Morning happy hour: Beerleaguers revel in the rally

Good morning.

“How many monumental closer meltdowns have the Phillies now benefited from this year? There was the game that Werth tied with 2 outs in the 9th at San Fran, Carlos Marmol in Chicago, Leo Nunez in Florida, now this. They've really stolen their share of wins this year. Sort of compensates some for watching Brad Lidge the last couple of seasons.” - RSB

“The Phils are now scoring runs without the long ball. They have gotten back to running again and have shown an ability to string hits together and keep innings alive with walks/patience at the plate. Hope this continues even when Utley and Howard return. If they could ever get their leadoff hitter going, look out. … Besides Mariano Rivera, there aren't many lights out closers in baseball. Broxton literally looked scared to death tonight. He didn't want to throw his best pitch. He wanted to nibble. He faced 5 guys and they all reached base. … Why would anyone leave a Phillies game early? Some of the best memories of Phils games in the past 4 or 5 years, are of 9th inning/extra inning wins. How many more times do we have to be reminded that this team, no matter who is in uniform, plays 27 outs? Its truly what seperates them from about any other team in baseball.” – denny b

“How 'bout a little love for Valdez? He's been the target of a lot of hatin' at BL - but all-in-all he's done a very adequate job of filling in for Utley. How many BL posts were there asserting before the trading deadline that Amaro picking up a second-string infielder was the key to the season?” – phlipper

Beerleaguer: If you tuned out like many viewers did, do yourself a favor: find a television set and turn on one of the morning highlight shows. Watch Chooch dance between first and second in an attempt to dodge the tidal wave of teammates surging from the dugout. You’ll never forget it. Viewers who gutted it out are still trying to wrap their head around the final two frames. Was it just another meltdown or the Phillies at their opportunistic best? A little of both I’d say. Chooch shot down Broxton with a clutch double off the wall, one of my favorite plays in baseball, especially when it caps a walk-off rally. But the ball that short-hopped Casey Blake and plated a pair was a killer considering it should have been turned into a twin killing. How on earth did that get through?

Revel in the eighth inning, too. The Phils opened the frame with a single, single, single, double, and then Wil-Val’s RBI poke to complete the four-run rally against big loser Ronald Belisario. All these manufactured runs without the long ball are a good sign heading into Citi Field.

Comments

[Kutztown fan]

Clout - do you have any other hobbies that you enjoy?

[Old Phan]

Oh, and I did like the "hideous" comment.

[RSB]

Home runs are great, but it's pretty clear the Phillies go through periods where they become one-dimensional and overly reliant on hitting balls in the stands. Obviously, they're a team which will always be built around power thanks to their ballpark, but the kind of dynamism they've been displaying of late is a welcome shift in approach. If they can maintain that and balance it with the power game, and the Phils will be a more *consistently* potent offensive team.

[clout]

Jack: I was agreeing with you. Like I said, every good move Amaro has made is directly attributable to Gillick. Good point and well in keeping with the prevailing mindset here.

[Bubba]

laramie - I hope you are right.
Franske would be a vast upgrade on TV .

[Dukes]

Old Phan: Just giving you a hard time. You don't have to have the hatred of TMac that some of us do, I just find it interesting that he really doesn't seem to bother you. I'm kind of jealous, actually.

[Jack]

Clout: I'll presume from your response then that you realize you have no actual objection to what I'm saying. At least you've got that right.

[clout]

sophist: If your point is that the Phils have played small ball well with the Big Guns out, I agree.

If your point is what RSB's is: That the Phils should continue to play small ball when Howard, Uts & Vic return, then I disagree.

[sneed]

I'm all for morning happy hour. What time does it start?

[clout]

Kutztown: Not as much as this one. How about you?

[awh]

OP and clout, IIRC Vin Scully's contract exempts him from travelling further east than Denver.

That's probably why there were different broadcasters for the Phils game.

Scully does all the home and travles to road division games.

It's a concession to his age.

[JD]

Dukes, I find him easy to ignore.
In any case, he is far from the worst I've heard. I'll tell you when I was seriously annoyed by announcers. The WFC. Having to listen to Joe Buck and Timmy snore their way through the games was torture, and in fact I eventually turned the sound off.

