Saturday, July 01, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Well, what did I tell you the Phillies got good enough pitching today from Cory Lidle, giving up just two runs over 6 innings, to keep them in the game, but once again it was not enough as the Phillies offense had yet another quiet game and the Phillies lost 5-2. If there is a key to the Phillies season right now it has got to be their starting lineup. As long as it continues to struggle mightily like this the Phillies will continue to struggle. I honestly don't know what the Phillies can do right now to fix it, but they had better think of something fast. Unfortunately for the Phils the pitching prognosis is not much better at the moment. They really only have 3 legit starters right now in Ryan Madson, Lidle, and Cole Hamels, 4 if you count Scott Mathieson, even though he is really not here for the long hall. In fact, the Phillies are so desperate for another starter right now, that Aaron Fultz is coming in from the bullpen tomorrow to start for the Phillies. I mean what are the Phillies thinking, Fultz has never started a game in his major league career, yes he has been a good reliever, but a starter. I don't know about you, but to me Fultz seems like a bit of stretch to use as a starter, but hey who knows maybe he'll actually pitch well. Of course, even if Fultz does pitch well tomorrow, it won't matter unless the Phillies offense gets themselves in gear, and starts playing the way they are capable of.
Friday, June 30, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Like I said, the Phillies won last night only because starter Ryan Madson went 8 and 2/3rd shutout innings. Tonight, by contrast starter Adam Bernero, filling in for Brett Myers, who is currently on a leave of absence following the events of last weekend, lasted only 2 innings and gave up 8 runs on 7 hits leading to an 8-1 Phillies loss. Now, let's think for a minute, what does this all mean for the Phillies, what does this say about the Phillies offense, is it so bad that they can only win when their starter goes 8 shutout innings. I mean, with all the talent the Phillies lineup is supposed to have, with JRoll, Utley, Abreu, Burrell, and Howard, to need their starters to be that good to win, is more than pathetic, it's inconceivable. I mean what does hitting coach Milt Thompson have to do to get these guys to execute and score runs? How much more can the Phillies tweak their lineup, they have already benched Burrell and just about every other guy in the starting lineup at least once and it didn't seem to work at all. Yes it's true that the Phillies starting pitching has not been very good as of late, Ryan Madson aside, but it shouldn't have to be. As long they can keep the Phillies in the game, it should be enough for the offense to get the win, but for some reason it isn't. Now the biggest problem for the Phillies is that they are without their top 3 starting pitchers which means their starting pitching won't be getting much better than it is now anytime soon. John Lieber remains on the DL until at least next, Brett Myers is on leave indefinitely, and Randy Wolf is still not expected back until after the all-star break, meaning that the current staff ace is um, Cory Lidle with a laundry list of young guys pitching without confidence tailing in the wind behind him. Add it all up and you've got big problems. So, lets see their offense is sputtering, and their starting pitching is short on reserves, looks like the Phillies are going nowhere soon, but I am diehard fan and I am not going to give up on them, yet. Hey when does football season start again?
Thursday, June 29, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Well, do I even need to tell you what happened tonight, I am sure that you already though what happened tonight. wait! what did you just say? they won! No, that can't be, not the Philles, are you sure, and they got a shutout and their starter went 8 and 2/3rd innings. Now I know you're just joshing me, right. You're not, really, I mean it's true, really, they actually won for a change. I don't believe it. Well, in the immortal words of Larry Anderson, believe it! The Phillies actually won tonight and 4-0 at that. The funny thing is that they really didn't play all that much better tonight then they have been lately, their defense didn't commit any errors and the offense only came up with 4 runs. The only difference tonight is that they just happened to get a good start from one of their pitchers. The guy who gave them this great start was of all people Ryan Madson, yes the same Ryan Madson who got bombed by the Red Sox 10-4 in his last start. Tonight however, he did complete 180 pitching 8 and 2/3rd innings of shutout ball. He would have had a complete game shutout, but he was pulled from the game in favor of closer Tom Gordon, with two outs in the 9th inning, after he gave up a single to Brandon Fahey, and a walk to Melvin Mora to bring Miguel Tejada to the plate. Gordon then promptly induced Tejada into a ground out. It would have been great if Madson had finished the game, but with the way things have been going for the Phillies lately, you can't blame Charlie Manuel for not taking any chances and giving him the hook. Just in case any of you are wondering they scored their 4 runs in the 1st inning on a David Dellucci two-run homer, in the 7th inning on a RBI groundout by Abraham Nunez, and in the Eight inning on an RBI double by Bobby Abreu. Now that the Phillies finally got a win, they need to ride the momentum from this win to a hot streak. Now, obviously, this one win is far from getting them out of their slump, but it's a start, and the Phillies just cannot afford to waste it, by stringing together more losses.
