2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

This was posted in the MLB thread, but I think we Phils fans need to watch this every time they play the Mets this year, just to remind us how much we truly hate them.

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/video/dome-extra-sick-little-girl-fulfills-dream-of-heck,18831/

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

2 games, 2 wins. 7 different Phillies have driven in runs so far. Last time we opened with 2 wins over the Astros was 1993. Pretty good season there. Last time Notre Dame made the Frozen Four was 2008. Pretty good season for the Phillies then, too. Astros broadcast said Victorino left the game with a calf strain, and the one thing that can certainly derail this, or any, team is injuries. Hopefully he was just removed as a precaution, playing in the cold nights of the early season and all.

Now if the weather would just feel more baseball like...

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Well the Phils picked up their first opening series sweep since 1899 today, beating the 'Stros 7-3. Oswalt went six strong innings giving up 2 runs, on 5 hits, with 6 K's. Ryan Howard hit his first and the Phis first HR of the year, a 3 run shot in the first. Ben Francisco is hot too as he had a solo shot today. The offense has been a real nice surprise thus far as they put up 21 runs and 35 hits in three games.

Just a few early numbers from the top three in the rotation, keeping in mind it is the first week and it was just the Astros:

3 games, the starters pitched 19 of 27 innings, gave up 14 hits, 1 walk, 6 ER's and struck out 23.

Those are some pretty impressive numbers.

PS. Victorino sat this one out, but did come in to pinch later in the game. Rule 5 pick up Michael Martinez played CF today and got his first career big league base hit.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Phils are 7-2 now after beating Atlanta today 3-0 behind a stellar start by Cole Hamels. He went 7 complete, with 8 K's, 0 runs, 4 hits and a couple of walks. Very nice bounce back for him after an ugly opener against the Mets. So far, this is exactly what I figured this season would be like. Cliff Lee came out on Friday, struggled and took the loss. But unlike the norm, the Braves still had to face 2 more aces in this series. It's going to be extremely difficult for anyone to get a series win from the Phils with this pitching staff. And oh ya, the offense just continues to roll as well. Jayson who?

 

[Hopkinja]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Let's take it easy. It's only 9 games. We'll see what this team is made of after a few weeks.

But if Florida is the best the NL east can offer, it won't take much.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

The Phantastic Phour in their last phour starts:

4 wins, 0 losses
31 of 36 innings pitched
18 hits
4 runs
6 walks
31 strikeouts
2 complete games

Scary stuff.

 

[Hopkinja]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Lee was something else last night. 12 K's, 1 BB, and only 99 pitches thrown. Complete game shut-out.

Supposedly, he didn't need to throw a curve ball until the 6th inning. And he struck out four batters with it. Wow.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Lee was something else last night. 12 K's, 1 BB, and only 99 pitches thrown. Complete game shut-out.

Supposedly, he didn't need to throw a curve ball until the 6th inning. And he struck out four batters with it. Wow.

Not sure if you were able to watch the game or not. I was only cuz I have the MLB.com TV package. You could tell early on that it was going to be a good night for him. He was painting the corners with his fastball and then mixing in his change up. The Nats hitters were totally guessing all night. When he finally did break out the curve in the 6th that was the final nail in the coffin. Just an amazing pitching performance, especially in light of the fact that Nationals starter Jordan Zimmerman was perfect through 5.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Not a fan of this.

Couple of surprising things to me so far, one welcome, and one unexpected. The lack of extra base pop, just 43 long hits so far is unexpected. And while early, Victorino seems to have regained his switch hitting stroke. His career was pretty consistent from either side of the plate, but last season he only his around .230 against right-handers. This season he's hitting .308 with both of his homers off right-handers.

Something else surprising, although not strictly Phillies related, is the starts of Cleveland and KC. KC has been last or next to last in the AL Central for most of the 21st century, and for the last few years Cleveland has been right there with them. They're a combined 24-12 so far. Now if someone in the East could only step up and challenge both New York and Boston. 1993 was the last time both missed the post season. And with the news of expanded playoffs, it looks more and more likely that both are likely going to continue as perpetual playoff teams.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Phils win 3-0 tonight over the Padres. The win is nice, but can we please score more than 3 runs in a game...PLEASE!! Unfreakingbelievable. They left a dozen runners on base tonight, and other than Francisco's solo shot the middle of the lineup has been a total joke. Howard struck out 4 times tonight and grounded out weakly. That's just not good enough. Oswalt was dealing tonight and good stuff cuz if this team gets behind there really is not much chance they can come back. Utley can't come back soon enough.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

...but can we please score more than 3 runs in a game...PLEASE!! Unfreakingbelievable.

Hey at least we aren't the Padres. That is one inept offense. Nice to see Philly pitching throwing shutout innings, but these guys look like they'd have trouble scoring against an AAA lineup.

Blanton's last start was a keeper, so hopefully a guy who struggles often in the early going is starting to round into mid-season form.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Hey at least we aren't the Padres. That is one inept offense. Nice to see Philly pitching throwing shutout innings, but these guys look like they'd have trouble scoring against an AAA lineup.

Blanton's last start was a keeper, so hopefully a guy who struggles often in the early going is starting to round into mid-season form.

Blanton pitches well tonight, going 7 complete with 8 hits, 3 walks, and 3 K's giving up only 2 ER's. He doesn't get the win though as the "offense" can only muster 2 runs. Phils won in 11, but this is beyond pathetic. They have not scored more than 4 runs in a game now since beating Atlanta 10-2, and that was 3 weeks ago.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

It really is a treat watching Roy Halladay pitch. Guy goes 8 2/3, giving up 4 hits, 1 ER and striking out a career tying 14 Padres. I'm not even going to complain about the offense which for the 13th game could not muster more than 4 runs, getting only 3 today.

