Although I love the Sixers the most out of any Philadelphia sports franchise, I have given up hope, which may make me a bad fan, I don't know. They're just a bad team, so I gave my attention to an average team- the Phils.
Although the announcers tabbed the past two games as 'pitchers duals', anyone that has any knowledge on the Phillies organization knows that this series has been two good pitchers (Halladay and Lee) against two near-average pitchers (Bedard, Karstens) and the complete absence of offense.
I read on facebook some of my friends getting upset when Blanton came in the game, but let me just point out the obvious. If you score 1 run in 10 innings off of Jeff Karstens and the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen, you won't win the game. Everyone knows what Blanton will give you, and his first inning ERA over the past few years has been simply awful. In 12 appearances last year, he gave up runs in the first inning of work 5 times. I didn't want to go through all of his 2010 appearances because there were a lot more and I'm lazy, but I just get the feeling of always having to come back from an early deficit with Blanton. But now I'm getting off track.
Bottom line-not your fault Joe.
And I'm not going to go crazy on the subject, we're two games in on the season, who knows what is going to come out of this offense. But I will say this-this Phillies team hasn't been clutch or situational in years, and this year appears to be no different.
The first inning should have yielded at least two runs. Laynce Nix and Freddy Galvis are clueless at the plate- one is understandable, one isn't. Hunter Pence swings at everything. And our two best hitters are batting 6th and 7th, in perfect place for Galvis and the pitcher to knock them in. Yes Ryan Wile, Chooch should move up. 4th? I don't know, but he has earned a higher spot in the batting order.
To be blunt, this team is boring as hell to watch. It's sad if we're arguing for Chooch and Mayberry to move up in the batting order. It's sad that in 19 innings of baseball, we've scored twice. It's sad when we blame Joe Blanton for a loss in 10 innings to the hapless Pirates. It's sad that the organization couldn't find anything other than Freddy Galvis to play 2nd base. They were boring last year, especially towards the end of the year and the playoffs, and they had 102 wins. But this year, they're worse. And I'm not sure if Utley and Howard are going to change that. They're boring too. (.259 and .253 BAs, .344 and .346 OBP respectively)
The saving grace in this is we pretty much know what we are going to get from Roy, Cliff and Cole, which is great and terrible. It looks like the team relies on them to pitch great, and somehow get up for Kendrick, Worley and Blanton's starts. One way to get a premiere pitcher out of town- don't get him any run support.
The Phils can win the series with a win over the Pirates today. That would be great. Then there's still 159 games left. Which I think is one of the greatest things about baseball: you can watch your team 5-6 times a week for six months. That is, if they can keep you awake.
As an after the fact statistic- Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels had the 7th and 8th worst run support in the NL last year.
ReplyDeleteI was being sarcastic about chooch hitting in the 4 hole, while implying that he at least deserves a one spot promotion in the line up as you said...in all seriousness utleys career is over and were going to get Howard at 85% at best, and I don't mean this year, I'm talking the rest of his 125 million dollar extention...I read an article that said the biggest delcine in hitting comes between the ages of 32 and 34...as both I mentioned before are on the doorstep of...we win 83 games this year and make the playoffs as a wild card and get knocked in the first round by Jamie moyer and the rockies(ok maybe not by the rockies but any number of teams could beat us in a 5 game series)
ReplyDeleteI didn't take the chooch thing to heart, but I do agree he needs to be ahead of the Nix's and Wigginton's of the team. The thing is pitching wins in the playoffs, so we always have a chance. Getting there is the issue, I believe.
ReplyDeleteDo you feel like thome and nix are dead weight taking up valuable bullpen and middle infield help spots?
ReplyDeleteI think Nix is dead, Thome is a Matt Stairs-meaning he won't mean anything all year but has postseason potential. And yes, I think that having those 2 on the roster forces people like Galvis to play every day when he clearly isn't ready....yet. And having first-batter-always-walks Bastardo in the 'pen is a huge liability.
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