For weeks now, you’ve been following the Wilson Valdez trade rumors. Unfortunately, at the moment they hit a fever pitch, they were overlooked, thanks to pointless media-spew like Prince Fielder’s deal with the Tigers or the State of the Union Address. Oh, an elite hitter is getting paid an asinine amount of money? Oh, America is still a country? These aren’t points that could have been made in five minutes tops?
Nine years, one month, and three days ago, Dusty Wathan stepped onto a professional baseball field. He breathed in the fresh September air. He coughed a little, because the air he’d just breathed was in Kansas City. He then trotted out onto the field and helped the Royals eviscerate the Tigers, 17-2.
Boiling with momentum, the team cruised into their final five games with a wild-eyed fire not seen since the ’80s. They then lost four of their last five games. Dusty Wathan stepped off of a professional baseball field for the last time.
This week, he was revealed as the next manager of the Reading Phillies, replacing Mark Parent, who replaced Steve Roadcap the year before. It seems they have a tradition in Reading of filling vacancies with less and less Major League experience. Except in Parent’s case. Look, the point is, it’s a different guy.
Jan26th
Mr. Perfect Moves On
In an obvious attempt to make up for losing out on Prince Fielder, the Washington Nationals today signed 35-year-old Brad Lidge to a one-year deal worth about $1 million, plus incentives.
And I don’t imagine one of those incentives is finishing the year with his arm still attached to his shoulder socket.
Earlier this week, I noted that the Phillies were having discussions with their former closer to return to the club in 2012 as a late-inning set-up man.
Without rehashing the entire column, here was the gist. The Phillies should not attempt to sign Lidge to a deal. He has only one pitch left, and while it’s a good one, it’s dangerous to think he can survive an entire season on just that one pitch. Not only that, with all the young studs the Phillies have to potentially fill out the bullpen, signing Lidge to a $2-3 million deal, while so close to the luxury tax, wouldn’t be smart.
Apparently, the Phillies agreed. The Nationals did not.
CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweeted earlier today that the Phils’ offer to Lidge was “of the low-ball variety.” As well it should have been. While by all accounts Lidge was a tremendous guy, and will forever be able to get a free beer anywhere he goes in the Philadelphia area, signing him to anything more than a $1 million deal just didn’t make any sense.
MLB.com released their Top 100 prospects for 2012 on Wednesday, and the number and names of Phillies farmhands on the list will come as no surprise to anyone.
Right-hander Trevor May is the Phils top prospect, according Jonathan Mayo, MLB.com’s Draft and Prospect Expert. May will enter 2012 in the Reading Phillies rotation, and at just 22 years old, appears to be the closest to major-league ready of any of the Phils pitching prospects. Mayo wrote…
May is starting to develop into a more complete pitcher and not just a thrower. The fastball is up to 95 mph and it has plenty of sink. May has no trouble maintaining velocity deep into his starts. He complements his fastball with an above-average curve and a changeup that shows glimpses of being above-average as well. While he still walks a good number of hitters, he lowered his walk rate considerably and showed better overall command. He’ll keep refining his stuff and command, eventually settling in as a very durable No. 2 or 3 starter.
Last year in Clearwater, May went 10-8 with a 3.63 ERA, striking out 208 in just 151.1 innings (12.4Ks/9) and walking 67 (4BBs/9) with a WHIP of 1.242. Opposing hitters batted just .221 against him (stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com).
Ah, Citizens Bank Park. A glorious monument sitting at the end of eight promising, fulfilling, satisfying years; consistently producing the best food, fans, and team in baseball. Sitting amidst her seats is akin to lounging upon the clouds of the heavens, defying science by doing so. A beautiful structure, there is not a bad seat in the house, nor a less than perfect view of her exterior.
But you’ve been there. You’ve engaged the class of K Lot prior to a double-header; you’ve embraced celebratory strangers in section 144. What is the only thing left to do? Why, enjoy the sun drenched home of our Phillies by moving slowly around its perimeter, accompanied by several hundred other onlookers, some of whom may be barfing.
