That Balls Outta Here » juan samuel

Joe Blanton to Do a Thing For a Second or Two

Justin Klugh — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:41:17 +0000

“That would be great to come out in the last month and throw really good out of the ‘pen and contribute in the postseason. But at the same, realistically, I haven’t thrown all year.”

–Joe Blanton

That’s Joe Blanton, in a thunderstorm of confidence, imagining one of the greatest seasonal comebacks in the history of baseball… only to allow himself a swift, miserable descent into cold reality. (more…)

Phillies Getting Intimate with Juan Samuel a Second Time

Justin Klugh — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:19:26 +0000

While the Eagles are busy stealing members of the Vikings practice team, the Phillies are flipping through the Rolodex, giving lovelorn, nostalgic glances to names from their storied past.

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Phillies Look to Replace Irreplaceable Davey Lopes

Justin Klugh — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:39:36 +0000

When I played little league ball, the coach would usually stick one of the sad sack reserve playesr with no chance in hell at making contact with the ball as first base coach. It was usually an afterthought, too, like “Whoa, if one of these dweebs actually gets on base, there should be somebody over there to tell them what to do, and I’m going to be too busy screaming myself hoarse with racial slurs aimed at the opposing coach to follow the ball.”

Since then, I’ve seen the value of the position, and when you’ve got a guy like Davey Lopes out there, sending dudes and timing pitchers’ windups and generally just being a dagger in the thigh of pitchers and catchers across the NL, it’s even more valuable. Sadly, the Phillies don’t have a guy out there like Davey Lopes anymore.

If the season started today, like a week after it ended, our first base coach box would be nothing more than half a chalky white rectangle with no gruff former manager of a subpar team to populate it.

So let’s talk a walk through the backgrounds of the possible replacements.

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