Phillies Nation

16 Responses to “With 1 Pitch, Happ Dominated Yankees”

1. T Marty Says:
   May 23rd, 2009 at 11:16 pm

   Duh! that’s not at you Tim, it’s at the Phillies brass. What you said is what i thought we’d see. He is the deal.

   And i know you all have your opinions about the closer role, i’m not gonna say it, coz i don’t want to argue, but. 08 was 08, without even saying it, i think you’ll agree with me as the season unfolds…

2. Mike Says:
   May 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm

   Agree! Don’t think they need to trade for pitching—only if Moyer completely melts down, which I think is doubtful. Happ should get a chace to be a regular starter.

3. joshb Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 12:13 am

   We’ll see how he does in the coming weeks, but he was great tonight for sure. Mayberry too, love the traditional no love for the rookie HR.

4. Bruce Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 12:28 am

   I wish to offer some positives from today’s tough loss to a red hot Yankees team (won 10 of last 11) that had their 4th walk off win (including 3 straight against Minnesota last week). They have already an incredible 17 comeback rallies this season. There is no shame in losing to this team in their home park. Despite the loss, the Phillies are 7-2 on this road trip with Hamels going tomorrow vs Sabathia. Their season’s record on the road is the best in the majors with a 15-6 record. Phillies, despite the distractions, injuries and bloated ERA of their starters in rotation, they managed a 23-18 record, good for FIRST place in the NL East.

   As for individual performances in today’s game, first and foremost is JA Happ’s impressive six inning effort. He was cool and confident under pressure and did not allowed Jeter’s HR off his fastball rattled him. If Tim Malcolm is accurate in counting 61 fastballs of 75 pitches thrown by Happ, that’s 81% and suggests a little luck against professional ML hitters that have a natural ability to hit a fastball. ML pitchers that rely exclusively on fastballs, no matter how overpowering they may be won’t last long in the majors. All good pitchers must have a repertory of pitches to keep hitters off balance. Happ’s ability to spot his fastball and keep it low (Jeter hurt him when he got it high) in the strike zone obviously benefited him today.

   As hitters in the NL eventually get a second and third look at Happ, we can hope he will be able to adjust by using his repertory of pitches and changing speeds with command and location.

   And that Tim “is the mark of the talented pitcher”.

5. Bruce Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 1:12 am

   While the new addition to the rotation gave us an impressive first start in a pressurized cooker called the Yankee Stadium (already a record 82 HRs flew out of the park), there is a growing concern for our closer in the bullpen. There is nothing wrong with Lidge’s slider which is still potent and nasty as shown with his strike out of the hot hitter, Mark Teixeira in that fatal 9th inning. As a matter of fact, A-Rod couldn’t do anything with that slider (six straight thrown) and smartly waited on a fastball and you know the end result. The problem appears to be his command and location of his fastball. It’s still strong at 95-96 MPH but can’t spot it low for strikes. The question is growing as to why he has lost command of his fastball. The layoff excuse (from knee inflammation) is wearing thin today. Lidge had time to address the problem of refining his command of the fastball. Are those three blown saves (including one today) affecting his psychic? That shouldn’t be the case for a closer that abides by the need for a very short memory. After all, he had career year last year. A perfect year that concludes in getting the last out as closer to win the World Series Championship. Personally, I’m wondering if he is compensating some way to prevent another occurrence with inflammation of that knee. A slight alteration of delivery in pitching? That would be the pitching coach’s responsibility to take notice and I haven’t read anything about it.

   Because of his great accomplishment last season, Lidge should and will receive the respect and time to resolve his issue(s) by Manual and Dubee. And I agreed with Manual’s post game’s comment that Lidge made some good pitches (notably on Teixeira with sliders) and credit should be given to a great hitter in A-Rod waiting on a fastball. After all, these are the Yankees.

6. Desi Relaford Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 1:16 am

   Hey, I don’t think I have seen any of posts about this. So I am not sure where to post it. Has anybody here been to the new Yankee Stadium? I just got back. And I was majorly disappointed. My girlfriend said it all, “It looks like the Vet with a new paint job.” It seems like they set out to make an improvement on the stadiums built in the late 60’s and 70’s with out taking into account all of the stadiums built in the pask 15 years.

7. Ped Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 1:36 am

   boo brad lidge

8. goosebumps Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 4:37 am

   i just had the scariest dream where brad lidge blew a save…phew!!! glad its only a nightmare!!!

9. The Dipsy Says:
   May 24th, 2009 at 9:24 am

   Geez Tim, are you and Happ going steady? j/k You’re positively gushing over his performance. I thought his fastball looked heavy when it got inside, which is of course a good thing. I’m concerned about a lack of an off speed pitch. Something that really slows down. Now we have three lefties in the rotation. Yuk. I was heartened to see him pitch well.

