Maybe Jonathan Papelbon was right about velocity

Remember the fastball flung from the hand of Jonathan Papelbon that was causing so much distress — the fastball that’s being thrown at a diminished 92.7 mph and has raised questions regarding the closer’s ability to finish games?

Well, that fastball, lacking its past velocity, is doing just fine.

This season, opponents are hitting a meager .154 against Papelbon’s heater, and it’s been the punctuation on seven of his eight strikeouts.

Since his collapse in Texas, Papelbon has tossed eight scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and converting all six of his save opportunities.

The 33-year-old is hitting spots, mixing and matching and still throwing the fastball with confidence in all counts.

Maybe he was right all along.

"Why do you guys care about velo so much, man?" Papelbon said to reporters after saving the Phillies’ 1-0 win on April 17. "Is that -- does that matter? You think that matters? I don’t understand that. I mean, if a ball has life at the plate and you are throwing 88 miles an hour as opposed to 98 miles an hour, it doesn’t make one damn bit of difference. Whether you throw 93 or 94 or 84. I just, I don’t get it, man."

In fact, Papelbon does get it. And so far, he’s been right.

Comments

[NEPP]

Former Phillie!!!

[bittel]

Ah. Missed the pitching change.

[UBIK]

Did anyone listening to the radio notice Franske manically exclaim "We used to see so much of this gamesmanship when Ollie was with the Mets?" Really? I feel like he used to kill us at Citi field far out of porportion to his generally sh8tty career, while we returned the favor at Citizen's.
Does Perez have a history of doctoring or something? Or is the "torn sleeve" thing part of a delivery deceptioon? Or is Sandberg just fucking with Oliver Perez's head? Anybody?

[MG]

Brown continues to be overwhelming offensively.

TMac has been particularly awful this inning even by his lowly standard. A couple of mispronunciations and miscues.

[Bowa constrictor]

This might be the Phillies last best chance here.

[Bake McBride Was Here]

I have a queasy feeling that Rollins' last "Meh, I'll give it a try" swing is going to loom pretty large at the end of this game. Hope I'm wrong.

[bay_area_phan]

Missed most of this game. I see Fausto had another not-so-quality start.

[MG]

Sandberg has a strong preference for letting relievers go 2 IP. He did last year too.

Not sure if it is because his middle relief sucks so bad or if he is just fine with his relievers throwing 25-30.

I hate it and just as I am typing this Diekman gives up a HR. Mistake by Sandberg.

[MG]

Stairs is dead on too about Chooch making piss poor pitch selection there too.

[bay_area_phan]

Sandberg just doesn't learn. Diekman should not be pitching more than 1 inning and he should not be facing any halfway decent RH hitters. Then again, maybe it's not that Sandberg doesn't learn. Maybe it's just that his other options are no better.

[NEPP]

I really hope we score 1 run in the 9th so we can officially blame this loss on the bullpen.

[johnnysanz3]

Diekmans slider is horrendous.

[Cyclic]

This offense sucks (tonight)

[MG]

Nix Scouting Report:

Weakness: MLB offspeed pitches.

[bay_area_phan]

How did the D-Backs manage to find an effective closer for only $500K per year? I thought you had to pay $13M for such a commodity.

[Mke]

Asche - Nix - Revere is god awful

[Cyclic]

Jayson Nix in this spot. I love our bench

[bittel]

The dysfunctionality of the team's bench composition rears its head again. How little faith must Sandberg have in Galvis to ph Nix against a RHP?

Now please hit a homer.

[Mini-Mart]

Miss me now?

[NEPP]

Nix Scouting Report:

Weakness: MLB pitches.

Fixed that for you.

[bay_area_phan]

Jayson Nix is listed as 5'11, 195 pounds yet, judging from the way he tries to hit a 3-run homer on every swing, he must think he's 6'6, 250.

[MG]

I honestly thought Nix was an okay move because it mean Brignac wouldn't be on the roster. So far it hasn't worked out that way.

[Cyclic]

Cue Jimmy pop up...

[bittel]

Not fair to lump Revere in with Asche and Nix.

[Bake McBride Was Here]

I am not a fan of the House of Nix in the Game of Baseball Thrones.

[MG]

Red Light player. Too bad Sandberg made yet another miscue with the bullpen in the top of the 9th.

[bay_area_phan]

Cool. Now it's a loss attributable to the bullpen.

[NEPP]

If not for our crappy bullpen, it'd be tied.

Loss attributable to the bullpen in 3, 2, 1...

[bittel]

thanks, Jake.

[Cyclic]

Ugh. Without this bullpen we're a .600 team clearly

[bittel]

The Saint is up. What loss?

[MG]

Mini Mart - No and you are out a pretty crap start at T-AAA for the Pirates too. Overmatched even there.