[Jack]

Sneed: I'm working on an Irish coffee already. Let's raise a glass, whatever you got in front of you. To Chooch.

[JD]

awh, that is correct about Vin. Of course, he's earned it (and he's about 1000 years old so it isn't easy for him to travel. In fact, I think he sleeps in the broadcast booth at Dodger Stadium)

[sneed]

Sophist: On the homer debate, we should add that Werth has down homer totals, but he now has 38 doubles versus 26 for all of last season. Bad luck or something more tangible?

[clout]

Old Phan: Whew, you had me scared there for a while. Although I'm sure there's someone out there who really enjoys listening to McCarthy and thinks he's far better than Scully.

If I were King of the World I would fire every Phils announcer except LA and Franske. I'd give Dutch or Milt Thompson or some other ex-player a try at color and I'd hire an outside PBP announcer to pair with him.

I think one of problems that T-Mac, Wheels and Sarge suffer is that both the chemistry and insights of LA and Franske are so much better, the TV guys seem worse than they really are. In fact, there are many announcers far, far worse. It is stunning listening to a game on MLB radio or watching on MLB TV and hearing how truly bad some teams' announcers are.

[awh]

Dukes, I don't "hate" TBag.

I'm sure if I met him in a bar he'd be a fun guy with whom to have a beer.

I just don't think he does a very good job broadcasting baseball games, and what irks me is that the Phillies have someone much, much better in Franzke.

It's not as if we hate everything the FO does with the broadcast. Some people don't like Sarge, but I've never had a problem with him, and Wheels has grown on me. I also like the humor LA brings to the table, and I think - and have thought this since he was hired - that Franzke is top notch.

But with TBag, IMHO, the FO got it wrong.

Maybe Monty thinks "4 out of 5 ain't bad".

[doug]

Jack:
I'll raise my coffee. It's not Irish, but Mike Sweeney is. To Chooch.

[Ollie Brown]

How about when, after Francisco scored the winning run, Hex Kid's "buddy" (brother? friend? cousin? Nanny's boyfriend's little brother?) screams in his ear from about an inch away? Gotta love kids--never miss a chance to be cruel!

[Emmett]

Are you really still talking about McCarthy? Stop grabbing his bag, it's not on.

I love that Beltran is still the supposed savior for the Mets every year. Like yeah you miss 3 months and come back and hit .265, every year. He's a miser's Abreu at this point, who at this point has really shown he stands the test of time.

The Mets never did and never will have a pulse because the core players fold in last legs of the race.

[Jack]

Try living in the DC area and having to hear Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble do games. Makes you long for T-Mac and Wheels.

[sneed]

English Breakfast Tea out here in La-La land. It's warm, but the Dodgers are dead in the water.

I'd be willing to bet the Phillies lead the NL in runs when it's all said and done.

[clout]

awh: If the Dodgers are smart they will figure out a way to download all of Scully's brain into a computer so that he can continue to announce the games even after he's passed. The combination of clarity, informality, cheerfulness, experience, historical perspective is hard to beat. And I have never liked the Dodgers. For me, he's up there with Harry and Red Barber as the best announcers I ever heard.

[bay_area_phan]

I have no doubt that Gillick had an influence on Amaro (Ed Wade probably did too; most bosses usually do). But Gillick & Amaro are very different kind of GMs. Amaro places huge importance on impact players & he'll do everything he can to get those types of players, even if it means overpaying or giving out too many years. I could be wrong here, but I don't think Gillick would have traded Drabek, Taylor & D'Arnaud for Roy Halladay. I think he would have been too put off by the steep price in prospects.

Gillick, however, had a scouting background & was excellent at uncovering good players who had slipped through the cracks (Werth, Dobbs, Durbin, Romero) & could be gotten for cheap. It also helped that he had been around for so long and had so many connections. That enabled him to make a lot of key late-season veteran acquisitions (Stairs, Moyer, Iguchi), while giving up almost nothing in return. The Sweeney trade was certainly the type of acquisition Gillick would have made around this type of year. But he's not the GM, and I think it's pretty silly to assume he was the reason behind the acquisition.

