Posts Tagged ‘MLB’

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All Star Break needed for Phillies

July 8th, 2010 by ChrisLeo33 | 3 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Major League Baseball brings Taco Bell All-Star Sunday to Southern California on July 11th at Angel Stadium. The doubleheader includes the XM All-Star Futures Game and the Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game. The XM All-Star Futures Game, which features some of the game’s best young prospects from the U.S. and around the world.  The second game features former All Star Legends and Celebrities in a fun filled softball game.

This will precede the 2010-81st All Star game at Angel Stadium on Tuesday, July 13.  The only Phillie to be named a starter was Chase Utley, unfortunately Utley’s latest injury will keep him out of the lineup. Only 2 other Phillies made the team this year, Roy Halladay for pitching and Ryan Howard as a reserve first baseman.  My prediction is the National League will win this year.

Hopefully this break will give the Phillies a much needed break to help heal the lineup and regroup for the second half of the season.  Currently the Phillies are in third place in the NL East and are 6 games back from the leading Atlanta Braves.

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Victorino, Utley Power Phils

April 15th, 2010 by Christian | 5 Comments | Filed in General
 

Little Big Man

The Good: Shane Victorino went 4-5 with a HR, a triple, 3 Runs Scored and 5 RBI. Chase Utley hit 2 HRs, scored 3 runs and knocked in 4. Phils win 14-7.

The Bad: Kyle Kendrick was roughed up. His ERA is now 17.47.

Commentary: For a few years, many announcers have been saying, “As Jimmy Rollins goes, so go the Phillies.”  I never really subscribed to that theory, and after Victorino’s performance last night, I think we won’t be hearing much of that going forward. If Shane hits well over the next couple of weeks – as I expect him to – a leadoff controversy may develop here in Philly.


Today: Phillies vs. Nationals at The Bank.
Game Time: 3:05 p.m. ET.
Pitching Matchup: J.A. Happ (1-0, 0.00) vs. Scott Olson (—, -.–)

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The Best of Times

April 3rd, 2010 by Christian | 4 Comments | Filed in General

At Last!

With the opening of the baseball season tomorrow, the Final Four tonight, and the upcoming NBA & NHL playoffs, I think this is THE BEST time of year for sports.

For years, I thought fall was the best sports season of all, because of the start of the NFL season, the MLB playoffs & World Series, and the start of the NBA and NHL seasons.

But with the recent success of the Phillies, and my growing favoritism of baseball, spring has become king.  And to wax poetic: the sun is warm and shining, the grass is green, the birds are chirping, and hope springs eternal once again.

What do you think?  Which is the top sports season, Spring or Fall?

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Good Start

March 5th, 2010 by Christian | 11 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Don’t want to get too excited about two innings of a spring training game, but Roy Halladay was dominant against the Yankees, striking out three in two innings. That’s half the batters he faced for you math wizards. And it took him only 24 pitches to do it, 21 of which were strikes!

As Advertised

Most impressive is the movement on his pitches. The ball looks like a high speed frisbee going to the plate. On a called strike three, Nick Swisher was frozen at the plate, simply overmatched. Check out the video at Philies.com.

Great stuff! Keep it up Roy!

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Ryan Howard’s Not So Secret Enemy

March 4th, 2010 by Johnny G | 7 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General, Phillies

Ryan Howard struck out 13 times in the 6 game series.

If you noticed an alarming pattern during Ryan Howard’s at-bats in the 2009 World Series it was probably his .174 batting average and 13 strikeouts in the six game series. What is even more alarming though, is the strategy the Yankees used to isolate the Phillies best power threat. Throughout the six game series Ryan Howard saw 101 pitches. 40 of those were fastballs, 36 were sliders, 22 were curveballs, and 3 were cutters. That’s right, in a six game series Ryan Howard saw a fastball less than 40% of the time. That is absolutely unheard of when comparing pitch selection by pitchers in the MLB. Phillies fans could rest easily going forward if the trend stopped there, but thanks to phenomenal research by Tom Verducci and Stats inc., it has been proven that we have quite a bit to worry about.

Let’s start from the top. In the first six innings of a game, Ryan Howard is a .298 career hitter. Any Phillies fan would take that from the big man any day of the week, but after the first six innings that average drops to a very mediocre .237. There are a lot of fluky reasons this could occur if we were comparing a week, a month, or even a season of stats, but when comparing his whole career this is a real issue. Late in games managers have the option of using left-handed relief specialists who live and die by their breaking ball, which is obviously the reason for the substantial drop in production.

When comparing the amount of breaking balls Howard sees compared to the rest of the MLB it is not a competition. Last season over the course of 2009 Ryan Howard saw 1,127 breaking pitches and number 2 on this list was Dan Uggla at 930 breaking pitches. Howard now sees way more breaking balls than anyone else in the big leagues and its only getting worse. Each year the amount of breaking pitches has increased for Howard and so has the amount of at-bats he has against left-handers per season. The average left handed hitter faces a left handed pitcher in 18.5% of their plate appearances. Howard on the other hand faces lefties in a whopping 35.8% of his at-bats, most in the big leagues.

