Phinally Philly

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Todd Zolecki just updated his Twitter

Myers to start opening night

Simple, but effective.

Brett Myers will be making his 3rd consecutive Opening Day start for the Phillies. The decision had been between Joe Blanton and Myers.

Would have been good to have seen Hamels out there, but he’ll be out there the first week, so it’s all good

So now with this announcement, here’s how the rotation will round out for the first week:

April 5 vs. Atlanta: Myers
April 7 vs. Atlanta: Jamie Moyer
April 8 vs. Atlanta: Blanton
April 10 at Colorado: Hamels

Looks good to me.

-KK

-The shirt that Myers is wearing in the above picture is available for purchase from The Fightins’. I’ve already bought one shirt from them and I’m sure this will be the next one.

Zolecki is reporting that Chan Ho Park has won the Race for 5th over J.A. Happ.

Not that surprising, but I would have liked to have seen Happ get the spot and put Park in the bullpen.

The other interesting news is that GM Ruben Amaro has confirmed that the team has been in touch with the agent for Gary Sheffield. ESPN has also been running the story that confirms the Phillies are interested in the slugger. It would be a sight to see Sheffield get his 500th HR in a Phillies uniform.

I don’t know if Shef would be a good addition, but the Phillies are obviously looking into it.

-KK

The Zo Zone: Park Wins Fifth Job, Phils Contact Sheffield

There are three little words that will make any Phillies fan get excited. No, not World F*cking Champions.

Dollar Dog Day.

Dollar Dog Days are the byproduct of our gluttonous society, but I love it, and so do most Phillies fans.

The Phillie Phanatic will usually shoot those hot dogs from his Hot Dog Launcher up into the furthest reaches of Citizens Bank Park.

Hatfield recently filmed a documentary on the making of the Hot Dog Launcher. It’s essential viewing for any Dollar Dog Day fan, which I’m sure most of you are.

The first Dollar Dog Night of 2009 is April 27th against the Nationals. How many can you eat?

-KK

The Race for 5th has recently been overshadowed by the Cole Hamels Elbow Watch and the decision on who will start Opening Night.

However, it has been a very intriguing race this spring. The race has been narrowed down to the final two candidates: J.A. Happ and Chan Ho Park.

Both of them have pitched very well this spring, exceeding expectations. Going into the spring, the frontrunner was obviously Kyle Kendrick. He blew his shot not by not being able to come up with another major league caliber pitch. He’ll be back in the majors, just not at the start of this season.

The Phillies got Park to sign with them by promising a shot at becoming a starter again. Park has done nothing so far this spring to lose the race for himself.

Happ is the youngster who has also pitched very well so far this spring. He is projected to be a starter by everyone in the organization and wouldn’t benefit much from pitching out of the bullpen.

Based off of the spring numbers, Park has outpitched Park on the stat sheet. Giving him the 5th spot would not be a surprising move.

However, I think the Phillies should give the 5th spot to Happ and put Park in the bullpen. I know Park would be disappointed, but that is what is ultimately best for this team. Park has the experience to pitch long innings out of the bullpen. Expecting Happ to be able to do that at this point in his career could have a negative impact on his career development.

The Phillies could throw everyone for a loop and send Happ down to Lehigh Valley to get some more work in the rotation, give Park the 5th spot, and keep another reliever. I don’t really see that happening though.

My prediction: Happ gets the spot and Park takes one for the team and goes to the bullpen.

-KK

Phillies’ fifth-starter battle undecided | phillies.com

UPDATE: Todd Zolecki has spoken to Ruben Amaro and confirmed that Geoff Jenkins has been released. This is pretty big news for the Phillies.

He was supposed to be a starter here, but just got beaten out by Jayson Werth. He was caught in a numbers game here this year when it looked like the team preferred to keep Matt Stairs as the extra outfielder.

This leaves the projected outfielders to be Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Greg Dobbs and Matt Stairs

Now, Gary Sheffield was also released by the Detroit Tigers today. He has 499 career HRs. Would you want to see him in Phillies pinstripes? ‘Zo again has an argument.

Sheffield has been known as kind of a clubhouse cancer for a while now, so I don’t think he would mesh well with the Phillies. I think they stay away from him at this point.

As the Sixers do their best impression of the Hindenburg, the question arises do the Sixers bring back Tony DiLeo? Does he even want to come back?

