Balls, Sticks, & Stuff | Phillies, Eagles, golf and other matters of great importance...

Must We Go Down this Road Again?

It's at the point now that when Curt Schilling speaks, I want to drape a towel over my head.

As you've undoubtedly heard, Schilling thinks the Phillies were "stupid, stupid, stupid" to trade away Cliff Lee.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not turned off by the fact that he thought it was the wrong deal to make, just that he spouted off about it the way he did, in typical Schilling fashion.

Naturally, this will re-open the debate.  Several weeks ago over at Fire Jim Bowden, I was asked about the way the Halladay/Lee trades went down.  Here was my answer:

The Phillies added Roy Halladay, but gave up Cliff Lee. Did they miss an opportunity to have a historically great team by keeping both?

It depends how you look at it, and believe me, I've spent the entire winter doing just that, and, well, moving snow. I think by keeping Lee, the Phillies would have closed the door to contending very much after 2011 or 2012. By keeping him, they MIGHT have sealed the deal on another World Series, but they CERTAINLY would have been in trouble a few years from now. I fully expect Tyson Gillies [and Domonic Brown] to be in the outfield in a few years and Phillipe Aumont to be on the big club in some capacity. Unfortunately the firm of Utley-Howard-Rollins-Werth won't be around forever.

You can't forget, the Phillies have very few periods of sustained success. There was the 1976-1980 teams, and really, that's about it other than a few lightning in a bottle teams here and there (1950, 1993) and I think the current regime is very wary of drifting into insignificance again. They want to contend year in, year out. They don't want the golden era of Phillies baseball--and that's what this is--to end.

My heart wanted to keep Lee, my head tells me it was the right thing to do.

Juan Carlos Ramirez Footage

Phillipe Aumont is the name that garners the most attention amongst the three prospects the Phillies got from the Mariners in return for Cliff Lee.  Here's footage of J.C. Ramirez, one of the two lesser known players, pitching for the Mariners' High A team.

The beginning of his delivery seems a little lackadaisical to me, but he does seem to work fast. Hard to tell from this, but supposedly he has a big arm.

Phillipe Aumont Footage

From this year's World Baseball Classic, Phillipe Aumont induces a weak liner from David Wright and then strikes out Curtis Granderson and Kevin Youkillis.  Not too shabby.

The pitch that got Wright was a tailing fastball, and the two strikeout pitches were hard curves.

Hamels, Myers Verbally Spar [Updated]

Make no mistake, the real story this morning is how Chase Utley and Cliff Lee threw the hopes of a repeat World Series title on their backs and extended the series for at least one, hopefully two, games in New York.

Chase Utley had two home runs and Lee lasted 7 innings against a relentless Yankee lineup.  No matter how the series turns out, we'll talk about how those two have performed to our grandchildren.

But what will also make headlines this morning is a story about two Phillies players who have had more of a love/hate relationship with fans.  According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Brett Myers and Cole Hamels got into a bit of a verbal altercation over Cole's "just put me out of my misery"-type comments following Game 4.

As Myers walked past Hamels near Hamels’ locker he said, mocking, “What are you doing here? I thought you quit.”

Hamels, the witness said, responded with an expletive.

Before the situation escalated, Myers was guided away by a team official.

It's an easy story to believe, after all, Brett Myers and Cole Hamels definitely operate on two entirely different plane of existence.  Brett has tattoos, Cole has delicate bangs.  Brett shoots first, asks questions later while Cole wouldn't pull a trigger without 4 days of rest.

The true personality of the team is really somewhere in the middle and while I'm glad somebody said something to Cole, I'd be more curious to see how Chase Utley or Jamie Moyer or Charlie Manuel or Jimmy Rollins would have handled it [or, for all we know, did handle it].

-----------------

Update: Multiple sources are now debunking the story above. Not sure who to believe at this point. My guess is that Myers did actually say that to Hamels, but jokingly, and Hamels took it that way.

Cliff Lee Induces Weak Pop-Up from Babe Ruth, Nonchalantly Catches It Himself

When Youtube was created, I'm pretty sure they had the baseball playoffs in mind. Behold:

Phillies Take Game 1, Pundits Scratch Heads

[Thanks to Dan McQuade for the video]

The video above says it all about Cliff Lee's performance tonight in Yankee Stadium.  Nonchalant and easy.  6-1, Phllies win.

