Nobody!

Nobody circles the wagon like the Philadelphia Eagles!!

the day almost couldn't have gone better for them (aside from the Giants beating the Bills). The skins went into their bye 3-1 and 1st in the division, they come out 3-2, in 2nd place and with a QB controversy.

Cowboys lose a heartbreaker - that in the scheme of things from the Eags perspective they had to lose - to the Pats on the road. If they win that, that is a huge advantage they gain over the rest of the division who have to face the pats too.

Howard vs. Pitchers

Real quick in 2011. Based on the most at bats on each staff.

Howard vs.

Lincecum, 0-7, 4 Ks

Cain, 0-6, 3ks

Baumgarner, 0-3, 2ks

Zito, 1-3 (double)

Marlins

Sanchez 3-11, 3BBs, 5 ks

Dunn, 3-6, 5 rbis, 3K

Nolasco 1-7, 3 K

Vazquez 3-6, 2 BB, 2K

Mets

Pelfrey, 5-13, 2Hr, 2 BB, 2K

Byrdak, 2-8, 1BB, 4K

Niese, 0-7, 3K

Dicky, 1-6

Nats

Hernandez, 7-13, 2HR, 2BB, 2K

Lannan, 4-10, 2 BB, 2K

Marquis, 0-6, 1K

Braves

Hudson, 3-11, 1BB, 1K

Lowe, 2-11, 2BB, 1K

Beachy, 1-9, 1BB, 2K

Jurrgens, 1-5, 1BB, 1K

Venters, 1-5, 3K

Hitting Beats Pitching?

My friend's analysis of the Phillies' playoff flame out:

I'm sure there's a way to break it down to figure out how Howard hits
against aces. It'd be complicated, but you can find situational
hitting stats for any batter against any pitcher, so you'd then have
to add those up. My presumption is that the entire team feasts on bad
teams, bad pitching.
Let's face it, the reality is that great pitching and average hitting
is The Worst profile for playoff runs. We are the Braves now. Those
Braves teams won 100+ every season because they had the best 4 and 5
pitchers in the game. Well, those guys are bullpen mates in the
post-season.
Denny Neagle doesn't mean jack in the playoffs. Yet those Braves teams
never had real bats. Just Chipper and some OK guys like Javvy Lopez.
Well, look deep at that Phillies lineup. Polly went from an All Star
to an also ran. Utley is a helluva ballplayer but he's never gonna hit
30 homers again. Rollins is a 6-hole hitter masquerading as a lead-off
hitter.
Look at the last 10 seasons and see how rare it is that great pitching
- teams with 3 or 4 All Star-caliber arms - win the Series. The 2010
SFG are the only example, depending on how you grade the '01 D'backs
(2 Hall of Fame arms and then junk, but great offense).
Once you get to the playoffs everyone - everyone - has 2 pitchers who
can pitch effectively. What wins is great hitting matched up with good
pitching. Like the '08 Phillies and '09 Yankees and '07/'04 BoSox.
Otherwise, you're just the Braves.

A Role Hole

Dare I say that the Phillies need more role players?

Also, is it fair to ask whether Howard should be in the lineup against a leftie in a playoff series given how horrible he is and how it affects his subsequent swing against righties?

This team will partly be remade next year with natural transitions: Raul leaving, Lidge gone among the certainties. The rest - Rollins - who knows. 

why they go into an offensive funk during the playoffs needs to be addressed.

look at this:

Hunter Pence batted .211 in the series. Raul Ibanez .200. Placido Polanco .105. Carlos Ruiz .059.

Thomas Boswell

Well Boswell the supposed baseball expert has some strange column out about the lessons the Nats should learn from the Phillies $170 million payroll - basically don't spend that much.

When you've spent and acquired so much talent as the Phillies have, and fail to win the pennant, much less the world series, you can expect the kind of "I told you so's" that WaPo baseball guru Thomas Boswell writes about yesterday.

It's a particularly odd column since Boswell doesn't really explain why the Nats shouldn't spend as much as the Phils other than it doesn't work out. If by "doesn't work out" you mean 5 division championships, 2 pennants, 1 world series championship and a franchise record 102 wins this year.

Boswell doesn't suggest that a big payroll hamstrings future personnel moves, nor says that it leads to a rise in ticket prices. Really, as a fan - what do i care if a team has a payroll of $150 million?

Boswell's suggestion is that the Nats need to go with OBP hitters, draft smartly, and develop homegrown talent. Duh. Though none of that has much to do with a $170 million payroll, particularly when $100 million of that is on homegrown talent.

Worse, he actually seems to suggest that the Nats write off the next 2 seasons while Strasburg matures and has his innings limits removed and Harper comes up. Not sure where that came from or if that plan is any better than forking out a really high payroll.

holy cow

jesus christ, halladay's going to pitch till his arm falls off!!!

please

Furcal should have been out stretching that triple. Please don't let that be the winning run.

Big Game

PK writes:

I've actually now gone through the entire 130-year history of the Phillies.
In that period, this organization has had just one climactic post-season game like this, a win-or-go-home game for either team.
Oct. 1980, in Houston, game 5 of that LCS. Otherwise, we were swept by the Yanks in '50, the Babe Ruth Red Sox smoked us in '15. Then in '76 the Reds swept us and in '77/'78 we lost to the Dodgers in 4. We won the '80 WS in 6 games, beat LAD in 5 games in '83, then lost in 5 to the O's in the WS. In '93 we took the Braves out in 6, then lost to the Jays in 6.
Then on to the Charlie era, in which every series had ended in 3 or 4 (in the LDS), 5 or 6 (LCS) or 5 or 6 (WS).
Here's to hoping that we conjure up the ghosts of Del Unser, Manny Trillo, Dick Ruthven and Gary Maddox in tonight's game.

