Posts Tagged ‘John Lannan’

Phils Punctuate Halfway Mark With Sixteen Exclamation Points

June 29th, 2013 by AmyMac | Comments Off on Phils Punctuate Halfway Mark With Sixteen Exclamation Points | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies
Delmon Young has plenty of reasons to smile.

Delmon Young has plenty of reasons to smile.

By Amy McGinnis

Last night in Los Angeles, the Phils ended the first half of their thus-far-unremarkable season with an explosive Game 81. Phils won 16-1 (not a typo), while Dodgers fans surely wished MLB had a mercy rule in place.  Needless to say, Philadelphia’s offense was aggressive; winning pitcher John Lannan had three hits of his own.  Combined, the Youngs went 7 for 12 – Michael had four hits and Delmon was responsible for six (yes, six) of Philadelphia’s runs.  It’s worth noting, however, that Lannan kept the Dodgers’ offense (who had scored six runs the night before) to just one run.  Delmon Young’s superhuman canon of an arm helped defense quite a bit, as well.

At one point, Facebook began grouping all the “You think Howard’s mad???” posts together in their own little section of my news feed.  Charlie Manuel made the decision to bench Howard for two games, a decision with which I am fully on board, and he sat and watched the runs pour in.  For the record, I love Howie, and if he’s smart (he has to be; only a genius would have a lazy river built around the perimeter of his home), he’s taking the two nights off to get his head back in the game.  Manuel mumbled his usual marbles-in-his-mouth, redneck English spiel, stating that Howard “is okay with it.” Here’s the thing: okay with it or not, he’s out of the lineup for 48 hours, so it’s in his best interest to make good use of that time.  His offensive slump (combined with his visible physical discomfort and two consecutive lefty Los Angeles starters) is a great reason to  take a couple days off, run drills, and refocus.

Another popular topic of conversation last night was “Why can’t the offense do this for Cole?” Really? Really?  The offense hasn’t delivered nearly the way they did last night for anyone this season.  Trust me; I was voted “Baseball Nerd Most Likely to Get Into a Fist Fight While Defending Cole Hamels,” and you won’t hear or read a negative word about that man from me. That being said, his ERA thus far is 4.58.  Run support is clearly not his only issue.  (I’ll go on the record and say that I don’t know what his issue is … he has pitched twelve fewer innings than Cliff Lee thus far this season, and their strikeouts are 99 and 105, respectively. It feels like Cole’s 2009 Part 2.)

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“The View from the Philly Pressbox” – Royals Series 2 Recap

April 8th, 2013 by Philly Pressbox | Comments Off on “The View from the Philly Pressbox” – Royals Series 2 Recap | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Fransden Walkoff

In the second of our season long series “The View from the Philly Pressbox” takes a look at the Kansas City Royals series. The Phils blew 2 games that they had leads in and won the one game they trailed the entire game, finishing with 1-2 weekend.

Oh, where to start?

  • The Phils spotted Kyle Kendrick a 4 run lead in Game 1 of the series. Kendrick was cruising along with 4 shutout innings before running in to trouble in the 5th. He gave up 2 in the 5th but the Phils still held a 4-2 lead. Things fell apart in the 6th for Kendrick and Jeremy Horst. Horst couldn’t get outs in relief and before the inning was over the Phils trailed 5-4. Horst, Chad Durbin and Raul Valdes got beat up the rest of the way allowing a 4-0 Phils lead to turn in to a 13-4 Royals blowout in which they got 19 hits.
  • In spite of the 4-3 win in Game 2 of the series, the Phils managed just 3 hits.
  • The Phils spotted Cole Hamels a 4-run 1st inning lead only to watch him get bombed for 9 hits and 8 runs with 4 walks in just 5.2 innings of work. Hamels has had two miserable starts to open the season and now has an ERA of 10.97.
  • The bullpen has been awful! They have inherited 11 runners so far this season and 10 have scored.
  • 5 members of the pitching staff have ERA’s over 10, Hamels, Roy Halladay, Chad Durbin, Horst and Raul Valdes.
  • Ryan Howard continues his slow start. He was 3-12 in the series and 4-24 on the season, a .167 average.
  • Phils hitters have struck out 53 times in 6 games, an average of 8.8 strike outs per game.
  • Howard has struck out 8 times on the season, Jimmy Rollins 7 and Erik Kratz 7 after just 6 games.
  • The Phils are getting just .143 and .174 production out of the 7th and 8th spots in the lineup and one of those hits was from Kevin Frandsen as a pinch hitter. Add that to Howard at .167 in the 4th spot.

In spite of the disappointing weekend there were a few positives.

