Liberty Ball

Gavin Floyd’s put together quite a spring.  He’s given up only five runs and 17 hits with fifteen strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings.  Those are the good things.  The bad is, he’s walked seven guys (not “bad” but not great either) and he’s given up three homeruns.  Regardless, Floyd will be the fifth starter for the Phillies.

That means either Ryan Franklin or Ryan Madson’s headed for the pen.  Madson’s also had a pretty good spring but Franklin hasn’t pitched bad either.  If I had to bet, I’d say Madson’s headed for the pen (where he threw last season) and Franklin will get that fourth spot in the rotation.  Franklin will be on a short leash though and if he throws like he did last year for Seattle, he’ll probably find himself pulled from the rotation in favor of Madson.

David Bell made his spring debut yesterday.  And even after a collision at third, he played on.  He went zero for three.

Cory Lidle didn’t have an awful start this afternoon but he was roughed up just enough to walk away with a loss.  He gave up three runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings of work.  He did strikeout five and walked only one.

Ryan Howard is coming back down to earth.  He struck out twice in three at bats today and his batting average is now a pedestrian .364.

Pat Burrell played in his first game since Tuesday.  He went two for four with an RBI and he raised his batting average to .333.

Gavin Floyd throws for the Phillies tomorrow.  He’s been one of the strongest starters of the spring for the Phillies.  He’s given up only four runs in 15 2/3 innings and he has 14 strikeouts.  His one blemish are the seven walks he’s given up and two of the 13 hits that have dropped against him have been homeruns.

Ryan Howard hit a big three run blast today against the Braves.  It’s 4-4 in the ninth right now and it’s on ESPN.  Actually, the Phillies just made the final so it’s going into extra innings.  It’s the ninth homerun this spring for Ryan Howard.

Corey Lidle had a great start yesterday against the Pirates.  He threw five shutout innings and gave up only three hits while striking out five.

In the bottom of the ninth, Chris Coste hit his second two run homerun of the game to tie the game up against the Pirates.  Unfortunately, Travis Minix didn’t waste much time in the top of the tenth and he gave up the winning run as the Phillies lost to the Pirates 9-8.

A piece of good news was that Bobby Abreau went three for three.  Abreau had a tough WBC in which he went only 3 for 20.  Hopefully, he’s getting out of that slump and he’ll be top form when the season starts.

David Bell’s back is still acting up and it looks like he might start the season on the DL.  This isn’t anything earth shattering as I’m not really expecting Bell to light it up at the plate anyway, so even a replacement level hitter will only be a slight step down from what Bell probably would have produced.

Ryan Howard was one of the six player’s highlighted on the cover of Baseball Prospectus, and he received a very favorable writeup in the book. So far this spring, Howard has lived up to his billing. He has sixteen hits in 38 at bats and eight of those hits are homeruns. He has 42 total bases and the next closest Phillie has 16 (Shane Victorino). If the Phillies are going to keep up with the Mets and the Braves, Howard has to have a season that will put him in the top 10 of the National League MVP and so far this spring, he’s playing like an MVP.

The Phillies had a rare day off yesterday and they’re beating the Blue Jays right now, 4-1. If the Phillies win, they’ll be 10-4 this spring.

Ryan Madson gave up a first inning run to the Reds this afternoon.  After that, he calmed down and left after 3 2/3 without further damage.  Five Phillies then finished the game and over 5 1/3 shutout innings, they gave up only three hits.  Arthur Rhodes looked particularly sharp with two strikeouts in his single inning of work.

Ryan Howard continued to hit.  He singled and drove in a run in the Phillies 4-1 win.  That brings his team leading RBI total up to eleven.  On Saturday, he was even more impressive in the Phillies 4-3 win over the Astros. He hit two solo homeruns, giving him six for the spring.

Jimmy Rollins continues to struggle.  He’s five for 23 with only one extra base hit and one run.  His slugging is a pathetic .261.  It’ll be interesting to see if he can get out of this slump to extend his 36 game hitting streak that was cut off once the season ended.

Ryan Madson’s looked sharp this spring.  In three games (two starts), he’s 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in 8 2/3 innings.  He’s struck out five and walked only one.

Jon Lieber throws for the Phillies tomorrow against the Tigers.  It’s an afternoon game.

Mike Schmidt made his major league debut on September 12, 1972.  It was just over a year ago that he was taken with the sixth overall pick in the 1971 amateur draft, in which he was passed up by the Kansas City Royals.  With the fifth pick, the Royals choose another eventual Hall of Fame third baseman, George Brett.

