Broxton vs. Phillies: A life in pictures

Comments

[awh]

gobaystars, no one said w should have re-signed Burrell. By "haunt" I meant somthing like this:

Phils lose wild card to Giants by one game. If he keeps it up, Pat will have been the difference.

[The Truth Injection]

awh: I agree with you on Costas being the best call. He has always been my favorite national guy growing up. I was at a conference in college for broadcasting majors and he was the keynote speaker. Afterwards he hung around a little and I actually got to talk to him for about 15 minutes. We talked a lot about baseball and his passion for the game is evident even in that short amount of time. Good guy too.

Sophist: I'm not that invested in who had the best call of the night, but I think TMac held up because Werth held at second. I wasn't certain Ben Fran would score on that. I actually liked the fact that it was, "Phillies will tie...they might win." It had a nice little progression. Like I said, I like Franzke but that wasn't his best call and for one night he was weaker than TMac on a call.

My only problem with TMac's call was aping Mel Allen's "How about that," whether it was intentional or not.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

I'm glad Burrell is enjoying some success in SF. I'm not sorry they let him walk. Had they kept him, I don't think they would have won the pennant last year.

[Sophist]

TTI - TMac says "How about that!" all the time.

It's one of his things along with confusing transitions from commercial break, the "Is he going to X ... He Does!," calling 300 yard flyballs "pop-ups," as well as "and the inning ... is over" and drawing out words like "all" and "and" other vowels.

Clearly he bothers me cos I just did that off the top of my head.

[Hugh Mulcahy]

"300 yard flyballs"

Josh Gibson has returned from teh grave?

[Pete Happy]

Cooch-tober? Siempre Octubre!

[EastFallowfield]

One of the few things that doesn't annoy me about Generic Announcer Guy is calling balls hit high into the outfield popups. There are different types of balls hit to the outfield.

Anyway, KRod details:

The paper reports that the Mets closer started yelling about the most recent loss by the team and then Pena said to him, "Stop acting like a baby. Man up, and play better."

[Sophist]

Different contract situations, but

2009

Ibanez 77 games: .307/.368/.644
Ibanez 29 games: .167/.267/.275
Ibanez 28 games: .272/.364/.554
Ibanez NLDS: .308/.471/.385 (5 RBI)
Ibanez NLCS: .167/.211/.389 (1 HR, 4 RBI)
Ibanez WS: .304/.333/.609 (1 HR, 4 RBI)

Was generally unmentioned during Ibanez struggles this year how well he played in September and for much of the playoffs.

2010

Ibanez 12 games: .171/.294/.244
Ibanez 34 games: .284/.377/.477
Ibanez 31 games: .214/.276/.357
Ibanez 32 games: .353/.439/.538

We might be seeing an Ibanez cool down if one of his patterns holds. Hopefully the 2007 pattern prevails and Ibanez keeps this up for a few more weeks. Last night was a game in which he probably shouldn't have started (Kershaw-Kuo-Sherrill). With Vic back Manuel can be more selective with Ibanez' starts.

[Atlanta Phil]

What a great win! Unfortunately, this series 1st and 3rd games continue to show the bullpen resembles BP! Hopefully, in the playoffs H20 will be able to pitch complete games or the offense will score 10 runs!

[Roy]

Broxton's wikipedia page has been locked due to vandalism.

Some of the edit histories are incredible. Sorry if these are irrelevant or whatever.

"Broxton is currently seeing a psychologist to treat recurring dreams of Phillies players getting walk off hits against him. He has been able to pitch through these treatments because real life is a lot of the same."

" Broxton is known for blowing huge leads and his velocity, regularly throwing pitches ranging from 98 to 101 mph. On July 3, 2009 against the San Diego Padres he was clocked at 103 mph, incidentily, 1/4 of his actual weight."

"Broxton is perhaps best known for being absolutely terrible. He is despised by Dodger fans who honestly pray he gets injured every time he steps onto the mound."

"On August 12th, 2010, After a famous visit to the mound by manager Joe Torre, Broxton went on to blow a 3 run lead in the 9th. Carlos Ruiz doubled in the game tying and game winning runs."

"Was arrested in Augusta on three counts of Cheeseburger theft on March 12 2006"

[R.Billingsly]

Link to the Costas call?

Oh yeah...

CHOOCH!

[Sophist]

Hugh - Ha.

