PhoulBallz.com

Long before my idea of a Chan Ho's Banjos fan group could take the region by storm, like I once thought it might, Chan Ho Park guy continues to struggle. Park allowed 7 earned runs and walked 6 batters, in 4 2/3 innings pitched on Friday in game 1 against the Metropolitans. Park's season ERA stands at 8.57, over 5 starts. Park seems to be pitching himself out of the Phillies' rotation. But, who might be the answer to fill his spot? Prospect Carlos Carrasco is still winless at triple A Lehigh Valley, and has had rough times in his last two outings. He has a 4.50 ERA and 31 strike outs and a 1.23 WHIP in 26 innings, over 5 starts. Reliever "Jay" Happ has a 3.52 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP in 9 appearances this season. Kyle Kendrick is earning himself consideration with a 2-1 record and a 2.77 ERA over 5 starts for Lehigh Valley. Time will tell what the team will do with the 5th spot in the rotation. ************** Links from around my bloggerhood- Swing and a Long Drive...

The New York Metro's are in town for a three game weekend series. Let's take a look at the match ups. Friday, 7:05pm...Mike Pelfrey (2-0, 6.32 ERA) vs. Chan Ho Park (0-0, 7.16 ERA). Pelfrey in his career is 1-2 against the Phillies in 4 starts, with a 4.09 ERA. He has gone exactly 5 innings in all 3 of his starts this season. In 2 career starts at CBP, Pelfrey is 0-1, with a 5.40 ERA. Gregg Dobbs is 4-for-8 in his career vs. Pelfrey with a homer and 3 RBI. In 15 career games against the Mets, Park has a 2.44 ERA and a 5-3 record in 73 2/3 innings pitched. In May 2008, Park appeared in 8 games (1 start) and had a 1-1 record with a 1.93 ERA in 18 2/3 innings. David Wright, Fernando Tatis and Carlos Delgado are a combined 10-for-20 off Park in their careers. Tatis' success against Park was detailed on this site just last week. Saturday, 3:40pm...Oliver Perez (1-2, 9.31 ERA) vs. Jamie Moyer (3-1, 5.09 ERA). In 12 career starts vs. the Phils, Perez is 2-3 with a 3.15 ERA and 8...

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'...

I hate them. More later. ********************** No caption needed.

It is no secret that, right now, Raul Ibanez is making the Phillies look very smart. The Phils ' phormer left fielder, Pat Burrell , is struggling in Tampa with a .238 batting average, 1 homer and 8 RBI, 6 runs scored with a .681 OPS. The new left fielder, Ibanez , is GD wrecking opposing pitchers with a .355 batting average, 7 homers, 17 RBI, 20 runs scores and a 1.142 OPS. Furthermore, Burrell's new club, the Rays, are 3-4 when Burrell drives in at least one run. Our Phillies are 9-2 when Ibanez has at least 1 RBI. Also, Burrell has hit safely in 12 of the Rays' 19 games, while Raul has hit in 16 of the Phillies 19 games. There's no debate, at this stage, that the Phillies made the right call when they let Burrell go, and signed Ibanez to man left field. Hopefully, this will hold true throughout the rest of the season, all the way into the post season. Trends would perhaps suggest that Ibanez will cool off soon, as his career batting average in May is 45 ...

This Phan-a-vision shot that the Phillies have been using, makes the team's grand left fielder, Raul Ibanez, look like Capt. Aceveda (Benito Martinez) from my all time favorite TV program The Shield . ************* News notes on our Phillies... Carlos Ruiz injury set back.... read here . JC Romero sues supplement company...is still cool. Info here . Brad Lidge experiencing knee inflamation. Is day-to-day. Details here . ************* The Good Phight has Scott Franzke's & LA's call of Rauuuul's Slam. Click here .

