Tag Archive: philadelphia phillies

Everything is Going to be Fine with Chase Utley, Right?

March 22, 2011 Randy Neil

Well, the 76ers have had the past few days off, so I’m like a frightened baby deer wandering through some recently developed suburban houses. I’m scared. Alone. Nothing is familiar to me anymore and car lights resemble burning flames that threaten my very existence. Just when I’m about to give up all hope, I’m presented with an alternative that seems strangely familiar and comforting. Baseball season is coming.

Opening Day is 9 days from now. The hell that our pitching staff is about to bring will be unleashed, sending batters cowering to their hitting coaches searching for new “mechanics” to battle the unrivaled supremacy that is the Philadelphia Phillies starting lineup. It feels good. We are still a force to be reckoned with.

Every year a survey is taken determining the most loyal fans in baseball. Whom do you ask won it this year? The Yankees? The Red Sox? Nay, I doth correct yee… tis the Phillies. For the first time in 10 years, the giants of baseball have been overthrown on the Sports Loyalty Index (yes that is real.) The Yankees are now pushed to 2nd, and the typically highest ranked Red Sox are now bumped down to 3rd. Even better, the Mets who commonly ranked among the top 10, are now ranked 23rd alongside the Washington Nationals. The Nationals play in a city that’s almost foreign to everyone, so what’s your excuse New York?

Naturally though, there are some concerns. Most notably, Chase Utley. Just two days ago the Phillies sign Luis Castillo after the Mets released his old ass and he was cleared from waivers. This just helps add to the concern that our infield situation is not looking so hot, and Chase Utley might be sitting out longer than anyone else had expected. I’m cool with Valdez. He played great last year, looked good this spring, and he’s a nice youthful addition to a lineup many are criticizing to be too old.

Castillo is mainly there to back up Valdez for the disastrous situation that he happens to be hurt. But Castillo is old. Older than dirt. He’s 35, older than a majority of the infield, and he sucks. Last year he was notoriously on the ‘Not Top 10′ for dropping routine infield pop-ups. Dear God. Plus he’s a Met. They have no souls. The Phillies are considering contacting a witch doctor to perhaps revive the spirits in Luis to ensure that he is not in fact a scum-sucking, plague-ridden, uncanny pile of death who happened to rise to the elite ranks of professional baseball player. Fingers crossed.

Good news is he was scheduled to start today, giving everyone a chance to scout him before the season starts. Let me just hop over to the Phillies’ website to confirm that.

Oh god no.

They don’t know where he is!! He was scheduled to arrive yesterday for a physical and enter the lineup today, but he hasn’t shown? Apparently his agent is citing some sort of ‘confusion’ for the deadline. Ruben Amaro and Charlie Manual are not happy about it.

“If it was me? I would have been here two days ago,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “But it’s not me. I ain’t upset about it or anything. Really. When he gets here, we’ll suit him up and see what he can do.”

Calm down Charlie!

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Cliff Lee signs with Philadelphia Phillies

December 14, 2010 Randy Neil

Aaaaand the award for greatest pitching staff of all time goes to?

Seriously?  We are going to have Roy Oswalt, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and now Cliff Lee??  I see a double ROYbow.

Cliff Lee announced around midnight that he would be signing a 5 year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.  Somehow we’ve become the Miami Heat of baseball, and the best part is we’ve basically profited from the sadness and disappointment of the New York Yankees.

Adam texted me at 5 pm Tuesday afternoon, and mentioned this might happen.  How skeptical we were.

I also want to note that Adam destroyed me in our fantasy football play off game, and although Andre Johnson caught for some 600 yards, it was still no match for his Michael Vick/Michael Turner combo.  Some man (unmentioned) decided to trade Adam Vick for Brandon Tate straight up earlier in the season, and how that has come back to haunt me.  Where’s the veto button now?

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2010 Baseball PostSeason Predictions!!

September 27, 2010 Randy Neil

altThat time of year is almost here!  October baseball!  Getting drunk almost every day, spending a crap ton of money, eating horrific food, and losing your voice from yelling at a television…. all the good things in store that literally destroy your body in a one month span.  Yes I’m aware that wasn’t a sentence, but fuck it! It’s October baseball!!

