseball this season in run support before Friday night. He had averaged just 3.51 runs of support per nine innings.

Mets joke

In the wake of the Phils' series win vs.the Mets, I thought I'd pass along a good joke my brother recently told me.

How many Mets does it take to do laundry?

Only one, but it takes the entire team to fold.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

The Real Eastern Conference Champs

A bizarre and humiliating story for the NHL. Somehow, the Capitals' team name was engraved on the Eastern Conference trophy, the Prince of Wales award. Worse, the NHL didn't catch it until a fan in Chicago noticed it during a fan event. Even worse, even after it was brought to their attention, the NHL denied the problem and called the fan's claim a "hoax." Turns out it was the NHL that was perpetrating a hoax by touting the Caps as the Eastern Conference champs on its second most important and recognizable trophy.

How in the world did the Caps' name wind up on the trophy? I could see Montreal's as the 2nd place finisher, but Washington? They got bounced in the first round.

Drunken Immigration Policy

Sister Denise Mosier would be alive today if this country would enforce it's immigration laws and strengthen its borders. She would also be alive if law enforcement took the wrongdoing by illegal immigrants once in this country more seriously.

Apparently two drunken driving convictions aren't enough to get an illegal immigrant deported. And why is ICE policy only to detain those who commit "violent felonies" as opposed to run of the mill felonies like robbery, breaking and entering, etc. Those kind of felonies don't rouse the interest of our immigration law enforcement enough to get such criminals off the streets via detainment and deportment.

It's the Bullpen, Stupid

Amidst all the joy of obtaining another starting ace in Roy Oswalt (notwithstanding Friday's disappointing loss) and the ongoing worry concerning Brad Lidge, this NY TImes article notes that the biggest difference between the Phillies and the division leading Braves so far this season has been the bullpen. The key point:

The Braves entered this weekend's series at Cincinnati with a 3.24 bullpen earned run average, the fourth best in the majors. The Phillies ranked 17th at 4.04. A large part of the Braves' success has been the left-handerJonny Venters, who also shows how hard it can be to predict which pitchers will thrive in relief.

Congratulations!

To Brad Lidge for the first 1-2-3 save opportunity inning since June 4!

The key must be to stake Lidge to something more than a 1 run lead, or face a less than dangerous lineup like the washington nationals.

Same Old, Same Old

Here's a news bulletin we sure got used to when he was an Eagle:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Denver Broncos running backs Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter have both been injured on the Broncos' first day of training camp.

Saturday Night's Implosion

I'm watching game with my mom. When they showed Lidge on mound to start bottom of 9th, she says "oh geez, he's a nightmare. Why do they still play him? They should have traded him. Don't they have anyone better to put out there?"

This patter went on as the inning imploded.

Clearly if my mom gets, its bad.

What about Brad?

Paul Hagen has a good column about the dilemma the Phils face in moving Lidge out of the closer's role. Not good options here. Madson has proven he doesn't have the mentality to be the full time closer. And would/could Lidge be the 8th inning set up man?

Lidge, Confidence and the Team

Phils' skipper Charlie Manuel continues his mantra that Brad Lidge is his closer and he has confidence in him. What else is he going to say?

But what of Lidge's teammates. My friend, PK, was at Saturday night's disastrous blown save loss. Here's what he says:

I was here tonight for the disaster. I knew it was over as soon as the leadoff guy got on base.

Most importantly, I watched the team's reaction. They gave up on Lidge. They didn't act surprised. Just slowly walked off the field
dejected. Charlie has to make it stop. The team doesn't believe in him. It's obvious. If he won't pull the plug, Ruben has to cut Lidgeand eat the salary.

 

It's really hard to explain in email, but his teammates have given up on Lidge. It's entirely visible in person.

I'd estimate it took Werth 5 mins to walk from deep CF to get to the dugout. You could almost sense his conversation with himself: I've not been traded, I've got 2 months left with this team and I really wanna win a Series again, yet this douche bag is blowing games. JRoll had a similar stroll from SS, as did Raul. It's very visible that the players don't want to play behind Lidge anymore. Which is why Charlie's loyalty routine is so silly. He has to be loyal to the guys who are producing like Werth, JRoll, Howard. Not Brad.