I'm not copping pleas. If the Mets or the Fish pass us, I'll be here to take my L and congratulate the winner. And I'm trying not to be typical negative Philadelphian.

But I'm not feeling it right now. This team has been trapped in a general malaise for two months, and it's almost solely the fault of the offense, which of course was supposed to be our strength. Because they have outperformed their projections, I give much love to Utley , Rollins, Victorino, Werth, and Burrell and exclude them from blame. I'm fully on the resign Pat the Batwagon, btw.

Ryan Howard, I was right. I didn't want to be, but I'm right. This season should show why we should never, ever sign Ryan Howard to a long-term contract.

Geoff Jenkins, it's almost inconceivable how much you suck. It would be fitting if the Phils rallied enough only to lose the wild card by one game to the Brewers, which would establish you as the root cause of why Milwaukee sucked for your entire career and why we sucked now.

Ruiz...I can't kill him. I just can't. He has been, without a doubt, the single biggest drag on the offense this year. We send seven major league hitters to bat every game because he and Coste are not major league starters. Still, this gyu is almost as good a story as Coste: a non prospect who persevered and a nice year in the show but who ultimately isn't more than a backup. I can't even kill the Phils for trusting him for this season. I can kill them for not beating da Jakees ridiculous low ball for Pudge, though. The Phils need to sign Pudge in the offseason. It's a perfect fit until one of our catching prospects is ready, which of course means the Phils won't do it.

Feliz. Sigh. I guess Gillick has to make one ridiculously awful free agent signing a year with the team. How in fuck's name are you a GM for three years who inherits David Bell and somehow leaves the position much, much worse when he leaves. God forbid we actually use some of the prospects we throw around for starting pitchers to go get a fucking third basemen. Not like dumb ass Coletti was looking to give away Andy LaRoche or something.

I want to give hope, but it isn't hopeless. The Mets and the Marlins are not really better than us. Howard and Rollins are September players who can get hot and carry us. A miracle may happen and Feliz or Ruiz could have a decent month. These are all reasonable, regress to the mean kind of outcomes that means we have to continue to tune in and have faith. But, man, the energy around this team is not good.

it doesn't feel like this is our year. doesn't mean it won't happen anyway, but it doesnt feel like it's supposed to, ya know?

i mean i don't know any, but what was expected of them. Arent they still overachieving?

and we STILL can't pull away, even with Manny.

God this season is a big motion akin to running in place and occasionally falling back.. only to push hard to run back into place


fuck

although, I do LOVE Manny in Blue. this kind of excitement has been absent since Beltre's MVP season.





"“She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness.”"- oscar wilde

but they're still going to win this shitty division and blaming this all on the lineup is laughable when you look at Myers' year and the fact that we started Adam Eaton up until a couple weeks ago.

I can't even say I blame Billick for these stop-gaps at third and catcher we've been dealing with for years, obviously the faceless ownership group is not letting him spend the money to do anything else but grab barely serviceable guys on the cheap.

The Kershaw kid is the real deal, once he started getting a break on his curve (because he had the fastball from the opening pitch) last night it was over but we still had a two-run lead that we blew after the seventh and lost in the ninth. The bullpen, including the lately-shaky-ass JC Romero hitting the opening batter in the ninth, deserves some blame for last night. And Kendrick lost the night before by the third inning or so.

Whatever. They really just need me to get to the ballpark over this swing and see if I can continue last year's West Coast swing mojo. Tonight may be my first night this week.

If they find a way to catch a split in this series, they'll pummel the Pads this weekend and be back to a 3/4 game lead and none of this matters.

but I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a long time now. the only time they were truly hitting on all cylinders was around late June when they had that 10 game winning streak or whatever it was. Utley has not been utley this year (or at least since the beginning of June), and rollins has reverted back to his pre-mvp form. first pitch-swing, pop up in the infield or shallow outfield. i put more blame on him for the offensive woes than howard. granted howards avg is prett shitty, but he still leads (or is right there) the league in rbis and hrs, and you cant discount that. and its not like his hrs are coming in garbage time or anything- most of them seem to come at important phases of the ballgame. when rollins is hot he can really get this team going, and he honestly hasnt had one stretch this season where he has been on fire.

all that being said, looking at the competition, I dont think you can say the phils are not going to be in the playoffs this year, especially knowing who is around you. i'm not saying they definitely will be in there (this is the phillies after all), but they certainly have more than a god chance. the starting pitching has been pretty solid, the bullpen has been good, now we just wait around for the offense- like we have been all year. if only they could have pulled a manny for burrell trade to get a little spark of life into the offense.