Legacy?

Kind of crazy to think the NLCS used to be a 5 game series.

Nothing will ever take away the championship this team won 3 years ago, but this team - right now - is built to win this exact game - a veteran, championship caliber team loaded with all-stars and throwing their cy young worthy ace out there to win the must game.

if they don't.....crushing disappointment. Like I said, nothing will take away 2008, but losing tonight would definitely cause a lot of second thinking about this team and many of its players.

And to think, just looking at the yankees game last night - that often the best team does not win the game (how does team with the bases loaded and no outs not score more than 1 run with their 2-3-4 hitters up) and weird things happen to determine the outcome.

Lindros

Finally, someone - in this case Ken Dryden - calls Scott Stevens' hit on Eric Lindros for what it was... not old-school hockey, but "a crushing hit to the head (e.g., Stevens on Lindros) is nothing less than an attempt to injure."

More Game 1

PK continues:

Also, after the Berkman homer, Roy's pitch count showed 13 Ks, 9 balls. Somewhere in the 5th or 6th inning, it showed 66 strikes, 17 balls -- he had gone on a run where he threw 53 Ks to just 8 balls. That's insane.

Game 1

My friend PK was at Game 1. He writes:

Inside the park the Howard at bat reminded me of Victorino's slam against CC. A long AB, fouling off, fouling off, crowd went bonkers.
Complete deliirum as the ball clears the ATT sign.

Terrible Loss

Did something turn last week with the Eagles under Reid or was it just the anger from the fans leaving the stadium? Something feels different.

 

They are not a very good team right now, especially on defense. Can't stop the run.. Their vaunted secondary is only slightly better in defending the pass (which is to say not much) and the pass rush just isn't there.

 

On offense, Vick is getting knocked around way too much and  the O-line is a patchwork.

 

Pathetic loss to a bad team. You could excuse the last two losses - on the road to last year's #1 seed, and to a tough division rival. But to give up 21 unanswered points to Alex Smith and unable to stop Frank Gore on 4 straight carries when the D knew they were running? Terrible!

 

Does Castillo keep his job?

 

Funny, here's what sport's guy said about the game. Makes loss even worse given how they were ahead 20-3.

 

 

EAGLES (-9) over 49ers
 
… the Niners might be this year's Good Bad Team (a.k.a. a forgettable team that beats all the other forgettable teams). That won't help them this week, though. Here's why this line is so high: Vick or no Vick, San Fran averages 3.7 yards per play and gives up 5.0 yards per play; Philly averages 6.0 yards per play and gives up 5.5 yards. San Fran can't throw the ball at all: 505 passing yards total, no wide receiver has more than 80 yards. San Fran is built to play tight games, so if Philly blows it open, literally, there's no way San Fran can come back unless Ted Ginn starts ripping off kick returns. I'm laying the nine. Cautiously.

Phillies Good and Getting Better

Courtesy of Tim Kurkijian.

It is the only team in major league history to improve its victory total five years in a row, with the beginning of that streak starting with a plus-.500 season. That says they were good, they got better and they keep getting better every season.

Reid and Vick

Forget about the broken hand. It was the fact that Mike Vick played at all that should be the real source of concern and controversy with Andy Reid's coaching.

Vick clearly wasn't himself at the start of the game and probably still feeling the effects of his concussion the week before. Vick took a couple of hard hits that may have aggravated his condition in the first half. Indeed, the hypothesis of us in the stands was that on the helmet to helmet hit Vick took in the 2nd quarter that he was a little groggy and that the Eagles didn't want to call attention to it and force them to re-test his cognitive baseline as part of the concussion protocol.

How else to explain the 8 straight running plays Reid called to end the 1st quarter and begin the 2nd - a streak over two possessions?!?!?

Reid NEVER calls that many running plays, certainly not IN A ROW!!!

Indeed, for a coach who is famous for his incredibly unbalanced 65/35 pass/run ratio, it is remarkable that Reid called an even 50/50 game. The Eagles ran 33 times. Add in Vick's 2 QB sneaks and that is 35 running plays. I can't remember if Vick's 5 other carries were scrambles or designed runs, but including all of them as original pass plays with the rest of the Vick/Kafka attempts totals 35 passes. When was the last time the Eagles ran the ball the exact same number of times they passed it?

Thus, the most criminal part of last week's game, besides Reid starting Vick at all, was calling for 2 QB sneaks from Vick at the goal line: 1) cause he had suffered a head injury concussion the week before and 2) likely aggravated it earlier in the game. The fact that Reid thought it best to plunge one of the fastest players in the league into the middle of the line is just icing on the cake for his ludicrous play calling. With as many playmaking speedsters the Eagles have, why not spread the defense at the goal line?

Hopefully Vick won't have long-lasting damage from Reid's negligent mismanagement of a player's injury. 

Game 1

I love when Jayson Stark gets to write about the Phillies.

A moment of panic in the 2nd inning when Halladay gave up that lead off hit and though he just might not have his stuff today. A feeling that went into the 5th and the fear the Cards would steal game 1.

Another reason it was smart to move Utley to 2nd and Pence to 3rd in the order: La Russa replaced his leftie after Utley hit with a rightie to face Pence. The rightie stayed in to face Howard. Obviously, in the old order the leftie stays in to face both Utley and Howard and them maybe there's a switch for Pence.

Also, I liked Charlie not messing around and bringing in Madson in a non-save situation to nail down the win after Stutes allowed them to cut the lead in half.