It’s A Pretty Long Season
You got that right. Phils fans, including myself, were quoted earlier in the year saying, “It’s going to be a long season.” It is, man. We suck. The worst part about baseball is when you do suck, you suck for a long, long time. The season is long. The games are every day. The sucking is continual.
Let’s find some light at the end of this tunnel, shall we?
I attended yesterday’s game against the Diamondbacks and finally, after 5 home games, was able to catch a victory. A walk-off victory. Ryan Howard was so due to get a hit and the D-backs practically gave us the game. Why was Justin Upton out in no-man’s land with the bases loaded and 1 out? That ball would’ve dropped right into his glove if it wasn’t for the “no-doubles” defense they were running. Makes no sense.
Howard was getting booed yesterday after his second strikeout. I’m terribly conflicted about this. You look at two superstars coming back at about the exact same time and it’s hard not to compare them. Utley has way better at-bats than Howard, a much better average, more runs, more RBI’s, and… more errors. Well, even statistically he doesn’t have that many errors, but as Adam said last week, he has more errors than accounted for.
They both look sloppy, honestly. Howard has less of a leash because he’s a higher paid player, but I really don’t understand why there’s such high expectations on either of them. It’s the middle of a dead season. We aren’t going to go anywhere. Just let them work their way back into playing shape and get ready for next season without this false hope that we’re going to make a wild-card run. As far as I’m concerned, every upcoming game is a scrimmage.
It’s nice to finally see that Ruben Amaro, Jr. is coming under scrutiny. I talk to a lot of Phillies fans, so to finally hear the “Maybe it’s his fault….” conversations starting is somewhat refreshing. We, at theheadrush, have been alluding to this for quite some time.
I’m ecstatic that Hunter Pence is gone. Pence was a terrible outfielder. He was an even worse clean up guy (which is why he lost his job to Carlos Ruiz of all people). I can’t even imagine him being a good presence in the dugout. I like me some dumb redneck from time to time, but I don’t trust a guy who’s intro music is dubstep. Sorry.
It was Ruben’s call to grab him in the middle of last season instead of putting more emphasis on Mayberry, Jr. and Domonic Brown. What are we doing now? Putting more emphasis on Mayberry, Jr. and Domonic Brown. It almost seems like there was no long-term plan in his head.
I approve the resigning of Cole Hamels. I’m OK with him getting a huge paycheck. It does give you hope that we will attempt to contend in the upcoming seasons and at this point, I’m convinced he’s a more reliable starter than Lee and Halladay. It’s hard not to look at these 4 huge numbers on the payroll though and not get a little bit worried about how much money is tied up in 2013.
Man, I haven’t found much light at the end of the tunnel….
I’m pretty psyched about this B.J. Rosenberg fella, though. His numbers don’t stand out as anything spectacular in the minors, but he does look to be a reliable relief guy down the stretch. The kids got swag. Swag for days. 2 innings pitched, 3 strikeouts, 0 earned runs, and swag.
You know who doesn’t have swag? Kyle Kendrick. Say what you want about his 27 innings without a run stretch, or whatever that fluke was, but he’s going to be a terrible 5th guy in the rotation. Again. How many times do we need to play this game? He’s a great relief pitcher. Especially long relief. We’re only using him in the rotation because of how depleted we are. Charlie Manual even hinted about him being in the starting rotation come 2013. Please… lord no.