Don't turn on Howard because of one bad year, hopefully it drives his price down slightly. If he had a big contract year and then slumped next year, it'd be way worse. The guy is still a big-time run producer, I'm just discouraged at his lack of improvement against lefties, that's about it.

We never had a shot at the Series, c'mon, not with this staff.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they've had some rough games recently, but i think they're still second in the NL in runs. that said, i don't have any faith in their ability to hit decent lefties (howard is abysmal against them, and chase is much better against righties). they'll most likely be right there with the mets and marlins down the stretch, but i don't think anyone ever thought this was a championship caliber team considering the slapdash pitching staff.

BP says we're fourth in VORP, which, whatever, not bad, but not really where a team that's built on offense wants to live. http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=280813119

then again, big dog blanton is about to walk in a run. i'll reconsider. four pitches. jesus.

He came outta last night's game for a defensive sub, makes no sense and did not play tonight.

Rollins is a shell of himself, he can't make slick plays on defense, he dogs some routine stuff, he favors one side, he isn't stealing bags and he can't hit for power. Something is wrong.

Burrell never puts a whole season together, time for a big slowdown from him.

After that what do we have left? A sore shoulder on Lidge and a new acquisition that can't find the plate. The only thing keeping us in the hunt is the similar waywardness of New York and Florida.

-->The Mets and the Marlins are not really better than us.<--

and we're still a young squad so another division title is fine for me for this season....next season i fully expect us to be the best team in the league tho.

& let's not forget this time last year we were conceding the division to the mets so anything is possible © KG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjOy7fRzs0

starting and in the bullpen..

they aren't far away though..they got some good young players...

Why can't we blame the offense, our so-called "strength"? Shit, Cole Hamels should have at least 13-14 wins by now if our offense were not so infuriatingly inconsistant. In the past 3 weeks we've wasted solid outings by Blanton, Myers and Hamels because we just cannot manufacture runs when we arent hitting the ball out of the park. Grandpa Moyer has been fine, and Kendrick has been OK. Romero, Madsen and Lidge have all been very solid in the 'pen. Anyone who has complaints about our pitching this year simply hasnt watched many of our games.

We have almost no one who hits for average and aside from Rollins and Victorino (who both maybe hurt), not much speed. We don't have many players who can go from 1st to 3rd on a single or can score from second on a single, and our situational hitting is ATROCIOUS! Oh and lets not even bring up the fact that we have a couple of strikout machines in the middle of the lineup (Howard and Burrell, who both have had their moments, but are still way too streaky). Shit even Chase Utley has been pissing me off since about 3 weeks before the All Star break.

Fuck all that talk about "You can't blame the offense"

you watch the games. anyone who watches the phillies consistently would know that this year, the problem is the offense. remember those games against the cards in the beginning of summer? we won 22-2 the first game, then lost 2-1, or 3-2 the next day. but somehow, its always the pitching. i think people here are just so used to saying that, it just naturally comes out now.

but to act like that is the team's true weakness is silly.

This pitching staff is pretty terrible in the back-end of the rotation (especially in the first half of this season) and doesn't really have the top-heavy front part to offset that like other good squads that have two #1 type starters.

This bullpen has overachieved all season and has been coming back to earth the same way JC Romero has this past month.

The offense is feast-or-famine. Their situational hitting is often abysmmal. But that's what happens when you have a power-heavy lineup. Some games you'll strike out 15 times, other games you'll hang two touchdowns on the opponent.

We knew that going in. It also doesn't help that the core of homegrown stars we have in this lineup are bolstered with also-rans at third, catcher, and now one outfield spot.

