It's the End of the World As We Know It

...And we should all feel fine. I know where everyone's heads are. Some phans may be thinking the worst. The Phillies have begun the pre-season with 3 losses and no wins. How can we ever recover? Relax...it's not that bad.

I'll tell you method #1 for recovery- release Adam Eaton. Method #1, completed! That is all.

Still not feeling better? Just consider that these games mean nothing. And take notice of the fine spring performances so far for Jamie Moyer, Carlos Carrasco, "Jay" Happ, John Mayberry Jr., Raul Ibanez, Pablo Ozuna, Greg Dobbs, Jason Donald, JC Romero and Gary Majewski. Oh also, forget about the awful spring performances so far from Andrew Carpenter, Sergio Escalona and Joe Bisenius.

So, back to Eaton. Yes, the Phillies finally bit the proverbial bullet and gulped down hard to eat the $9 million that they owe him. Eaton spoke to reporters after the release and the most intriguing comment he made was this..."I know there's a lot still left in my arm." He also insisted he's healthy and pondered that he should have opted for surgery last offseason. Read plenty more Eaton quotes in multiple posts over at The Wonderful World of Scott Lauber.

Adam Eaton will forever be mentioned as Pat Gillick's (only?) huge error in judgement. Yes, Gillick was the general manager who returned a championship parade to Philadelphia after a 25-year drought, but Adam Eaton underperformed so badly, that he will forever be the stain that the folks over at "World Series Trophy Cleaners" could not get out of Gillick's Hawaiian Phillies shirt.

Phriend of PhoulBallz "MLR Joe" points out that Eaton's Wikipedia page has already been updated with this terrific ph'n news.

In other news, ailing Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore has backed out of the World Baseball Classic and Shane Victorino has been chosen to take his place. Shane will join Jimmy Rollins on the team USA roster. Other Phillies in the WBC are Carlos Ruiz with team Panama, Matt Stairs with team Canada, and the Australian triple threat of prospects- Drew Naylor, Joel Naughton and Brad Harman.

The Lakewood BlueClaws announced their bobble head giveaways for the season, this week. For you Phils phans that either got shut out of the sold out Charlie Manuel bobble head night at CBP on April 28th, or simply can't make it, our friends the BlueClaws will have a Charlie Manuel World Series Champions bobble head doll giveaway on June 15th.

Lastly, here is your official Pat Burrell on the Rays in Spring Training Report. Patrick the Batrick batted twice in the Rays' spring opener on Wednesday and was hitless in two at bats. Today, Elvis's daddy also batted twice and got a single.

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...

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