   Oswalt 20:1
   Bedard 13:1
   Garland 11:1
   Cook 9:1

   The Dipsy

10. mikemike Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am

    That’s what I was trying to figure out. location happ was around 90 with that fastball for four inning, that I watch and he was real good, that isn’t overpowering speed, it has to be location in the zone to me. So if lidge’s fastball isn’t in good spots, and he can’t get his slider over he is not going to be successful. They right now are laying off the slider, last year they were going after bad sliders, because lidge was strike one strike two and they had to look for anything,

11. The Dipsy Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 9:33 am

    This is what I think. RE: Lidge. He did keep his fastball down last year. So if his fastball is down you have the hitters looking down because they have to be on guard for the low fastball. Then the slider comes in and they swing. Much easier to lay off that pitch when fastballs are coming in up in the zone. Rodriguez did a fantastic job of laying off of those sliders yesterday. Thats why he’s great. He made Lidge throw him his pitch.

    The Dispy

12. mikemike Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 9:51 am

    The Dipsy the reason he is great is he has great eye hand cordination. that is what steriods does for you. I have seen many studies and doctors talk about it. To compare it so people can understand how someone with this has a advantage. Ted williams when he went into he service had unbelievable eye site, they said he saw the spin on a pitch almost like slow motion. That is what steroids can do. and what makes me mad, and maybe because I remember mantle and mays play, is these guys are getting records for being cheaters, and the guys who played day games in the heat, and set records are being replaced by guys who need to cheat to accomplish the same feats. And baseball knew it but was more concerned with attendance, not the intergrity of the game. That to me is sad.

13. Corinne Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am

    Desi Relaford, I had the same flashbacks to the Vet while at the new stadium yesterday. I think the exterior of the stadium is absolutely iconic and fantastic, but the interior is terribly unfortunate. There are narrow passages, poor sight lines with a restaurant protruding out of center field and blocking the bleacher seat views, I mean come on. I was disappointed by the original Yankee Stadium and remain disappointed with the new one. I’m a traditionalist, especially when it comes to baseball, but with all of the fantastic new stadiums being built the Yankees really should have gotten over themselves and made some actual improvements. The old Yankee Stadium was like watching baseball in a prison with rich history, the new Yankee Stadium is like watching in a renovated prison.

14. Dbens Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am

    One point that I think has been overlooked:

    The positive of having Chan Ho Park working the rotation for a quarter of the season is that Happ’s innings totals for the year are going to be kept down.

    He hasn’t even come close to 200 innings in the minor leagues and it would have been too much to have him as a starter for the whole year. I would worry about injury and arm damage.

    The only good thing about having to sit through 5 horrible Park starts (7 total starts) is that at least Happ is going to be fresh come crunch time in August, September, and hopefully october.

    I wonder if the Phillies brass felt better about letting Chan Ho start the season because of this.

    By the way, I think Park has a good shot at being a great long man. In a lot of his starts, the first time through the line-up he did great, but it was when the second or third time through that the batters adjusted and he did not. Last year, in the NLCS, Park’s stuff looked nasty and the Phils seemed like they had no shot at getting a hit. I think that some people forget Park’s upside as a solid reliever, and write him off. My prediction is that by September, Park is a trusted 6th-7th inning guy, with the possibility of the 8th.

    I like the idea of taking failing and mediocre starters and putting them into the bullpen as long relievers. It seems like it has been a Phillies special these last couple years. They have been trained with the pitches to get out guys on both sides of the plate, and are not as one-dimensional as LOOGY’s or ROOGY’s. Madson, Condrey, Durbin, and hopefully Park have seen success doing just that.

    On another note, I read a statistic on ESPN that 80% of the benefit’s of steroids stay after the user has stopped. That means that even if A-rod stopped three years ago, the dude is still a god d*m*ed cheater. You never know, but I feel like the Phillies are the only elite team in Baseball where you haven’t heard any steroids rumors about any of the active players. That makes me happy to be a Phillies fan.

15. Phillies Phan SC Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    All in all, there were positives yesterday, although, the negative overshadowed any positives becuse, heck, we lost. Truthfully, I am not sure what to do.

16. Mike D. Says:
    May 24th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    SC, I’m more pissed about this loss than I am at us losing to the Mets. Probably because I was at work and knew we were winning and then learned we lost. F*** you for not going on the DL Lidge. We need you there to rest your knee and get healthy. Come on, dude.

    I was really happy hearing Happ threw for strikes though. And really happy that Mayberry made the Yankees pitching look foolish.

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