But make no mistake, this pitching staff is not good enough to win a title, while the offense could be if they ever manage to string a time together when the Big Dogs are all hitting.

And I don't care how bad they were after the third last night offensively. 4-0 and 6-1 are leads you should hold.

...If that makes any sense. Everyone save for Burrell and Shane Victorino (who I have many issues with, but I can't say he's had a bad year, at least numbers wise) has grossly underperformed. Their failure time and time again to advance runners with anything other than a long-drive, and their dissapearing acts have been brutal. Everyone expected the pitching to be below par, but it has been good enough. We did not expect for this so-called offensive juggernaut who many were saying could be the best in team history to have a fuckin' .255 team batting average.

There also seems to be this lackluster feeling around the team that even with Charlie being uncharacteristically hard ass can't cure, (Jimmy not running out balls, showing up late, etc., Myers regressing in maturity, Shane Victorino struggling to pull his head out of his ass during games, etc.).

With that being said, it's not too late to get hot, but I'm losing faith by the day.

their starters led the league in innings pitched, and their bullpen had the best ERA in the majors. not sure if that is still true to this day, but if you told me that in the beginning of the year the phils starters would lead the majors in innings in august, I would have thought that at least the division would have been a wrap.

and hamels does not have a win since july 3. how is that possible? granted, he's had a bad start or 3 mixed in there, but the lack of run support for him in particular has been abysmal. and more importantly (to me at least), when i watch the games, it's the offense who frustrates me to no end. it's the situational hitting, their approach at the plate, it's everything. and howard still doesn't bother me. maybe in the beginning of the year he was quite bad, but him and victorino have been producing most of the phils' runs the past month or two.

substance.

Grow some balls Yoga man.
The real Philadelphian fans live in Philadelphia all their lives.
All you suburb guys do is complain.
Go into the city and live there for a year.

Show some respect for yourself and stop whining.

http://www.sunlightsaunas.com/images/ss_far_infrared_weight-loss.jpg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<---- *****official okaysports lil people's eyebrow*****

...never throw in the towel man ...we got a tight race with Florida ...this is what late season baseball is all about

...even with our questionable pen & the 07 collapse still in the back of my mind, i still got confidence in my team, i fully expect them to win the division

>...even with our questionable pen & the 07 collapse still in
>the back of my mind, i still got confidence in my team, i
>fully expect them to win the division

.

you know the rest.

..... is thought to be having a "bad year."

Sure, his batting average is shit and he's striking out at an epic rate, but dude is still clearing the fence and driving in runs consistently.

_______________________________________________________________________________

"Get that shit out of here! Fondue with eight minutes left in the Super Bowl!" -- John Mara

Read my blog (Updated 7/4/08): http://bluenatic.com

especially when a good number of them could be avoided. I think it's not even so much the strikeouts, but how lost he looks at the plate for long stretches. He's the "big-bopper" so to speak and lots of strikeouts are to be expected, but I think anyone would agree that almost 200 per year is a bit much. That being said, him and Chase are the only two guys on the team that can strap the team to their backs and singlehandedly carry the team for weeks (J-Roll also to a lesser extent, but I just don't think he's up to it this year).

i don't care about the strikeouts if the production is there, but his OBP is like .250 or something comically bad against southpaws. he's really regressed in that dept since his mvp season.

>Ryan Howard, I was right. I didn't want to be, but I'm right.
> This season should show why we should never, ever sign Ryan
>Howard to a long-term contract.

analysis does not equal abandonment.

i'll take an L on Black Supes, although let's not pretend September completely erases the last five months.

than anybody in baseball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3591062

