Charlie swaps out 6-7-8 hitters in tonight's lineup

Trying to light a fire under a slumping offense, Ben Francisco, Wilson Valdez and Brian Schneider will hit 6-7-8 and replace Raul Ibanez, Juan Castro and Carlos Ruiz respectively following last night's embarrassing 8-0 loss. Ruiz, in particular, has been struggling since spraining his knee earlier in the month. During last night's broadcast, Chris Wheeler alluded to the fact that Chooch has had his bell rung a couple of times recently and was banged up. This will be Schneider's first action since straining his Achilles on May 8. Francisco starts for the first time since May 18. This is also Wilson Valdez's first action since a brief demotion last week. In related news, Paul Hoover has cleared waivers, according to reports, and will rejoin the IronPigs.

Comments

[Bay Slugga]

Sounds like runs to me!

[The Truth Injection]

Either the bench needs starts to get themselves going or we just play the starters for 162 games.

God some of you people are just whiny cretins. If something gave me as much agita as minute things like this does- I'd stop watching it.

[GBrettfan]

They can't do any worse than the lineup of the past three days, and who knows, they may do better. Playing all the ex-Mets against their former team - if you include Figgy pitching last night.

[Old Phan]

I wonder if there will ever be a time when the bitching about Ryno will cease.
Yea, right.

[Heather]

Isn't this kind of like solving the pain in your finger by cutting off your hand?

If we've gotten to the point where we're RELYING solely on Ibanez, Castro, and Ruiz to produce offense, something is very very wrong.

[Old Phan]

Ruiz is banged up? That's a surprise.

[Greg V.]

I'd rather we just concede 6-9 as outs!

[Willard Preacher]

Ummm, isn't this the blog where everyone lobbies for the bench guys to get a few starts "to stay sharp?" Be careful what you wish for.

Oh, and this also improves that lousy bench issue we've been bitching about.

[HammRadio]

best way to improve the bench? bench utley, werth and howard. That'll fix ya...

[Reverend]

I am heading over to the game now. Free food and beer all night. It would be great if I didn't have to share the suite with all Met's fans.

[Bubba]

Glad Hoover cleared waivers- bet we need him again before very long with- our 2 catchers both have recent injuries.
We need to remember how to score runs , slumps are inevitable but hard to watch.

[donc]

Rev: Kind of like your mother in law going over a cliff in your new Corvette.

[bay_area_phan]

This feels like a loss.

[GBrettfan]

Wow, starting two hours before game time, BAP! Is that feeling based on the lineup, the fact that we are facing an unfamiliar lefty, our 5-7 record v. lefties, or our recent trend of losing?

[GBrettfan]

I just realized I listed 4 possible reasons not to feel optimistic about tonight's game.

But hey, that's why we play the games, as the proverbial saying goes. At least we aren't 0-12 vs. lefties. There's reason for hope.

[Sophist]

Howard will probably never be an old-time power hitter (understatement), but lost in some of this talk is the comparison I posted earlier:

06: .299/.351/.591, 3 2B, 0 3B, 14 HR - 13 BB / 42 SO (171 PA)
10: .299/.351/.486, 7 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR - 13 BB / 45 SO (191 PA)

through 43 games, Howard's BB/K, BA/OBP, and XBH% is right on with his 2006 start. There's an 100 point SLG difference, which looks big, but is just a few 2B for HR from being much smaller.

That year, the Phils also played the Mets in their 44th game. Howard struck out 4 times and walked twice. He went on to hit 44 more HR (22 2B, 1 3B) and .319/.448./684, including a stretch - well, his last 75 games - of .355/.509/.751. His K% in that time climbed to 32%. No one much cared.