Victorino hit a an inside the park HR today which is always cool to see. Mayberry played for Ibanez in left, something I think I'd like to see more of. With regular at bats Mayberry should offer the Phils a lot more punch at the plate and Ibanez is hardly a defensive whiz, although he's been much improved since coming to the Phils. I think it's time to move on, especially with this being Raul's last year anyways.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

I think the old adage is that the offense is always a little behind the pitching for the first few weeks of the season. I have no idea of the historical data backs up this, as baseball is full of similar adages, some true, some not.

I think the Phils lineup and offense has been overrated for the last couple of seasons anyway. I think our running game is not the same as it was in 2007-2008, and with Lopes coaching on the other side of the continent, it probably is what it is anymore. We still wait around for the big extra base hits to score runs. But, we've made do with that approach. Having a great defense (the Phils have been the most fundamentally sound defensive team in the NL now for years), a potentially effective starter each night, and a manager and coaches who know how to use a bullpen mean we're in almost every game. Given enough at-bats, it seems those big hits eventually rocket off someone's bat.

But yeah, it would be nice to see these guys beat out a 15 or 16 hit game sometime soon.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

The past two days Phils starters Cole Hamels and Vance Worley have gone 15 of 18 innings, given up 2 earned runs gone 3 for 6 at the plate, including a triple and 2 singles and have scored 2 runs.

Oh and by the way the offense has double digit hits in both games and put up 15 runs.

The bullpen resembles an episode of MASH, Ruiz is hurt and they are 20-9. Pretty good start, but they hit a tough part of their sked as they now start playing a bunch of teams with winning records. It'll be interesting to see how they respond.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

The hot topic on Philly talk radio seems to be once Blanton gets back on the mound, begin shopping him and give the 5th spot to Worley. I don't think the Phils are even considering going this route, at least not yet, and not in light of Blanton's strong starts his last couple of times out. At this point, especially with that M*A*S*H* unit for a bullpen, you have to wonder if they think they could get good innings out of Worley in relief. If they strictly seem him as a starter he's ticketed back down once Blanton comes off the DL, which should be in time for his next spot in the rotation.

I think it is downright fantastic this team had 20 wins by May 4th and the best record in baseball with the fairly significant injuries they've dealt with. It is amazing what happens though when you get a quality outing just about every night from your starting pitchers.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Well, we're going to go into the dog days with the best record in baseball, as well as the biggest lead in any of the 6 divisions.

I'm also on record as feeling the Pence trade was a better deal for this team right now than any that could have been made for Beltran. We need his right-handed bat in the lineup. Beltran, while normally pretty much the same bet from either side of the plate, this year has been much better from the left side. He certainly has more home run pop as a righty, but the rest of his numbers pale in comparison. Pence will prove to better balance the lineup, and serve as a better 5th place hitter, I'm guessing. Amaro deserves credit for making what have pretty much been the right moves the last few years at or near the deadline.

This team seems to have most everything in place to win. The only question mark is if the bullpen can be used effectively. Our starters will limit the innings needed out of Madson, Lidge, Bastardo and the rest, but there have been a couple of stretches this season where the 'pen has struggled to be effective as a unit. Fortunately, I think the manager and coaching staff have always been underrated when it came to utilization of the arms in the relief corps, and they'll get an effective effort out of them more often than not.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

I'm also on record as feeling the Pence trade was a better deal for this team right now than any that could have been made for Beltran.

The results are certainly bearing this out so far. Phils are 5-0 since the Pence trade while SF is just 2-5 with Beltran in their lineup. Beltran has also failed to score or drive in a run in 4 of his 7 games there while Pence has either scored or knocked in a run in all five of his games in a Phils uniform. Small samples yes, just a dozen games worth of stats, but a good start for Pence here nonetheless.

It'll get interesting now as the Phils are in San Fran for a 4 game series, and they have the extra challenge of Giant pitchers being a little upset with comments Manuel made recently. Should be a fun weekend. Not expecting miracles and would be happy to see the Phils play well and earn a split.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

The Pence trade was a far superior trade for several reasons. One he doesn't have a bum knee. Two, he is under contract till the end of the 2013 season where Beltran is a FA at the end of this year. And third, the Phils gave up really nothing for him. Cosart is a few years away from the bigs, and is way way down the depth chart. Singleton was never going to play for the Phils as he's a first baseman and Howard is signed long term. Due to his defense, Singleton will probably wind up being traded to some AL team and become a DH. Besides his clutch hitting so far (moon shot HR tonight and clutch 2 out single in the ninth to score Victorino), he's paying dividends for Ryan Howard. Howard is already seeing more fastballs since Pence started hitting behind him.

Ya, this team is gonna get scary good now. Oswalt is due back this weekend, and they will finally be completely healthy, something they haven't been all year. 72-39, and they have now won 7 straight, putting them 8 1/2 up on Atlanta. Should be good times on the south side, let's hope they remember to save some for the playoffs.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: 2011 Philadelphia Phillies - If you liked H2O, you're gonna love R2C2

Ya, this team is gonna get scary good now... Oswalt is due back this weekend...

Oh yeah, scary good. Scary, scary good. One of the best regular season editions of a Phillies team I have been around. And the 'pen should be good and rested tomorrow for Oswalt's return, having watched 2 of the 3 games without any of them needed.

Getting a chance to see them in person for the first time since the '09 season in 2 weeks against the Nats. Never been to a ball game in Washington. Although for a Phils game it ends up being CBP South. A little note to any of you who may want to visit DC and take in a ball game, I got 2 tickets for nearly 40% off by typing the coupon code VISITDC (all caps) on their ticket website. I was surprised it worked for a marquee game like a weekend Phillies game. 2 tickets, all fees, $53.00. Would have been $80 without the discount code. Not too bad.