[awh]

I don'tknow if any of you saw this little item in Hagen's column this morning:

"
The New York Mess: A woman in Florida has filed a civil suit against Mets ace Johan Santana for allegedly raping her on a golf course. Closer Francisco Rodriguez has been suspended by the club for hitting his girlfriend's father after Wednesday's game. And now shortstop Jose Reyes admits he doesn't always focus like he should. "It's hard to get ready for every pitch," he told the New York Daily News. "How many pitches does a pitcher throw to home plate? A hundred-and-something? It's hard to get ready on every pitch. I try to do my best [but] maybe you are going to get lazy with two or three because it's tough to get ready all the time. It is what it is, man."

I will not elaborate on Reyes' comments. They speak for themselves.

[MG]

TMac is signed through the '12 season. He isn't going anywhere.

[Sophist]

clout - definitely the first thing. but to the second I'd only partially agree and mostly disagree. It's easy to say that HR is always better than a single, but that ignores that there are times when it's very difficult or unnecessary to hit a HR. In those cases, an higher contact approach may be preferable. There are the more obvious instances of such cases (down in the count, late in one-run games with men in scoring position). A lineup with Valdez, Polanco, a hobbled Rollins, a slow-start Ibanez, and Ruiz is probably going to have more situations than the normal Phils lineup.

But there are probably less obvious instances. Take Howard's evolving approach against LHP. For much of the year his contact rate was up against them while his K% and HR/FB was down from 06-08 levels. Was this a bad thing? Probably not for at least two reasons. One was that is that his overall numbers when his HR/FB was down were still better than 2007-2009 against LHP. Replacing strike outs with contact could be a net positive when you're BAbip is over .300 against lefties.

Of course, you can't simply replace strike outs with contact, but it was an evolving approach. After his hot summer his HR/FB against LHP is over 25%, and his OPS against lefties went from somewhere in the 700s to .850 (and climbing).

[awh]

clout, I agree about Scully, and I, too, hate the Dodgers.

[JD]

I have the DirectV baseball package. For a few years, I'm assuming due to Comcast, I very rarely got to see the Philly broadcasts, so I was always forced to watch the opposing team feeds (and this was when Harry was still doing games). I was also surprised at how bad so many of the broadcasters were. Not that they weren't knowledgeable about the game, but just sounded either dull or insane. It often made the games hard to follow. The other thing that was annoying was the constant Philly bashing, the same old Santa Claus crap, bandbox nonsense, etc. It is in this context that I was pleased when they started to broadcast the Philly feeds. I ind that after years of that, there are worse things then the Phils TV crew. Wheels has grown on me (kind of like mold) but it wouldn't bother me if they changed the whole crew. For play by play, give me Scully, Costas, Miller. For analysis, no one is better than Ron Darling.

[dlhunter]

Beltran's face plant #6 on Sportscenter's not top 10.

[Jack]

awh: Reyes was just stupid to say what all players know to be true. There's not a single pro baseball player in the world who has the same intensity on every pitch, or runs out every ground ball at full sprint. It's simply not possible in a 162 game season.

You can rip on him for being stupid and saying something about it. But let's not act like he didn't say the absolute truth.

[Dukes]

laramie: Is this a hunch or do you have some inside information?

[clout]

BAP: Your point is obviously correct, although ignored by most here.

With regard to Halladay, however, I'm not so sure I agree. Gillick, you may recall, traded Gio Gonzalez and Gavin Floyd for Freddy Garcia.

[Sophist]

Jack, yes, the DC crew is awful. Amazing how smug those two are considering the product on the field. There are far worse crews than CSN's (Diamondbacks come to mind, Florida's as well), but we're stuck with this one while a huge upgrade is on the radio.

I'm not going to defend the TV guys by saying that at least they're not Mark Grace. That would be like defending Herndon, while a young Marino Rivera sat in Allentown, by saying at least he's not Danys Baez. Or something like that. You get the point.

[bay_area_phan]

I don't care for the Phillies' announcers either, although I also don't think they're bad enough to warrant all the vitriol they get on here. They're nowhere near as bad as the tv guys for, say, Florida, Washington, or Arizona. Those are just the ones that come to mind. There are some other terrible ones out there too.

Personally, I'm partial to the Giants' announcers, Mike Krukow & Duane Kuiper.

[MG]

BAP - Pretty much what i was thinking. Gillick moved on after '08 and his 'consultant' title is largely one in name I bet. It is Amaro who has been at the helm the past 2 years and he definitely has shown quite a different personality/managerial style than Gillick.