This topic seems to be getting more and more attention. DiLeo was an unlikely replacement of Maurice Cheeks, and I find it even more unlikely that he’ll be back next season. The guy has been with the organization since 1990 holding a variety of titles. Never once did you hear his name ever mentioned when the Sixers or any other team needed a new head man.

Now I am not saying DiLeo has done a bad job but he is basically coaching the same team that Maurice Cheeks led to the playoffs.  So if Tony does the same is the season a success? Does it warrant a contract for him?

Simply, no.

While Cheeks was head coach it was hard to figure out exactly what his strategy was. You never knew under Cheeks which Sixer team would show up from night to night. And I see the same thing from DiLeo, curious substitutions and stubbornness that would rival a Philadelphia Eagles game plan.

You can throw all the records nonsense out the window. Way to many factors are left out when you only look at the numbers. Cheeks coming into the season had some heavy expectations on his shoulders.  Then right out of the gate Elton Brand was not fitting in. When DiLeo replaced Cheeks he had little if any expectations and Brand was injured and out for the year days later.

DiLeo can be an important part of this organization and if a new Head Coach is hired he would be foolish not to keep him aboard. DiLeo just doesn’t belong patrolling the side lines. He seems to be a better judge of talent not a leader of it.  In the end I think the Sixers would be better off bringing in someone with NBA Head Coaching experience. One that can sort out the mediocre mess that has become the Sixers.

-Mike Santa Barbara

We have a very exciting announcement everyone! PhinallyPhilly.com Publications has signed an exclusive deal to work on Bruins broadcaster Jack Edwards’ new book! Here’s a sneak peak at the cover…hope you are all anticipating this as much as we are!

Todd Zolecki reports today that Cole Hamels has been officially ruled out for Opening Night.

Pitching coach Rich Dubee has said that the Opening Night starter will be either Joe Blanton or Brett Myers. Jamie Moyer has been ruled out.

Here’s how the rotation shapes out for the first week:

April 5 vs. Atlanta: Myers or Blanton
April 7 vs. Atlanta: Jamie Moyer
April 8 vs. Atlanta: Myers or Blanton
April 10 at Colorado: Hamels

I’d like for Myers to get the start for the 3rd straight year, but Blanton has been pitching extremely well this spring, so either way, they’ll be trotting out a pretty good pitcher for Opening Night.

I’d rather the ace of the staff start out the season, but in the long run, it’s better for Hamels to be prepared for the long run rather than rush him out there for one start.

-KK

The Zo Zone: It’s Myers or Blanton Opening Night

It’s safe to say Kimmo Timonen isn’t all too thrilled about the 5-3 powerplay for nearly two minutes which could’ve led to a goal in the 4-3 loss against the Boston Bruins on Sunday. While missed calls are still in debate it’s no question that the Flyers powerplay quarterback wishes he had another crack it. It’s not that the Flyers played badly during the 2 minute stretch, but Tim Thomas proved to be a brick wall. In fact nearly the entire 2nd period was a barrage on the Bruins’ Vezina candidate. A few more lucky bounces and the Flyers likely win that game easily.

The schedule though gets easier for the Flyers now with their biggest competition out of their way. Only 2 more games out of the 7 left are against competition that have found their way into the top 16 teams likely going to the playoffs. Those games happen to both be against the rival New York Rangers. The powerplay will need to find twine for the rest of the season, and based on their play when up at least a player last night it shouldn’t be a problem.

James van Riemsdyk – After a beauty of a game on Saturday afternoon between the University of New Hampshire and North Dakota, JVR’s team tied the game with 0.1 seconds left. They then won it all in overtime. On Sunday it was their turn for heartbreak as Boston University ousted them from the tournament by breaking a 1-1 tie with under 2 minutes left in the game on a fluke goal. For both games there was a scout from the Flyers’ organization in the stands. While it is entirely likely that he was scouting some of the players that performed well during the game, he was also there for another reason. As soon as UNH lost he was going to try to convince arguably the league’s most prominent prospect not yet in the NHL to sign a contract with the Philadelphia Flyers.

While no official word is in yet, JVR has mentioned that he won’t take long to make his decision known. His team was just ousted from the dream of a national championship, but he’s got other things to worry about.

“Probably sooner rather than later,” he said, “as soon as the season’s over, so no matter what happens, the staff here has a chance to respond and do what they need to do to move on and move forward.”-source

While his head coach at the University of New Hampshire is waiting to know about his star player’s status for next season as well he seems to understand that his star forward will likely not return to UNH for his senior year. If JVR does return to college for another season it will likely be his last.

