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Showing posts from July, 2008

The Beasts From the East

Folks, your Phillies team is loaded with beasts. That is not a difficult statement to make, based on the all star level talent that is on this Phillies baseball club, but let's exclude those all stars. No Chase, no Ryan, no Jimmy, no Brad, and no Colbert. Think you've still got a team loaded with beasts? You may doubt it, but Jay Ballz is here to assure you that you do. Beast #1...Jamie Moyer. The last time this 45 year old stallwart gave up more than 3 runs in a start was June 1st. Jamie has pitched more than 5 innings in all but 2 of his starts this year. And Moyer has a 2.84 ERA over his last 10 starts, since that June 1st game where he gave up 5 runs in 7 innings. Beast #2...Jayson Werth (vs. left handed pitchers). Tonight, Jay-Dubya tied Chase Utley for the major league lead in homeruns hit against lefties, at 11. He also raised his OPS against lefties over 1.000. Werth has hit exactly half his career homers against left handers, in far less than half the at bats. Beast #3

Pitching improvements, Terrible 2's, and more

Welcome to Philadelphia, Joe Blanton. Blanton is definitely a guy who is primed to come around. While he's not Ben Sheets, and he's not CC Sabathia, Blanton is a needed addition to the Phillies' staff. At the very least, this is addition by subtraction ....take away Adam Eaton from the starting rotation and the Phils take a step in the right direction. Blanton makes his Phillies debut against the Mets on Tuesday, the 22nd. Mets batters David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran are a combined 3-for-20 (.150 avg.) against Blanton. 2 of those hits belong to Beltran. Statement to ponder...The catchers suck. Everyone's favorite 35 yr old sophomore, Chris Coste, hasn't been able to shake himself out of a slump this month. Carlos Ruiz has been slumping for almost a couple months now. Since seeing his batting average reach a season high of .246 on May 25th, Ruiz has had only 1 multi-hit game and his avg. has dipped just about every week, to where

What the Utley?

New Yorkers must not read the Phoul Ballz Phillies blog. Perhaps the 1260AM Yankees blogger, Charod, can pass the message along to Yankees fans that Chase Utley is ABOVE THE BOO. I get the whole rivalry thing. Jeter gets booed in Boston, and that whole deal…White Sox and Cubs are booed at one another’s parks also, but certain guys are above the boo. Utley, not used to hearing jeers, due to his saint-like, Cal Junior-esque status, reacted in a manner that was out of character, during introductions at the MLB all star homerun derby, last night. He quickly forgot about the microphone on his jersey & the camera in his face and jokingly said an expletive directed right back at the NYC crowd. I am here to set the record straight. The national reports of Utley swearing on the live broadcast are incorrect. Sure, it sounded like the F-word. However, Chase Utley has a different style… you should recognize it . When Chase Utley uses that word, it starts with a “Ph”. Don’t get it twisted. The

What to say?

Question to ponder...Is there anything blog worthy with this Phillies team lately? Oh wait...here's what's good- Chase Utley and Brad Lidge are all stars. More all star news- Vote Pat Burrell in as the 32nd man (or whatever the final roster spot is these days, since we used to vote in the 30th man when this option began several years back). Pat's statistical rankings among NL outfielders are outstanding (2nd in OBP, 1st in slg %, tied for 1st in homers), so you must vote for him. The Majestic store at CBP already has 2008 Utley all star jersey for sale at a lovely price of $139. Chase Utley plans to appear in the MLB homerun derby during the all star break. And in one more bit of all star news...only one Met on the NL team so far. Is there anything else worthy of writing about with this team? Oh trade rumors? Yeah, well CC Sabathia is off the market. Would Roy Oswalt or Greg Maddux waive their no-trade clauses for the Phillies? Would the M's give up on Erik Bedard so fa