In Defense of Uncle Chuck

As players and managers prepare sleeplessly for the Grape Fruit League, the Phillies find themselves facing legitimate expectations. In order to meet these lofty goals, bean-counting management has again provided Charlie Manuel with a patchwork lineup. Expecting more than five innings out of either Jamie Moyer or Kyle Kendrick is wishful thinking. And as for [...]

Brad Lidge: I’m Gonna Straight Up Murder Your Ass

And I quote myself exactly ten days ago: “The only person with a real health issue is Brad Lidge who had off season surgery…but who needs a closer?” Ha…ha…ha. Of COURSE the Phillies couldn’t have an injury or drama free camp. With the first pitch, THE FIRST GOD DAMN PITCH HE THROWS OFF A MOUND, [...]

i asked, chase answered

phillies beatwriter todd zolecki recently invited his blog-readers to submit questions for his sitdown Q&A with chase utley. yours truly submitted a question. not only did zolecki choose my question, it was his favorite… Question: There are two cages over a pit of lava and both are descending. In one cage there are blueprints for [...]

Howard satisfied with arbitration ruling; allowance stays the same

Chalk up a victory for Manchild in the courtroom today, as he took the Phillies to the cleaners in arbitration for ten MEEEEELLLLIIIIOOOONNNNN DOLLLARRRSSSS. I for one am happy for him; the Phillies substantially low-balled him last year in doling out a paltry 900k for his services, all the while he stood firm in believing [...]

Statistical Fielding Heaven: Jeter worst SS, Utley amazing 2B, Mets below average…WAIT, WHAT!

In my daily read of FireJoeMorgan I came across this bit o’ gold New York FencePost CBS Sportsline SAFE: Spatial Aggregate Fielding Evaluation The last link is the official one of the study and contains all its math and numbers and don’t read it for too long or your head will explode oh my god [...]

National League MONSTER SQUAD

If I were to make an uber team of NL talent this year (and I’m not saying All-Star team, I’m talking well rounded team with role players not just huge contracts, *cough* Yankees) this is what it would look like. Mind you, I believe this is based on what they will do THIS season, not [...]

Just Kidding Kyle, Your Life Isn’t Ruined

So yesterday, Kyle Kendrink found out that he was traded to a Japanese baseball team, the Yomiuri Giants. The video shows him sitting stunned in his chair in Charlie Manuel’s office. His cheeks are flushed and he has a look of, why would they do this to me? in his eyes as he signs the [...]

Carlos Beltran: ‘I have balls’ – Rest of Mets: ‘Nope, not here’

Seriously, guys, grow a pair. As one of four teams (Tigers, Diamondbacks, Mariners are the others) that has made a change by acquiring one of the top players in the MLB, the Mets have a right to expect a definitive change for the better over last year. In fact they have a responsibility to back [...]

Quick Phils Snippet

With the Flyer’s doing a fantastic job of ripping my heart out the past week, thankfully the Phillies pitchers and catchers reported to camp yesterday to temporarily distract me. Quick thoughts: 1) Ryan Howard surprised everybody and showed up early to camp, amidst a contract mini-feud with Phils GM Pat Gillick. This sends a good [...]

Special Valentine’s Day Article: Misremembering the Women in Our Lies

Can you imagine the conversation between Roger Clemens’ and his wife before the testimony on Capitol Hill? It was certainly a surprise, to me at least, that Clemens’ would find it plausible that the public would believe his account of the steroid use in his family. Maybe if he denied it one thing, but I [...]