Here’s the picks for the play-offs.

In the American League:

The Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Yankees.  The Yankees and Rays are still just trying to figure out who’s gonna be the wild-card, and who’s gonna be the division winner, but it’s a lock they’re both in.  We don’t know who’s playing each other yet, but I can tell you I’m certain of one thing :

The Yankees are going to the World Series.  Duh.  The Texas Rangers have basically a .500 record since the All-Star Break, and the OP (overpowering) A.L. East will destory them, regardless of who they play.  Right now the Rangers have an almost identical record to the Red Sox, who’s 3rd in the AL East.  OP indeed.

The Twins are good, but the only team that could legitimately threaten the Yankees are the Rays.  Do I think they ARE going to threaten the Yanks?  No.  I think this entire league has already been decided.

In the National League:

It gets much trickier to sit down and actually predict who’s gonna be in the play-offs here.  As of now, the Phillies are the only definate team, and will most likely be the N.L. East division winner, so let’s just assume that’s the case.

The N.L. Central is going to the Reds after the Cardinals decided to shit all over themselves the last quarter of the season.  I’m happy about this.  I’m glad to see the Reds come through with a winning season finally.  Dusty Baker deserves one, and the Cardinals clearly haven’t been doing anything with their recent play off runs, so give someone else a try.

Now to the dirty, dirty west.  This whole thing is a mess right now.  The Padres had it, and let it slip away to the San Francisco Giants??  I guess the fact that the Padres had it is more surprising.  I don’t doubt they are a good team, and “the real deal”, but I don’t see play-off caliber skills in them.  Latos, their best pitcher, has been struggling, and they still happen to be the 2nd lowest paid team in the NL.  That means no stars, besides Adrian Gonzalez, and they were talking about trading that dude at the beginning of the year. 

Even if the Padres somehow reclaim the West and hold it, they don’t have much of a chance… so I’m gonna give it to the Giants.  They have a better all-around team and at least can make a better play-off run. 

So now to the wildcard, which is also another large mess.  Since we gave the Giants the N.L. West, that leaves the Padres, Braves, and Rockies (sorta) in the hunt.  The Rockies are 4 games back, and no divisional games coming up, so I’m gonna write them off.  With 6-7 games left for both the Padres and Braves, it’s really going to be a neck and neck hunt for the wildcard.  The Braves play the Marilns and Phillies, the Padres play the Cubs and then have an epic 3 game series with the Giants at the end of the season.

I’m gonna go with the Braves, simply because I think the Giants will have a winning series against the Padres and that will crush the Padres hopes and record.  The Braves can beat the Marlins, and the Phillies might start resting people if they clinch the East in the next day or so. 

It’s certainly much more exciting than the A.L., that’s for sure.  As for the playoffs, the only real threat I see to the Phillies (the natural favorite) is the Reds.  They are a solid team, but they starting pitching isn’t nearly as good, so I still think the Phillies can handle them.  The Giants are not deep enough to threaten, and the Braves and Padres seem worn down, so I don’t seem momentum carrying them into some remarkable play off run.  

WORLD SERIES – Phillies v. Yankees (Phillies in 6)

Let’s GOOOOOO!!!

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On the Cloud of Unknowing…. Jayson Werth

September 20, 2010 Randy Neil

altTonight the Phillies start a 3 game series which stands to be the most important of the season.  The Braves come into Philadelphia looking to decrease the lead the Phillies have right now in the N.L. East.  It’s going to be an epic battle!!

This is finally going to be the true test of who should claim the N.L. East this year, and with 9 games left, it couldn’t come at a more significant time.  Sadly I have some bad news for both parties…

The bad news for the Phils?   Jayson Werth just signed with agent Scott Boras recently, meaning that when the off-season comes, the Phillies have to get ready for some hardball.  It’s highly unlikely that Werth will come back. With the precedence set by Jason Bay’s ridiculously high paying deal in New York , and Domonic Brown waiting to shine (and waiting is the key word, Brown’s offense fizzled after his MLB debut,) all signs are pointing to Jayson being a highly desired free agent that the Phillies can’t afford to keep. 

