Did the White Sox Do Us a Favor?: Welcome "Gooch"

I'm impressed in the quick turnaround in finding a replacement for the injured Chase Utley. I'm impressed that it is a legitimate major league starter and not a glorified minor leaguer. We have, Tadahito Iguchi, who is suitable. Obviously, you can't replace Chase Utley. Unless ofcourse, we get Rogers Hornsby, Joe Morgan or Jeff Kent in his prime.

But I can't help but think that the Whitesox were doing us a favor.

The story goes that the Sox were looking to give a young rook more playing time and looking to dump salary. But I don't buy it. I really think the Sox felt a little guilty about the Freddy Garcia deal. They knowingly pulled a fast one on us in dealing a less-than-perfect Garcia, not to mention the lopsided deal we gave them in the Thome deal when we needed to make room for Howard. Granted we did get Aaron Rowan in the deal, but lets face it... Thome for a bunch of guys was like trading Charles Barkley for Jeff Hornacek, some scrubs and guy named West.

The bottom line is the Phillies proved that they don't want to die. They replaced Utley with someone who could help us. We're still going to give it a shot. That says something. Though I have a feeling this is the biggest deal we'll see as the deadline approaches.

UTLEY UPDATE - The Utley injury doesn't seem as gruesome as it once did. What was once 6-8 weeks has now turned into a possilbe 4 week stint. All the doctors on the radio are saying that a bone takes about 3 weeks to heal. From there, you have to take into account grip strenth, pain tolerance, and how well the bone has healed. Utley had surgery yesterday. Given his good health and his high tolerance for pain, he might just pull a Terrell Owens and be ready weeks before the Average Joe. I think we all know Utley is not the Average Joe. So send your get well cards to the Philliies c/o Chase Utley, and hope that Kendrick and Durbin are man enough to step up and perform.

PS - Last year Iguchi hit .281 with 18 homers and 67 RBIs, in 138 games. They are not Utley numbers, but serviceable nonetheless.

Phillies Lose Utley; Playoff Hopes are Dim

Is it just coincidence that a day after the virtual ending of the Phillies season, marked by the loss of Chase Utley to a broken hand, starts the beginning of the Eagles' season?

We can now take our focus away from the guys in red and concentrate on our men in green. Sure we can still check the box score, or watch Comcast sports night to see how far Howard's latest bomb went, or even tune in for the entire game when "The Man" Cole Hamels is pitching... but we won't have to allocate 100% of our passion on the Phils anymore. Their season is done. They've lost their most consistent player in Chase Utley who was putting up MVP type of numbers.

We can now turn our attention the Eagles training camp which starts tomorrow. Tune into my Eagles Blog, to see all of my thoughts on the Birds.

One thing that is going to upset me about Chase Utley's injury... is not the fact that I'm thinking about what could have been. Or not that Chase could have set a record for RBI's as a second basemen, or was on pace for an amazing 60 doubles. But what will upset me the most is now, when the Phillies don't make the playoffs, the Phillies management will use the Chase Utley injury as an excuse. Another excuse as to why the team failed and that our team was good enough. But let's face it. As well as we've been playing lately, and as much as we know in recent years that this is a second half team, we realists can understand the Phillies are a tease and were not going to make the playoffs.

This will now serve as another excuse to leave Charlie Manuel around. Another excuse for Dave Montgomery to use when he's asked about not spending money. And another excuse that Pat Gillick will use about not having the tools to work with.

PS - I don't know what you've heard... and I didn't see the game. But I don't think the kid Hannan was intentionally trying to hit Utley or Howard. He had Utley down 0-2, and was still in a winnable ball game making his major league debut. Howard was hit on the first pitch. But immediately after hitting Utley, why would you then throw at Howard? I can't imagine Ryan Howard showboating after a homerun, or doing anything that would warrant a bean ball. And I can't blame the Nats manager for getting tossed for defending his pitcher. Good work.

Chico and The Man

It is only fitting that Cole Hamels pitches on Cole Hamels Bobble Head night. The last time the Phillies gave away a bobble head, it wasn't a bobble head but rather a hula dancing Shane Victorino. On that night, Shane Victorino hit the game winning walk off homerun in the 9th.

