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BY SCOTT LAUBER
Surely, it comes as no surprise that the Phillies are among the elite teams in the majors. They did, of course, win a little something called the World Series last October, and they have a big, shiny trophy to prove it.
That said, teams are always measuring themselves against the competition to see where they stack up, and the Phillies just completed a perfect 10-game test. They went 2-2 against the Dodgers in L.A., losing a pair of games because Brad Lidge blew ninth-inning leads. They moved on to New York and went 2-1 against the rival Mets, losing despite hitting four homers against Johan Santana before coming from behind to win a pair of games. Finally, they went 1-2 against the AL-best Red Sox at the Bank, and if Greg Dobbs' near-homer in the 11th inning Friday night had been ruled fair, who knows? So, overall, they were 5-5, which isn't too shabby when you consider:
1. Jimmy Rollins went 7-for-44 (.159) with a .174 on-base percentage.
2. Lidge went on the disabled list.
3. Antonio Bastardo, a 23-year-old with two career triple-A starts, replaced Brett Myers, meaning 40 percent of the Phillies' rotation consists of rookie left-handers.
So, as the Phillies catch their breath today and prepare for the Blue Jays' arrival tomorrow night, I ask you this: After watching them take on three prime contenders, what's your level of confidence that the Phillies can a) get back to the playoffs and b) win another World Series?
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Recapping the weekend in The News Journal: Lidge told us his balky right knee is feeling better (he's scheduled to throw from the mound Tuesday); in our Sunday MLB notes, we talked to assistant GM Chuck LaMar about Jason Donald's knee surgery today and analyze the impact it may have on the Phillies' attempts to trade for a pitcher; Rollins wonders if a pregame chat yesterday with John Smoltz may help him regain his mojo; in the notebook, we look at Raul Ibanez's shoe problems, Kelly Dugan isn't easily star-struck, and Tyler Walker hopes to stay with the Phillies for a while.
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Last Tuesday night, Rollins stood in the clubhouse at Citi Field and told us Santana's velocity was down. Sure enough, The Johan gave up nine runs in three innings yesterday against the Yankees. The Mets believe the velocity drop is due to a blister. At least they hope it's nothing more serious.
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So, who watched "The Pen" last night on MLB Network? Please post your reviews of Episode 1 in the comments section.
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Thanks to everyone who stopped by Section 111 before yesterday's game and got their copy of "Phillies Confidential" signed by Gary Matthews and yours truly. Sarge and I definitely hope to schedule another signing in the near future, so please stay tuned for more details.
BY SCOTT LAUBER
NEW YORK -- So, it's been two games since Jimmy Rollins was moved from his familiar leadoff spot to the No. 6 hole in the Phillies' lineup, and in those two games, he's 5-for-8 with a two-run homer.
That doesn't mean he likes it.
Rollins, as you know, loves batting leadoff. He grew up in the Bay Area, idolizing Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time, and he always has fancied himself a top-of-the-order catalyst. So, although Charlie Manuel said last night he's not sure when Rollins will return to the leadoff spot (my bet: It happens tonight against Mets right-hander Mike Pelfrey), Rollins made it clear that he's eager to get back there.
"I don't think you get up for the game as much being in the six-hole," he said. "When you're a leadoff hitter, you're a leadoff hitter. Doesn't matter the situation. You got two out, runners on second and third, it's not that you better get a hit because there are runners on second and third. You're supposed to get on first and come around and score a run. That's what a leadoff hitter does. Down in the six-hole, you probably have an opportunity to drive in runs with a fly ball or sometimes a ground ball. The emphasis isn't getting on base as much. So, it's different. I had good at-bats [Sunday night] in Los Angeles, and it had nothing to do with where I was batting."
So, how does J-Roll, previously in a 4-for-32 funk, explain the two-game turnaround?Before last night's game, he said he watched Chase Utley take cuts in the indoor cage before batting practice and jotted a few mental notes.
"It was just something in his swing I was just able to pick up on," said Rollins, who declined to get into specifics. "I knew where my swing was flattening out. I just needed that reminder, and Chase was that reminder. Kind of like when Bobby [Abreu] was here. I watched Bobby, and I was able to see something in his swing that was not what I was doing in mine."