You may have heard that our Phils swept the Marlins this weekend. The two wins on Friday and Saturday marked the first time since September 1957 that the Phillies won back-to-back games after entering the 9th inning at a deficit. The third game of the series, a 13-2 win on Sunday, was the first time all season that the Phillies did not trail in a game. The Phillies are 8-1 when Shane Victorino scores at least one run. The Phillies are 8-2 when Chase Utley has an RBI. The Phillies are 8-3 when Ryan Howard has at least one hit. The Phillies are 7-2 when Raul Ibanez scores at least one run. Jimmy Rollins still has not stolen a base this season. There are three games left in the month, and if Rollins fails to steal a base, it would be the first time in his career that Rollins did not steal a base in the opening month of the season. In 2004, Rollins stole just one base in 19 April games, and ended the season with 30 steals. Last season, when Rollins missed much of April with an injury, he s...

Let's take a break from the history and take it easy on this hot Sunday with a classic baseball related story. The following tale is an excerpt from famous negro leaguer Buck O'Neil's great book I Was Right on Time . O'Neil happened to be the very first African American MLB coach. This story explains the origins of why his pal Satchel Paige had a unique nickname for him. When Satchel and I were with the (Kansas City) Monarchs, we played this one game on an Indian reservation near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was there that Satchel, who had a weakness for a pretty face, and the more of them the better, met this beautiful Indian maiden named Nancy, and since we were going to Chicago to play the Chicago American Giants, he invited Nancy to visit him there. She had some relatives there or something, so she accepted his invitation, and he told her we were staying at the Evans Hotel. Well, now we were in Chicago, and I was sitting in the coffee shop of the Evans Hotel wh...

PhoulBallz.com spoke with Lakewood BlueClaws pitching coach, and former Major League pitcher, Bob Milacki. - I asked Coach Bob to comment on Jason Knapp's sparkling 7 shut out inning/14 strike out performance on Tuesday. Ah, it was impressive. Impressive. I mean you see a guy that throws that hard, that young, and has command of his three pitches, it was fun to watch. - What's his pitch repertoire like? He has a fastball, a good curveball and his third pitch is his changeup. But, ya know, when he had them all working together, and you throw a lot of strikes, it's fun to watch. They were late on his fastball, he overpowered hitters at times, and he changed speeds enough to where they never really caught up to his fastball. It was really impressive to watch. - How much have you had to do with Knapp upping his level of performance? I think it's all him. I mean, he's tremendous at making changes. The pitching coach is here just to guide him in the right direction, but h...

Earlier in the week, I linked to FanIQ's screen caps of Washington Nationals players Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn wearing misspelled home jerseys. Below is a sample of those original pictures as well as some other ones that Jimmy Kimmel Live wrangled up from the photo shop-, oh, I mean archives. ***************** The Lakewood BlueClaws announced today that Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson will all be performing at FirstEnergy Park on Thursday, July 23rd. Tickets on sale May 2nd. Check out the link for more details. "Superfan" of Homeside News tracks Phillies prospects as they make their way through the Phils' system and beyond. Check out his page. And last, but not least, PhilliesFlow points out the flaws in the Phillies' lineup and reviews the Brewers series. This site is always worth checking out.

PhoulBallz.com spoke with Lakewood BlueClaws third baseman Travis Mattair the other night. He was kind enough to answer some questions. -I asked Travis about his increase in walks this year as opposed to last season (he walked 36 times in 129 games in 2008, and has 18 already in 13 games in 2009). I've matured as a hitter. I got myself in some brutal counts last year by just waving at bad pitches that I shouldn't have been swinging at. So, I've matured that way. I'm taking more pitches, that I should be taking, and swinging at the ones I should be swinging at. I've been fouling a lot more balls off with 2 strikes, which is good in a way- you want to put the ball in play. But, I mean, I've had about 5-7 just 4 pitch walks where I just go up there and- 4 pitches- I'm on base. But other ones I feel I'm crediting to maturing as a hitter more than anything. - Broadcaster Greg Giombarrese pointed out to me during the game that you lead all of the minor ...

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...