Lee went the distance, completing the game with 10 strikeouts, no walks and no earned runs [the Yankees would score one run the 9th on a Jimmy Rollins error].  Alex Rodriguez accounted for 3 of those strikeouts.  You remember him right?  The one pretty much ordained the World Series MVP before a pitch was ever thrown?  Yeah, him.

The offense was initially powered by Chase Utley, who solo-homered in the 3rd and 6th innings. [Those that believe in karma or fate will remember that Chase Utley homered for the Phillies first run in last year's World Series.]  Extreme patience on the part of Utley's fellow hitters would chase [no pun intended] C.C. Sabathia early, and the Phillies were able to score 4 more runs off of the Yankees pen.

Up, 1-0 to nothing, the Phillies are attempting to follow the blue-print they've drawn up over the last two post-seasons -- win Game 1, steal home-field advantage, and then never look back.

Pitching Staffs Evenly Matched for World Series

As was the case in comparing the Phillies' and the Yankees' offenses, the two clubs' differences in leagues and ballparks makes it difficult to compare the performances of players.  Therefore, we resort to ERA+, which takes out those two factors, and normalizes ERA [100 is average].  Click the graphic to enlarge. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

For the season in its entirety, the two staffs are very evenly matched in terms of pitching and defense [ERA and ERA+ being dependent on defense].  However, these numbers include Brad Lidge's putrid regular season.  If, and this is a big if, Lidge has regained even some semblance of his 2008 season, then the pendulum, in this area, may swing back to the Phillies.

As you can see, only three pitchers were included in the graphic under the Yankees starting staff column.  They've only used these three in the playoffs, leaving Chad Gaudin and Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen.

Speaking of the bullpen, that's where this series could get decided.  Mariano Rivera has been a rock in the end of the Yankees bullpen for 15 years and shows no signs of slowing down.  In the Game 6 clincher, Yankees manager Joe Girardi called on Rivera to get the final 6 outs and he did just that.  Who knows how the ebbs and flows of a 7-game series will go, but at this point, it would behoove the Phillies to hold the lead in games before the 8th inning.

He Came Down to the End of the Bench and Said...

That's the story according to Cliff Lee, who couldn't say enough about Ryan Howard's game-tying double. CSNPhilly.com has the video:

What a Whirlwind

Shane knocks one out... Clifton Phifer Lee paints the corners... Werth puts on his hulk hands and makes it 2-0... Raul pulls a mini-Holliday... Pete Happy swings at the first pitch [first pitch!?!?!]... Lee comes out for the 8th and gets into trouble, Madson and Ben Francisco in, Lee and Ibanez out... Fly to leeeft, BENNY BABY!!! Charlie's a genius until... Rockies knock around Madson, we're down two runs with only three outs left... Dobbs K's, Jimmy singles... Shane almost hits into a DP... Uts walks... The Big Piece doubles!... Shane almost misses third on the way home, Chase is chasing him, they both score and we're tied at 4!... Werth singles and The Big Piece rumbles home! 5-4 Fightin' Phillies!... Eyre and his loose bodies and sprained ankle come out for the bottom of the 9th... Two outs and two singles later, Charlie calls on Lidge to face Tulo... the Delaware Valley holds their breath... Struck him out!

If Cliff Lee Had a Home Improvement Show, It Would Be Called "Painting the Corners"

Once again, you don't need sophisticated statistics or verbage to describe Cliff Lee's performance yesterday.  A simple picture will suffice:

Now that we have Lee's performance sufficiently analyzed, some other notes...

...After watching yesterday's game, I think there is something a lot of people overlooked going into the series and that is the importance of the Phillies running game versus the Rockies pitchers and Yorvit Torrealba's arm.  If Davy Lopes is sending guys like Cliff Lee and Ryan Howard, imagine what he is going to do when Jimmy Rollins or Shane Victorino are on first with second base open.

...Think Cole Hamels doesn't know his day/night splits?  All of his complaining about the 2:37 start times -- which are, in fact, crap -- certainly leads you to think he does.  He must be quite the creature of habit.

...Carlos Ruiz doesn't have the quickest bat, but he certainly put together a smart at-bat when he wants to.

...Not only are the 2:37 start times a raw deal, but so is the TBS coverage.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but part of me misses Fox and Timmy McCarver.

...Sure feels good to have a W under our belts, doesn't it?