PHILLIES NEWS
One word describes how the Phillies played in their day-night doubleheader tonight, Ugly. They lost the first game 7-4 and the second by a lopsided 12-5. It's bad enough to get blown out by somebody in one game, but to get blown twice in one night by the same team is just down right pathetic and unacceptable and it's the same things that keep haunting the Phillies that killed them tonight. First of all, not just in one game, but in both games they got terrible starting pitching, each time by one of their young aces, Cole Hamels in the 1st game and Scott Mathieson in the 2nd game. Neither Hamels nor Mathieson managed to get through 6 innings and both gave up 5 runs or more. Second, the Phillies offense did not take advantage of their opportunities. It seems like of every time the Phillies load the bases, or get a couple guys on base, they get nothing out of it and it always the same routine each time, one guy pops up or grounds out weakly, and the next guy grounds out into a double play to end the inning. You could almost put awager on it, seriously the next time you see the Phillies load the bases, bet your buddies 50 bucks that they won't score a run in the inning, they may look at you like your an idiot, but you'll walk away 50 dollars richer. Conversely, when the Phillies do score runs, there's never anyone on base, it's always either a solo homer, or a double with one guy on base. It's hard enough to win in the MLB when you're playing well, but when your starting pitching is putting you in a hole every night, and your offense isn't executing anything at all, it's next to impossible to get a win. Well, that ladies and gentleman is why the Phillies suck right now so if you are out there reading this right now Charlie Manuel, then you know what you need to do to fix your team, so just do it already and stop making excuses.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
SIXERS NEWS
As I noted yesterday the NBA draft was tonight. It's over now but the jury is still out on whether or not the Sixers had good draft. First of all they were unable to get the guy really wanted all along, Randy Foye, even though GM Billy King claims he did everything he could to work a trade for him. Since they could not get Foye, the Sixers' instead took Switzerland's Thabo Sefolofa, and traded him to the Bulls for Rodney Carney from Memphis. In end, Carney probably won't give them what Foye would have, but he is a super-athlete and seems to have the necessary tools to help the Sixers. The draft was supposed to be over for the Sixers at this point, but they were able to make a trade with the Minnesota T-Wolves for the 37th pick in the second round, which turned out to be Washington forward Bobby Jones,who is supposed to be a very good defender, which is exactly what the Sixers need. So overall I guess you could say that the Sixers had an okay draft, but for now anyway, not a great one.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Like Sunday's game with the Red Sox, tonight's game with the Orioles was rained out. It will be made up tomorrow with a day-night doubleheader so I will have plenty of news to talk about tomorrow. Here's hoping it is good news for once.
SIXERS NEWS
The NBA draft starts tomorrow night at 7:30 and it will be interesting to see which way the Sixers go. Here's hoping they can get everything they need out of whichever way they may go.
