2007 Philadelphia Phillies Thread - DIVISION CHAMPS MOTHER fargER!!!!

[Geowhizzer]

Thank god Rollins swings for the fence every at bat and strikes out 110 times a year. He sure is a good leadoff hitter.

Only hit 110 strikeouts once, hasn't had more than 80 in the past three seasons:

2001:  14 HR, 108 K
2002:  11 HR, 103 K
2003:    8 HR, 110 K
2004:  14 HR,   73 K
2005:  12 HR,   71 K
2006:  25 HR,   80 K

[rjs246]

.330 career OBP.  Awesome!

[SunMo]

his OBP sucks, granted.  but he scores a ton of runs, so he must be doing something right

[Geowhizzer]

.330 career OBP.  Awesome!

I said nothing about his career OBP, which is below par for a traditional leadoff hitter.  I've always personally believed that Rollins would make a much better #2 hitter.

However, you talked of going for the homerun and striking out "110 times a year."  That is just not the case, no matter how you want to spin it to be able to continue to post your vitriolic attacks about a sport which you claim to not care for at all.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Howard should be batting leadoff with Rollins in the 4-hole.

[SunMo]

i was in your mom's 4-hole last night

[rjs246]

I just like to stir the pot. Rollins is miscast as a leadoff man and the love he gets is ridiculous.

[ice grillin you]

I'm waiting for IGY to step in and be a complete buzzkill

howard will do that fine all by himself

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

They're losing.  How did that happen?  WTF mate?

[SunMo]

welcome to 2 innings ago

[ice grillin you]

howard on the year

.188
11 k's
11 hits + rbi

and the worst part is he just looks brutal doing it

[ice grillin you]

id like to know what % of runs the phils have scored this year are off homers...aint a damn thing changed...they dont homer they dont win

quick...someone figure it out

[Geowhizzer]

Burrell just got under one.  Warning track power.

With a one-run deficit, I should be more hopeful.  I already am chalking this one as a loss.  2-7.

[SD_Eagle5]

Howard looks awful at the plate, my assessment of his batting stance is correct, farg off if you disagree.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Once again the offense is nothing but HRs. If they don't go yard, they don't score. Same old shtein.

This team is squeezing the bats so tight they're turning to sawdust.

Rollins is tied for 3rd in the ML with 8 walks (Howard leads with 11 & Burrell has 8 too)

Stark on the Phils:

Floodgates opening with bullpen door

Philadelphia Phillies Problem No. 1: The bullpen
OPS against this crew before its two shutout innings Wednesday: .949, worst of any pen in the National League. And those three crushing blown saves last week might not be an aberration if you stack the stuff of this group up against the other bullpens in the league. "They've only got one power arm out there [Tom Gordon], and he's 39 years old," said one scout. "What happens if, or when, he goes down? I think they're in huge trouble."

Problem No. 2: Situational hitting
Offense is supposed to be this team's strength. But when you hit .179 with men in scoring position, you're just asking for the kind of disaster that has ensued. "We've had unacceptable offensive production," said assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. "Unacceptable. We've had opportunities to break games open, and we haven't done it. And by not scoring more runs, we're putting more pressure on our relievers, because they've had no margin for error. Then we blow a couple of saves, and everything just snowballs."

Problem No. 3: Dumb baseball
They've run into big outs, rushed through at-bats with men on base and had all kinds of inexplicable defensive issues. Which was exactly what wasn't supposed to happen after they overhauled half the coaching staff. "A big part of this blame has to sit on the players' shoulders," Amaro said. "These are players who have played in the big leagues for a while now. They've got to know when to take the extra base and when not to. They've got to know when to swing at a 2-and-0 pitch and when not to."

If you've followed this team, you know the two things you can count on every April are Easter egg hunts and another April debacle by the Phillies. They've now started 2-6, or worse, in three of the last four years. But while they found ways to get back into contention the previous two times, that's a precarious tightrope to walk this year, when the Braves and Mets appear 100 percent for real.

"We'd better get it going," Amaro said. "Or we're going to find ourselves selling suntan lotion in September."