Brown Hurt in Phillies Loss

Why the hell did the Phillies trade Cliff Lee for this crap bucket J.C. Ramirez!?!  He gave up five hits and four runs in three innings…..wait a minute.  Lee was signed as a free agent making this a completely moot point you say?  Now the Phillies have Halladay AND Lee?  They also have Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt making up the best rotation in the major leagues?  What are people supposed to complain about?

Domonic Brown got his first hit of spring training off of left handed starter Paul Maholm.  The rookie broke the Hamate bone in his hand fouling a pitch off earlier in the at bat.  I suppose this cements the right field quandary and certainly gives the fan base something to wring their hands about.  Thinking a little more about the circumstances of his first hit leads one to believe that he was thinking a little too much up there.  He breaks his hand and immediately singles up the middle off of a left handed pitcher.  He can slow things down when he heals and will not be pressing anymore.  In addition to the Brown injury, Chase Utley received a cortisone injection in his balky knee.  What the hell are the Phillies going to do?

Part of the answer pitched today.  Halladay looks like he could start a regular season game right now.  I suppose this is why the guy works as hard as he does.  He was opposed today by Pirates “ace” Maholm. Halladay went three scoreless innings giving up a hit and uncharacteristically walking two.  Dollars to donuts he is pissed off about the walks, even in the spring this guy is a perfectionist.

One of the pieces that the Phils acquired for Lee from the Mariners last season relieved Halladay and as I mentioned earlier, he did not fare very well.  Rueben Amaro would have been killed for the Lee trade for his whole career if he failed reacquire the left hander.  Luckily for Phillies fans (and not so lucky for the rest of league) Amaro brought Lee back into the fold.  Expect Ramirez to spend another season in AA Reading and expect Lee to be a bad ass.

The Phils blew an early two run lead and failed to mount a comeback falling to the Bucs 4-3.

Halladay’s outing, Brown’s first hit of the spring, Benny Fresh swinging an extremely hot bat going 2-3 with a homer and two RBIs and all the veteran relievers doing their jobs highlighted the positives from today’s game.

Brown also highlights the negative list by breaking his hand and landing on the disabled list for 3-6 weeks. Ramirez also made a negative impression by getting the holy hell kicked out of him today.

Next up, the Detroit Tigers tomorrow at 1:05 PM.