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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.

Pitching, Pitching, Pitching: News on Romero, Hamels and Madson

First and foremost, it seems as if Ryan Madson reads this here website.  After all, I had hardly hit the publish button on a post questioning Madson's judgment on turning down a 3-year, $12 million deal from the Phillies when news came that Madson had decided to take the Phillies up on a very similar deal.

It's a good move on Madson's part to take the money and run.  What's interesting from the Phillies standpoint is how many of the important parts of the team are signing on for multiple years.  Seems to me the Phillies should be competitive at the very least for years to come.

The Posting to Be Named Later

Notes that don't/can't/won't fit into a larger post...

...There is a perception out there that Chase Utley is in a slump, but that really isn't the case.  There is no doubt he was in a slump, a hangover from his 35-game hit streak.  But in September, Utley has a .916 OPS of and has hit 6 home runs in 12 games.

...Philadelphia sports fans are eager [some would say desperate, I prefer eager] for a nationally iconic sports figure to reside here.  So eager in fact, that there are movements afoot to bestow upon Ryan Howard a single permanent nickname and also to convince everyone everywhere that Howard is deserving of the MVP, all in order to speed up the process.

Obviously, I think he is MVP-worthy, but I am not so quick to settle on a nickname.  Why should we have to settle upon just one or two words to describe one of the greatest hitters in baseball right now?  I'm fine with The R-6, Howardzer, Broad Street Bomber, Ryno, The Ryan King, Baby Huey, and The Clean in the Clear all getting heavy use for the time being.  Remember, George Herman Ruth was known as The Babe, The Sultan of Swat, The Great Bambino, even The Circuit Smasher.  It was decades before fans settle almost exclusively on Babe.

...Charlie Manuel has said he likes to write out, tinker, and think about lineups.  In the end, he usually sticks with something similar to the day before, but he has certainly changed it over the course of the season.  Here is one I would suggest, though I'm not sold on it myself:

Shane Victorino - R - CF
Jeff Conine - R - LF
Chase Utley - L - 2B
Ryan Howard - L - 1B
Jimmy Rollins - S - SS
Coste/Ruiz - R - C
Jose Hernandez - R - 3B
Michael Bourn - L - RF

Victorino probably doesn't see enough pitches to lead off in the long term -- something we've certainly given Rollins a hard time about over the years -- and Victorino might have a better arm for right field than Bourn (who coincidentally, might one day become a good lead-off hitter), so it is possible one could flip those two in the outfield.  The main thing this version does is get a 20-home run hitter with one of the better slugging percentages on the team -- yes, that's right, Jimmy Rollins -- behind Ryan Howard, giving him some protection.  The downside is that Howard could end up clogging the basepaths for Rollins on occasion.

...It is being reported that Scott Mathieson will undergo Tommy John Surgery and miss the entire next season.  I maintain that the World Baseball Classic is a wonderful concept, however, Mathieson is another in a long line of pitchers who took time out from spring training to participate in the tournament and then go down with injury later in the regular season.  Correlation is not causation, but for this and other reasons, it's clear that the timing of the event has to be re-examined.

...This morning, The Missus saw the latest Wild Card standings and said to me, "They are going to just tease you with that all month aren't they?"  I sighed, resigned myself to the likely truth, and replied matter-of-factly "Yes. Yes, they are."

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Mini-Linkology:

Dave Studeman reminds me of something I forgot I knew about in his latest "Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week" column:  Baseball Races. [He also threw a link this way, thanks Dave.]...The perception is that the Phillies do not fair well against premium starting pitching from the opposition, but according to Dave Pinto, they stack up fairly well in comparison to the rest of the league...At ESPN.com, Jerry Crasnick wrote a great little article about the budding mentorship between Jamie Moyer and Cole Hamels, and Jayson Stark, whose columns often reveal his Philadelphia bias, tends to think that Albert Pujols is more MVP-worthy than Ryan Howard.  Blasphemy!

Team USA Wrap-Up

It's one thing when the other nations in the world surpass the United States in terms of things like educational test scores in math and science, thats fine.  But when they surpass us in baseball...that's when things have gone too far.  The proverbial camel's back has been broken.

But lets stop and think about this for a moment.  Has the inaugural World Baseball Classic really and truly shown that America is not one of the four best teams on the globe?  No.  All it has really shown us is that Team USA was not one of the best in terms of playing a round robin formatted tournament.

Look, does anyone truly believe that if all of these teams -- Korea, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic -- could keep up with Team USA over the course of a 162 game season?  I think we all know that the answer is "no".  In such a scenario, these teams could play small ball all they want to, be scrappy, yada yada, but in the end, once the sample size gets larger, the power and athleticism of the Americans would just be too much to overcome.