Monday, June 26, 2006
PHILLIES NEWS
Can you spell heartbreak? The Phillies have had some tough losses this season, okay a lot of tough losses this season but this one takes the cake. As advertised the game did turn out to be a pitcher's duel for 5 and 1/2 innings with the two teams deadlocked in a scoreless tie. Then in the bottom of the 6th inning it suddenly and rapidly fell apart for starter Cory Lidle as he gave up 4 runs and reliever Geoff Geary gave up a further 2 to make it 6-0 Red Sox. If you were watching the game at this point and you thought "man, 6-0 Red Sox there's no way the Phils are gonna come back" and subsequently decided to turn it off, consider yourself lucky but not for the reason you might think. Incredibly the Phillies actually managed to battle back in the 7th inning against Tim Wakefield scoring 5 runs (no that's not a typo they actually scored 5 runs in an inning). Then in the top of the 9th inning, with one out and the Phils still trailing by only one , 6-5 , Chase Utley got a key hit for the first time in a while, homering off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon ( the first such homer this year) to tie the score at 6. The two teams then traded outs until the top of the 12th inning when the Phillies, yes the Phillies took the lead 7-6 on Jimmy Rollins RBI double (his 4th RBI of the day). Unfortunately, the Phillies had already used closer Tom Gordon in the 10th and 11th innings, so they were forced to call on little used Clay Condrey to get the save. Needless, to say the Red Sox weren't exactly quaking in their knees at the sight of Condrey. Condrey though, did manage two get outs in the inning, and stood one out away from delivering a huge confidence building win for the Phils, but it was not to be. With two out and a man on second Condrey served up an RBI single to Kevin Youkillis, tying the score at 7. To make matters worse Youkillis was able to move up to second base on the play as, Shane Victorino's throw home over shot the infield. Now of course, who should step up to the plate following Youkillis, David Ortiz, who had broken the Phillies hearts on saturday with a walkoff homer. Lets' just say oops he did it again, although this time with an RBI single, game over, Red Sox 8- Phillies 7. If you ask me it just doesn't get any more painful than that. The Phillies are now 5 games under 500. at 35-40 and fading fast, if they don't put up a good showing in their upcoming series with the Orioles, this season could quickly become a lost one for them.
FLYERS NEWS
The Flyers continued with their theme this off season and today signed yet another small, but skilled and speedy winger, ex-Atlanta Thrasher Brad Tapper, to a one year deal. Tapper spent last year playing in Germany, recording nine goals, 21 assists, and 165 penalty minutes. Not spectactular numbers, but good enough for the Flyers to take a chance on him in the hope that his speed and skill will translate well into the new NHL.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
WEEKLY POLL QUESTION
Who should the Sixers take with the 13th pick in Wednesday's draft?
a. Rajon Rondo
b. Randy Foye
c. Shelden Williams
d. Marcus Williams
e. Jordon Farmar
f. Mardy Collins
g. Kyle Lowry
h. Hilton Armstrong
i. Patrick O'bryant
last week's results:
100% a. yes
0% b. no
a. Rajon Rondo
b. Randy Foye
c. Shelden Williams
d. Marcus Williams
e. Jordon Farmar
f. Mardy Collins
g. Kyle Lowry
h. Hilton Armstrong
i. Patrick O'bryant
last week's results:
100% a. yes
0% b. no
PHILLIES NEWS
Today's game, the final one of the series with the Red Sox, was rained out and rescheduled for tomorrow at 1:00 in the afternoon. It should be an enertaining contest between the Phillies Cory Lidle and the Red Sox Tim WakeField. Here's hoping the Phillies win and retain at least some of their dignity with Red Sox.
WEEKLY TRIVIA QUESTION
The Sixer's were originally named the Syracuse Nationals from 1949-1964. In 1950 the Nationals took part in the very first NBA draft. Of all the players drafted by the Sixer's/Syracuse National's franchise since that draft in 1950 how many have gone on to become NBA all-stars for either the Sixers or Nationals?
Who are they?
Last week's answer:
Bobby Abreu
Who are they?
Last week's answer:
Bobby Abreu
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