Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia Phillies’
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Buyers and SellersJuly 20th, 2008
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Well, it is officially that time of year. With the trade deadline just around the corner, teams are either going to start their pushes for the playoffs or prep for next season. While some teams are always in the same selling mode, there are always a few surprising teams out to buy.
This year’s the surprise buying team is the Tampa Bay Rays. They have seem to come out of nowhere and are contending. They started the second half the season one half game out of first place (behind the Boston Red Sox).
The Oakland Athletics however, look to be in a sellers market. This is a different feeling for the A’s fan. For the past few years the A’s have contended each year.
With all the injuries last year, the A’s were not contenders but they didn’t sell out their player’s mid-season either. But that changed during the off-season.
During the previous off-season, the A’s became sellers. The team was involved in four trades that affected the team this year right away. Read more
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Message for the Nats’ Three Young BirdsMay 22nd, 2008
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Singin’ don’t worry
‘bout a thing
‘cause every little thing
gonna’ be all right …
- Three Little Birds by Bob Marley
As more than 28,000 hardball enthusiasts filed out of Nationals Park on Tuesday night, the late Jamaican Rastafarian’s catchy tune permeated the ears of witnesses to the Philadelphia Phillies’ 1-0 victory, a grinder of a game that went scoreless for eight full innings before the Phils broke the seal in the top of the ninth then blunted a threat in the inning’s bottom.
But the question that begs an answer: Should the implicit message of that uplifting song be taken seriously?
One: The Nats lost.
Two: They were shutout.
Three: They stranded a man on second with one out then third with two outs in the fourth inning. They stranded a man on second with two outs in the seventh inning. And, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the potential tying run walked, then stole second, then stole third before being stranded on a game-ending groundout.
Four: Their outfielders went 1-10 Tuesday night with a seventh inning double being this notable trio’s sole hit.
Five: Their make-shift closer, equipped with six saves under his belt, pitched the whole ninth inning and gave up one run to get the loss Tuesday night.
Six: They occupy the NL East cellar, looking immediately up at the New York Mets. In other words, while the Mets have sunk and the Atlanta Braves have scaled, the Nats have occupied the bottom for no one other than themselves.
Seven: Only three NL teams have a lower winning percentage than the Nats, all coming out of the NL West (Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres).
Eight: Two AL teams have a lower winning percentage than the Nats, the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners.
Wednesday night marks the Nats’ 16th–straight game in 16 straight days, their second-longest consecutive streak of this season. They head into the series finale against the Phillies at 6-9. Four of those nine losses were one-run games, for two of the nine they were shutout. In late July through mid-August, the Nats have 20-straight games scheduled, representing their longest streak this season.
Jon Rauch, who was converted from set-up man to closer when Chad Cordero went down with a tear in his muscle earlier this season, started the ninth by giving up a double to third baseman Pedro Feliz, who was sacrificed to third then scored on pinch hitter Greg Dobbs’ single. Rauch, who gave up three hits and the decisive run, was tagged with the loss and falls to 2-1 on the season,
Wily Mo Peña doubled to left in the seventh, going 1-4 on the night. The leftfielder is yet to homer this season, one of the primary reasons the Nats brought him in when the Boston Red Sox released him last season. He was not improving while platooning in the Fenway outfield and was supposed to benefit from daily action and at-bats so that he would surmount his strike-out proclivity. One of those four at-bats was a swinging strike-out, which came in the ninth inning. He lunged and missed at first pitches in at least three of his at-bats, perhaps a sign of anxiousness. His batting average presently is .216.
Lastings Milledge went 0-4 with one strike out. The centerfielder’s positive contribution at the plate was a no-out sacrifice fly to right field, which moved Ryan Zimmerman to third. Milledge, who helped gun down what would have been a second Phils run in the ninth, left four on base and presently is hitting .235.
Elijah Dukes went 0-2 with two walks and two strikeouts. One of those walks came in the bottom of the ninth, when he was 90 feet from tying the game after stealing second and third bases. He presently is hitting .038 in 11 games thus far this season.
This trio that patrols the Nats outfield is expected to grow into those positions and sustain them for the Nats for years to come. Peña is 26, Milledge is 23 and Dukes turns 24 late next month, and all have plenty of room to improve their game.
‘Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin this is my message to you.’
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Big Hurt returns while Cust and Barton sitApril 25th, 2008
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Babe Ruth hit 714 homeruns in his major league career. By strange coincidence that is the exact combined total of the A’s starting first basemen Mike Sweeney (198) and DH Frank Thomas (516) in yesterday’s game.
Although neither player hit one out yesterday, both still played a factor in the A’s dismantling on the Twins on Thursday. Just because they didn’t homer, doesn’t mean the A’s can’t hit any. Donnie Murphy had the first multi homer game of his career by hitting his first and second homeruns of the season.
With his second homerun of the game, Murphy brought the A’s team total to 11 for the season. That is ONE more than Chase Utley has hit for the Phillies ALL BY HIMSELF!
After an outburst at management, Thomas was released by the Blue Jays. Before signing with Toronto, Thomas played one year with Oakland where he had a steller year. He turned that year into a two year contract with the Blue Jays. After leading them in homers and rbi last year, Thomas fell out of favor due to a slow start.
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1 Out of 3 A’int BadApril 9th, 2008
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Following the Phillies one-hit performance in only their second game of the year, trash, hot dogs, and God knows what else rained down on the field at Citizen’s Bank Park Wednesday night. I’ll spare you the tired retread of the brutish Philadelphia sports fan. While I would never condone this type of behavior, like Chris Rock is fond of saying, I understand. The Phils dropped 2 of 3 to the Nationals, a team they are supposed to beat, to begin the 2008 season and it seems like it’s business as usual again.
The Phillies are notorious slow starters. They haven’t posted a winning record in April since the 2003 season. Even more impressively, they’ve only managed the feat only nine times in the past 30 seasons. If this week is any indication, they’re well on their way. Read more