That's not to say that we can't learn something from the results of the tournament.  The biggest lesson learned is that Team USA needs to prepare more before the tournament starts.  Teams from Korea and Japan were working together for six weeks before WBC play began, while the Americans were together as a unit for about two or three days before the tournament began.  Not only is that not long enough time to get aquainted with your teammates, it is also not long enough to get used to quality pitching or study your opponents.

Hopefully, by the time the World Baseball Classic rolls around again in 2009, those that run Team USA will have better scores in history than their counterparts in the rest of the world.

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Phillies Notes...

...On the brightside of things, Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu will be returning to the Phillies now that their teams have been eliminated from the WBC.

...Josh Kroeger was sent to AAA, leaving Shawn Garrett and Chris Roberson as the two remaining options in the big club's camp for the fifth outfielder slot.

...Gavin Floyd turned in a nice performance against the Blue Jays on Thursday.  Confidence is a fickle thing, and hopefully this is what it takes to get the shaken Floyd on the right track.

When 576 Feet is Not Enough for a Win

For the second game in a row, Team USA got a significant contribution from Chase Utley in a World Baseball Classic game -- 576 feet of contribution as a matter of fact -- but it wasn't enough for a win over Canada.

In the top of the 8th inning, the Americans were down 8 runs to 6 and Canadian Justin Morneau doubled to the right field corner.  Jeff Francoeur chased the ball down and quickly and accurately hit the cutoff man as Ryan Radmanovich  tried to score from first.  Utley was the cutoff man, and he also turned quickly and hurled the ball from shallow right field, approximately 170 feet [click photo], to home plate where Radmanovich was tagged out, ending the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, Utley came to the plate with two runners on base and two outs.  A homerun would give Team USA a one run lead and facing fellow Phillie Scott Mathieson, Utley ripped a pitch to deep center field.  The crowd roared, I roared, Utley tossed his bat aside and raised his arms, and the announcers were getting their "how often do you see a player get a big hit just after a big play in the field" line ready.  What seemed like ten seconds later, Canadian centerfielder Adam Stern caught Utley's drive just short of the wall, 406 feet from home plate and one foot short of a home run and a one run lead for the Americans.

Had it not been for Jason Varitek's grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning, Utley's at-bat would have been almost meaningless.  Varitek's shot capped off a 6 run offensive, the only runs the Canadians would surrender.  Dontrelle Willis gave up five runs and took the loss.

With the loss, Team USA now faces elimination, and their fate is not completely in their own hands.  One thing is for certain, they must win Friday's game against South Africa.  The rest of their fate hinges on today's Canada/Mexico game.  If Canada defeats Mexico, Team USA advances.  If Mexico beats Canada, then, trust me on this one, Mexico has to score at least three runs in doing so for the USA to advance to the second round.

Let's just root for Canada today, eh.

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Utley Plays Prominent Role

Our very own Chase Utley played a prominent role in Team USA's first game of the World Baseball Classic, a 2-0 win over Mexico.  The first batter of the game hit a grounder to Clutchly's right, and as he planted his foot on the grass, the turf gave way.  Utley tried his best to throw the runner out from his back, but first baseman Derek Lee was pulled off the bag.  It was scored a hit [only the grounds crew deserved an error for making the grass slippery by over-watering the dirt] for Karim Garcia.

Later on in the first inning, Utley turned a fine double play with Garcia sliding hard into second.  In the later innings, Utley was part of a 4-3 double play, tagging out the lead runner himself and stifling a mini-rally by Mexico who was down 2-0 at the time.

At the plate, Utley was a non-factor, failing to get on base while batting out of the nine hole.  In his last at-bat, he faced left-handed pitcher Ricardo Rincon, who struck him out swinging on a pitch low and away.

For the final out of the game, Utley caught a high pop-up in shallow right field, having to fight off right fielder Jeff Franc[aeiou and sometimes]r for the catch.  Phillies 1, Braves 0.

Team USA manager Buck Martinez used an interesting outfield alignment to start the game, with Johnny Damon in left, Junior Griffey in center, and Randy Winn in right.  Perhaps he should have configured in with either Damon or, preferably, Winn in center.  Each are better defensive center fielders than Griffey at this stage in their careers.

Watching the broadcast on ESPN was difficult as Rick Sutcliffe just doesn't know when to be quiet.  In the top of the seventh inning, Sutcliffe speculated that maybe Mexico should have considered bunting the runner at first over while down one run.  I could see where maybe, possibly, at times that would be a good idea, but with Jorge Cantu at the plate, swinging away was the right choice.

