Results tagged ‘ Phillies ’
Phillies Need Relief
More of the same.
The Phillies offense has been the focus since the beginning of the season, and it played a role in last night’s 7-4 loss to the Mets. The offense scored its runs in the first two innings, but shut down the engines and barely made a noise the rest of the night.
That seems to happen often.
But it’s the bullpen that is this team’s Achilles heel right now. It has been absolutely dreadful.
Phillies relievers had a 2.01 ERA in 14 appearances through April 20. They have a 6.97 ERA in 16 appearances since.
Who Are The Phillies Really?
It is May 8. The Phillies are 30 games into the season, and they are last in the National League East.
They have not been in last place this late in a season since July 8, 2005.
Thirteen times the Phillies had a chance to move to .500. They lost eight times. Six times they had a chance to move over .500. They lost every time. This is a team that boasts Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels in its rotation. It has Jonathan Papelbon as its closer. It has Hunter Pence, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco and Carlos Ruiz in its lineup.
Last place.
Hamels Suspended Five Games, Fined
The moment Cole Hamels admitted he purposely drilled Bryce Harper with a pitch Sunday everybody knew he would be suspended.
He was.
Major League Baseball on Monday suspended him five games and fined him an undisclosed amount for his bean ball. Hamels did not appeal the suspension and began serving it immediately.
The effect of the suspension on the Phillies is minimal. Hamels, who was unavailable to comment before Monday’s series opener against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park, had been scheduled to pitch Saturday against the San Diego Padres. But because the Phillies do not play Thursday, it is a smart bet they will have Roy Halladay pitch Saturday on regular rest and push Hamels’ next start to Sunday.
Oh, It Is On
And the rivarly between the Phillies and Nationals just kicked up another notch. (From 10 to 11?)
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo absolutely blasted Cole Hamels in an interview with The Washington Post.
A few highlights:
- “I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball.”
- “He’s fake tough.”
- “No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”
Good news for Phillies fans: The pool of teams interested in signing Hamels in the offseason shrunk by one. Bad news for Phillies fans: Expect Hamels to be suspended.
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Jim Salisbury and I co-authored the book The Rotation, which is now available. Check it out here! Here are our upcoming book signings:
- May 10: Tredyfrrin Public Library in Stafford, PA, 7:30 p.m.
- June 2: Citizens Bank Park, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
- June 16: Barnes & Noble, Wilmington, 2:00 p.m.
Check out my Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.
Just a reminder: The Phillies and Nationals play a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park on May 21-23.
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A Step Closer for Utley
Chase Utley is a little closer to rejoining the Phillies.
He physically rejoined them today at Nationals Park, although he remains at least a few weeks away from rejoining the Phillies lineup. Utley, who is on the disabled list with chondromalacia in his left knee, will rehab with the team until he feels ready to begin playing rehab games in Clearwater, Fla.
He spent about two weeks playing in rehab games last season before he rejoined the team.
Could he need just another two weeks this time?
Lee Back on Wednesday
Cliff Lee is back.
He threw a lengthy bullpen session this morning at Nationals Park, and pronounced himself fit and ready to return to the Phillies rotation on Wednesday. He has been on the disabled list since April 19 with a strained left oblique.
“Everything is normal,” Lee said.
If he continues to feel OK – and there is no reason to think he will not – he will face the New York Mets on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. Kyle Kendrick, who had been starting in Lee’s place, will return to the bullpen.
Lee is 0-1 with a 1.96 ERA in three starts.
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Jim Salisbury and I co-authored the book The Rotation, which is now available. Check it out here! Here are our upcoming book signings:
- May 10: Tredyfrrin Public Library in Stafford, PA, 7:30 p.m.
- June 2: Citizens Bank Park, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Check out my Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.
Lee Could Be Back Next Week
Cliff Lee could be back in the Phillies rotation early next week.
Today he threw his first bullpen session since straining his left oblique April 18 in San Francisco. Lee reported no pain. He said if he feels fine tomorrow, he is scheduled to throw a second bullpen session Saturday. Assuming that goes well, he could pitch for the Phillies a few days later at Citizens Bank Park.
“I feel good about it,” Lee said. “If things go well, it’s one more bullpen and then the game. That’s the plan for now, but that’s all flexible.”
Lee said he has been pain-free recently.
“It did linger a little bit,” he said. “But it’s slowly gotten better. But the last two days have been drastically better than the four or five days before that. It just kind of plateaud and stayed the same. But the last two has been good.”