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Rollins made this observation about Johan Santana: "His velocity was down. That changeup is always good. That never really changes. But it makes a big difference when you throw 94 as your top speed as opposed to 91. He was 91 from the start, pretty much stayed there." Asked good friend Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News about this, and he said Santana's velocity has declined. That's something to keep an eye on as the season goes along.
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At about 10:30 last night, the Phillies made their first pick in the amateur draft, selecting switch-hitting 18-year-old center fielder Kelly Dugan from Notre Dame (Calif.) High with the 75th overall pick. With the 106th overall pick, they took another 18-year-old center fielder, Kyrell Hudson, from Evergreen (Wash.) High. A few nuggets on both, courtesy of Kevin Czerwinski, an old friend and contributor to CSNPhilly.com:
--Dugan worked out alongside Alex Rodriguez in Miami this winter, just prior to A-Rod's admission of steroid use. He also attended the same high school as Pat Gillick.
--Dugan's father, Dennis, played Richie Brockelman on the TV series "The Rockford Files" in the 70s and directed Adam Sandler in "Happy Gilmore" and "Big Daddy".
--Hudson has committed to play football at Oregon State and lists the Mets as his favorite team. Presumably, that will change if he ever plays for the Phillies.
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Please join me for our weekly live Phillies chat today at noon at www.delawareonline.com.
BY SCOTT LAUBER
NEW YORK -- So, as Jimmy Rollins walked through the clubhouse after last night's game, he spotted a few Phillies beat writers among a group of reporters from New York.
"Was that game as fun to watch as it was to play?" J-Roll said with a smile.
Personally, I love games like last night's. Home runs are great, but there's nothing like an old-fashioned pitchers' duel. Chan Ho Park was superb, for a change. Johan Santana was awesome, as usual. Between them, they allowed three hits, and if the game hadn't been decided by an unfortunate throwing error by Pedro Feliz, it would've been an instant classic. Chad Durbin probably summed it up best when he said, "[Park] threw the ball so well. It's something to build on for him. In a 1-0 game, he gave Santana a run for his money."
Here, then, are a few random thoughts, some of which made it into today's News Journal and others that didn't.
1. It occurred to me that Park has been at his best when his spot in the rotation hasn't been assured. He had to win the fifth-starter spot in spring training, and he was excellent. Then, after four largely dismal starts, I think Park knew he needed to pitch well last night to guarantee he'd get another start. Lo and behold, look what happened. Earlier this week, Park talked about lacking "focus" during his start against the Mets last Friday night. He had plenty of focus here last night. Asked after the game if he ever thought his rotation spot was in jeopardy, Park said flatly, "No." I'll take him at his word, but it sure seems like he "focuses" more when he has something to prove.
2. If there's a better pitcher in the National League than Santana, I haven't seen him. Cole Hamels has a great changeup, and when he's on, a good fastball. But Santana's slider is probably better than Hamels' curveball. Add that to Santana's wicked changeup and nasty fastball, and he can be virtually unhittable. "That's probably the best I've seen him," said Jayson Werth, who struck out three times last night.
3. Pedro Feliz bolted from the clubhouse without talking to reporters last night, so we may never know what he was thinking when he charged and barehanded Fernando Tatis' broken-bat roller and threw it wide of first base. It was an uncharacteristic miscue by Feliz, one of the NL's best defensive third basemen. Come to think of it, you won't see the Phillies lose many games because of defense. Entering last night, they had the best overall fielding percentage (.994) in the NL.
4. Citi Field is underwhelming. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but to me, there's nothing particularly special about it, at least not these days, when new ballparks are cropping up every year. I'm impressed by the selection of food. I like the look of the Jackie Robinson rotunda. But with the tall scoreboards in center field and right-center and the towering third deck in left field, it almost feels like the ballpark is enclosed. Of course, it's a tremendous upgrade over Shea Stadium, which has been reduced to rubble (sniff, sniff).
5. Just when I thought I'd heard everything about last year's World Series run, Charlie Manuel told an interesting story yesterday. After the Phillies lost Game 2 in Tampa, Manuel said he had a team meeting. Evidently, he believed some players were more concerned with talking to the large numbers of reporters and cameras at the World Series than with preparing for the games. "I had a meeting about people looking for attention in different areas and wanting to get interviewed after the game and standing around," Manuel said. "We forgot what our purpose was for being there. So, I had a meeting. That was probably one of the best meetings I ever had, if you want to know the truth. We worked all year to get there, and it was about our team. It was not about one individual. When I walk about the clubhouse and I see people looking for attention, looking for the media, interviews on TV, I got pissed off. It wasn't what got us there. That wasn't what we were about."