He identifies a player he wants right away, is a first-mover, doesn't mind overpaying to acquire those players, and has a presence for veterans that even Gillick didn't show.

Amaro is also quite different personality wise than Gillick and how he addresses/talks to the general public & media.

There is much less that Amaro & Gillick share than they have in common.

[Kutztown fan]

Clout - I enjoy reading your posts for starters (although my BL favs are Old Phan and Andy).

[Emmett]

area bay fan:

To think Gillick isn't the narrator for Ruben's personal "stranger than fiction" life is silly. Ruben fully appreciates his insight and has no problem making a deal suggested by Gillick or a deal they in tandem contemplate. He is still very much around.

Dobbs had a miracle season like everyone in '08 but I kind of wished he had "slipped through the [trap]" this year to be with his fellow blue claws. He's trying his best to be that motivator; first to congratulate, waiting at the plate type bench guy, but he's just donezo. It's kind of a sad act actually.

[awh]

"we're stuck with this one while a huge upgrade is on the radio. "

Sophist...that IS the point.

[MG]

T-Mac isn't as bad as some people make him out to be. Not a fan for several well-hashed out reasons but I would have thought that in his 2nd season with Wheels/Sarge as the full-time play-by-play guy he would have developed some better chemistry with the two.

Maybe it is me but I get the distinct impression that neither guy cares to work with TMac that much and that Sarge in particular has no love-loss for him.

[clout]

Kutztown: "Clout - I enjoy reading your posts for starters"

I can fix that.

[Sophist]

Gillick would have done the Halladay deal. There's no doubt he was right in the middle of it with Amaro.

[JD]

If I was casting a silent movie, Sarge would be my star.

[clout]

Emmett: "To think Gillick isn't the narrator for Ruben's personal "stranger than fiction" life is silly."

You're so right. Gillick is with Amaro even when he's not around. He lives within Amaro's heart and spirit. In times of trouble, Rube turns to him, prayerfully. Pat has never failed to touch Rube's soul in those times and show him the right direction.

[bay_area_phan]

clout: Yeah, maybe. I think circumstances were different, though. Floyd had been given some opportunities and been terrible. In 2005, he was godawful even at AAA, posting an ERA over 6. He came back & was better in 2006, but still not great. And, when he was given a shot in the majors that year, he failed miserably. His stock was way, way down at the time they traded him away. And Gonzalez was a nice prospect, but I don't think he was quite on a level with Drabek or Taylor. Taylor & Drabek were both top prospects whose value was at its aboslute peak at the time they were traded. And D'Arnaud was no slouch either.

I cannot see Gillick giving up Taylor, Drabek & D'Arnaud for Halladay. But I could be wrong.

[clout]

BAPO: Well, Floyd WAS just 23 at the time of the trade and I doubt Gillick thought it was time to throw in the towel on him. But I do agree that Taylor, Drabek, D'Arnaud are better prospects and, obviously, Halladay is better than Garcia.

[kilbillrain]

I keep hearing about this great call from Costas...yeah so where's the link? It's Nelly tome until I hear it...

[CJ]

I guess I'm in the minority here when I say I don't mind McCarthy. I'm not a fan of Sarge in the least. I do enjoy listening to Frantzke and LA on the radio. I don't think Jackson is very good when he fills in. Oh and Wheels is fine.

[BENTZ]

From watching MLB Network this week:

Great announcer: Josh Lewin with the Rangers. Also agree on Krukow and Kuiper with the Giants. They used to voice EA's MLB game.

Terrible announcer: Hawk Harrelson with the White Sox. Nothing more needs to be said.

[bay_area_phan]

Emmett: Gillick, you'll recall, was the one who discovered Dobbs. He traded for him, knowing full well that he'd have a "miracle season" in 2008. Gillick also knew that, within 2 years, Dobbs would turn into a sub-.200 hitter. But, unfortunately, when Gillick told Amaro to get rid of Dobbs, Amaro refused to listen to him.

[Kutztown fan]

I'm sure you could, Clout. That's what makes you such a fascinating BL poster.

[Emmett]

You really think Gillick is not involved when we consistently deal with Seattle and Toronto, teams Gillick operated for years. Stop.

