Lee speaks with a little help, Amaro downplays Hamels remarks, More spring updates

Hoping to keep things light on the first day of spring training, Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee showed up to speak with members of the media toting a plastic answer providing assistant. With his Magic 8 Ball by his side, the 36-year-old proclaimed with a smile that he'd use the device to help with any hard questions.

Relying on the toy for answers related to teammate Cole Hamels' proclamation this week that the Phillies won't be winners and if he'd wish to be traded to a contender, Lee offered more genuine thoughts on his outlook overall. The four-time All-Star pledged his focus to win a championship for the team he's currently with.

"Until we get out there and play the games, get ourself in a certain position, I can't expect to do anything other than to win and get to the World Series, and win a World Series," Lee asserted. "That's the only way I know how to look at it."

Team general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was not concerned with the ace Hamels' desire to pitch for a winning club.

Via Philly.com:

"Listen, all of these guys want to play for competitive and winning teams. That's the nature of the beast. These guys are human beings, they want to win. And they're athletes. My job is to create that atmosphere again and it may take a little time to get there. But I don’t have any problem with Cole - maybe he could have chosen his words a little but differently - but I don’t have a problem with that at all because I know he wants to compete and I fully expect him to do so. He’s a very professional guy, he’s going to go out and pitch, and he’s going to do his job here."

In other news, the Phillies announced that former CSN studio analyst Ben Davis would replace Jamie Moyer on the television broadcast team. Davis, who is also an on-air personality for WIP sports radio, is a Chester, PA native who played seven seasons in the big leagues.

Position players that are confirmed to have reported to camp early include outfielders Ben Revere, Jeff Francoeur, Darin Mastroianni, Darin Ruf, Odubel Herrera and Jordan Danks along with third baseman Cody Asche.

Also, former Phillies minor league outfielder Steve Susdorf confirmed his retirement from baseball with me on Wednesday. He is looking forward to his career outside of the sport he played professionally for seven seasons. Susdorf played in three games in the majors for the Phils in 2013.

Comments

Jealous Ones Envy

Joe Blanton continues to excel and prove his worth in the Phillies pitching rotation. In his latest outing on Sunday, Blanton threw 8 strong innings, striking out 6, while walking just 1 and surrendering 2 earned runs, improving his record to 7-4. This season in July, Joe is 3-0 over four starts with 22 K's, 5 walks and a 1.21 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Joe's ERA is 1.94. As a member of the Phillies, Blanton has a 3.84 ERA after the all star break with a 5-0 record. The Phillies are 20-12 (.625 winning percentage) in games that Blanton has started, since being acquired last July. Combined this season against other National League playoff contenders St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles, Blanton has a combined 1.67 ERA in 4 starts with a 2-0 record. Blanton is on such a sizzling run that the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Tampa Bay Rays farm team, will host a Joe Blanton bobble head give away tomorrow. Bowling Green will host Joe's mother, father and sister for the event, as Joe...

Sunday School: Phillies History Lesson 71

Gene Kelly was the radio voice of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1950- 1959. Born in Brooklyn NY, Kelly pitched in the minor leagues after graduating from Marshall College in 1941. He would soon experience arm trouble, which ended his playing days. Kelly managed to continue a career in sports by turning to radio. When legendary announcer By Saam, who pulled double duty beginning in 1939 calling both Phillies and Athletics games, moved over to the A's side exclusively, Gene Kelly was the man who would fill the void and took over as the Phillies play-by-play man. The Phillies began broadcasting their games over the air in 1936, but until the 1950's, the broadcasters only attended home games and did not travel with the team. All road games were recreated, on the air, by the announcers who read a Western Union teletype account of the games from the studio in Philadelphia. During the decade of the 50's, Kelly was partnered with several different broadcasters, including Claude Ha...

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog