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.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are....

I think it is due time to grill Freddy Garcia. Out of all the offseason acquisitions I was most excited about Freddy Garcia. He was supposed to be our ace. And it was pretty cool because he was joining a staff of previous aces... which is better than a staff of never-were-aces, right?

We were on board to have Freddy Garcia, a perennial innings eater with 12-15 win capabilities. Garcia made 33 starts last year and won more than half of them. The White Sox Freddy Garcia is good.

He's made 7 starts this year and has only managed to win one. The Phillies' Freddy Garcia is not good.

So Freddy, I don't want to hear excuses about not being pitched enough and just let me pitch, blah, blah, blah... if you pitch well through 5 innings, you'll pitch in the 6th. Period. If you keep your pitch count down. You'll pitch in the 7th. Period. If you're mowing them down like Cole Hamels', you might pitch the 8th. And if you're really on par, you'll pitch the 9th. Until then, just get us through 5, kid... okay?

You have exactly 2 quality starts in 7 attempts. Let's not complain about staying in the ball game just yet. Cole Hamels has that clout, not you... not yet.

Here is how the 7 games break down.

About 5 innings per start. Garcia, you've yet to make it to the 7th inning. Maybe tonight is the night. Please show us why we brought you here.

Considering 33 starts, which is a stretch, Garcia is on pace to finish the season with a 5-14 record, he'll pitch 174 innings, and have 146 Ks (this stat isn't bad..its about his average). But he'll be about 40 innings shy of what we'd expect. Over 30 starts, that's more than an inning per start lost.

Enough is enough.

Freddy, I'll reason with you. We know you are a competitor. You have 9 postseason starts... of these you've won 5 to only 2 losses.

5-2 with a 3.11 ERA is nothing to shake a stick at... that's really good. So we know you have the fire to compete. Now go out there and do it... We want the Freddy Garcia the White Sox had. That guy was good.

"I need you tonight... 'cause I'm not sleepin... there's something about you [Garcia], that makes me sweat!"

Starting Pitching Heads Success

Fresh off a successful 7-3 homestand, we have a day to recuperate and reflect on our recent accomplishment. A few things come to mind. First, we don't have Ryan Howard in the line-up, who's about ready to return from the DL shortly.

Second, is that our regular performers, really haven't been our regular performers. According to We Should Be GMs,

"...the Phils lineup has been slumping lately, with Rowand (5-24), Victorino (5-24), Rollins (5-32), Utley (1-11), Burrell (4-19), Helms (2-14), and Ruiz (4-22). collectively that's 26-146 for a pitiful .178 batting average..."

It is pretty pitiful. These numbers were posted before Sunday's game.

So what then is the reason for our recent success? For starters, it's the starters.

Remember all the complaints from the beginning of the year about how our starters were good on paper, and how they weren't performing... well, I think this kind of talk will be muffled for a little while. Our starters are keeping us in ball games.

Despite the fact that we've been see-sawing back and forth the last few games, W-L-W-L-W, we have still put up an impressive 8-3 record in our last 11 games. (I'm including 11 games in our recent up-surge, instead of the 10 games of the homestand).

The biggest reason for this 8-3 record is our starters. Here are the numbers.

We have definitely been getting Quality starts (QS). According to baseball statisticians, a quality start is awarded to a starting pitcher who completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. Incidentally, the QS statistic was invented in 1985 by John Lowe, who was a sports writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Of the 11 games, we had 8 quality starts. (Garcia was very close to another with 5.2 inn, and 2 ER).

A few other things have skewed these statistics... for example, Lieber's 8 innings with 1 ER ended in a loss. Bad luck. And Eaton's 7.2 innings with 1 ER on the next night, was nullified by a blown save which the Phils eventually won, taking another win from the starters. So that 5-3 record, could very easily by 7-3.

Here the breakdown of wins for each starter in this stretch. (Phillies' record is in parentheses), and then there ERA's over these games.

Moyer 1-1 (2-1) 8.10 ERA
Hamels 2-0 (2-0) 2.40 ERA
Garcia 0-1 (1-1) 3.85 ERA
Lieber 1-1 (1-1) 2.40 ERA
Eaton 1-0 (2-0) 0.66 ERA
____________

Starters 5-3 (8-3) 2.63 ERA

PS - It appears as if Jaime Moyer is about to go into a slump. His last two starts, he's accumulated 9.2 innings and given up 12 ER.

Freddy Not Ready; Don't Sweat It

Freddy Garcia left yesterday's game with tightness in his bicep. Though this is never a good sign, but don't sweat it. I'm encouraged by the fact that we still have Jon Lieber around.

I've said time and time again that we should keep 6 starters for something like this. I was predicting a Cole Hamels back spasm or a blister of some sort early in the season, but I didn't predict this.

Despite Garcia's injury, all is not lost. We're not sure how long he'll be out, and we have a serviceable replacement. We are in a much better situation than we were last year in the fact that we still have 5 quality starters that many teams would love to have.

What this injury may do is increase the urgency to trade Aaron Rowand. With the youth on this team, and the lack of leadership from Burrell, I think someone like Rowand is needed. What's funny about this statement, is that Rowand is only 29 years old. This says a lot about the future of this ball club.

Lieber is not 29. Jon Lieber is 36. It's ironic that 36 is also the number of donuts Lieber eats the day before his scheduled starts. Lieber is a veteran and will undoubtedly provide leadership for this ball club. As will Jaime Moyer. The oldest of the other four starters is Garcia at age 30. Amazing youth on this ball club.

Lieber has already shown leadership in the fact that he has graciously accepted his role in the bullpen. He's expressed his desire to start, but has not made a stink about losing that status.

I'm disappointed," Lieber said. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I'm going to do it for these guys in here, but I think I can still start. That was my mind-frame this offseason, to better myself. I signed here to be a starter."

Keeping Lieber around turned out to be a good thing. Here is what I see happening. Garcia is out for a few weeks. Lieber takes his spot in the rotation, but not as the #1. Myers is now our opening day starter. Garcia will return, spend a few days in the pen, and then will be inserted into the rotation. However, I think he'll replace whoever it is that is struggling. If Lieber has a desire to start, now is his time to earn his keep. If he goes 3-0 with a 2.43 ERA, then we'll leave him be and replace someone else.

This injury is a bad thing, I'm not downplaying that, but I the situation is definitely more manageable with the presence of Lieber.

Pitchers and Catchers Report!

On this grand day when 3 very special words mean so much... there are still some where 4 words mean even more than those 3.

Pitchers and Catchers Report!

See the full report on the Phillies Web site.

But wait there's more... Utley, Burrell and Rowand have all reported as well. How about that? They're eager to start the season... they're eager to play. Just as we're eager to see them play.

Aaron Rowand, Chase Utley, Scott Mathieson, Jamie Moyer, Pat Burrell, Ryan Madson and Geoff Geary, filed in over the past week. Early!

Chase, who is fresh off signing a well deserved $75 million dollar contract and is a newly wed, says that "It's important to start early, You can get the soreness out that much quicker."

It will be our first time to see Freddy Garcia, Adam Eaton, Rod Barajas and Antonio Alfonseca. It's reason enough to pick up the Inquirer or The Patriot News and read about the Phils with your morning coffee.

Ladies and Gentlemen...The Baseball Season is upon us...