Also Wade definitely has a WS ring from '08. He was Lidge's sacrificial lamb.

[aksmith]

She was smoking hot. Don't think she was old enough to be their mom. But haven't you ever heard of MILFs?

As my wife explains it to me, a MILF is a Mother I would like to get to know better, and maybe take to a movie or a night out dancing. She says they couldn't use the entire thing in the acronym so they shortened it to Mothers I'd Like to Familiarize myself with. Hope that helps, guys.

[Kim]

It tells you something that the Phils use tv video clips of comebacks and exciting home runs in their ads with the audio of Franzke instead of Wheels or TMouth.

[CJ]

Kim: That's a good point... but it's not all that uncommon. One reason that happens is that the radio broadcast is often more descriptive and it doesn't have the pictures to fill in the gaps. Commercials are often heard and not watched... so having the radio broadcast can be more beneficial.

I do concede that the radio calls are better, however.

[Sophist]

BAP - How old was Floyd when he "failed"?

sneed - Werth has 9 fewer HR and 18 more 2B than this time last year. Why?

One reason has to be that his BAbip is .376 this year vs .304 last year. That is unreal. His BAbip on line drives is up 50 points from last year - a 40 point jump in BA. He's just hit a ton of gapers relative to last year when they weren't falling in as often (11 2b in 83 AB in 09; 20 in 61 AB this year). The same is true of his flyball data (a 60 point BAbip jump - 14 2b in 117 AB in 2010 vs 13 2b in 177 AB last year).

Some bad luck last year and good luck this year. Or maybe some difference in the quality of LD/FB not picked up by the categorization.

Another is that his HR/FB is down almost 8% from 2009. 8 of his 16 HR are "Just Enough HR" according to hittracker.com, and he's hit just 4 away from CBP (2 in Arizona; one in New Yankee Stadium). This time last year he had 10 road HR of 25 overall, and 10 Just Enough HR. So it's not a luck thing, really. You might want to look at the parks the Phils played in the first 114 games this year vs those last year. Or maybe he's just having a down power year (given all his "No Doubters" last year). Or he just needs to go on a little tear.

[The Theory]

"You really think Gillick is not involved when we consistently deal with Seattle and Toronto, teams Gillick operated for years. Stop."

Say what you want, it is still just speculation. And there is one big item being neglected in this speculation: what does a consultant get paid vs the GM position? AKA, if Gillick isn't getting paid GM money, why would he essentially "play GM"? Why would he set up these moves if he's not going to get the recognition from The World At Large for making them? Even if, somehow, his "consultant" label gathers enough money for him to not care about getting the credit, why on Earth would the Phillies pay both him and Amaro?

To use the popular usage of occam's razor, the simplest explanation is the most likely one. In this case, I find it wildly improbably that Gillick was the man behind most of Amero's moves. Maybe he nudged in a direction or two, but to attribute anything more to him is utilizing a lot of assumption.

[Andy]

The best way (IMO) to think of the woman with Hex Boy, is to imagine her neither as mother nor sister, but as the Au Pair. That way she seems even hotter.

[Sophist]

He's not "the man behind the moves" but he gets involved and provides guidance. He was interviewed by CSN the day before the Oswalt deal. He was standing on the field at CBP. It's not speculation to say that "he was involved."

[laramie]

Dukes, no insider information here, just a guess. Calling a three-hour baseball game on the radio doesn't seem to require a two-inning break in the middle -- at least it doesn't in other broadcast booths of the baseball world. You could maybe understand it when Harry was still around, because Harry on the radio was something special, but now? Jackson's just getting an extended audition for Franzke's seat.

It's a sad truth that radio broadcasts are now just second fiddle to TV broadcasts. Posters here are saying how easy it would be to upgrade the TV broadcast by grabbing the radio team and sticking them in front of the camera. I really hope that's not the Phillies philosophy. I like to believe that there are still people like myself who actually prefer to listen to the radio broadcast -- and I'm not talking about muting the TV and syncing the audio, I mean radio by itself. We have a great radio team and we should be thankful for that, not urging them to move to the TV side.

Plus, they're just different skill sets. Franzke's good on the radio in part because he knows how to describe the game, to set the scene, in a way that might seem... overbearing? if he did it on TV.