Howards hitting more and more 2B every year. He was nearly a 40-40 guy last year. 43 games in

09: .257/.335/.537 (11 2B, 1 3B, 12 HR) - 19 BB / 53 SO

[Mr. Mack]

The offensive woes coinciding with Chooch's injury are no real surprise. When your 8 hitter (or 7 hitter, depending on who is playing SS) is at the top of the league in BA, OBP and other run worthy stats, your everyday lineup becomes that much more dangerous. All opposing pitchers have to prepare differently if Chooch & JRoll are healthy. Otherwise, the 7-8-9 spots become the dark hole we witnessed the past few years when Feliz was our 7 hitter and the pre-MVP Chooch was batting. During that time, we have all witnessed long stretches of offensive futility. This team needs to get healthy soon, or the rest of the East might think they actually have a shot at winning the division.

[curt]

Some might see this lineup as a desperation move, but with Ben Fran in there it really doesn't matter who the other 8 are. You can put this one in the win column.

[goody]

Hugh: How can you lump Killebrew & Mantle together? They both hit well over 500 HR, and both averaged 113-115 SO in a 162 game season. But Mick had a much higher avg. (.298-.256), OPS (.977-.884), and OPS+ (172-143).

[Hugh Mulcahy]

goody - simple, they both hit bunches of homers and struck out a ton. I wasn't making any larger correlation other than, in their era, strikeout totals for power hitters were climbing. Today, it's ridiculous when you try and compare. Ruth was the strikeout king and never struck out 100 times in a season. He and Bonds actually have very similar numbers in terms of rate of strikeouts and Bonds was rightly considered a relatively tough guy to strike out.

[Jack]

Prospect update: Former Phillie prospect Travis D'Arnaud is hitting .314/.368/.523 in High-A (Florida State League, which is generally considered a pitcher's league). He's also always been considered a potential plus defensive catcher.

[Heather]

curt: Ben Fran = VICTORY, eh? I know. Let's have Jamie Moyer play short stop and bat clean up, just to truly EMBARASS the Mets when we win 21-0.

[bay_area_phan]

GBRett: All of the above.

[goody]

Hugh: I thought everyone was also including high BA in the conversation, and I definitely remember the Killer's low BA. Had to check the stats to be sure. Not trying to argue, but I would lump Killebrew with Dave Kingman, not Mantle.

[bay_area_phan]

I think it's amusing how everyone breaks out the Dave Kingman analogy for every power hitter who hits less than .285. Kingman was a quintessential one-trick pony. He hit lots of homeruns, but had a career average of .236 and a career OBP of just .302. Killebrew had a career average of .256 and a career OBP of .376. One guy is in the Hall of Fame; the other was a journeyman who played for 8 different teams.

[curt]

D'Arnaud is presumably to guy we sold to the Jays for the $5 million.

[curt]

Ben Fran is more than a hitting machine. Ben Fran is quick. He could actually play SS and cover LF at the same time.

[bay_area_phan]

Another source of amusement: every time we are forced to demote some 3rd string player -- i.e., Hoover & Valdez this year, Miguel Cairo last year, Clay Condrey a few years before that -- Beerleaguer goes through all sorts of hand-wringing about how the guy will never pass through waivers unclaimed. And yet they always do. Could it be that maybe we vastly overrate the quality of our own garbage?

Nelson Figueroa is the latest guy whom we don't want to demote out of fear that he'll get claimed. Something tells me these fears will prove unfounded too.

[Old Phan]

Ben Fran is toolsy.

[goody]

bap: Thanks. I knew that post would get a reaction from someone. I remember the years when Kingman and Schmidt battled for the HR title. Some people actually argued who was the more valuable player.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

Kingman is hte shorthand for the strikeout machine power hitter. Sometimes you get a Rob Deer, probably from the younger generation. Gorman Thomas never gets any love (or hate) in that conversation. Maybe his average was too high.

[Old Phan]

That shows the lack of respect people had for Schmidt back then.

[Yo, New Thread]

Yo, Game Thread

[GM-Carson]

I'm a frontrunner. F*ck this team!

[Nicky G]

This is the ugliest slump in years. Kind of like watching McNabb throw turf-balls for 5 straight games and the coach drinking milkshakes. They still are my fightin' Phils and woe to the team that gets them when the jailbreak comes!