By SCOTT LAUBER
Lots to discuss today, and on many of these topics, I'd like to hear from you. So, we'll do this in the form of a reader poll.
What was the worst loss endured by the Phillies last night?
a) Barring a medical miracle, Tom Gordon won't pitch again this season after noted orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum concurred with team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotti's diagnosis that Gordon has damage to the ulnar collateral ligament (and more) in his right elbow?
b) Cole Hamels pitched well (again) and didn't win (again), largely because of a lack of offensive support (the Phils had one hit after the third inning and were shut out over the final three innings by the Dodgers' bullpen). Hamels' winless streak has reached seven starts.
3. After striking out in the seventh inning, Shane Victorino left last night's game with lower back stiffness. Victorino has been the Phillies' hottest hitter, batting .345 (38-for-110) with eight homers and 21 RBIs in the last 27 games.
Go ahead, discuss.
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8 comments:
B. Cole Hamels has been a stud, but it's gotta be getting into his head that his offense SUCKS. The Phils should trade a marginal prospect for Sheffield, who was placed on waivers today by the Tigers. Have him take most of the time in right field, and if he doesn't hit, bench him. The Phils need a hitter.
I'm with Rob on this one. There has always been the whole issue of creating and maintaining good team chemistry but with Myers and Rollins barking it's clear that a move needs to be made that will help this offense. Now Victorino might be hurt and Werth is always an injury risk, so we're looking at the possibility of Jenkins/Taguchi becoming our right field platoon if the injury-prone Vic is out for an extended period of time. That's just not good enough. Hell, what we have now isn't good enough.
After watching this team so closely the past few months, I think this has got to be the worst first-place team in the majors. The offense underperforms. Nobody can hit pitchers. And I'm not talking about the aces that playoff-caliber teams will be throwing out there. I'm talking Josh Johnson. Braden Looper. Randy Wolf.
If you made a drinking game and took a shot for every time the Phillies offense GIDP, you'd have to get your stomach pumped. And that's with Ruiz OUT of the lineup.
No way on Sheffield. He's set to make $14 million next year. That would definitely mean no Burrell.
Gordon is my biggest disappointment. I was hoping that he could be fresh in September, and that he, Durbin, Lidge, Romero, and Madson would make for a lights-out bullpen.
Bananafish, there's no way the Tigers wouldn't eat most of his salary. They wanna get rid of him, and they're going to have to eat a significant portion of that salary to trade him for even a marginal prospect.
Zach, great analogy with the drinking game. This team's built around all-or-nothing hitters with low batting averages. Feliz and Jenkins are the poster boys for this ineptitude. Jenkins looks like he's swinging a hockey stick up there. Why not go after a guy in the off-season who can play third or the outfield and just plain hit. Coming up with a run-scoring single is probably more crucial than swinging for the fences.
I'll go with "b" Scott -- lack of offensive support. I guess that makes it nearly unanimous so far. The Phils are second in the NL in runs scored. But take away two games where they scored a lot of runs and they sink to the middle of the pack. Some call it "inconsistency" but it is really a mediocre offense that gorges once in a while when it meets up with poor pitching.
How about just the fact that they lost the game was the worst loss last night?
The difference in between Victorino and Jenkins vs LHP is probably about 0.15 runs per game, so replacing Victorino with Taguchi vs. a LHP probably only a 1.5% chance of losing any one game. Given that they probably only play about 15 more lefties all year, that seems kind of small compared with the effect of actually losing. Having Gordon in top form probably is worth about 20 runs over a replacement over the course of a whole season-- which is probably only a couple wins over a whole season and probably about 1/2 a win between now and the end of the year, and so probably also very small compared with actually losing. There are 43 games left-- each game is huge.
the reason the phillies are losing games this year that they would win last year is because the 6-7-8 hitters are terrible this year.
Jenkins/Bruntlett/Feliz/Taguchi/Coste/Ruiz are ALL below average hitters. all are sporting an OPS+ under 100.(i think coste is over 100, but his overall OPS for the past 2 months is around .700).
the bottom of the lineup just can't bring anyone in when the OBP(middle of the order) can't get in.
Scott, seeing as Victorino is now listed as day-to-day, should we expect him to be out of the starting lineup for two weeks but pinch hit every other game before landing on the DL at the end of the month? I hope this injury is handled properly, regardless of its severity.
Hopefully the front office will make some type of deal to avoid an everyday platoon of Jenkins/Taguchi in RF. September callups can't come soon enough.
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