PhoulBallz.com

Michael Taylor has been gone from the Phillies organization since December, 2009, when he was included in a package of players that was sent to Toronto for ace hurler Roy Halladay . Taylor was quickly flipped to Oakland in a separate trade and has had a tough time reaching and staying in the big leagues ever since. The 6-foot-5-inch 255-pound outfielder has been mashing opposing pitching in the early going this season, to the tune of a .452 batting average, through 7 games with Triple-A Sacramento. With 6 doubles, a homerun and a league leading 11 RBI, Taylor has helped lead the River Cats to a 6-1 record. Taylor, a Stanford graduate who spent this past off-season interning at a radio station in San Francisco, was the Phillies 5th round draft choice in 2007. Over the past two seasons in the Pacific Coast League, Taylor has batted .272 with 22 homers and 142 RBI in 220 games. The righty batting Taylor also sported a .200 average with 1 homerun and 1 RBI in 11 games with the Athle...

After taking a series off from interleague play, due to MLB scheduling, the Phillies (47-29) return home to play host to the team that was once Philadelphia's other big league club, the Athletics (34-42). The A's will be making their first visit ever to Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies will see a few familiar faces in the series, as Hideki Matsui (2009 World Series MVP, when the Yankees defeated the Phillies in 6 games) and Josh Outman (10th draft pick by the Phillies in 2005) come to town. Former Phils prospect Gio Gonzalez, a starting pitcher, is also on the Athletics' roster, but he is not due to see action in the series. Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco, who leads fan voting at his position for the 2011 All-star Game, excels against Oakland, as his .376 average in 42 games against the A's is his best mark against any team he has faced. The Athletics have won 5 of 9 all-time interleague meetings between these two clubs. Read ahead for details on the pitching ...

The various costs the Phillies have paid to acquire their dream rotation of top-of-the-line starting pitchers are high and well-documented. The long-term contracts - including the Phillies’ first-ever $20 million arms – put the monetary cost front and center, but the secondary cost of acquiring these players can sometimes be forgotten. Really, it’s not hard to see why. When players like Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt do what they’ve done for the Phils at the Major League level, caring about what could have been with prospects is pushed aside in favor of appreciation, awe and admiration for what actually is. Still, for nostalgia’s sake, it’s nice to keep tabs on former Philly farmhands. In the case of the Phillies, a slew of young players were exchanged for this lineup of fierce hurlers. Few teams have had the depth and quality – or, at least, perceived quality – of minor leaguers to pull off deals like these, especially not in a two-plus-season span. It’s a big family to monitor. Sadly,...

Pat Burrell is congratulated by manager Bruce Bochy following Burrell's HR on Friday vs. Oakland Pat Burrell in 7 games with his new club, the San Francisco Giants, has contributed with a .333 batting average. Burrell, who could never quite excel with his previous team the Tampa Bay Rays, has driven in 4 runs and slugged two doubles and a homerun in his short time thus far with San Francisco. Burrell smashed his first homerun as a Giant on Friday, against former Phillies prospect Gio Gonzalez, of the Athletics. The Giants won the contest 6-2. Gonzalez suffered his 4th loss to San Francisco on Friday, but he also has 6 wins and a 3.79 ERA through 13 starts thus far in 2010. Burrell's teammate Aaron Rowand is struggling on offense, as he's posted a .223 batting average and .654 OPS this season. Rowand is a .278 career batter and has a career OPS of .782, so surely his 2010 output is far below his typical level of contributions. Oakland has more players than Gonzalez with Phil...

Dear Oakland A's, You couldn't have waited till Monday to make this trade?! What the eff-hole? Sincerely, PhoulBallz.com Matt Holliday joined the Cardinals in Philadelphia on Friday, following a trade that sent prospects Brett Wallace, Shane Peterson and Clayton Mortensen to Oakland. St. Louis has upgraded their team with three trades this month adding Holliday, Julio Lugo and Mark DeRosa. Holliday quickly proved to be the impact player that Cards manager Tony La Russa has been wanting to add to the team's offense and contributed for the Cardinals, as he got 4 hits, an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base in the 8-1 defeat of the Phillies on Friday. The Phillies go back at it today, at 4:05pm on the Fox national(/regional) broadcast. ----------------------------------------- Saturday links... PhilliesNation has an article about genius and Blue Jays general manager JP Ricciardi. PhilliesFlow reviews the Phillies performances during the 10 game win streak compared to the res...

Elmer Flick was an outfielder with the Phillies from 1898-1901. In 1898, the Phillies signed the 22 year old rookie free agent, after he had played 2 seasons of minor league ball. In Flick's first training camp, he arrived with a home made bat he created on a lathe by himself. A week into the season, an injury to everyday rightfielder Sam Thompson allowed Flick to get a shot at some playing time. In his first start, Flick had two singles and never looked back. He ended the season with a .302 batting average, drove in 81 runs and stole 23 bases. Over the three following seasons, Flick continued to use his speed to his advantage and stole 96 total bases. His quickness also allowed him to cover much ground in the outfield. Elmer Flick's best offensive season came in 1900, when he led the league in RBI with 110 and total bases with 297. He also finished second (to Honus Wagner) in batting avg. at .378. In 1901, the newly formed American League established a new baseball franchise i...

Josh Outman was dealt to Oakland last July in the trade that brought Joe Blanton to town. At the time of the trade, Outman had a 3.20 ERA in 33 games for double A Reading. Outman went on to make his Major League debut for the A's last September, and posted a 4.56 ERA in 6 appearances for Oakland in 2008. This season in the Majors, Outman has thrown in 8 games, 6 of which have been starts, and has a 3.31 ERA (excluding his worst single outing, his ERA would be 2.82). Over his last four games, all starts, Outman's ERA is 2.42 with a strike out to walk ratio of 20:7. By comparison, in Joe Blanton's last four starts, his ERA is 6.56 (that is actually better than Joe's season ERA, which is 6.86) and he has a strike out to walk ratio of 17:12. Things like these Outman/Blanton differences jump out at me...especially when Phillies starting pitchers have a combined 6.24 ERA. What other starters have the Phillies let get away that would be an improvement over the average ERA by t...