[bay_area_phan]

"I honestly thought Nix was an okay move because it mean Brignac wouldn't be on the roster. So far it hasn't worked out that way."

It WAS an ok move, for the reason you state. The move that was inexplicable was keeping Nix on the roster once Galvis came off the DL.

[MG]

Phils have definitely been more aggressive with Sandberg as the manager in regards to SBs and running than under Cholly.

[bay_area_phan]

Brilliant move to remove Howard for defensive purposes. WTF? You don't remove a key hitter for defensive purpose when you're LOSING, moron!

[bittel]

Galvis?

[Cyclic]

Utterly useless against RHP

[NEPP]

Brilliant move to steal 2B so they'd walk Utley to get to Mayberry

Smart.

[bittel]

Wow. Poor, poor managing. Howard can't be lifted on first base when behind. I didn't point it out when it happened but, you know, it's late.

[bay_area_phan]

I'm dumbfounded at the stupidity of that. Is Sandberg too dense to realize that you only bring in a defensive substitute when you're WINNING? WTF is the point of it when you're losing?

[MG]

JMJ now 0-10 vs RHP this year with 5 Ks. Fitting end to this game.

[NEPP]

Sandberg has been disappointing as a manager so far. In some ways, he's far worse than UC.

Which is sad.

[MG]

Sandberg badly mismanaged this game tonight and it really hurt them especially late with Diekman HR & JMJ facing RHP instead of Howard.

[EDGE]

BAP: Howard wasn't removed for defensive purposes. Howard was the tying run in the 8th after he got a hit off Perez. Mayberry pinch ran for him.

[NEPP]

That's a good point too.

[Mke]

I think he brought in jmj to pinch run for howard since ryan cant run, but still boneheaded. Also how does pinch runner not go to 3rd on Revere's single?? And jimmy stealing 2nd with jmj in hole plain idiotic.

[MG]

Lose a game they easily could have won against a crummy team and a mediocre starter.

Same thing as last April. Phils hung around ~.500 until Memorial Day until they hit a bump and their season was set.

Waiting for the same thing this season too. Hang over ~.500 until they hit a stretch where their season is sunk again.

[NEPP]

Yeah but Jimmy got to add to his "All time Phillies SB" totals...

I'd love to know if the SB sign came from the bullpen there or was that Jimmy improvising.

[NEPP]

From the dugout that is...damn its late.

[bay_area_phan]

Edge: Ah, ok. I wasn't watching when it happened. I assumed Mayberry had subbed in for defense.

What you described is slightly more justifiable but I still disagree with it.

[johnnysanz3]

Yeah that single took forrrrever to get to the LF and jmj only went to 2b wtf

[EDGE]

Pinch running for Howard proved pointless, after Mayberry didn't get to third on Byrd's hit. I still don't understand how he wasn't standing at third.

[bay_area_phan]

The SB is a tough one. It did set up the intentional walk, but it also got him into scoring position. Which has a better chance of scoring a run: Mayberry up against a RHP with a man on 2nd, or Chase up against a RHP with a man on 1st?

Sadly, it's probably the latter.

[NEPP]

Jimmy is fast...there's much more chance of Utley getting a hit to the gap that scores him from 1B than Mayberry even making contact against Reed.

[MG]

EDGE - Because JMJ is a lousy baserunner and it doesn't help he has lost a step from 2-3 years ago.

[NEPP]

Yeah that single took forrrrever to get to the LF and jmj only went to 2b wtf
****************

Much like Ben Revere, JMJ is less than the sum of his parts make you think he should be.

Fast but zero instincts on the bases.

[Pepe Frias]

Fausto with 4 ER in 6 IP.
That's 75% of a quality start!

[NEPP]

If only the bullpen had held...clearly this one is 100% on them.

[Curt]

Rollins has to get to scoring position if he can. This team had 11 singles tonight, period.

[MG]

NEPP - JMJ is worse than Revere but yeah Revere has mental gaffes too on the bases too often and isn't fully able to take advantage of his speed.

[MG]

Curt - Yeah. I didn't mind the JRoll SB given the complete lack of power from the Phils tonight and a GB pitcher on the mound but Montero is a tough guy to run on generally.

[Conway Twitty]

I agreed with RFD pinch-running there, as he was the tying run. Ryno's mistake is not splitting Utley and Howard. Here Byrd would have been batting instead of RFD, and maybe they don't walk Utley.

[Pepe Frias]

A .500 team. Enuff said.

[EDGE]

If they were going to lose a game this series, this was it. They have to take the next two.

[Curt]

Just so Conway.

[MG]

Diekman is on a ridiculous 92 G and 85 1/3 IP pace.

At what point does he completely hit a wall with a dead arm and/or get injured?