I’m not sure how I feel about this, because Jayson truly has seemed disinterested at times while playing, and even stories of him yelling at fans in the stadium circulated this year.  On the flip side, I just watched him jack a 2 run HR yesterday in the bottom of the 9th to give us our 7th straight win.  He’s also had more at bats than any other player on the Phillies this year, has a better OPS than Ryan Howard (that’s on base and sluggign percentage making love together for one stat), and has made more starts than any other Philly.  

It’d be nice to think that everyone can stay put where they are with such great chemistry, but sadly, it usually never ends up that way.  The next 9 days (and hopefully post-season) will be a true test of his character.

Oh… and the bad news for the Braves?  They’re gonna be six games down by Thursday. 

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A Weekend in Recap

July 12, 2010 Randy Neil

altWow, it’s been a crazy weekend.  Lebronathon is coming to a close now that he has officially announced his new team and pissed everyone but Miamians off.  The World Cup Finals were played yesterday, Spain outdiving the Netherlands, and the MLB All-Star break has officially started.  

I’m not going to talk about Lebron, mostly due to the fact that everyone else already has, and I think my partner summed it up about as well as one could.  I will say this though:  Lebron, get your ass a speech coach man.  Your were mumbling and stumbling all over the place.  Even your big official announcement sentence had pauses and stutters.  That ain’t ballin’ son…. that ain’t ballin’ indeed. 

Aside from the media circus that was, the Phillies decided to host a circus of their own, having 3 extra-inning walk off wins, and a sweep of the Reds.  It’s a nice way to enter the All-Star break (47-40) as baseball takes a pause from the daily grind.

Baseball is like the long-term relationship where you are constantly guilty of taking the significant other for granted, but totally miss them when they’re gone.  Baseball seems like it’s always on, and makes for great background noise, but we all know if you had a chance, you’d bang football much more often.  They seem more exciting, but clearly won’t give you the long term love and support baseball does.  Football is just for sex, which is why I’ve patended a new sexual position called the ‘Jerry Jones.’ 

So, if the MLB was a relationship, then this is the fun vacation getaway.  The point where you and baseball try to spice up your marriage.  The Home-Run Derby starts tonight with some pretty good names, but sadly, no Phillies.  No Chase Utley to talk shit on LA fans.  Still, the show must go on, and if I had to pick a winner, I’d go with Hanley Ramirez.  He has the least amount of HRs going into the derby with 13, so my pick has pure logic behind it.  It’s NOT going to be Matt Holiday with 26 total homers.  NOT.

altSoccer, your foreign lover, is going to end it’s very sweet and sensual affair that only comes but once every four years.  The World Cup has ended, and your ultimate victor is Spain.  They only scored 8 goals the entire elimination round, which usually doesn’t add up to an exciting final, but they definately kept it interesting.  I was very surprised at how well these two teams actually matched up.  At first I thought Spain would just be a dominate force the entire match, and although they did handle possession better, the Netherlands had a pretty good defense for Spain’s attacks, and had a pretty good amount of shots on goal as well. 

Since I’m a FIFA 2010 whore for the PS3, I always go to the Match Facts.  Spain, although having more shots total, only had 4 shots on goal.  How many did the Netherlands have?  4.  During the match I remember my feelings changing from “Oh wow these teams are pretty evenly matched” to “Oh man this is totally going to turn into a game where someone is going to sneak a goal in the last minutes after an incredibly even power struggle, and I will feel unfulfilled.”  Boy was I right.  Spain ended up faking more injuries and eventually all the yellow cards caught up to the Dutch.  It was bland, it was expected, and I’m not feeling satisfied.  It’s almost funny to think that our style of soccer play (US) represents our media and sports expectations, in that it’s very hectic and nail-biting.  Maybe I’m just a piece of shit American and I can’t see the glory in this…

Either way, I’m about to Jerry Jones this bitch, so I gotta roll…. until next time…

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