Here’s where the numbers start to get really alarming: Last year when facing a breaking ball, Howard either swung and missed or fouled the pitch off 73% of the time. 73% of the time against a breaking ball it was a strike against Howard. 27% of the time the ball was put in play and that doesn’t mean it was for a hit. You have to assume at least 15% of the balls put into play were recorded outs. That should give you an idea of how often he successfully reaches base against breaking balls. Finally, Howard saw 1,127 breaking balls last year and hit exactly 3 home-runs off of left-handed breaking balls. With those types of struggles it is amazing he puts up the final numbers he does season in and season out.

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Spring Training News and Notes

March 2nd, 2010 by Johnny G | 12 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General

Bright House Field

  • Victorino may not play in Spring Opener: Shane Victorino did not participate in throwing drills on Monday at Phillies camp because of a sore shoulder. Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel and the training staff did not expect it to be serious but were being extra cautious this early in camp. .”We didn’t want him throwing in our drills,” Manuel said. “We want him to take it easy a few days. He’ll be all right.” Victorino did participate in batting practice but his status for Wednesdays exhibition game against Florida St. is unknown
  • Romero and Lidge work their way back: J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge both threw off of a mound on Sunday and both reported they felt fine. “Still going slow, but it’s going in the right direction,” Lidge said. Lidge threw 35 pitches with “6 or 7” sliders mixed in. Romero threw only fastballs in his first session on a mound. “It went well,” Romero said. “I feel good and I’m very positive about it.”
  • Hamels working on cutter: As many fans have noticed, Cole Hamels has become a two-pitch pitcher. With only his fastball and change-up as legitimate pitches, his repertoire has become pretty predictable for fans and hitters alike. “It’s hard, but I’m willing to put in all the work to do it, because I understand the importance and significance behind having more pitches against big league hitters,” Hamels said. Whether Hamels will be comfortable enough with the cutter for this season remains to be seen, but tinkering with other pitchers can only be a positive for Cole.

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Johnny G’s 2010 MLB Power Rankings

February 17th, 2010 by Johnny G | 44 Comments | Filed in Baseball, General

2010 MLB Power Rankings

1. New York Yankees – Defending World Champs have not lost much besides Matsui and Damon. Added Granderson and Javier Vazquez. The Yankees are the front runners again this season. With a rotation of Sabathia, Burnett, Pettite, Vazquez, and Joba they are very tough to beat with the lineup they put out there.
Questions: How will Pettite bounce back after the heavy workload of 2009 at the age of 38?
Who wins the job in Left field? Gardner, Winn, or Thames?

2. Boston Red Sox- Possibly the deepest roster in the MLB. Added John Lackey to an already phenomenal rotation. Mike Cameron solidifies Centerfield defensively and moves Ellsbury to left. Beltre now mans the hot corner, Marco Scutaro is at short and this is hands down the best defensive team in the MLB. With a defense like that behind Lackey, Lester, Beckett, Dice-k, and Bucholz, this is an extremely dangerous team.
Questions: Is Big Papi done?
Can Dice-k return to his 2008 dominance?

3. Philadelphia Phillies- The Phils were clearly the class of the National League before any additions were made. They added Placido Polanco, who is an upgrade over Pedro Feliz and added arguably the best pitcher in the game in Roy Halladay. Losing Cliff Lee will hurt but the Phillies also posses one of the best offenses in the MLB. They should have no problem taking the NL East.
Questions: Will Brad Lidge bounce back from a horrendous 2009?
Can Cole Hamels regain his 2008 form?
Will Ibanez rebound from a sub-par second half last season?

4. Tampa Bay Rays- Very young and talented roster throughout with a deep starting rotation of Shields, Garza, Niemann , Price, and the young Wade Davis. With the addition of Rafael Soriano to the bullpen, it should prevent the burnout the Rays’ bullpen experienced last season. With a deep young lineup containing Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, BJ Upton, and Pat Burrell this team could compete for the division crown.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Questions: Can Pat Burrell rebound with his usual .250 30 and 100 season?
Who will win the battle for the catching position between Shoppach and Navarro?

5. Colorado Rockies – Extremely young and talented offensive lineup that could explode this season without Garret Atkins blocking the power hitting Ian Stewart and Chris Ianneta regaining the starting job behind the plate. Ubaldo Jimenez, Aaron Cook, and Jorge De la rosa are a solid top 3 in the rotation and with Jeff Francis returning, this team has a very good chance to go deep into the playoffs.
Question: How will Jeff Francis fare after not pitching for more than a year?

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