Phillies Nation

25 Responses to “Phillies Drop Wet And Wild Series Finale”

1. Tim Malcolm Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

   There’s always one of these games each year, where Mother Nature disrupts the pace and tosses the game around. The Phils were caught in the wrong end, and their slop end of the ‘pen wasn’t effective; meanwhile, the Jays were just effective enough.

2. joe Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

   With Kendrick only going one inning, do they move him up to # 4 and drop Eaton to the 5th spot?

3. Mike T. Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pm

   Sound teams win these type of games.

4. Greg Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

   can you give the Jeltz award to our ugly-ass, stupid white alterno-retro uniforms? Have we won in them yet?!!

5. JUAN BELL Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

   We beat the New York Muts and the Giants in the alternate sunday uniforms!

6. Matt Says:
   May 18th, 2008 at 10:25 pm

   I had seats 3 rows off the 3B dugout today.. thanks Phillies for not calling the game and wasting my $50! Cheap bastards

7. chrism Says:
   May 19th, 2008 at 12:01 am

   we had that wild comeback agianst the nats for our first win after being down 6 mil

8. Phillies=2nd Place Says:
   May 19th, 2008 at 2:04 am

   flyers really got crushed tonight. I guess Philadelphia is kind of a poor man’s Pittsburgh, what with the Steelers and Penguins actually winning meaningful games. At least you can pretend that it hasn’t been 15 years since the Phillies last won a playoff game. Thats not a long time. when was the last time Phillie even won a championship? what a pathetic sports city.

9. Lewisauce Says:
   May 19th, 2008 at 4:23 am

   Hey, “2nd place,” go f*ck yourself. Or better yet, go ahead and kill yourself. I could use a second orgasm today.

10. VA Steve Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    LOB, thats all you need to know. ONE key hit would have resulted in a W for the Phils. Playoff caliber teams do this, are we there yet?

11. Geoff Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    Yesterday just showed how badly the phillies need more legitimate pitchers. the blue jays just went out and said: oh hey guess what? were going to win because we have roy halladay, so F you because you cant do anything about it.

    tahts basically what their manager said. Now Halladay is out of schedule but the jays can afford to do that because of their pitching depth.

    the hillies have no starting pitching depth at all, its so pathetic how the ownership wont spend money on QUALITY guaranteed pitching. their bullpen slop is worse than anyone elses bullpen slop. their back end is great too. but their starting depth is woefully inadequate for a major league team. their overall a decent team, but they dont stink.

    if the ownership was interested in a championship they would spend money on quality pitching. because despite what all of the bootlickers say, they can afford it, otherwise they wouldnt be owning a professional sports team. they have tons of money stashed away that theyve gladly taken from us since they built that money making machine of a new ballpark. wheres that at now? why dont they invest that in quality starting pitching? why dont they invest it in cole hamels or resigning their top talent?

    it seems they do just enough to be good and get us to spend our money at the ballpark, but not enough to be great and win a championship. sometimes i definitely question their motives.

    stop it with the we cant afford it BS. just go get the pitching you need.

12. Mark Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Granted, the rain, but sum it up two ways;

    Charlie stayed with Durbin long enough to get burned and,

    they’ve got to be able to get dum-dums like Barajas out.

13. Lewisauce Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Geoff, I’m with you. Spend the dough, get the arms. The money excuses don’t hold water in this town. We’re not small market, and everyone knows it. Ownership, however, believes they can keep selling us those lies.

    Unfortunately, it will continue once Amarsehole/Arsebuckle take over. Ugh.

14. Geoff Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    I agree, Amaro/Arbuckle are ownership lapdogs who will roll over and do exactly what theyre told. Yeha I like how they sell that: this is not new york or chicago. NO, its Philly, the 5th (houston is larger in population, or at least it was) largest city in america. they act like theyre scraping together peanuts to run this team. its a sick joke. i dont care about their little fake limits anymore. this has gone too far. its time to win a championship in this city. this is the best-equipped of the 4 tems in this city as of right now to get it done and they still have a long way to go to get their pitching to where it needs to be. they need to ADD to the payroll at the trade deadline to have a realistic chance at this. i want TWO starting pitchers (a number two and a more reliable back end guy) and TWO bullpen arms (condrey and either madson or seanez need to be improved upon) AND a better 5th outfielder that charlie can actually use at the plate or in the field (sorry So’s gotta go). Thats what I think theyre missing. thats five players.

    I will not accept any excuses for not acquiring these players by trade or signing or by calling up someone from the minors that will fit into one of those roles well. There is no more “well, maybe next year” with this core of players. go out there and get the job done. give this team what it needs.

    i think most people would echo the sentiments expressed by myself, lewis, and many others.

15. Tim Malcolm Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 11:13 am

    Geoff: The Phils could’ve thrown Cole Hamels out there (Sunday was his day to throw) but elected not to, fearing possible injury. It’s May 18. The Jays took a very stupid risk throwing their best arm out there.

16. Geoff Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I agree they shouldnt have had to do it. Say the Phils did it with hamels and he got hurt, there would be a fan revolt. if hallday got hurt yesterday, well they still have aj burnett and shaun marcum who you can rely on. without hamels, the only other guy i trust out there because i know what he gives is kendrick.

    Im not defending the move to put hallday in, but its something you can get away with if you have some depth at the starting rotation.

17. Mike T. Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    I had written a huge post, but decided to delete because of all of the ignorance and dislike shot my way yesterday.

    Good teams have good pitching. The Phillies do not have good pitching - therefore, “The Phillies are not a _____ team”.

