That Balls Outta Here » kyle drabek

Doc Faces Former Mates in Phillies Win

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:05:31 +0000

Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. Seriously? That may be the worst name for a stadium of all time. Luckily, no one in Canada gives two shits about baseball. You know damn well that the if Maples Leafs played in a similarly named stadium, Canadians would get as cranked up as Canadians are capable of. In retrospect, this may be the type of shit that made Roy Halladay want to come to Philadelphia. With this in mind, I would like to take a moment to thank the Toronto organization for not being able to surround Halladay with viable help and the entire country of Canada for their general indifference toward the sport of baseball. (more…)

Kyle Drabek Wears Non-Phillies Uniform; Still Really, Really Good

Justin Klugh — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:18:07 +0000

When Roy Halladay took the mound yesterday, it was easy to forget about everything else: Lidge and Romero’s arms. Shane’s spot in the lineup. Any work you had planned. The dishes. The kids. The small grease fire starting in the kitchen. The squirrel that somehow became trapped in the walls of your apartment and is now pleading for its life via panicked clawing and squeals.

Point is, the guy’s an eraser. Besides Cliff Lee, it sort of makes you forget who we handed over to put his name on the roster.

Until today.

*Sad trombone* (Image courtesy of http://www3.allaroundphilly.com)

Facing the Blue Jays again, the Phillies looked up and saw none other than Kyle Drabek, formerly known as the Phillies prospect other GMs would salivate over, only to see Ruben Amaro Jr. shaking his head and glaring.

It’s like meeting the kid you gave up for adoption, and boy, he is just pissed as hell at you. Maybe he understands why you had to let him go, along with a few of your other, younger kids, in order to adopt another, older, better kid… maybe the best child at the orphanage.

But still. That’s not a kid you want to lock eyes with. Especially if he’s gripping the seams of a baseball and preparing to hurl at you with stunning velocity.

Drabek started and threw two innings of scoreless baseball, giving up a single hit and a single walk. As expected, it was a thing of beauty. Makes you smirk and wonder what a career in red pinstripes would have been like.

And then Kevin Gregg came in for the Jays and pretty much shit all over Drabek’s gem.

It was like Drabek and Gregg went hunting, and Drabek shot a six-point buck, and on his way over to the carcass, he stepped in a bear trap that Gregg had laid for no reason at all.

John Mayberry Jr. continued his reign of terror that he started yesterday in Atlanta with two doubles today, both of which followed doubles from Greg Dobbs, and Cody Ransom bitch-slapped a three run home run, powering the Phils to a 4-2 win.

Cole Hamels, not to be outdone by the infamous Drabek, threw three shutout innings (3 K, 2 BB) for the Phillies, followed by a lead off home run from Jose Bautista in the fourth, giving him a 3.18 ERA in 5 2/3 innings in the Grapefruit League. I’ll say it: I’m encourage by his success. Though for some very specific reason he can’t seem to figure out Jose Bautista, who’s now homered off him twice this Spring Training.

If he’s the only guy Cole doesn’t get a handle on this year, I think we’re solid.

And so, as we watch Kyle Drabek drive away in the visiting team’s bus, don’t be surprised if he doesn’t tragically look out the back, softly placing a hand on the window to grasp at the straws of memories that might have been.

Because he’s still Kyle Drabek, and he’s still awesome. He’s just in another uniform.

Let’s watch that Roy Halladay footage from yesterday again!

Pointless Saturday Rambling

Justin Klugh — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:01:51 +0000

Okay, let’s get the ball rolling this morning with a little bit of the biggest waste of time in the history of modern man. What’s the best thing for Woods to do? Move to a cabin in the Yukon, build his own course in the woods, come back in a decade with an enormous beard, win every tournament for a year straight, and fly his golf ball-shaped secret spacecraft that’s docked under his mansion into the sun.

Also just saw a headline “How Tiger Woods Bought Off the National Enquirer.” Oh, I don’t know. Probably with money.

And now, because this is a baseball blog, we’ll talk some baseball.

“If I had my druthers, I’d love to have both [Halladay and Lee] on the club,” said Ruben Amaro and every other single person in this solar system.
Kyle Drabek’s Reading Phillies stuff is for sale, which is honestly the saddest auction I have ever heard of, other than a 12-year-old boy putting his dead puppy’s collar on eBay. Snuffles doesn’t need it where he’s going.
This post was originally me bitching about the Yankees-Phillies comparison again, but I read it over, and it had absolutely no point. In fact, it sounded more like a scene from “Law and Order: SVU” when they find the horse-rapist’s hideout and read out loud from his diary. I actually wrote “The Yankees are global warming. The Yankees are chemical weapons. The Yankees are the phrase, ‘Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States, Sarah Palin!’ met with thunderous applause.”
Speaking of the Reading Phillies, the Eastern League is realigning! No one cares. I have no idea why I linked to that.
Listen to these team names from the Eastern League: Sea Dogs, SeaWolves, Fisher Cats, Rock Cats, Curve (???), and Flying Squirrels. What is it with variations on domestic animals in that league? And what the hell is it with a “dogs from the sea” scenario that has them naming not one, but two teams after it? What the hell is a “sea wolf?!” These sound like the results of an unsupervised kindergarten class making up their own version of “science.”
Phillies players making $10 million+ in 2010: Ryan Howard (good!), Chase Utley (yeah!), Roy Halladay (duh!), Raul Ibanez (hmm!), Brad Lidge (damn!)

I’ll try to post later with something close to a rational thought.