[JD]

From Gelb-
The common thread in all three of Broxton's blow ups against the Phillies? Joe Blanton started each game. Eerie.

From the writers of "Dumb and Dumber" comes a new baseball comedy, "Large and Larger".

[bay_area_phan]

sophist: He was young. My point was not that he was a proven failure. My point is that his stock as a prospect was way down after 2 straight bad seasons in the minors. Were it not for that fact, I sort of doubt Gillick would have so casually traded him away. It would be like trading away Phillippe Aumont this coming off-season. He's still a good prospect but his value certainly isn't what it was a year ago.

[Jack]

I mean, Occam's Razor points me to Gillick's involvement. He's an employee of the team, with the title Consultant to the GM. The simplest explanation seems to me that he is consulting the GM.

[Emmett]

Yeah I knew you jabroni's would jump when I chummed the waters with a stranger than fiction reference.

Gillick has enough money. He has side investments to keep his finances flowing. I'm sure the Phils through him a bone here and there. Maybe he's the phanatic, who knows? He's just a guy that enjoys the management aspect of the game and is comfortable with this team, giving advice and support whenever needed.

Why wouldn't Gillick want to stay involved? He's not pressed for cash and if he can add advice in the shadows with no pressure wouldn't that suffice his hunger?

"Why on earth would the Phillies pay him and Amaro both"

What are you talking about the Phillies publicly say and Gillick admits he's an advocate. This isn't a secret. I'm saying I think him and Ruben have a meeting of the minds on a pretty consistent basis before adding a player to the team.

As for Dobbs. Every dog has its day. I'm glad he could bask in the pinch hitter hero role that year. With our bench now he's obsolete.

[Sophist]

BAP - that's fair. Hard to tell by eyeballing it, but Gillick seems to have more big player departures (Abreu, Griffey, Thome, Freddy Garcia; he traded David Bell for Desi Relaford -- Cliff Lee II and Carlos Guillen departures as asst. to PHI an SEA) than arrivals.

But he has done it. He got Lidge and Blanton and Freddy Garcia all while in PHI. He was the asst. for the Lee I and Halladay deals.

While in BAL and TOR he made deals for impact players as well. In Baltimore he traded for Mercker and David Wells; he flipped Mercker for Eddie Murray; he got Harold Baines and Juan Guzman; in TOR he got Rickey Henderson and traded Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez for Alomar and Carter.

What I'm not sure Gillick would have done is Lee I-Halladay-Lee II-Oswalt in one year. Gillick would have done one move.

[CJ]

There's no question that Ruben Amaro consults with Pat Gillick, the Consultant to the GM, but none of us know to what degree he is involved with individual moves.

It's just amusing how much credit Gillick is still given for successful moves while avoiding any of the blame for unsuccessful moves.

[awh]

I hate to get into the Gillick/Amaro debate, but at what point does one say that Gillick crosses the line from mere "consultant" to being the one who is pulling the strings as some seem to imply?

At what point would Gillick be the person who is actually making the decisions vs. influencing them?

Gillick retired as a full-time GM because....he's 70 and wanted to retire. He doesn't WANT to do the job full-time anymore.

But, the team has kept him around because, obviously, they value his judgement and advice.

At what point does Amaro get credit for doing his own thing?

Is it possible that Amaro has made moves IN SPITE OF Gillick's advice to the contrary?

Is it possible that Amaro has followed every one of Gillick's recommendations?

[JD]

Simple Equation:
Good move = Gillick
Bad move = Amaro

[bay_area_phan]

sophist: Obviously, I'm speculating when I say he would or wouldn't have made any particular deal. Overall, though, I think it's fair to say that Amaro & Gillick have very different approaches. They also have different strengths and weaknesses.

I hope Gillick IS still extensively involved because his strengths would be of good use this off-season. We have anywhere from 3 to 5 bullpen spots to fill and not a lot of money to fill them. This is where Gillick did very well. Of course, no matter how savvy the talent evaluator, it's largely a numbers game when you're dealing in the realm of cheap, obscure talent.

