Quad Blogs

The trade deadline is in the books and a few things are certain.

Ruben Amaro did his job and was able to commit baseball robbery by trading two players who will never be major league contributors (Donald and Carrasco), an 18 year old who already has a tired arm (Knapp), and a catcher who might be a major leaguer but never a star. Cliff Lee won’t win 22 games this year or be considered for the Cy Young but Hamels, Lee, Blanton, Happ, and Moyer is the best rotation in the National League, hands down.

The Red Sox have a great lineup by injecting Victor Martinez into the heart of it. I suspect an injection of Martinez should be the adrenaline needed to make the Red Sox even, if not greater then the Yankees.

Jake Peavy is a member of the White Sox, for real this time. The White Sox should be very proud to make an impact by reeling in a battered top-of-the-rotation arm who has a 50/50 chance of pitching again this season. Kudos, your roster hasn’t changed, I still see the Tigers winning the division.

Speaking of the Tigers they added Jarrod Washburn from the Mariners. Considering Washburn has been mired in Seattle where the Mariners are allergic to competing I have heard this name mentioned a million times before in potential deadline moves. I was beginning to think Washburn didn’t exist but his departure from lattes and rain proves his existence, but I doubt it matters; the Tigers win the Central with or without Washburn.

Scott Rolen is heading to Cincinnati in exchange for a struggling Edwin Encarnacion and a handful of prospects. Not sure why the Reds would pick up Rolen’s contract (22 million this year and next) while they are stuck in limbo, not quite a playoff team but certainly not ready to sell off all their big contracts.

Speaking of Rolen’s former club, they at least got rid of one big contract. However, they will receive absolutely NOTHING for Halladay when he opts out of his contract. So instead of getting at least J. Happ and a handful of not ready for primetime players, J.P. Ricciardi will watch Roy Halladay exit for greener pastures and the Blue Jays won’t even have a Cy Young pitcher to hang their hats on, they will just be a mediocre team that acts as whipping boy for the Yankees and Red Sox.

How can I describe J.P. Ricciardi’s childish wheeling and dealing that hasn’t been said already. His trade proposals made as much sense when the Eagles were shopping Donovan McNabb around. Their asking price, 3 first round picks. That’s like saying, “I’m willing to sell my $300,000 house, just offer me a million and it is yours.” Ricciardi’s adolescent, selfish haggling puts him in my book with other terrible GMs like Ed Wade (you can never have enough middle relievers when your entire lineup is hitting .240) and Steve Phillips (Handing over Jason Bay and also tried to hand Reyes over to the Indians for Roberto Alomar).

So the Phillies settled for a very passable plan B by bringing in Cliff Lee, which you won’t hear any of the Phillies faithful complain about. Happ is still a part of the rotation and Drabek can continue to keep our hopes up.

Speaking of the Phightings, I hate to sound like a pessimist but I smell a slump that hopefully our newly acquired ace can dig us out of. The Phillies are doing the usual things that come with mid season slumps. The first thing, they are not scoring the easy runs. During the loss to Arizona, the bases were loaded with no one out in a two run game. The Phils got none. Then the following night it was 2-1 when Jimmy Rollins led off the inning with a double and a steal of third. Unfortunately Utley struck out, Werth popped out, and Howard hit a dribbler.

Maybe I am overreacting, maybe small ball isn’t important, but I can’t help but be concerned.

I will make sure to catch Lee’s debut in San Francisco and hopefully it will quell my concerns for the time.

Firsts things first, congratulations to Mark Buerhle for his perfect game Thursday afternoon. Absolutely spectacular to see a guy his age go out there and mow down one of the youngest and most talented lineups in baseball. There is something special about shutting down a slugging lineup like the Rays that is more impressive then if someone no-no-ed the Padres.

This ‘blog’ is being blogged while I watch the Phillies play the AAA affiliate from San Diego in a make-up game. Oh wait. Does their hat say San Diego Padres? There is no way this is a major league team I am watching the Phillies handle, but I guess that is to be expected from a Padres team that really does not care.

