Phinally Philly

As I was struggling to break through some writer’s block this afternoon, I asked for some suggestions. Thankfully, Matt P from the 700 Level came through.

From his Tweet:

What If… the Phillies had signed Derek Lowe… What if the Mets had? Where do the respective teams stand right now if either?

Great question. Definitely one that got me thinking. With all of the Phillies and Mets pitching problems this season, Derek Lowe would have been a great addition to either of the two staffs.

I’ll start with the Phillies. First off, their rotation would be a lot different. Read the rest of this entry »

During yesterday’s Phillies-Mets game, the last commercial that Harry Kalas filmed before he passed away aired for the first (and possibly only) time.

After it was shown, I posted my reaction to Twitter:

I love love love the new Harry Kalas commercial. RIP Harry the K. We all miss you.

The commercial was awesome, and thanks to video extraordinaire Meech, from The Figthins, here’s the video.

The commercial was only supposed to be shown during the two games this weekend, so with today’s game being postponed, I don’t think the ad will ever run again.

Seeing this video just really made me miss Harry the K. I think I want a SuperPretzel now.

-KK

Today’s rubber game against the Mets has been postponed, to be rescheduled at a later date.

It’s probably a good thing for both teams as the bullpens have been used a lot the past two games. Oliver Perez only went 2 1/3 innings yesterday and Moyer went 5 1/3 for the Phils. The bullpens had to come in and get the game to the 10th.

It’s also good news for Cole Hamels. The rainout means that he won’t have to pitch until Friday. That will give him plenty of time to rest his sprained ankle.

The first round of the battle between the division favorites wasn’t really all that exciting. The first game wasn’t very good from the Phillies’ perspective, but yesterday’s game ended with a thrilling walk-off walk. Yeah, real exciting.

I’m sure that these two teams will have many exciting match ups this season, but at this point, they’re just going to have to wait. Until Wednesday.

-KK

Seriously, how awesome is Raul Ibanez? Ribbie has been a beast so far and he got things off to an early start against the Mets’ Oliver Perez by knocking in the Flyin’ Hawaiian after a leadoff triple.

The Phillies need a good start to today’s game in order to get over the loss last night. Perez is fighting for his spot in the rotation, so I’m sure he’s going to be trying his hardest to keep his job. Can’t really get under control though here early in the first.

The Phillies don’t really need this series as much as the Mets do. The Phillies know they have a good team and they have the mindset that they’re never out of it. That’s the difference so far this season between the two teams. The Phillies have the heart that the Mets lack.

The rest of this game and tomorrow’s game are going to go a long ways in how the Mets think they stack up to the Phillies. They got a nice first win against them last night, but the Phillies seem to be coming out of the gates early today.

It’s a long season, but this is still a big series for the two teams. I love this rivalry.

I’ll update during the game occasionally.

-KK

4:06 PM: Chooch swings and misses on ball 4 with the bases loaded. Forgot to mention that Utley is out with a bruised foot and Bruntlett is starting at 2nd base today.

4:11 PM: Moyer with two straight walks. Not good Jamie. Read the rest of this entry »

The Phils starters so far have been Chan Ho'rrible. --Photo courtesy of ESPN--

We are almost a month into the Phillies’ title defense and so far we’ve seen our fair share of blown opportunities, horrid pitching, and dramatic comebacks. Now that we are really getting a sense of what this team is capable of, I figured I’d take a quick look back at some of my key points/predictions (which I also plan on doing at the All Star Break and at the end of the regular season) to see how I fared at predicting the team’s fate.

1. The Phillies title hopes hinge on the top of the rotation.

Without a doubt, the top 3 starters HAVE to be better. While it is still too early to start panicking, the rotation as a whole has been ridiculously bad so far (to the tune of a 6.83 average ERA.) Cole hasn’t been able to stay healthy, Brett and Jamie have been up and down, and Joey B and Chan Ho have been terrible. The offense has been able to bail them out of some sure losses early on, but for this team to stand a chance at a repeat the starters will need to revert to their form from last season. Or at least not suck as badly as they have so far.

Step #1 to fix our pitching woes? Pray Cole can avoid the injury bug from here on out. Step #2? Read on to find out.

Read the rest of this entry »

On the eve of May and the PHillies first series with the New York Mets, there are a few questions that I’ve been thinking about. (That picture from Newsday always makes me laugh. I love it)

1. How great was that Mets game last night? The Mets made such a big deal out of them getting two of the top closers from last season, only to go and watch their starting pitching collapse so far this season. The bullpen was the problem last season, but the starters aren’t pulling their weight so far this season. I tweeted about this yesterday, but I think it’s time for the Mets to learn that you can’t buy a World Series. The Yankees tried it for a few years until they realized it doesn’t work. Now they’re trying to groom their young prospects and get back to the World Series that way. As long as Omar Minaya is the GM of the Mets, they won’t learn that lesson.