>I'm not copping pleas. If the Mets or the Fish pass us, I'll
>be here to take my L and congratulate the winner. And I'm
>trying not to be typical negative Philadelphian.
>
>But I'm not feeling it right now. This team has been trapped
>in a general malaise for two months, and it's almost solely
>the fault of the offense, which of course was supposed to be
>our strength. Because they have outperformed their
>projections, I give much love to Utley , Rollins, Victorino,
>Werth, and Burrell and exclude them from blame. I'm fully on
>the resign Pat the Batwagon, btw.
>
>Ryan Howard, I was right. I didn't want to be, but I'm right.
> This season should show why we should never, ever sign Ryan
>Howard to a long-term contract.
>
>Geoff Jenkins, it's almost inconceivable how much you suck.
>It would be fitting if the Phils rallied enough only to lose
>the wild card by one game to the Brewers, which would
>establish you as the root cause of why Milwaukee sucked for
>your entire career and why we sucked now.
>
>Ruiz...I can't kill him. I just can't. He has been, without
>a doubt, the single biggest drag on the offense this year. We
>send seven major league hitters to bat every game because he
>and Coste are not major league starters. Still, this gyu is
>almost as good a story as Coste: a non prospect who persevered
>and a nice year in the show but who ultimately isn't more than
>a backup. I can't even kill the Phils for trusting him for
>this season. I can kill them for not beating da Jakees
>ridiculous low ball for Pudge, though. The Phils need to sign
>Pudge in the offseason. It's a perfect fit until one of our
>catching prospects is ready, which of course means the Phils
>won't do it.
>
>Feliz. Sigh. I guess Gillick has to make one ridiculously
>awful free agent signing a year with the team. How in fuck's
>name are you a GM for three years who inherits David Bell and
>somehow leaves the position much, much worse when he leaves.
>God forbid we actually use some of the prospects we throw
>around for starting pitchers to go get a fucking third
>basemen. Not like dumb ass Coletti was looking to give away
>Andy LaRoche or something.
>
>I want to give hope, but it isn't hopeless. The Mets and the
>Marlins are not really better than us. Howard and Rollins are
>September players who can get hot and carry us. A miracle may
>happen and Feliz or Ruiz could have a decent month. These are
>all reasonable, regress to the mean kind of outcomes that
>means we have to continue to tune in and have faith. But,
>man, the energy around this team is not good.
>
>

>Ryan Howard, I was right. I didn't want to be, but I'm right.
> This season should show why we should never, ever sign Ryan
>Howard to a long-term contract.
>

come on man.... you're gonna hurt yourself jump off..and then on....and then back off.....and then back on again.....your teams bandwaggon... You're not a young man any more...the type of acrobatics you are utilizing with this bandwaggon has ruptured achillies by a weekend warrior written all over it..

don't say Coolidge didn't warn you player..

the guy has sub .340 ops. he might not be one of the top 10 offensive first basemen in beisbol (http://baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=311494). and his fielding is borderline criminal. if he wins the mvp, it's almost as bad as morneau or colon. he was a tremendous drag on this lineup for 2 months, average at best for 3 months, and transendent for one. we made the playoffs because of starting pitching, an unbelievable pen, good defense (no thanks to howard), and a good lineup of which howard was a part.

his career is already on the downward slope, and to sign him to a long term deal like utley or rollins would make him a drag on the organization for years. it may be one we should take. we have no youth movement on the horizon, so why not pay to keep the core together for as many shots as possible.

i realize this is all beyond you, because you're both you and a fan of a ned coletti run franchise. so if you want to crow about something, here you go: we're probably not going to the playoffs without howard's last month. so far as there's an L in that, I take it.

runs, is a vital cog in this team's success, and beasts down the stretch every season he's been in the league. Period, end of story.

I don't necessarily think he should be MVP, I don't like the strikeouts, the slumps and the bouts of near uselessness versus lefties but to say keeping him in the fold hurts this team is just dumb. I don't care how you want to spin it, the guy's 28 years old and has more RBIs than any human on earth since coming into the league.

.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/howarry01.shtml

not to mention his fielding, which you know was down from even the previous sub mediocrity of previous years. he's a poor man's mo vaughn.

200+ runs>>>>>>>>>>>>>Whatever metric you can find.

i said i'd be willing to consider resigning him. i've modified that, but not because i think any more of howard's future potential.

btw, don't think i didn't notice you dodging the obvious decline in production.

>i said i'd be willing to consider resigning him. i've
>modified that, but not because i think any more of howard's
>future potential.
>
>btw, don't think i didn't notice you dodging the obvious
>decline in production.