[MG]

Pepe Frias - If they stay healthy.

[Dragon]

Yet another woulda, coulda, shoulda won game.

[bay_area_phan]

Conway: Yeah, thinking about it more, he was probably right to pinch run. I mean, it was the 8th inning and Howard represented the tying run. You need to press for every advantage you can get. On the other hand, it would have been nice to have Cesar Hernandez on the bench to either: (1) hit in the spot that Nix hit; or (2) pinch hit for Mayberry.

Of course, if Cesar were here, then we wouldn't have had 3 layers of depth at 3rd base and shortstop.

[EDGE]

The sick thing is that Diekman is terrible against RHH. But, if you look at the numbers, SSS and all, they aren't all that bad when compared to the Rosenberg/De Fratus/ Manship combo. If Diekman was in an actual MLB bullpen, I doubt we'd see him face RHH or go more than 1 inning.

[bay_area_phan]

Rosenberg & DeFratus aren't on the roster anymore. Your RH options were Camp & Manship. I'd have gone with Camp, but I can't honestly sit here & say, with any degree of confidence, that the results would have been better.

It does bring up another point: why the hell does Amaro think that a team which already has Bastardo needs 2 pure LOOGYs? Either DeFratus, Lincoln, or Pettibone should be here instead of Hollands. Again, all these guys suck, so I can't say it would have made a difference. But you can't tell me that Diekman against 3 RH hitters (in his 2nd inning of work) is a better matchup than DeFratus, Lincoln or Pettibone against those same RH hitters.

["Sensible Ruben Amaro"]

Between Neris and Defratus one will get the call. Fausto did what a 5th starter is suppose to do and that is to keep up in the game. I thought one of these arms would stick.

[Iceman]

Bullpen bleeds a run, team loses by 1.

The worst bullpen in the MLB. Amaro should be fired based solely on the last three bullpens he's built.

["Sensible Ruben Amaro"]

Lookie here i thought Diekman was for real. I had Stutes, Horst, bought in Lincoln, prayed that Adams will be ok. Defratus was looking like a solid piece. Im making phone calls looking into our minor affiliates.

[bullit]

test

[Reality]

I see BAP has gone to the same school as MG. Just talk about things and showcase that you aren't actually watching the game.

Also lots of backtracking on Sandberg by guys who swore up and down we'd be free of these mistakes when old dumb Cholly was gone.

[Jack]

Was Adams not available last night? In the 8th, you have Hill and Pollock coming up who are both righties. Why are you throwing Diekman for a second inning?

Also, Phils had 11 hits tonight and not a single one went for extra bases. That's how you only score 4 runs on 11 hits.

[Iceman]

I fell asleep last night and missed the end of the game. But someone is going to have to explain to me why Mayberry was inserted for Howard with the team down a run, and Arizona's closer being a RHP.

Is Howard hurt or dead? Those are the only two rational explanations for the move.

[bullit]

mayberry's AB was one instance of indecision after another. i can understand watching pitch 1 since he represented the last hope. it was called a ball but could easily have been called a low strike. next pitch is a fastball 93 over the plate, but he decided too late to swing. then he watched to more hittable strikes. game over.

[Five-4-One]

Mayberry pinch runner for Howard in the 7th after a Howard single. Mayberry then failed to go first to third on a single hit to deep left with Campana throwing.

[MG]

Reality - Sandberg managed a poor game and yeah I didn't like the move to remove Howard in the 8th for a pitch runner either although that was at least defensible.

I really wish Sandberg would break up Utley/Howard in the lineup every night. It hurt them last night when it enabled Gibson to bring in Perez to face Utley/Howard instead of having to make a choice of Perez or Ziegler if he had gone Utley/Byrd/Howard instead.

[bay_area_phan]

To repeat a point I made last night: why is Mario Hollands on this roster instead of another RH reliever like Lincoln or DeFratus (or, better yet, some other RH reliever floating around on the waiver wire)? Do you really need 2 pure LOOGYs when you already have a LH setup man?

Hollands didn't pitch last night, but the presence of 2 LOOGYs (and, hence, not enough right-handers) surely influenced Sandberg's decision to keep Diekman in to face the 3 RH hitters in the 8th.

[bay_area_phan]

MG has made the point about 77 trillion times, but he's totally right: RAJ's complete inability to handle even the most basic roster management decisions has been a huge factor in the Phillies' ongoing problems.

[Jack]

Was Adams unavailable, or do we have a manager who refuses to pitch good pitchers just because we're down by a run instead of up by a run?

[Jack]

Also, the Lincoln thing is really weird. He was the only outside reliever they picked up this offseason, and yet he doesn't get used and then gets outrighted within the first three weeks of the year?

[Iceman]

The next two pitching match-ups heavily favor the Phils. If there was a 'loss' in this series, last night was it.