If Cole Hamels hits the game winning homerun in the 9th tonight, then it will be a game for the ages. But we're not expecting Cole to do that. We're hoping he's not hitting in the 9th.

Tonight's starters were Matt Chico and The Man, Cole Hamels. Chico is 0-5 on the road this year, while The Man is 10-2 at home in his career (6-2 this year). Things look good for The Man.

After pitching a gem and losing 1-0 in his last outing, I think Hamels needs to come out and just pitch well. Our offense is working on all cylinders right now, and we'll only need to score a few to give Hamels (The Man) some room to work with.

It's nice to see the Phillies put another streak together. This team is too good not to make a run. We have too much offense to continue to lose. Many think we're a few pitchers away from being a legitimate contender.... and with the trade deadline, coming the Phils still haven't made a move, and we're still not sure whether they are going to be buyers or sellers.

My thoughts, are that we do nothing (i know... that stinks doesn't it)... do nothing... offer Rowand the money he deserves, take the money we'll save by getting rid of Lieber, Garcia and Burrell and sign every top tier pitcher we can get our hands on. We won't fold the season right now, but we can play the odds and keep this nucleus and use the offseason to build on it.

Pessimist vs. Optimist: Phillies Mid-Season Report

At 44-44 the Phillies have done a fine job of staying even. Depending on whether you are a half-empty or half-full kind of person, will influence your feelings on how this season has turned out thus far.


The Optimist would say that the Phillies lead the National League in runs scored with 456 (26 in front of the second place Brewers).


The pessimist would say our 4.91 ERA, which is last in the national league would even that out... and it does.


The optimist would say, our pitchers are hurt, and the slop we're throwing on the field is expected to have close to a 5 ERA.


The pessimist would say, the organization knew the bullpen was "exposed" and any injury would set them back.


The optimist would say that a 44-44 record is good considering the injuries to Freddy Garcia, Jon Lieber, Tom Gordon, Brett Myers and Ryan Howard.


The pessimist would say that the Phillies are much better than 44-44 on paper and are under performing.

The optimist would say that the Phillies are a second half team and are bound to make the playoffs one of these years.

The pessimist would say that the playoffs won't happen under this organization, because they settle more mediocrity.

The optimist would say that we'll dump the salary of Lieber, Garcia and Burrell in the off-season, freeing up money to sign some pitching.

The pessimist would say we've never signed a decent pitcher.

The optimist would say there's a lot of baseball left to play.

The pessimist would say, 15 days until Eagles training camp.

I'm on the fence..... E-A-G-L-E-S.... EAGLES!!!

Ricky Jordan

I don't know why but Ricky Jordan will always have a place in my heart. He is just one of those Phillies players I took a liking to as a kid.

We mimicked his unmistakable, unorthodox batting stance when playing wiffle ball. His stance was a little open, with his arms in the air, waving the bat ever so slightly. (kind of like Kruk) You might think a stance like this would be easy to find a weakness, considering the distance the bat head would have to travel to make contact.... but he, like Kruk was always known for having a good bat. Unfortunately Jordan was often hurt and never truly had a shot to be the Phils everyday first baseman for more than one season. In that season he batted .285 with 12 HRs and 75 RBIs... that's pretty good production... that's Rico Brogna production.

Aaaahh.. there was a short time when all Phillies fans let out a sigh of relief and thought that Ricky Jordan and Ron Jones would lead us to the promised land... but it was not meant to be.

I can also recall Jordan always chewing bubble gum and would often do so open mouthed. When in the field this gum chewing would cause his temples to move unlike any other ballplayer.

I think we all remember the homerun in his first official at bat followed by his excellent rookie season. To this day, I still think he should have won rookie of the year over Chris Sabo. Consider these numbers.

Sabo - 538 ABs, 11 HRs, 44 RBIs, .271 avg., 46 SBs

Jordan - 273 ABs, 11 HR, 43 RBIs, .308 avg, 41 Runs

Granted, Ricky Jordan didn't have 46 stolen bases, but he did have the same amount of homeruns and RBIs with half as many at bats... that has to count for something.

Cheers to Ricky Jordan who seems to be happy and healthy living with his family in California. The Phillies website posted a good story about him....

Congratulations to our Phillies' All-Stars!

The 2007 season was one that started with a lot of optimism. Not since the signing of Jim Thome has the city been so excited about the boys in red and white. And for good reason.