  • John Lannan was outstanding in his first stat as a Phillie. Lannan went 7 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, 0 walks and 5 K’s. Mike Adams pitched a 1 hit 8th and Antonio Bastardo a 1 walk 9th for the win. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
  • Kevin Frandsen came up big with his pitch 3-run walk off double for the win in Game 2.
  • Chase Utley continues to swing a hot bat. Utley was 4-12 in the series. His team leading batting average is now .391.
  • Michael Young had 4 hits in the series finale, going 6-12 on the weekend raising his average to .333.
  • Rollins is off to a good start. JRoll is hitting .308 from the 2nd spot in the order.
  • Rollins and Ben Revere each stole another base in the series, giving them each 3 for the season.

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Countdown To Opening Day 2013: 23 Days

March 9th, 2013 by Mike H. | Comments Off on Countdown To Opening Day 2013: 23 Days | Filed in General

Later today, John Lannan will make his third start of the spring against the Tampa Bay Rays. Lannan has performed well in his first two starts and is expected to start the season as the fifth starter. While overall expectations for a fifth starter are generally low, I think Lannan may be due for a break out season.

Overall, Lannan is 42 – 52 with a 4.01 ERA in 134 starts with a strike out to walk ratio of 205:148. However, if you subtract his starts against the Phillies his numbers drop to 39 -39 with a 3.80 ERA. I’ll take that from a number five pitcher anyday of the week. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not ready to hand Lannan the Cy Young Award already as he’s never fared well in Citizens Bank Park (6.00+ ERA). Maybe a change of scenery will do Lannan some good. Hopefully being in the home team’s dugout in The Bank will change his luck as well.

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No Wake Zone

January 13th, 2013 by Mike H. | Comments Off on No Wake Zone | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Most people who know me, whether it be thru reading my articles or talking to me in person, know that I am not what you would call a fan of Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. I find him to be impatient in times where patience pays off and vice versa. I feel he likes to make the big splash and acquire the “name” players, but that hasn’t been the case so far this winter.

The Phillies moves have definitely pushed them in the right direction. Ben Revere will platoon the outfield of Citizens Bank Park for the next five plus seasons, and for what? Vance Worley, who would/should be considered expendable with guys like Jon Pettibone, Ethan Martin, and Jesse Biddle due to be ready in the near future, and Trevor May, a great pitching prospect with control issues.

They also acquired Michael Young for Josh Lindblom, a flyball reliever courtesy of the Shane Victorino trade, and Lisalverto Bonilla,a very good relief prospect. I like this deal a lot because it is the last year of Young’s contract, which keeps a Cody Asche era intact for the 2014 season.

The biggest move of the off season was also the riskiest when the Phillies signed reliever Mike Adams. Amaro has been lusting after Adams since the right hander was a prominent figure in the San Diego bullpen. Adams is also heading into his first post-surgery season, so who knows how that will effect him. If Adams and Papelbon are both healthy, the back of the pen can be the best we’ve seen since 2008.

Amaro also picked up John “I broke Utley’s hand in my MLB debut in 2007” Lannan. The disgruntled, former National comes over with deceiving numbers. If you remove his starts against the Phillies, he sports a .500 record with a sub-4 ERA. Not bad for the fourth or fifth pitcher.

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Filling Holes in the Phils’ Offseason

December 17th, 2012 by AmyMac | Comments Off on Filling Holes in the Phils’ Offseason | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Welcome to Philadelphia, Michael Young.

By Amy McGinnis

Rogers Hornsby once said, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”  I’d like to add that I also count down until the day that pitchers and catchers report in Clearwater (countdown is currently at 57 days for those of you fellow baseball nerds who also consider it an early Valentine’s Day gift).

Luckily, Ruben Amaro, Jr., is doing more than sitting around and waiting.  During this offseason, he has uncharacteristically made a few modest (and necessary) moves.  It’s been nice to see him address the team’s needs without throwing money around and making noise.  Ben Revere, as we know, will play center field.  From Texas, we’ve acquired Michael Young, a 36-year-old (still younger than Polanco) righty who hit .277 (20 points higher than Polanco) with 67 RBIs (Polanco had 19)  in 156 games (more than twice as many as Polanco played) last season.  In addition to these two position players, RAJ made a one-year deal with LHP John Lannan from Washington and righty reliever Mike Adams from Texas.  Lannan, 28, went 4-1 last season with a 4.13 ERA; in my opinion, he’ll be a good addition to the back end of our rotation.  He’s what’s known as “low risk, high reward,” and I’m glad that the spot left open by Worley won’t have a big question mark.  Mike Adams, 34, will be the setup man we’ve needed since Madson left.  I’m excited to see Adams in the 8th inning; he posted 7.7K/9 last season.  At a $12M/2 years price tag, I think Philadelphia made a quality deal.

As of right now, the Phils seem to be in far better shape than they did a few months ago (Chooch’s suspension notwithstanding).  Our starting rotation, of course, includes Halladay, Lee, and Hamels.  The back end will have Lannan, a third lefty, and

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