An alternative to Sutcliffe's bloviating would have been to turn on XM Radio and listen to Mike Schmidt.  Though I didn't catch all of his broadcast, I did hear him make at least one very good point:  expect low scoring games in the initial rounds of the Classic as the pitchers are still ahead of the batters at this point in March.

Did anyone realize the irony of Chipper Jones hitting a homerun on the very first pitch he saw of the game off of Oscar Villareal?  Villareal is a candidate for the closer's job in Atlanta.

Finally, I received this email from my friend Chip:

I am at work with the Gametracker running on my computer for the Canada / South Africa game on.  One thing that caught my eye: "In the hole - Stubby Clapp."  I don't think I want to see that again.

Me neither.  In other news, Dick Trickle finished 34th.

Spanning the Globe

Link: Shallow • Center: What in the World?.
Link: Shallow • Center: Comments :: What in the World?.

Count my phellow Phlogging Toms among those disinterested in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, a growing majority.  But this Phlogging Tom is definitely in the "interested" camp.

Sure, the idea was hatched as a way for Bud Selig to get his hands on more money for his fellow owners.  And while people may have a problem with that, I'm looking at it much more superficially...It's going to be a set of relatively competitive baseball games featuring real life professional players -- many major leaguers -- weeks before MLB games mean anything.  Spring training is great, but the outcomes of the games mean absolutely nothing.

One of the biggest complaints with the World Baseball Classic is the timing of it all, smack dab in the middle of the aforementioned spring training.  It's my understanding that players will not be overused, so late season fatigue for those who participate in the WBC should not be much of an issue.  As a matter of fact, I am glad Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Bobby Abreu will be playing, hopefully they will hit the ground running in April when the real games begin.

I can understand being turned off by the way the tournament has been planned and marketed down our throats, but hey, it will be competitive baseball a full month before we would normally expect to see it.  Sit back and enjoy it.

Having said that...

...I couldn't care less about the upcoming Winter Olympics.  Fine, call me an egocentric ugly-American, but to me, the way the Olympics have been packaged takes all the fun out of it whatsoever.  For one, in order to prolong the hype and advertising opportunities, the events are spread out over what seems like six or seven weeks (its not that I have a problem with NBC making money, but when it dilutes the product, then I have a problem).  The empty time between events is filled with Oprah-like interviews in soft lighting and somber music, and the storylines that are fed to us are almost as predictable as a VH1 Behind the Music: Athlete excels on the playing field.  Athlete experiences personal setback.  Athlete contends at the Olympics despite the personal setback.  Tears are shed, rewind, play again...

Blah.  The better course would be to compress the overall time of the games to just a week or so.

And while I have no problem with NBC and the Olympics making money, I am quite turned off by the accounts of corruption and politics that go into the selection of each Olympic site.  Couple that with the fact that the athletes are no longer amateurs and the whole spectacle leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I'll leave the fact that winners of many events are often decided by a panel of judges with questionable ethics for another day.

World Baseball Classic

Dipping into the mailbag, Balls, Sticks, & Stuff Reader Emeritus George Southrey asks, "has there been any information regarding how many Phillies might be playing in the World Baseball Classic?"

I get the impression, from George and others that I talk to, that the WBC is not garnering much interest among baseball fans, yours truly included.  However, I think that as the March tournament draws near, interest will grow.  That is, assuming the event even happens.

At any rate, to answer George's question, Rheal Cormier is pitching for Canada, which rheally sucks for them.  Eude Brito and Robinson Tejeda are pitching for the Dominican Republic.  Carlos Ruiz for Van Halen's Panama.  Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley for the good old US of A (Michael Young, Derek Jeter, and Craig Biggio are also on the roster, so I'm not sure who will be starting...Jeter for sure just because he is Derek Jeter and only has to arrive at the games with two unbroken legs to get the nod...but Chase has a fighting chance at second base).  Bobby Abreu and Tomas Perez, the world's most wanted pie offender, are slated for Venezuela.

Buck Martinez is the USA manager, with Davey Johnson as his bench coach. On XM Radio, where he is a co-host of the morning show, they jokingly refer to him as the Commander-in-Chief.  Having listened to Martinez on the air quite a bit, he sounds like the type of guy who wants to make everybody happy, so I am betting he will ask for -- and hopefully receive -- input from managers and pitching coaches of MLB teams as to how to go about using the pitchers in order to avoid injury.

Pitchers are not in danger of having their egos injured as the designated hitter rule will be in effect for all games.

As for the hitters, I tend to think that they can be used as much as Martinez wants, I don't see the harm in it really.  There aren't that many WBC games, so I don't think it would cause fatigue later in the regular season.  Plus with 30-man rosters and given that they are exhibition games, I tend to think Martinez will attempt to spread the playing time around.  In other words, two or three plate appearances per player per game is probably what you can expect.