The end of the 2006 season brought many positives to the franchise. The Bobby Abreu trade seemed to bring new life to the Phillies as they nearly played their way into a playoff spot.

The offensive prowess of the middle infielders (Utley and Jimmy Rollins), and the amazing play of the National League MVP Ryan Howard was enough to give you goosebumps... but wait... there's more.

The off season brought in 17 game winner Freddy Garcia... we resigned veteran Jaime Moyer who helped lead us in August and September. The Phils added proven starter Adam Eaton and seem to have a logjam in the starting rotation... so much that many were calling to trade some of the excess.

Cole Hamels' rookie performance was good enough to impress even the most fair weather of all Phillies fans.

We were "the team to beat" in the National League... or so Jimmy Rollins would have us believe.

Unfortunately, things happen. Injuries happen. Slumps happen. Bad trades happen. Barajas happens. And when things happen, it throws plans out of whack... this is the story of the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies...

But... let's look at the bright side. We have 3 All-Stars. Congratulations to Chase Utley, Aaron Rowand and Cole Hamels. With a nod to Jimmy Rollins, you all deserve to be there. I have no doubt that Utley, Howard and Hamels, will not be making All-Star break vacation plans for years to come. And Jimmy will make his appearances now and then....we're privileged to have all for of these guys on our side...

3 All-Stars is a good showing.... 4 would have been nice... but 3 is great.

Remember the days when the Phillies would have the obligatory, All-Star players? You know, because every team must be represented? That is when we had something to complain about.... when Kevin Gross and his efus pitch was our All-Star.

To make us feel a little better about our recent slide... let's remember some of those obligatory All-Stars... at least from my generation.... because I have no idea who Ken Raffensberger is!

1996 - Ricky Botallico

1990 - Lenny Dykstra

2003 - Randy Wolf

1997 - 1998 - and although well deserving.. Schilling was our lone representative.

1991 - John Kruk

2000 - Mike Lieberthal

Let's be thankful that we have a handful of perennial all-stars on our team and hope that the front office will surround this core with solid role players to do something with....

Congratulations to Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and Aaron Rowand.

Phils Low on Pitching Options: Need to Trade

With 29 days until the trading deadline, an unfortunate series versus the Mets and an ailing pitching staff the Phillies need to make a trade if they intend to contend until the end.

The Phillies have had 6 pitchers make their major league debuts this year. Here is the list of newcomers; J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick, Joe Bisenius, Zack Segovia, Michael Zagurski and Yoel Hernandez, all made their big-league debuts this season,

Additionally, the pitchers have just called up one Anderson Garcia, who will be the 7th big league debut on the mound this year for the Phillies. He will also be the 25th pitcher to pitch this year inching closer to the record of 27 different pitchers from the 2002 season.

The bottom line is... we need pitching help.

Rumors are circulating that some teams are interested in Pat Burrell. Undoubtedly, to deal Burrell the Phillies will have to pay part of his salary. Considering he makes $14 million, I would gladly deal him and pay up to $7 million this year and next to open up the roster spot. That $7 million could be used to bolster next year's starting rotation. Burrell could be dealt for pitching.

The recent play of Micheal Bourn will make this transition easier, not to mention add even more speed to the Phillies lineup. Rollins and Victorino at the top and Bourn at the bottom. Very nice.

Another option I would not put past the Phillies is the trading of Aaron Rowand. I was an advocate of keeping him on the team when the Phillies faithful were shouting for him to be traded. I pleaded with Gillick to give this club house leader and ultimate gamer a chance to prove his worth... and he has. He's even been selected to the NL All-Star team. He'll accompany the well deserved Chase Utley and Cole Hamels. But, with Rowand's recent success, it begs the question do we trade him for the future? If we were take advice from an old investment maxim of buy low and sell high, it would be the perfect time to put him on the block... and I wouldn't put it past Gillick... though as a guy who enjoys his play, I hope he sticks around and Gillick finds other options...

The recent call up of Chris Coste makes Rod Barajas expendable. And Coste's homerun on Friday makes you wonder what he's been doing in the minor leagues all this time, while Barajas flirts with Mendoza. The Cubs could use a catcher...

Given Pat Gillicks history, something will be done.