Not dodging anything, I cited my concerns but pointed out the obvious that he's a very valuable asset. Letting him walk downgrades this team. This ain't the NBA and this organization needs to sack up and re-sign their best players. You seem to be rationalizing into accepting they won't and therefore knocking a guy who has carried us down this stretch, I can't sign off on that for even a moment. The nucleus needs to be kept intact & added to rather than subtracted from or diverted towards non-ace starters.

As for the 'decline', I'm not convinced. He played 162 games this year, he generated more runs this season than last & basically matched his MVP total season from that standpoint.

The strikeouts, slumps, and performance versus lefties for the majority of the year are all troubling but I still hold out hope that he can actually get into a groove before the break next season, get the OBP up and have the kind of season that you won't be able to even consider spinning into an unsuccessful one but instead will have you crafting a long-winded apology.

The guy's played three and a half seasons, has more HRs & RBIs than any player in baseball in that timeframe with a Rookie of the Year, an MVP and two more Top 5 MVP finishes while the team has finished in first or second place each of those years.

That far outweighs some strikeouts or weak defense at the first base position to me. This dude is a slugger who's still going to get you 45-50 Home Runs and 140 RBIs for the next five seasons at an absolute minimum. If he ever gets locked in to his opposite field hitting like he does late in the season earlier in any of these upcoming years, it's over.

>if he wins the mvp, it's almost as bad as morneau or colon.

Almost as bad? Howard would be a much worse MVP choice than Morneau was in 2006. Morneau was better in every rate stat in 2006 while playing in a more difficult park for hitters. If Howard wins, I fully expect you to drop this line of bullshit about 2006 as some sort of unforgivable blasphemy to the gods of baseball reason. You should drop it anyhow, since it's old, stupid, and wrong but we've been over that enough times that I know you wont.

morneau's 2006 season was much better than howard's 2008. my slim, slim rationale was based on the fact that there were at least two very good candidates in06 who morneau was picked above...but, then again, there's 2008 albert pujols, who apparently, i don't know, set off a stink bomb at bbwa.

whole truth: i apologize to morneau, even though i still think that was a lousy choice. i like ryan howard and want to feel good for him if he wins the mvp. the best i can do is to compare him to the two worst award decisions in recent memory and say it's comparable, when in reality i know that it's...

it's not worse than colon. please tell me it's not worse than colon.

>the guy has sub .340 ops. he might not be one of the top 10
>offensive first basemen in beisbol
>(http://baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=311494).

LOL

you on some crazy talk though, unless you think you can trade him for some serious young talent.

need to (lately at least)...


congratulations.. this is a team with serious heart... curious to see how the playoffs will treat the em...

them 'offs will be a lot of fun again this year

...bandwagon's are for girls ...bshelly wears the pink phillies hat this post season

a TRUE/PURE fan is supposed to believe their team is going to make the playoffs, even when evidence points to the contrary. LET'S GO METS!

>a TRUE/PURE fan is supposed to believe their team is going to
>make the playoffs, even when evidence points to the contrary.
>LET'S GO METS!

In all fairness, the Mets' presence in the mix alone should instill belief. At no point in the season did they ever really shake the perception that they were choking dogs poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But people here acting brand new like not expecting your team to win a title means you no longer support them are just mad, it's the same lame tactic people used during the 2006 Eagle campaign when we were 5-6 and down a QB but came back to win the division.

Let them have that bullshit while our season continues.

>But people here acting brand new like not expecting your team
>to win a title means you no longer support them are just mad,
>it's the same lame tactic people used during the 2006 Eagle
>campaign when we were 5-6 and down a QB but came back to win
>the division.
>
>Let them have that bullshit while our season continues.

Before the brewers sweep no one said it, but it was out there.

They had just split with the cubs and made up no ground. Lost a series to the nats, won a series with the mets. Then proceeded to lose a series to the marlins and look bad doing so. Everything was out of whack. They looked dead in the water. There was more baseball to be played, but they didn't have the look or feel of a team ready for a spetember run.

Then the brewers series happened. The rest is history.

Saying you're team looks bad and doesn't like it's not going to happen this year was the general feeling. Save all that rah rah stay behind the team regardless BS for someone else.