[Sophist]

BAP, as far as signings go, Gillick made a bunch of impact signing in his day as well (Jack Morris; Moliter; Dave Stewart Alomar, Surhoff; Olerud; Aaron Sele; Ichiro; Bret Boone; resigned Moyer; signed Ibanez in SEA; signed Gordon, extended Moyer again; signed EATON; extended Utley; resigned Myers, Jenkins, Feliz, extended Lidge and Romero).

We remember him for the Werth, Dobbs, Alfonseca, Durbin, Romero, Iguchi moves, but not just because those were all solid moves (Werth the most obvious). But also because his big money moves were all pretty awful. The Phils won the WS and 2 pennants anway.

The only big money deal he did well in PHI was Utley. The Lidge trade and Blanton trades were successes. All the others were big swings and misses (Nunez, Gordon, Franklin, Helms, Myers, Romero, Lidge, Feliz, Garcia). The Moyer extension is a tougher call. Moyer's been excellent, but they probably could have signed him for less.

[awh]

One thing I just noticed:

In the photos of the celebration after Chooch's walk off double, Greg Dobbs has a batting helmet on.

Was he on deck ready to hit for Valdez?

[Jack]

Sophist: The 2-year Moyer deal was done by Amaro, after the 2008 WS.

[MG]

Emmett - Gllick hasn't been the GM in Toronto since '94 and with the M's since '03. During that time period, M's have changed ownership, have a GM with no ties to Gillick, and almost completely swept away the FO staff with a few exceptions.

He may have played an adversary role in those trades but you act like he was a major faciliator in both. I would find that highly unlikely.

[Sophist]

BAP - I see what you're saying. I just wouldn't say the Halladay deal is something Gillick would not have done.

[Emmett]

I'm not saying Gillick is perfect. I could rattle off bad signings if I wanted to but I look at the obvious fact that we've been the class of the NL since his arrival there's no two ways about it.

Gillick retired yes, but he obviously still enjoys his role in the organization to publicly state that he's involved and is always around the ballpark. It's not like he's in Oslo and "could not be reached for comment".

Ruben is the defintely the one pushing the button on moves, making the calls, but every great GM has a mentor and an idol and it just so happens that Gillick is still very much at that the blackboard for Amaro, as Amaro vocally states that from Pat his foundation for being GM has developed.

I can't give his guy credit for giving me a winner? Two WS births and grooming a young GM who looks the part and has demonstrated that he has the balls to pull the trigger. I love Amaro for the simple reason he came back after being bashed for half a year over a Lee deal and signed the top prize, other then Lee, of the trade market.

Gillick's a blueprint and many have cited him for their success, namely Ruben. I don't know his immediate percentage of involvement but I know Ruben refers to him because he says so. I have faith Ruben will do an excellent job down the road when Gillick no longer wants any part of it, but in the meantime it's pretty nice to have a brain to pick like Pat's as you are defining yourself in MLB.

[Sophist]

Jack, yeah, Moyer had two separate 2-year deals. One in 06 and one in 08/09. Gillick did the first (2/$10.5); Amaro did the second (2/$13).

[Sophist]

Emmett - I'm not sure it was your praising of Gillick that put a target on your back as much as it was the way in which you phrased it (kudos to clout for the parody).

[CJ]

awh: Yes, Greg Dobbs was on deck.

[awh]

CJ, I guess Charlie hasn't lost complete confidence in him.

[Old Phan]

Chooch saw that Dobbs was on deck and said "Uh oh, I better end the game here".

[R.Billingsly]

Anyone think the Phils will pound R.A. Dickey tonight? I think that coming off the win last night, not having to travel far to the game and their most recent success off of Dickey that tonight could be a good night for the offense. If Hamels pitches like he has been of late, this should be a relatively easy win for the Phils.

[Emmett]

Sophist-

A target on my back (yess dude). Yeah I praise a guy in ridiculous fashion with references to puppetry and a Will Ferrell bust and you guys attack like K-rod. I don't care either way. I don't sweat praising Gillick. We could have had Wade mentor Amaro and see how that would play out. OH, I know how that story ends, it ends with Amaro back as a scout in the hollows of some latin farm system.

Just make sure you can see the stage when Dickey gets lit like a menorah tonight. Enjoy.

[dlhunter]

R.Billingsly: Anyone think the Phils will pound R.A. Dickey tonight?

With Piazza retired, who else is gonna pound Dickey?