Asked if it is safe to say the problem is gone, Lee said, “Everything throw, I didn’t feel anything. There are a couple exercises I do where I can barely feel it, but compared to how it was before it’s pretty safe to say it’s on its way to being gone.”
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Domonic Brown strained his left hamstring today in Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He is day to day.
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Right-hander David Herndon has a strained pronator tendon. He is not throwing for three weeks.
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The guys at Phillies Nation TV had me on this week to talk about The Rotation. Check it out!
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Jim Salisbury and I co-authored the book The Rotation, which is now available. Check it out here! Here are our upcoming book signings:
- May 10: Tredyfrrin Public Library in Stafford, PA, 7:30 p.m.
- June 2: Citizens Bank Park, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Check out my Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.has a strained pronator tendon. He is not throwing for three weeks.
Turning Things Around?
This has been a welcomed change of pace.
The Phillies had two late-inning rallies the last two nights, which means I finally had something interesting to write about. As boring as most of April was for you, it was just as boring for me. It’s not fun writing different versions of the same story over and over. And it’s certainly not fun having to ask Charlie Manuel and the players different versions of the same questions over and over. They get tired of the questions. We get tired of asking them. But we know you want to know what’s on their minds, so we ask away.
The Phillies have won five of their last seven games. They are hitting .266/.312/.384 and averaging 4.6 runs per game in that stretch.
They might as well be the ’27 Yankees compared to the start of their season. The Phillies hit .243/.286/.334 and averaged 2.8 runs per game through their 7-10 start. The only stretch I recall that was more painful was that 12-game stretch May 22 – June 4, 2010, when they hit .197/.277/.274 and averaged 1.4 runs per game, getting shutout five times and never scoring more than three runs in any game.
The Four Horses
The Phillies have put April behind them. They finished 11-12 for their first losing month since 2009 and their first losing April since 2007.
But some potentially good signs for the Phillies:
- While the Phillies rank 14th in the National League averaging 3.30 runs per game, they are averaging 4.62 runs per game since April 23. That is tied for sixth in the league in that stretch.
- Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco have swung the bats a little better recently.
Small sample sizes there — the pitching the Phillies faced over the last week is nothing like they will face this weekend in Washington — but they are worth noting.
Getting Rollins, Polanco, Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence going is imperative. While there has been endless talk about Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and how much the Phillies miss them in the lineup (and how it’s such a major blow to play without them), it has been the four healthy All-Stars that have hurt this offense the most. David Hale explored this over the weekend, but I wanted to take a look at the final April numbers.
Here is the difference in OPS by position from April 2011, when the Phillies ranked fifth in the league averaging 4.62 runs per game and finished 18-8, and April 2012:
Phillies Won’t Miss April
The Phillies can finish April no better than 11-12 with a victory tonight against the Cubs.
They will finish April with a losing record for the first time since 2007, when they finished 11-14.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more surprised (impressed?) I am they can finish April only one game under .500, considering how bad the offense has been. The Phillies are 14th in the National League in on-base percentage (.288), 12th in slugging percentage (.346) and 14th in runs per game average (3.18). Those are some historically awful numbers. No team has finished a complete season with a lower on-base percentage since the 1972 Padres (.283), a lower slugging percentage since the 1992 Dodgers (.339) and 1992 Mets (.342) and a lower runs per game average since the 1971 Padres (3.02).
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Following tonight’s game, the Phillies will have played eight of their last 11 games against the two worst teams in the National League: the Padres and Cubs. Even if the Phillies win tonight they will be just 6-5 in that stretch. That’s not good, especially because they hit the road this week to play two teams tied for the second-best record in the league: the Braves and Nationals.
At this point fans would be thrilled with a 3-3 road trip.
But that means the Phillies will have to hit. They stand their best chance against the Braves, whose starters rank 12th in the league with a 4.09 ERA. Of course, the Braves counter that with the best offense in the league, averaging 5.19 runs per game. (Can you imagine the Phillies with that type of offensive production?) Nationals starters are just crushing the opposition. They lead the league with a 1.78 ERA. Opponents are hitting just .178 against them. They have a 0.89 WHIP.
Anybody care to give an over/under on runs scored in that series? The Nationals aren’t scoring much more than the Phillies. They’re 12th in the league, averaging 3.36 runs per game.
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Hardball Times evaluates Charlie Manuel.
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Jim Salisbury and I co-authored the book The Rotation, which is now available. Check it out here! Here are our upcoming book signings:
- May 10: Tredyfrrin Public Library in Stafford, PA, 7:30 p.m.
- June 2: Citizens Bank Park, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Check out my Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.
Todd Zolecki
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