Anyway, back to Buerhle. During the Phillies game they showed a clip of the clubhouse watching Buerhle’s masterpiece, including the immaculate and timely snag by Dewayne Wise in centerfield (definitely the play of the year, way better than Murphy’s behind the back toss because of its timing). Watching Scott Eyre and Clay Condrey jump around the clubhouse like little kids unwrapping an Xbox 360 on December 25th made me envy not being around enough baseball fans in my life. Not only is baseball these guys job but they are also fans. I wish I could get paid to have fun like that, but oh well.

I guess it is inevitable that I will give in to all the Roy Halladay hype and talk a bit about one of the best pitchers in baseball and the hopes that he may finish the season in red.

If anyone is going to snatch Halladay in the Blue Jays’ wholesale makeover of the team at this year’s deadline it will be the Phils. The minor league roster has plenty of coveted prospects and J. Happ’s value will never reach this height again.

For those of you out there that think a young lefty like Happ is not worth giving up, either you don’t understand baseball or your dealer gave you some extra wacky stuff for your pipes. No pitchers can survive as two pitch pitchers when one of those pitches is an 88 MPH fastball. He might be great this year but eventually the dedicated players around the league (obviously this qualifier eliminates the Mets) are going to watch enough tape to figure him out a bit. He may be a solid number 3 for Philadelphia, or, God willing, the Blue Jays someday but Roy Halladay is a Cy Young candidate every year.

If the Phillies and Dodgers were to play another best of seven for the Pennant then the pitching match-ups would most likely be Hamels/Billingsly – Happ/Wolf – Kershaw/Blanton. On paper, those match-ups are fairly even. However, throw in former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay out as your number two pitcher and the Dodgers will have to go through two aces two times if they hope to move onto the World Series. Blanton and Moyer could both be at their worse and the Phillies would still be a heavy favorite in this series.

So here is this one man’s opinion and that is all this statement can be considered.

Ruben Amaro needs to get this done.

I know that all Phils’ fans will be watching for Kyle Drabek and he might be a formidable ace in the big leagues at some point in his career but for me, that will be ok. This is the second best pitcher in baseball (in my opinion, only slightly behind Lincecum). Try to keep Michael Taylor if possible and make the deal and watch the rest of the N.L. tremble.

So with that being said about the potential blockbuster to bring the Doc to Philly it is time to talk this week in baseball.

The Phillies remained hot out of the All-Star break and became the first team in years to win their last 5 before the break and their first 5 after. The streak ended at the hands of the Cubs (with an assist to Chad Durbin) at Wednesdays matinee. Thankfully I missed the performance because I was at work watching pitch for pitch on my technologically inept Nextel phone. However, my thoughts, and most likely the rest of Philadelphia’s feelings can be summed up by a text I received from my brother once the game slipped away.

“Chad Durbin makes me want to punch babies” – Dan Schmidt. Very delicately, and accurately, put.

Speaking of our weak bullpen, Chad “I want to punch babies” Durbin and J.C. Romero will be heading to the D.L. leaving room for Tyler Walker to step in, something anyone who read Saturday’s blog knows I am happy to see. Andrew Carpenter will also return to the bigs and take over mop-up duty out of the pen.

There was also good news that Bret Myers may return in August, well ahead of schedule, following surgery to repair his torn hip labrum. This is great news, especially if the Phillies can land Halladay or another top of the rotation pitcher. Bret Myers can be that right-handed arm out of the pen I am dying to find going into September, and hopefully October.

Perhaps I should stop writing this because Cole Hamels is starting to get beat around by the AAA Padres. A home run by Kyle “.190” Blanks has made this a one run game and all the positive vibes I released into Microsoft word is beginning to shift horribly in the opposite direction. I am starting to curse at Howard for his hole-filled swing and I was riding high going into this blog tonight, so I am going to wrap it up before cynicism overcomes my better judgment.

At the Lionville YMCA there was a week long camp in which young children, ages 6-12, were taught the basics of baseball. I watched as kids learned how to run under a fly ball, even though they still didn’t understand the concept of catching the ball. I watched them swing through the ball on a tee. While working on throwing the ball to first base they made the catch Scott Smalls and his stepfather having a catch in the beginning of the Sandlot look like Shane Victorino throwing a line to Ruiz; nailing a runner attemping to score from second. That being said, would these kids feel insulted by Tim McCarver trying to explain the game of baseball to them?