BY SCOTT LAUBER
ST. LOUIS -- Good morning, all. We're sitting at Gate A15 in Lambert International Airport, still several hours before sunrise, awaiting the boarding of a US Airways flight to Pittsburgh, where we'll hop a connecting flight to New York.
Ah, the joys of travel.
Anyway, here at the mobile office of Philled In, I'm still thinking about the game that was played here just a few hours ago, a 10-7 Phillies win that completed an impressive (albeit brief) two-game sweep of the Cardinals. I say it's impressive because of how well the Cardinals had been playing. When the Phillies blew into Baseball Heaven on Monday, Albert Pujols and Co. were 17-8 and had the best record in the National League. But, thanks mostly to their offense, the Phils cooled off the Cards and moved into first place, a half-game ahead of the up-and-down Marlins. It would've been easy, I think, for the Phillies to overlook this series in St. Louis. It was sandwiched between two series against their big rival from the Big Apple, and we know how (over-)hyped those Phillies-Mets battles can be. For Ryan Howard, though, games in St. Louis trump anything else. He grew up here, and he had another superb series in his old stomping grounds, smackinga grand slam Monday night before reaching base three times again last night.
That said, Howard is hardly the hottest Phillies hitter. That would be Shane Victorino, who went 4-for-4 last night, extending his hitting streak to 14 games and hiking his average to .311. Victorino, suddenly superstitious, doesn't want to jinx himself by discussing the hitting streak, especially with the prospect of having to keep it alive tonight against Johan Santana. But Charlie Manuel hasn't been shy about heaping praise upon his sparkplug center fielder. "Victorino is a high-talent player," Manuel said. "He gets into a streak, and he hits as good as anybody in the game. He's an electrifying player."
It's not all positive in Manuel's universe, though. He has some concern, though not much, over Chase Utley's bruised right foot, which is detailed within the notebook in today's News Journal. I'm not a gambling man, but if I had to wager, I'd say Utley will be in the lineup tonight against The Johan. Of far greater concern to the Phillies is their starting pitching. After Joe Blanton gave them a rare quality start Monday night, Brett Myers nearly coughed up a pair of four-run leads last night and gave up two more homers, bringing his majors-leading total to 10 in only 37 innings. Manuel noted that Myers' velocity was down last night, topping out at about 88 mph on the Busch Stadium radar gun. Myers countered by saying the radar gun was inaccurate (it may well have been, according to people who watch games here all the time). He also said he felt ill during the fifth and sixth innings. Nevertheless, considering Myers' first-half struggles last year landed him in the minors for three weeks in July, there has to be some concern over his 5.35 ERA through five starts.
So, Brett, what gives?
"I'm just trying to get to the point where I can repeat my pitches," Myers said after the game. "Right now, I'm making three good ones, and then I make three bad ones."
That's true of all the starters. The Phillies are 14-10 despite a rotation that has a major-league-worst 6.54 ERA. That's fairly amazing, and of course, it can't last. Cole Hamels is set to return to the mound Friday night against the Braves, so that should help, but I'll ask you this: What's your level of concern about the pitching? Are you comforted by the strong track records of Myers, Jamie Moyer, Blanton and Hamels? Or are you writing letters to Ruben Amaro Jr., telling him to make some upgrades?
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With any luck, I'll be in New York by 11:30 a.m., ready and able to host our weekly live Phillies chat at delawareonline.com at noon. So, please stop by and join me. Also, I'll throw together a post on Chan Ho Park's big start tonight and my impressions of Citi Field (a.k.a., the New Shea) once I get there.
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In case you're wondering, here's how Phillies hitters have fared in their careers against Santana:
Ryan Howard: .429, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 14 AB
Carlos Ruiz: .429, 7 AB
Raul Ibanez: .353, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 34 AB
Jayson Werth: .313, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 16 AB
Matt Stairs: .267, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 15 AB
Miguel Cairo: .250, 12 AB
Eric Bruntlett: .250, 4 AB
Chase Utley: .167, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 18 AB
Pedro Feliz: .158, 1 RBI, 19 AB
Shane Victorino: .083, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 12 AB
Jimmy Rollins: .059, 17 AB
Chris Coste: .000, 8 AB
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