Its Official: Carlos Ruiz Has Earned It!!!

Carlos Ruiz has proven time and time again that he is not the future catcher of this ball club. He is the catcher of this ball club... NOW!

Carlos Ruiz's bases clearing double in the 4th inning of tonight's ballgame was enough to make me stop preparing for my wife's birthday and run to my computer to announce this news.

I have no idea why Rod Barajas still gets playing time. Every time Carlos Ruiz starts, he performs. He stole home tonight... that's the first time in 10 seasons a Phillie has stole home. (Scott Rolen was the last to do it in 1997).

Currently Ruiz is hitting, .273 with 6 HRs and 36 RBIs. And this has been done with Barajas stealing about 80 of his ABs... getting about 15 starts too many.

To Manuel's credit it appears as if he's getting it. It does seem like Ruiz has been playing more and resting less. Next year I expect Ruiz to play in 140 plus games. None of this 110/50 game split. Ruiz is our starter, Ruiz is a gamer...

Ruiz has earned it!

No ifs, ands or Barajas....

Fish Stories: The One that Almost Got Away...

"Joe, you should have seen this whopper. He must have been 200lbs., and he was 6 feet if he was an inch... He was a fighter too... He almost got away. His line snagged on a rock and I couldn't free it. So do you know what I did? I jumped right in there and grabbed him myself... Yep. And then we ate him for dinner that night, and put the rest in the freezer for later."

The Phillies almost let one get away tonight. Myers got our big catch snagged on the rock, but luckily Abraham Nunez was willing to jump in and save the day.

The game was a see-saw battle. Garcia pitched okay. He still didn't make it to the 7th inning, nor was he too keen on keeping the Phillies in the lead. He relinquished two leads. However, the last several innings were exciting to say the least.

Now, because I'm still in Atlanta (moving in 10 days back home to Philly), I can only listen to the game with MLB Audio. So I can't make a comment on the play at the plate... but it doesn't matter now because we won the game. But my summation is that Barajas is at fault for dropping to his knee and then standing up to make the tag. If the throw beats the runner, the catcher shouldn't have a problem making the tag, unless they do something strange. And according to Larry Anderson, the ump was in no position to see the play and probably should have called him out... regardless.

Good win.

The Last Phillie To Get a Hit Award; Or How I was Rod Barajased into Submission

Congratulations to Rod Barajas, who was the last Phillies position player to record his first hit. He accomplished this feat last night in the first inning, slugging an RBI single to score Wes Helms.

The hit, a screaming-slow-roller to deep shortstop, could only be knocked down by the Astro's Adam Everett. Apparently it was too hot to handle.

Barajas started the season 0 for 10, which isn't bad for a backup catcher with no arms.... oh, what? Barajas has arms? Then the 0 for 10 is awful.

I take back everything I said in my 2nd ever PhilliesChronicles posting when I stated that Barajas was a welcome addition to the ballclub and added a "Good Job Gillick!". That comment makes me cringe, and actually throw up a little bit in my mouth.

"I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back." -- A little Goonies for you..

Rod Barajas Kind of Sucks. To see how much he sucks, check out the Tiny Mistake's posting about the analysis of Rod Barajas' Suckage. (i think i just made up that word...)

I want Chris Coste. Phellow Phillies Blogger, Von Hayes #9 has a good posting about Chris Coste and the raw deal he got. A good read. He makes some great points.

The english translation of Barajas means 'to shuffle'. That is what I'd like the Phillies to do... shuffle the roster a little to get rid of Barajas.

PS: And please don't hate me for being optimistic about this guy many months ago. I take it all back. I'd rather Steve Lake, John Russell or even Sal Fasano.

The Backwards K

Did this really just happen?

Aaron Rowand and Rod Barajas just capitalized the Phillies loss to the Astros tonight by striking out looking in the bottom of the 9th.


Where's the aggressiveness? Where's the urgency? I can't believe I just watched two major league ballplayers head to the showers because they decided not to swing.



This losing thing is getting old.

I'm worried about Brett Myers' wife tonight. If she's smart she's staying at a friends house tonight. Myers didn't look real strong tonight.

Phillies Trade Conine, Acquire Barajas

To shuffle. That is the english translation of Barajas. To shuffle, or to mix it up. This is exactly what Gillick has done with the signing of Rod Barajas. Our newly shuffled Phillies lineup is now a little more confusing.

First, we got rid of Conine. All the reports throughout the winter had Conine penciled in as our right fielder, right? And I wasn't complaining. Conine has always been someone that will perform. Past his prime but still quite capable, I'm sure Conine knew his role on the team and would fit in nicely with Utley and Howard doing the bulk of the work. This obviously isn't the case.

Second is the odd man out, Chris Coste. Last year's feel good story of a 33 year old rookie who finally made it, and performed superbly down the stretch is now, just another story. I'm not sure if the plan is to keep Coste around as a third catcher and use him to pinch hit. If it is the case, it is not real efficient. He does play some first base right? So maybe he's our utility guy, and our pinch hitter. I hope he sticks around, he seems like a Philly type of ball player. The type of ball player the city will love as long as he's wearing red and white.

And finally, where does this leave our outfield? Burrell, Rowand and Victorino from left to right respectively. OK. That is not that bad. I guess we did kind of have a log jam out there. And I guess this means Burrell is with us for a few more months. I think we can put up with that for a little while longer. We have Ryan, Chase and Jimmy to fill in the holes.

And now finally, Barajas. Yes, he's a name I knew. It was few years ago with the Rangers when I remember seeing his name amongst league leaders in HRs and RBIs really early in the season. He's a free swinger who hits the long ball. It appears that he's a 20 homer, 60 RBI guy. In the friendly confines of Citizen's Bank Park, that could easily be 25 and 70. Not bad. Good job Gillick! He's also here as a mentor to Carlos Ruiz, our catcher in waiting.

Let's see how it works out.