18. Geoff Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    The reason I disagree is because I break it down farther than just that. Im obsessed with pitching, but I break it down into Lineup, Starting Pitching, Bullpen.

    The lineup/offense needs some minor tweaking in terms of personnel.

    The back end of the bullpen has been getting it done for the most part.

    The starting pitching is terrible overall.

    Theres two out of three passing factors overall, so theyre not “bad”.

    however. in order to do damage in the playoffs and win a world series., a team must have adequate personnel in all three of these things AND must have them all working in concert at the right time of year. Theyve been missing the third ingredient for years now and it has caused me to question the motives of ownership.

    that starting pitching element is so glaringly bad and vacant in three spots in the rotation that its is maddening.

    i just dont think that a team becomes BAD because they miss one of those three elements. were talking about a team thats five players short of a championship. two bullpen arms, one bench bat/5th outfielder, two starting pitchers. (id say three but there is no chance in hell theyre going to fix that this year)/ thats what they need to win.

    if they dont make every effort to go out and get those elements, then the ownership DOES NOT WANT TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP.

19. Mike T. Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Geoff, I agree with you about 90% of the time. The only thing I disagree with here is that you have equally divided the three aspects of a team - giving them equal importance.

    If you want to use percentages, it would be more like:
    50% Starting Pitching
    30% Offensive Lineup
    20% Bullpen

    Starting pitching wins Championships. So if the Phillies are missing that huge aspect of their game, and their offense continues to be as inconsistent as it has, we don’t have a chance.

20. Lewisauce Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Mike T., I hope you don’t stop posting ’cause some people call you negative. I call you negative, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make good points. It doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re talking about. It certainly doesn’t mean that you are a “moron” or “just trying to get attention.”

    I’m not trying to bash anyone, but there’s a line between good-naturedly giving out to someone, and personal insults. I hope people can understand the difference between bashing Mike T.’s opinions and bashing Mike T. His posts are open game. I’m just a plebeian poster on this site, but I’d like to think that the overall culture doesn’t stray toward calling each other names. (MASSIVE CAVEAT: Non-Phils fans who stray in here and insult us first, like that Pittsburgh asshole above, are fair game for a personal rectal shredding.)

    Shit, I can’t believe I posted all that. I’m the least-morally righteous person I know, and I’m grandstanding.

    Anyway, on to the pitching: 50-30-20, I dunno know about that. I don’t wanna assign numbers to it, but I’d go closer to equal thirds. That said, the bottom line hasn’t changed. Our starting rotation is not up to championship caliber, and we’ve got a little over two months to fix it. But will ownership take the necessary steps? (I’m still hoping they’ll surprise us.)

21. Mantooth Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    interesting that team defense is not even included in your calculations, pretty sure that’s important

22. geoff Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    yeah i kind of assume that a professional baseball team can play good defense. the phillies have been ok so far but they can be better defensively.

    i dont put it out there as much because if yhou cant play defense then thats disgraceful. its assumed as part of being a big leaguer

23. Bruce Says:
    May 20th, 2008 at 12:54 am

    Lewisauce says to Mike T~

    “I’m beginning to think that, if the Phils were up by 26 runs in the bottom of the ninth with two out and “Lights-Out” Lidge on the mound, Mike T. would post something like: “There’s no way we win this game..”
    “Dude, relax.”

    I hope you don’t mind if I use your quote from a previous post, Lewissauce. I did refrained from name calling in my own posted reply to Mike T. I don’t resort to such childish behavior to make a point. I had pointed out that I and perhaps some others (yourself included?) wondered why Mike T incessantly used his one-liner as if in defiance with the words ..:” the Phillies are not a good team”… in almost every post WITHOUT once detailing in FULL his analysis (like Geoff so ably does in his posts). You say he makes “good points”. Well, since I’m fairly new here, I went to the archive for his past posts and unless I overlooked one, failed to find any detailed anaylsis of the team’s weaknesses and strengths. I put in a request with Mike T to do this so that I could possibly match his points with my own counterpoints. After all, blogging is not just about “venting” and “ranting”. It’s also an opportunity to have a civil discourse on opinions, ideas and info regarding the team on and off the field. Who knows? I might benefit from Mike T’s proclaimed knowledge of Major League baseball.

    BTW, to Geoff, defense does play an important role in determining the team’s success (or failure) to make the playoffs. There is an old adage that says that a team’s key defensive strength is up the middle (catcher, 2B and CF). Thank goodness for Utley and Victorino. Ruiz is a work in progress.

    Pitching (starters/bullpen)…. 50%
    Offense …. 30%
    Defense …. 20%

24. Lewisauce Says:
    May 20th, 2008 at 3:49 am

    Bruce,

    Good points. All I really want is impassioned, civil discussion.

    I’m with you, and I hope Mike T. reads this. The reason I encouraged him to post his long post earlier was because I too want to see his baseball knowledge. “This is not a good team right now” is a fine statement, but I’m looking for his reasons so that we can all have a debate on it. Not bash or champion it, but talk about it.

25. Geoff Says:
    May 20th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    I know defense is key and if you want to put it at 20% thats fine, but when these players come up to the majors I expect them to make those plays.

    pitching is 50 percent for sure. offense is fine at 30 percent. id go maybe starting pitching 35 bullpen 15 or something like that. ill go ahead and revise my previous statements going with that as acceptable.

    SO adding all of these numbers up, im interested to see how we can use this system, provided we can all agree upon one, to grade this team.

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