OTHER NEWS:

Luca Sbisa will be full time Flyer next season.
per-Flyers.NHL.com: Sbisa Shines…

“[Holmgren] wanted to let me know that he was very happy with the way I played this season, and the way I carried myself,” Sbisa explained. “He said I wasn’t just there because the team had injury problems.

“I hadn’t been playing as much as I had earlier in the year and both Paul and [head coach] John Stevens felt it would be better if I was back in Lethbridge playing regularly.”

Said Holmgren of his decision at the time: “I struggled with it and how it would affect his development. But when you weigh it against not playing at all, I don’t think we had a choice.”

This news almost assures that Randy Jones or Matt Carle, two similarly tooled defensemen with a lower upside and higher salary, will be moved this offseason to make room for Sbisa who is still working on his cheap entry level contract.

Jack Edwards makes a fool of himself during NESN broadcast of Flyers v. Bruins. NHL fines coming?
per-TheHockeyWriters.com: NHL Officiating Hits All Time Lows

Jack Edwards displayed one of the most classless games of commentary many Flyers fans have ever heard. Now many are wondering if the league will take action.

Remaining Schedule

• Flyers @ Maple Leafs – Wednesday, April 1st
• Flyers vs. Maple Leafs – Friday, April 3rd
• Flyers @ Senators – Saturday, April 4th
• Flyers vs. Panthers – Tuesday, April 7th
• Flyers @ Rangers – Thursday, April 9th
• Flyers @ Islanders – Saturday, April 11th
• Flyers vs. Rangers – Sunday, April 12th

Here we go again…another one goal loss with several questionable calls/non-calls costing the Flyers a couple points. Does it happen every night? No, but the zebras penchant for sending Flyers to the sin bin is becoming an alarming-common occurance.

Since the days of the Broad Street Bullies the Flyers have been known as one of the toughest franchises in the NHL. Actually when your team beats up one of the dominant hockey powers of the 70′s so bad that they have to leave the ice in protest “tough” just might be an understatement.

So what’s the problem then? As Sam Carchidi discussed in a great article for the Inquirer back in late January, the Flyers bad boy image has carried over to modern times and just may explain why there have been so many marginal calls against the orange and black.

Think about it: if your team has a reputation for physical play, how much does that contribute to the officials coming into a game more on-guard and sensitive to ticky-tack calls than usual? How differently might a ref approach a Flyers-Bruins game than a Bruins-Leafs game? It’s a valid question, and even some of the Flyer players and coaches have wondered aloud why the bad calls keep coming back to haunt them.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is a league-wide conspiracy against the Flyers or anything ridiculous like that. I guess you’d have to expect there to be some side-effects to having such an incompetent man in charge of the league, but this crap is getting old.

If any of you out there have a theory of why this is happening then by all means enlighten me, but for the time being we’ll just have to hope this BS doesn’t carry over into the postseason.

Jack Edwards is a DOUCHE!

For those of you who missed the NESN broadcast of the game tonight (lucky bastards), here’s an interesting little clip. Seriously, I almost threw up when Edwards started cackling like a buffoon after Jones almost got injured. And to those of you who still insist Jones’ hit on Patrice Bergeron was dirty…get over yourselves. Bergeron should have protected himself better in the corner and Jones barely nudged him. Still, laughing about a player almost getting seriously injured is pathetic, classless, and an embarrassment to the game. Then again, Edwards general broadcasting ability already defined most of those terms so I guess this would make him a repeat offender.

We decided to try something new this week at Phinally Philly.

To give our readers a chance to contribute to the site, we posed this question on Twitter, and by extension, Facebook: How many Phillies hats do you have/own?

We received a lot of responses to our question. The answers ranged from a low of zero to a high of over 50! That’s a lot of hats.

To get this started, I thought I’d put up the hats that we here at Phinally have.

Kieran Kelly: I currently own 7. My personal favorite has recently been the throwback green one, which a lot of you seem to like as well. Favorite overall would be the Interleague play one, which they no longer wear. I just love how the star looks in the middle of the P like that. My newest hat, which isn’t pictured, is the basic one that is shown at the top of the page.

Our own Roman Zubarev, has just one hat.
As he states in his Tweet: “just my freebie fightins hat.”

There are plenty more responses to this question. We hope to be putting up many more questions using Twitter to keep the community interaction going. Be sure to follow @Phinally to stay informed of all the latest questions and updates.

To read the rest of the responses, be sure to continue reading and see who among us has the most Phillies hats.

Read the rest of this entry »