Would even these rookies with plastic gloves shake their heads solemnly at comments like “”Well, David Eckstein, like most of us, has 20 digits. Ten fingers. Ten toes,” “Pitching is such a vital part of the game, as far as winning is concerned,” and “There is a world of difference between a count of one ball and two strikes is a lot different situation than hitting with two strikes and one ball.” Keep in mind these are all real comments made by Tim McCarver. If anyone out there reading finds themselves bored or in my case, needs to put off studying for a few hours, may I suggest going to shutuptimmccarver.com. Yes, that is a real web site filled with quotes actually said by McCarver during a live broadcast.

I think that FOX is attempting to do to baseball what VS. is doing to the NHL. As a matter of fact, I am going to make “VS.” into a verb. I am going to send this to Webster’s and see if it sticks. VS. (ver-siz) v.: to sabotage a professional sport by making it nearly unwatchable. Symptoms include announcers with no knowledge of the game, advertising campaigns that spark no interest in the game, and highlighting things no one cares about.

This actually leads me to have to ask myself the question: How is it that I am working for next to nothing at the YMCA while my student loans are reaching a dollar amount that Pacman Jones would actually spend at a strip club while Tim McCarver is saying things like this on television. I mean this is FOX, the television station that carries the World Series, network’s go to guy in the booth. I am sure that without any broadcast experience I could use my baseball knowledge to be a better color guy then McCarver by light years, yet he’s making the big bucks while I am forced to buy Giant brand everything at the grocery store to save a few dollars per trip. And people ask why I am so cynical.

Speaking of cynicism I wonder what Tyler Walker is thinking right now. The 33-year old right-hander pitched in 11 innings while acting as a fill in for Phils relief pitchers on the DL and maintained an immaculate 1.64 ERA. Walker quickly became a guy good ole Charlie could bring in to get some right-handed bats out and was not just a converted starter that had nothing better to offer than to eat up some bullpen innings.

Speaking of converted starters, Walker’s spot was taken by Clay Condrey, the same Clay Condrey that a few months ago was getting ahead of Blue Jays hitters 0-2, before allowing a run parade to assure that the Phils Interleague record would rival the Natinals (if they can’t spell it right on their jerseys than I will not give them the respect to spell it right here). Well now Condrey is back on the team, lurking in the bullpen for a chance to prove he is a glorified AA pitcher while Tyler Walker can go back to the minors and continue his torrid season with 1.40 ERA at Lehigh Valley.

Life isn’t fair sometimes.

Now to get to some positive notes. The Phillies are on a seven game winning streak going into Saturday’s night game in Florida. The starting rotation has finally come into its own, even if Cole Hamels still has me chewing my nails down to the knuckle during his starts. Don’t tell me that you think he looks ok on the mound, this is a guy who torched every team he faced on the way to a World Series MVP, allowing 5 runs to the laughable Pirates lineup. It is not acceptable. However, even with Cole making things nerve-wrecking at times we still have the bullpen settling in as well, including a few reliable guys who made it possible to come back after Cole’s tough outing. Who was the winner of that game again? A guy who shut down the Pirates in the 9th to allow for the big time comeback. Oh, Tyler Walker.

The bullpen is going to be a problem down the stretch, mark my words. When you still see guys like Chad Durbin and Clay Condrey pitching innings with the game on the line, there is going to be issues.

One more final question for anyone out there reading to ponder while I get ready to go see Harry Potter with the fiancé. Is there going to be a point where we cheer for the Mets to win games against our closer competition like the Marlins and the Braves. The Mets have gone from slumping to jumping out of a plane without a parachute. At some point this season the Phillies are going to hit a snag of their own and the Marlins will make a push for the division. With that being said, do we cheer for the Mets to steal some games from the kids in Florida or continue to revile them?

E-mail me at KS609536@wcupa.edu with your answers or anything else baseball/Phillies. I will give you my answer when I am back sometime next week to shed some light on the world of the MLB.