Q. How has the City of Philadelphia and the outside areas connected to this Phillies team? And if the Phillies win another world series, where does this team rank compared to other Philly teams?
They have certainly connected to this team. By a slim margin, a Phillies playoff game on TBS outrated a Philadelphia Eagles football game on NBC. While probably a large product of the bandwagon, Philadelphia has connected to this team. One Philly skyscraper even lights up with a Phillies logo. If this team wins the World Series, they will probably be considered by most as the greatest Phillies team of all time.
Q. Who is the most important Phillies player for this series?
Can I give you three? Halladay, Hamels, and Oswalt. If the Phillies are going to win this series, those three are going to have to pitch to their potential. Halladay and Oswalt may be the bigger names, but don’t nap on Cole Hamels. He is having the best year of his career thus far. After having a huge BABIP problem in 2009 where pretty much every meaningful stat was the same as 2008, he has learned a cut fastball from Roy Halladay, improved his own fastball by making it faster than ever before, and has become the lefty ace of this 3-headed monster.
Q. How good has the Phillies bullpen been all year? Is Brad Lidge back to his 08 form or 09 form, when he walked the tight rope?
The Phillies bullpen is a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.
Okay, that’s only partially true. Contrary to what your favorite recent Yahoo! column on the Phillies suggests, the back-end of the Phillies bullpen is the strong part of the bullpen. When he is not kicking chairs at AT&T Park, Ryan Madson is a great bullpen pitcher and hopefully the Phillies future closer. Aspeaking of closer, Brad Lidge has seen a resurgence in 2010, though it is not through his 2008 form. In 2009, his fastball dipped from what it was in 2008. Lidge chalked it up to injuries and what not. In 2010, with no injury to speak of, his fastball still was not what it was at in 2008. What Lidge did following one blown save earlier in the year was he went back and essentially re-learned how to pitch. He re-learned location so he could rely less on his slider and since then, Brad Lidge has once again become a reliable closer in the 9th inning.
On the other hand, the Phillies middle relief is always an adventure. Jose Contreras has not been awful, but J.C. Romero’s wildness and Chad Durbin scare the poop out of me. Antonio Bastardo is promising, but he is still young and inexperienced as a relief pitcher.
Q. I noticed Jimmy Rollins has been dropped down the lineup. Is he hurt, struggling, or has the baseball gods finally punished a Bay Area boy for not playing for the Giants?
A combination of all 3. He’s been injured 3 or 4 times (I lost count) this season and watching him live at Game 2, he is clearly not playing at 100% now. I’ve never seen Jimmy Rollins as slow as he was running in my life. But at the same time, his batting average, OBP, slugging percentage, OPS, and wOBA have all been on a steady decline since the 2007 season, which is most obviously not the fault of injuries. The real reason for it: Baseball gods have injected him with the first ever known anti-steroids for not playing for the Giants.
Q. Antonio Bastardo, fake name? (Wait, that's a wasted question. Tell me the differences between Halladay and Cliff Lee besides they throw with different arms.)
Real full name: Antonio Francisco Bastardo.
Oh, that 2nd question is an easy one. Had Cliff Lee been pitching for the Phillies this season, he would have thrown 2 perfect games and another no-hitter that was not perfect for the sole reason that on the 27th out, Wilson Valdez was so excited about fielding the last out for a 3rd perfect game in the season he threw the ball over Ryan Howard’s head, into the stands, knocking out Tom McCarthy’s Mom.
In all seriousness, even though they are both great pitchers, they are 2 different pitchers with 2 different styles. Cliff Lee relies much more on his fastball and will try to strike you out. Halladay meanwhile will give you junk, junk, and more junk on the corners and aims to induce groundballs. His high strikeout numbers is merely a product of how good he is.
Q. Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels are a combined stats against the Giants this year: 1-5 with a 4.80 ERA. Does this worry you about this series?
Given the small sample size, it worries me not in the least. During the 2008 regular season, the Philadelphia Phillies were swept at Dodgers Stadium. Needless to say, the post-season was a very different story.
Q. Giants fans have mostly turned a 180 on Bruce Bochy. While there are some moves he makes that puzzles us, he has mostly earned our respect. What is the Phillies fans relationship like with Charlie Manuel? Was there a point when Phillies fans wanted Manuel fired? When was the point when fans opinions changed on Foghorn Manuel?
Bruce Bochy this year = Charlie Manuel circa 2007-2008. During the middle of the 2007 season, Phillies fans did not just want Manuel fired, they wanted a restraining order preventing him from ever entering within a 100 mile radius of the city. Then the 2007 September comeback happened. And he was loved. Then the Phillies played like a AAA team throughout all of inter-league play in 2008. People were then hoping he would accept a job as manager of the Nigerian National Team. Then the smaller 2008 comeback happened. Then Matt Stairs launched a baseball from Chavez Ravine to Andromeda. Then the Phillies won the World Series. And people loved Uncle Cholly again. Then the Phillies got back there in 2009. Now the Phillies are back in the NLCS in 2010. And now every Phillies fan believes Charlie Manuel to be the greatest manager in Philadelphia Phillies history. That does not mean he does not have detractors, though. People are always willing to criticize his bullpen management, his stubborn loyalty to some of “his guys” (Greg Dobbs still having a job, his constant sticking with Lidge despite crapfest after crapfest during 2009 and the early part of 2010), etc. But even if you ask those detractors who the greatest manager in Philadelphia Phillies history, the answer amongst all Phillies fans is unanimous: Charlie Manuel. (Full name: Charles Fuqua Manuel, Jr.).
Q. Would you rather see Pat Burrell or Darren Daulton naked with a 12-pack of beer?
The Bat. No question.
The Phillies bullpen is a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.
ReplyDeleteYou sure did break out the cliches.