----------------------------
All he wants is to do is shoot hot dogs, and DANCE!

thanks for the support, gents. i mean, i'm not sure when i became the prototype of an oks bandwagoneer, but it's good to know at least three people will forgive my sins.

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-man-boobs.htm

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=981414&mesg_id=981414&page=2#982302

I was 4 the last time they won a series, world or otherwise...

Last football season, the Giants took a backseat for me. I was damn tired of the NFL as a whole, actually having more fun watching soccer (EPL supporter's clubs in NYC= awesome), Tiki retired, and really, at the time, wasn't wrong when he aired Eli out, Strahan was holding out, Coughlin still seemed like a jackass. There wasn't much to root for, and if they tanked, the whole thing would have gotten blown up, which I saw as a good thing. Sure enough, 0-2 confirmed my suspicions about that team, and then they proceeded to become the comeback kids. Made the whole thing even better when they a) hung on to give the Pats their closest game in week 17 b) did the road warrior thing in the playoffs, and c) created 18-1.

If the Phils win, it's going to be even cooler for you, because you didn't expect it. And if they don't no big deal, because you didn't expect it. At the same time, I don't want it to happen, because then Low2 will never, e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.eeeeeeeever shut up. And you know, division rivalry and all.

let any philly team win a title ever and none of us will shut up for five years.

or is it going to be like Sox fans, where you felt glad for them at first because they'd suffered so long, only to realize the level of douchebaggery they were capable of?

>or is it going to be like Sox fans, where you felt glad for
>them at first because they'd suffered so long, only to realize
>the level of douchebaggery they were capable of?

we'd handle it terribly. all the rage that philly fans currently direct inward would go spewing forth at anything moving.

*thinks* maybe it's not the different than what's happening now.

*reflects* so, basically, we'd be the same insufferable assholes, but it would harder to write us off.

and a pats fan who became A LOT worse.


you'll find a way to be worse. it might take extra creativity for you phillies cats, but you can do it.

-----------
White Cassel gonna WHOO-RIDE!!!


(uh...wrong way matt...)

I'm not copping pleas. If Obama and Biden wins, I'll be here to take my L and congratulate the winner. And I'm trying not to be typical negative Republican.

But I'm not feeling it right now. This team has been trapped in a general malaise for a month, and it's almost solely the fault of the offense, which of course was supposed to be our strength. Because she has outperformed her projections, I give much love to Palin. I'm fully on the resign Steve Schmidt bandwagon, btw.

John McCain, I was right. I didn't want to be, but I'm right. This election should show why we should never, ever sign McCain to a long-term contract.

George Bush, it's almost inconceivable how much you suck. It would be fitting if the GOP rallied enough only to lose the election by one deligate to the Dems, which would establish you as the root cause of why you sucked your entire career and why we suck now.

Terry Nelson. Sigh. I guess McCain has to make one ridiculously awful free agent signing a year with the team. How in fuck's name are you a nominee and somehow leave the position much, much worse when he leaves. God forbid we actually use some of the prospects we throw around for to go get a decent fucking campagn manager.

I want to give hope, but it isn't hopeless. The Dems are not really better than us. Palin is an October player who can get hot and carry us. A miracle may happen and McCain or Palin could have a decent month. These are all reasonable, regress to the mean kind of outcomes that means we have to continue to tune in and have faith. But, man, the energy around this team is not good.

i can't walk around seeing phillies gear here and think "mccain's got a prayer".

no. nonononononnono.

(but well done)

-----------
White Cassel gonna WHOO-RIDE!!!


(uh...wrong way matt...)

you know that "the" is not spelled with a d, right?

himself admitted was wrong.

look at what you're writing. it doesn't even come close to making sense. i didn't say i was wrong in this post, because i wasn't.

maybe you just have cupcakes on the brain.

so you know how everybody asks you, low, what's the secret to making wack wu-tang rip off beats?

and you can tell them exactly how to do that?

you'd have to be able to be that knowledgeable and correct about me to make a dent in my legend. all you're doing now is letting me show off my battle skills. for that, tubby, i thank you.

log off.

I was 4 the last time they won a series, world or otherwise...

*inboxes mods so this can be archived*

.