2. How amazing has Raul Ibanez been? Read the rest of this entry »

With today’s off day, and a guest post already up about the Fightins’ I figured I’d take it easy and get one of the Random Phillies Gear Sightings that I’ve had sitting here for a while.

There are going to be a few put up with this one.

Today’s sightings come courtesy of Kevin McGuire, who runs Nittanydelphia and Macho Row.

First one comes from a Phillies game last week.

You don’t see many Kevin Millwood jerseys floating around out there, but he did throw a no-hitter for the Phils, so that’s not a bad pick. Plus, Millwood showed some respect for HK a few weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

(Brought to you by guest contributor Charles Alexander)

In a town where we have had nicknames for certain teams such as the “Whiz Kids”, the “Wheeze Kids”, and the “Broad Street Bullies”, it’s about time we give a nickname to our current generation of the Philadelphia Phillies. This name is and can only be “The Comeback Kids”. No name more defines what any team is and how this team plays. From 17 back in the standings 2 years ago to 9 of 11 of their wins this year being come from behind victories, this team shows you what it means to be the comebacks. They dig deep and put runs on the board when it counts and now, even more than last year, we should be excited about our Fightin’ Phils. With what I feel is a better roster than last year’s, this team is poised for another post season run. (Any questions of whether Raul Ibanez being better than Pat the bat have been answered by now haven’t they?)

With the current problems with our starting pitching at the beginning of this season the bats give us fans and the team, belief that any game goes the full 27 outs and that the Phightens are going to be always in the game till the end. And don’t worry, our starting pitching will pull out of this slump, J.C Romero will eventually be back, and Jack Taschner will be banished to the minors. That’s when the bats and pitching combo will make this team lethal. What makes me amazingly happy about all this, is the fact that the Mets, are the complete opposite of this Phillies team. Even with their recent additions of J.J. Putz and K-Rod, they can never seem to put a game away. If yesterday’s game against Florida for the Mets is any vision of the future, we will not have to worry about being down against the Mets late in any game. This is why we all should have much faith in our Philadelphia Phillies going into this weekend series with New York. Cole Hamels should have just said “The Mets are just choke artists.” I don’t see the Met’s choking ending with last season. Always remember Muck The Fets…

This story really flew under the radar, but on Tuesday former Phillie flop Freddy Garcia was released by the Mets. Garcia signed a deal with New York in the offseason in an attempt to try to make their starting rotation, but things weren’t going so well for Freddy with the Mets AAA affiliate. He had an 8.18 ERA and his fastest pitch was clocking in at just 85 on the radar gun.

Obviously you have to feel for Freddy: I’m sure if it were up to him he would have stayed healthy during his time in Philly and made us feel at least a little bit better about giving up Gavin Floyd for him. Instead he defects to a division rival only to have to come to grips with the fact that his playing career may be over.

Here’s what Freddy had to say, via Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News:

I want to do the best things I can the next couple days. I want to feel better. Hopefully it will work out for me but I don’t know. I’m working really hard to try to get right but my shoulder doesn’t respond. I’m going to try my best. If not, I guess I’ll go home. I don’t know. That’s it, man.

Freddy Garcia is the ultimate reminder that you can never truly judge who gets the best out of a trade immediately after it happens. At the time of the deal the consensus opinion was that the Phils got a proven winner for two inconsistent prospects. Now Gavin Floyd is coming off a 17 win season for the White Sox (although he has struggled so far this season) and Gio Gonzalez has a 1.54 ERA in the A’s AAA system.

The Mets made big news this past offseason in acquiring two of the top closers in the league, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez. They were supposed to settle the bullpen and stop blowing leads like they did last season.

Welp, today they blew a huge one. Johan Santana pitched a great game, only to have J.J. Putz blow it in the 8th, allowing the Marlins to come back and win the game.

This game comes on the heels of the Mets advertising the upcomnig Phillies-Mets series with a commercial being shown in the New York area.

Seriously? I think they need to start winning games before they go out and tell other teams to choke on something.  They can show all the highlights they want in that video, all the Reyes fist pumphing bullshit too. It don’t mean shit. Fact is, they’ve choked the past two seasons. Simple as that. Hamels just called them out on it. 

I’ve got something the Mets can choke on, but they seem to be doing a good job of choking on K-Rod so far this season. 

Mets don’t stand a chance at the Bank this week. It’s going to be awesome.

-KK

(From Scottt Lauber)