EFF - How do you hit a 300 foot pop-up? I'm pretty sure a pop-up, by definition, doesn't leave the infield (or maybe goes a few feet outside it). Pop-ups are flyballs that stay in the infield. Not sure I've heard anyone besides TMac say otherwise.

The pen. Was Romero all that bad last night? Sounded like an E5 and a bloop hit. He was reported to say he'd "figured it out" a few days ago. I'm inclined not to trust him, but doesn't seem he was terrible last night.

Durbin has had an excellent season. 8.3 K9, 3.3 BB9. Matching his K9 rate from last year but dropping his walk rate by 3 batters per nine innings. This would easily be his best MLB season if he keeps it up (he hasn't thrown 50 IP yet this year). Even including last night he's allowed only 3 out of 15 inherited runners to score.

Baez had a perfect inning. Didn't he get the win?

[R.Billingsly]

Of all the pitchers last night, Baez was the only one who didn't give up a run. It is very apropos that he got the win.

[Bob]

What a win!

Gotta second the comment on the mob scenes after walk offs. I think the team meeting the guy at the plate or wherever is fine, but (1) people have gotten hurt in the pile ups and (2) to me anyway, it makes more of an intimidating statement for a team to take it kind of matter of factly - we've won these close crazy games before, we'll win more of them, it's what we do, we're the Phillies.

[Voice of Reason]

Schedule question: with the off-day on Monday, do we skip Blanton's turn in rotation against SF? I say yes, and save him for the opener against the Nats, thus sending Oswalt, Hamels and Halladay on normal rest against the Jints.

[Voice of Reason]

I'm also rooting for the Giants against San Diego -- just liked I rooted for the Cards against CIncy -- because I'm setting my sites on the Best Record in the NL at the moment, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs (ironically, thanks in part to Mssr. Broxton!).

[Bob]

I commented a couple of days ago about how I would never feel sorry for Mets fans, no matter what befell them.

But I do find myself feeling a little sorry for Jonathan Broxton. I'm thrilled about all three of the wins for the Phillies, of course, but the guy has got to be hurting at this point.

After the game and looking at the Broxton graphic that Jason posted, I scouted the web a bit and found his Wikipedia site altered to taunt him, and there was another site called "Jonathan Broxton Sucks" that was pretty much filled with hate for the guy, presumably by Dodgers fans, that dated from way back.

I mean, the guy is likely one of the top half dozen closers in baseball. It's a tough position. He does his best. Reminds me a bit of the "fans" who vandalized Mitch Williams' house years ago. Kind of sad and ugly.

[Jbird]

Bob: I think it goes with being a closer. They win or lose a game in such dramatic fashion that a lot of fans get strong feelings one way or the other. How many clubs have closers who are popular with the fans? The Yankees and . . . .Kansas City? Milwaukee ought to love Axford, but that's mostly because he has this all over this to quote a certain bodywash commercial.

[Mr. Mack]

I feel bad for Broxton too. Fans dislike for a player is natural, especially when he doesn't perform up to their expectations. I am guilty of bashing guys here on BL, but it is no different than cussing him out, yelling at the TV (which my wife & kids thinks is a sure sign of lunacy) and then praising him the next night when he does well. Hey, at least I'm honest! LOL.

I do think that it gets taken too far sometimes though by some fans. After all, 'fan' is just short for fanatical. Fortunately there has never been a South American soccer stadium-type riot after a blown save in any MLB park, however if there is a few more Lidge screw ups in th estretch run, it may be wise for the Philly Blues to bring out the dogs around the CBP perimeiter! Either that or extra tazers.

I'm sure the guys pitching don't feel too great after serving up a blown save either. The saddest story of any MLB player not putting the loss behind him was Donnie Moore of the Angels in the '86 ALCS. One pitch away from sending the Angels to what would have been their first ever AL Pennant and he gave a up a HR to tie the game which they eventually lost. They ended up losing the series after dropping the next two games and he was forever linked to that blown save. three years later he shot himself in a domestic dispute.

[EastFallowfield]

Sophist,

I was watching MLB Network yesterday afternoon, as they jumped from game to game, and heard a high fly to the outfield called a popup in one of the other games.

anyway, Yo New Thread.

[EastFallowfield]

What would we do for miracle wins without Blanton? Seems like a lot of them come in his starts....

First start at Shea...So Taguchi even got a big hit...

Last year on WFC Ring day vs the Braves...

And again vs Nats in April 09, 6 run 8th..,

6 run 9th vs Reds in June...

And last night.