[Bellrm00]

It's a shame that Bobby Cox will win NL Manager of the Year because of sentimental reasons, because Charlie Manuel really deserves it. This is the best managing of his career.

[Bellrm00]

It's a shame that Bobby Cox will win NL Manager of the Year because of sentimental reasons, because Charlie Manuel really deserves it. This is the best managing of his career.

[CJ]

Rosenthal reports Brian Fuentes was blocked on waivers, can't be dealt. He says the Phils were a potential match... but no longer.

[CJ]

Regarding waiver trades, all I've been hearing is that most bats and arms of consequence are being blocked... the only players slipping through are players that no team would claim because they don't want to get stuck with the contract (i.e. Oliver Perez).

[Jack]

Even if Cox doesn't win, I would think Bud Black of the Padres would be above Charlie on most voters' lists.

[CJ]

I wonder what would have happened had Blake turned that DP. It would have been 9-7 with a runner on third and 2 outs. Chooch would have come to the plate and if he doubles, it's 9-8 with 2 outs.

Now... I believe Dobbs was the last pinch hitter available. I think they would have been forced to leave Valdez in to hit against Broxton or else the Dodgers walk Dobbs to get to the pitcher's spot.

Am I remembering this wrong?

[CJ]

By the way, someone else mentioned this, but Francisco was absolutely blazing around the bases crossing home mere feet behind Werth.

I could watch that highlight a hundred times!

[Conshy Matt]

am i the only one who read Clout's "If I were King of the World" post and smiled?

[rauls grandpa]

Announcer salaries
Wheels signed through 2078, $34 a Penn State reference, $20 Mont County reference, $5 every time he pronounces a latino name with accent. Bonuses free squirrel skin run every 3 months.

T-bag signed through 2220, free MacDonalds food and he gets to have lunch with WB Mason weekly.

[sifl]

Two non-stats observations here (I'm a little nervous about this, but let's try):

1) I was at the game last night, and began the game watching from center field. I think it might have been Buzz Bissinger who recently pointed out Blanton's odd finish to his pitches these days -- but whoever it was, they were right. Blanton finishes each of his pitches with a dainty upper movement of his pitching hand, as if he's trying to impart some sort of backspin or something on the ball. He didn't use to do that. My first observation is that something is off with Heavy B's mechanics.

2) I watched the end of the game from behind home plate. From that vantage point, it seemed like Danys Baez was showing the ball in his pitching hand from the moment he begins his wind-up. Like if you're a hitter, you get an extra several seconds to focus on the ball. I know how much harder it is to hit guys who hide the ball well, so it must only be easier to hit guys who show the ball clearly.

Any thoughts?

[raul grandpa]

I meant "rug", darn darn darn.
Conshy Matt, I saw that but I don't have enough clout, if you will, to call it out.

[Bill]

Even though Chooch's ball was hit high off the wall and was going to be either a double or home run, Werth abruptly stopped running for some Werthian reason and Francisco slowed up before passing him before they both started flying again to score.

[CJ]

sifl: It's possible Blanton developed a mechanical problem because of his injury. Hopefully if that's the case, it's something that Dubee is working on.

[MG]

Padres win the west, Black is Manager of the Year.

I doubt you had a single prediction of them winning the NL West. Hell, even DuckSnorts (good Padres blog) didn't think the Padres would do much this year.

Yeah the Phils have had tons of injuries but they were expected to win the NL East. Padres were at best expected to be .500 and likely trade away some of their stars including Bell and Gonzalez.

[MG]

sifl - Really interesting observations. You can look at the release point on Blanton to at least give you a bit more insight but seems like something you would just have to watch video on.

[CJ]

Want to correct something...

Ken Rosenthal now says that Fuentes has not yet been put on waivers so he hasn't yet been blocked. So much for Ken Rosenthal...

[awh]

Bill, Werth made the right play by holding up. It's what you do on a ball hit to the gap if you're on 2B. If it falls for a hit you'll score anyway, and if it's caught you absolutely CANNOT get doubled up.

Francisco also has to make sure he's not double up there, but with Werth on 2B and the ball to left center field, he has the luxury of not being the guy they'll try to double up, so he can range farther off the base than Werth can.

It was a very nice piece of base running by Ben. The Dodgers didn't even have a play.