Phillies Show Interest in Blanton

According to the Inquirer’s Jim Salisbury the Phils seem to have interest in Oakland A’s starting pitcher Joe Blanton.  This year Blanton is sporting a 5-12 record with a 4.96 ERA this season. Sounds like another crappy pitcher that’s already in our rotation.

This move does not seem to help us in any way shape or form.  Your smarter then that Mr. Gillick.  There are a lot better options out there than Blanton. He’s struggled in Oakland this year, one of the best pitchers parks in the league, please explain how’s that going to translate to Citizens Bank Park?

In other Phillie News: Brett Myers’ next minor-league start will be Friday night in Florida for single-A Clearwater at Brevard County. The plan is to have Myers join the Phillies the next day in nearby Miami and return to the starting rotation July 23 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.

Mets by a Hair

I thought the Phils game was over for sure.  Switched to Lockup: Raw on the Discovery Channel (crazy stuff by the way) once we were down 10 – 1 in the 6th.  Anywayyy, the Phillies made a miraculous comeback last night only to fall a hair short to the New York Mets. 

Adam Eaton was back to his lowly ways allowing 6 earned runs on 8 hits in a whooping 2.2 innings pitched.  A Fantasy STUD if you will.  Mmm, can you smell the sarcasm?

And to think we still had a chance to win thanks to the homeruns by Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard and Geoff Jenkins.

God I love this team.

Cole Hamels takes the hill tonight at CBP versus the St Louis Cardinals and Joel Pineiro

Phillies Predictions

Record/Standings
Steve – 91-71, 1st place NL East
Brian – 96-66, 1st place NL East, this is our YEAR
Chris – 89-73, 2nd place NL East, 2 GB NY Mets, no playoffs

Primetime Pitchers
Cole Hamels
Steve – 19-4 2.97 ERA, 219 Strikeouts
Brian – 19-8 2.75 ERA, 207 K’s
Chris – 21-5 3.33 ERA, 234 K’s will lead the National League in Strikes and W’s, will have 12 wins at the all-star break and will be NL Starter, will be the only Phils starter come September that is able to pitch more then 5 innings per start.

Brett Myers
Steve – 17-6 3.43 ERA 203 Strikeouts
Brian – 18-7 3.23 ERA 186 K’s
Chris – 5-3 2.18 ERA 43 Saves 115 K’s.  Myers will start the regular season 4-0 with a 1.15 ERA and on a cold blistery night in Denver in late April, Myers will pop his groin and be forced to goto the 60 day DL. 

Some Bold Predictions
Steve

• Pat Burrell sets career highs in HR and RBI. Burrell finally is putting in the work to turnaround his career. He got a taste of winning and worked hard all off-season to improve his game. Throw in the contract year and the fact that the Phils lineup should provide ample opportunity and Burrell continues where he left off the second half of last season.
• Chase Utley wins the National League MVP. Not too bold since he was on pace last year to win it before he got hurt, but having 3 straight Phillies win MVP’s would be insane. I think he will hit around .340 and lead the National League in Batting Avg. (How could ownership not go out and add a front line starter next off season with 3/4 of the infield yielding the last 3 MVP’s. C.C. Sabathia anyone? I had to make that last part very bold since the beginning was weak)
• The Phillies lead the league in scoring. They score over 900 runs and have Howard lead the NL in HR, Rollins in scoring, and Utley in Avg.
• They have 4 players hit more then 30 HRs (Utley, Feliz, Howard, Burrell). They have two players over 40 Stolen Bases (Victorino and Rollins).
• The Phillies are AT LEAST 4 games over .500 by the end of April.
• Charlie Manuel successfully completes over 35 double switches.

Brian

• Johan throws at J Roll’s face.  J Roll ducks out of the way just in time but takes the ball off the back of the helmet.  He rises and points his bat at Johan and utters, ” You filthy piece of NY Shit.” Johan retaliates by signalling with his arms in Jimmy’s direction, “Bring it on.”  This in turn sparks a bench clearing brawl at Citizens Bank Park, which spills over into the stands and Phils fans start a serious melee on all Mets fans in attendance.  It will go down as the biggest fight in US sports history as every Met fan there (besides women and children) are brutally beaten.  204 victims, 3 dead. 

Chris

• With Myers on the DL for 2 months, during that time the Phillies will go from starting the season 15-5 in their first 20 games into a complete tail spin through May and June. The injury to Myers will be just the beginning of the crumbling of the pitching staff. Kyle Kendrick has a stint on the DL, the replacement team of Kris Benson, and the Durbins Chad and JD, will not work. Tom Gordon’s arm will finally fall off, and one Brad Lidge will have to under go season ending knee surgery in the beginning of May.
• Leading to bold prediction number 2. Brett Myers will come off the DL and back to the Pen. Once again out of necessity, Bretty Myers will have 50+ appearances out of the bullpen ass the closer converting 43 of them into saves to lead the NL in that category as the Phils will go on a torrid 2nd half tear only to fall 2 games short of the Mets as Myers will blow the save on the second to last day of the season to the lowly Nationals.
• Geoff Jenkins will have more HR’s then Pat Burrell.
• Jayson Werth will have more HR’s then Pat Burrell.
• Shane Victorino will have more HR’s then Pat Burrell.
• Jimmy Rollins will lead the NL in doubles, triples, SB’s, and Runs scored, and will come in 2nd in the NL MVP voting to Alfonso Soriano of the NL Central winning Cubs.
• Carlos Ruiz will NOT get any better at speaking English.
• Adam Eaton will go 15-11 pitch 180 innings and will have a respectable 3.99 ERA.

Spring Training Gets Under Way

Aaaaah as we sit here in the middle of a winter in the Northeast, we can all warm up a little bit by thinking about how our Philadelphia Phillies start the defense of their 2007 NL East Division Title, as pitchers and catchers reported yesterday.

There is not much at stake this spring training for the Philadelphia Phillies, only a couple of middle relief decisions, maybe a # 5 starter spot up for grabs. This spring training is more about working the kinks out, staying healthy, and gazing at the trimmer, 20 pound in the pants lighter, Charlie Manager.

The Phillies top 4 starters are set; Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Kyle Kendrick, and ageless Jamie Moyer are in the rotation. The # 5 spot seems to be Adam Eaton’s to lose, which we all know he is very capable of doing. He will be one of the few guys to really take stock in his spring performance as last years rookie call up, JD Durbin, has been “told” he is still in contention for a starting spot. Barring a complete melt down (again) from Mr. Eaton, he should be the number 5 starter to begin the ’08 season.  With the newly acquired Kris Benson waiting in the wings in Triple A, hopefully Eaton gets his act together and earns his paycheck this year.

As for the bullpen, it will be nice to see newly acquired closer Brad Lidge impress during spring training. It’ll also be interesting to see how Tom Gordon comes back from an injury riddled 2007, and see if he can once again become the dominate set up man he was for Mariano Rivera. The bullpen consisting of; Ryan Madsen, JC Romero, JD Durbin, Matt Smith, and Scott Mathieson, will soon fill out, and we will get to find out what we are working with this year. With 4, probably 5 spots open out of those Madsen and Romero are locks, with Smith and Mathieson all but anchored in. Look for Durbin to start season in AAA, being the first call up due to injury by either a starter or reliever.

The line-up is set with maybe the only battle being in right field.  Will it become a straight up platoon with newly acquired Geoff Jenkins and Jayson Werth based on pitching match ups, or will one player be able to rise above and set themselves apart as needing to be the everyday starter? Other then that, everyone will be looking to get their timing down, getting in shape and staying healthy for opening day.