We are currently in the middle of the allotted registration time for this year’s Phillies 5K, which is that magical event each year that requires you to jog a bit before giving money to Phillies Charities. Oh, never mind, it’s sold out. Too bad. You’ll have to use that $50 to buy more Phillies shirseys! Or shoes for your kids. Or food. Whatever the social worker says you need.
Shhhh.
We the Phillies fans had our weekly meeting the other day and are proud to announce a new addition to the fold: David Beckham.
Seen here celebrating his newfound fandom, Beckham, or “David” as we are now legally permitted to call him, made his favorite sports franchise extremely apparent the other day by wearing a throwback hat while wordlessly going out in public, hoping to maintain some god damn privacy at the In-n-Out Burger. He didn’t even bother to dress himself in anything with words on it, clearly wanting the Phillies logo to be the center focus of the ensemble.
Let me start by making this very, very, VERY clear. I do NOT advocate trading Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee or Cole Hamels.
That being said, there is an idiom that seems to mirror what the Phillies front office is going through right now. Is it possible to have “too much of a good thing?” The implication is if you have too much of a good thing, something pleasant becomes unpleasant because you have too much of it.
Most of the time, this idiom is silly. How can too much of a good thing be bad? Who wants less rainbows? Who wants fewer vampire movies? Who says, “I think I’ll stop at just one Five Guys cheeseburger?”
Crazy people, right?
Of course, sometimes, that idiom is true. After a second Five Guys cheeseburger, your internal organs might start a rebellion from within your body that rivals the South at the Battle of Manassas. Puppies are a good thing, but too many in one place can leave an awful stain on the living room rug, unless your name is Cesar Milan.
In the case of the Phillies, their “good thing” is their wealth of starting pitching. And in the case of the Phillies, too many All-Star starting pitchers can create an awful strain on a budget.
During the mass hysteria that ensued on Twitter following the fake and not-so-fake Prince Fielder contract news, Kyle Scott of Crossing Broad tweeted the following:
I would imagine that this is not an uncommon reactionary sentiment among Phillies fans when they saw “fat man to be paid $214 million for the next 9 years” pop up in their Twitter feeds. That’s nearly twice as long as Ryan Howard‘s 5 year contract that kicks in this season, and Fielder’s $23.78 average annual value rivals Howard’s $25 million per year. Continue reading this post »
There was a time when I had the blissful objectivity of a child. That time was many years ago, when I was a child.
The voices coming through the TV and radio were authoritative entities, their words correct, their narration precise. Not only were they geniuses–it was amazing the stats they knew off the top of their heads–but they had enough personal history in the game to rattle off a solid rant here and there. Was there a real difference between Whitey going off about how the stupidity of a sacrifice bunt and my grandfather complaining about the… the, um…
Actually, my grandfather was a depression-era gent and the fact that he was alive and comfortable was pretty much all he needed to never complain about anything. But the point is valid. These guys were the hosts of Phillies baseball, their voices a steady, soothing flow of information through the airwaves that kept my child brain up to date. By the time I learned they had faces and names, I had already established my own vision of what they looked like. I was way off. None of them were the Phanatic.
Like most gentlemen about town, I prefer my hot dogs both anthropomorphic and furious at me. I can’t have another grocery day of shouting at the hot dogs, so the city of Reading, where our beloved R-Phils play, has accomodated me and my weird, stupid problem.
“LOOK AT ME, DAMN IT. I KNOW YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME.”
–Me, in the hot dog aisle as grocery store employees nonchalantly surround me and slowly move in closer
Former team president Chuck Domino, who we can only hope will be starring as the protagonist in an upcoming series of direct-to-DVD explosion-friendly moving pictures, has said that hot dogs are a “…very large part of the experience during a visit to the ballpark.”
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