Going on a little run here heading into next weekend's series against the Nats is very possible. Two in AZ and then two at home against the Mets. I'm sure the bullpen blows at least one of those games, but 3-1 puts them above .500 going into a tough 15-game stretch (WSH, TOR, @TOR, @NYM, LAA, CIN).

[Phillibuster]

Jack: Adams threw something like 25 or 30 the night before last in going 2 innings. He was unavailable.

[Phillibuster]

Also, while JMJ not going 1st to 3rd on that single was bad, let's give Campana some credit. He's got a poor arm, but he cut that thing off spectacularly well.

If the stop sign came from the 3B coach, then we really can't blame Mayberry for it. If it was him, however, then we have to assume he just didn't pay much attention to the defensive scouting reports for the AZ outfield, which isn't really excusable.

[bay_area_phan]

Jack: I had this debate on TGP yesterday, but I don't think it would be such a great move to use Adams when we're losing in the bottom of the 8th. It's not because I subscribe to the modern, regimented concepts of bullpen usage. It's because you can't use Bastardo & Adams every night; you've got to leverage their use for the games where, if they do their job, you've got at least decent odds of winning.

When you're down by a run, with only 1 more turn at-bat, the odds are stacked way against you even if you use your best reliever & he holds the opponent scoreless. Doesn't strike me as a good time to use one of your 3 good relievers -- especially since he had pitched the day before & would 100% be unavailable today if he had been used last night.

[Jack]

Fair enough on Adams.

[GBrettfan]

I feel like I read that they want to be careful with Adams for a while at least.

As for JMJ, Phillibuster makes a good point that he may have been following the advice of the 3B coach - - except that I read from Gelb that Sandberg wasn't happy about Mayberry not going to 3B.

[GBrettfan]

Here's the Tweet:

Matt Gelb ‏@magelb 10h
Ryne Sandberg was critical of John Mayberry Jr.'s running in the eighth. Wanted Mayberry to go first to third on Byrd's hit.

[Jack]

Wow, I didn't realize how bad the Dbacks have been to start the season. They're riding a 3-game winning streak, which has gotten them all the way to 8-18 and a -56 run differential. Yikes.

Getting rid of talented players in favor of "gritty" ones doesn't seem to have worked out all that well for them, huh?

[bullit]

once healthy, i would bring ruf up here as soon as he hits his first home run.

[Jack]

Ken Giles blew his first save of the year last night in Reading.

Now we know he's ready to be called up soon.

[MG]

Having 3 lefties in the pen is foolish and there is no reason Manship is up over De Fratus.

Ditto having Nix/Galvis on the roster at the same time. Just part of Amaro's general incompetence on managing the roster in-season but that isn't something new.

They piss and moan constantly over at TGP about Sandberg already but ultimately who is on the roster is a decision that Amaro makes and controls 100%.

[bullit]

if you haven't seen it, here's video of babe's HR to break howie's reading record less than 2 years ago. it's pretty neat:

http://www.philliedelphia.com/2012/08/darin-ruf-breaks-ryan-howards-reading-phillies-home-run-record-named-mvp-roy-eyes-triple-crown.html

[MG]

When Ruf comes back, I really hope the Phils put him on the roster although I'm sure he'll be relegated to the minors.

Only thing JMJ brings that Ruf doesn't is better defense and the ability to be at least an average RF/play CF albeit poorly.

Ruf is the better defensive 1B and isn't the liability that JMJ is vs RHP. JMJ also has lost a step and isn't a good baserunner even though he still has better speed than Ruf.

[MG]

I haven't seen any word on Martin's progress recently either.

Team desperately needs another middle reliever or two that Sandberg will use.

Bastardo (70 G, 70 1/3 IP) and Papelbon (70 G, 63 2/3 IP) are on heavy workload paces early on and Diekman onan absurd one (92 G, 85 1/3 IP).

Getting Adams back helps but Sandberg clearly has no confidence and won't use Camp (pitched once in a week) and Manship (pitched only 5 2/3 IP this month despite being on the roster all month).

Phils should send down Manship, bring up De Fratus. Hell even C. Jimenez who has gotten out to a solid start at Lehigh and is on the 40-man roster would be a better choice.

They should also bring up Giles. Sandberg can't bury the kid but it doesn't make sense to hold if down if they essentially have an untradeable contract in Papelbon the next 2 years along with the stated emphasis (and spending) on 'winning now.' Is a solid closer really worth that much on a team that will be rebuilding in 2 years?

[MG]

Is this team did have even an average bullpen right now, they would have likely be 13-10/14-11 or so and there would be a different vibe on the team (Hamels back, old core is playing well) that I would bet would start to perk a little more general interest in the team & slightly increased ticket sales and decrease no-show rates.