In that first game, Mike Schmidt didn’t get the start at third base.  Don Money made an error in the first inning that helped the Mets score two runs and in the second inning, Mike Schmidt replaced him.  He struck out in his first at bat but he got his first career hit, a single, in the fifth inning.  He struck out again in the seventh then he drew a walk in the ninth inning to load the bases and was replaced by pinch runner Larry Bowa.  The Phillies scored two of their three runs in that ninth inning but they came up short and lost to the Mets 4-3.

Three days later, in his third game, Mike Schmidt hit his first career homerun.  Playing against the Expos and down 1-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth, Mike Schmidt hit a three run homer to win the game for the Phillies.  He scored his first career run and had his first career RBI in that game as well.

Mike Schmidt never really lit it up that September.  After that homerun, Schmidt was five for twenty four with one run and no RBIs.  He finished the season with 15 strikeouts in only 34 at bats and he hovered around the .200 batting mark for most of that last month.  Little did we know that the Phillies had a star in the making and that Phillies fans would have to sit through a horrible rookie year by Schmidt before he realized his potential.

Here’s a look at Mike Schmidt’s numbers in 1972:

Games 13
AB 34
Runs 2
Hits 7
Doubles 0
Triples 0
Homeruns 1
RBIs 3
Walks 5
Strikeouts 15
Stolen Bases 0
Caught Stealing 0
BA .206
OBA .325
SLG% .294
OPS .619
RC 4
RCAA 0
RCAP 0
RC/G 4.00
ISO .088

Baseball season is upon us and I am headed for the ballpark with my Philadelphia Phillies game tickets in hand. I got some great seats this year and I can’t wait to see the Philadelphia Phillies play the rest of the Atlanta Braves series at Turner Field. I’m pretty excited about the Phillies versus the Washington Nationals series too. We started the season with two wins in a row which makes me think I am going to need to get tickets for Phillies versus the Florida Marlins games to see how they kick off the month of May.

True fans attend at least a few away games each season. Since I am in Philadelphia, I can jet over to Pittsburgh to pick up some Pirates tickets for the Phillies trip to PNC Park. I could also take a trip to Boston with Red Sox tickets for their three game series versus the Phillies at Fenway Park. I have a feeling that this is the year to see as many Philadelphia Phillies games as possible, but I don’t remember a time when I didn’t attend at least six or seven Phillies home games a season. That’s not to mention all the away games I manage to grace with my presence.

I can’t wait to see some Los Angeles Dodgers games and some of the New York Yankees schedule so I can scope out the competition. I think we have an edge over a lot of other teams with Bobby Abreau and Albert Pujols at the plate. Philadelphia may have had a slow start, but they’ve got some great players who, with a lot of hard work, could lead the Phillies to a winning 2006 season. I can’t wait to see the Phillies improve as the season goes on. I was lucky I didn’t get Phillies Opening Day tickets because we lost the St. Louis Cardinals game match ups.. I am not going to lose faith over a couple of losses, though. This is baseball after all, so we will have plenty of opportunities to redeem ourselves.

So whether you are traveling to see Phillies versus the Milwaukee Brewers games or sitting in the cheap seats at Philadelphia Phillies versus Baltimore Orioles games, you should remember that supporting your team is an admirable thing that shouldn’t be done from the comfort of your couch. Get out of the house, buy some Phillies tickets and bring the family out to the ballpark for some good clean fun this 2006 MLB season.

Over the next several months, I’m going to go back and take a look at the career of the greatest Philadelphia Phillie ever.  Mike Schmidt is arguably the best third baseman ever with George Brett being a close second. Schmidt was the MVP of the team that won the only World Series in the franchise’s history and he finished his career with more then 1,500 runs and RBIs and hit 548 career homeruns.  His eight homeruns titles are the second most of any player.  Only Babe Ruth had more.

And if you have any Mike Schmidt memories, be sure to leave a comment.  Schmidt also has an upcoming book that I’m sure I’ll check out.

By the end of only half an inning, the Phillies were down 4-0.  Bret Myers calmed down to finish his three innings, but the Phillies never recovered as they droped to 5-3 in spring competition.  Prospect Gio Gonzalez, who will most likely start the season in the minors, was also hit hard in his inning of work.  He gave up three runs on four hits and a walk.   The Phillies take on the Red Sox this afternoon and Cory Lidle will get the start.

This is a nice column on Phillies prospects Chris Coste and Shawn Garrett.

The Phillies are now 5-1 this spring.  I know you can’t put too much stock into early spring games, but in my opinion, winning is better then losing.  Of course if they were losing, I’d be telling you how little these games matter, so it’s all circumstantial.

Ryan Howard hit his third homerun of the spring against the Devi Rays yesterday.  He leads the team in homeruns and RBIs (7) and he’s gone eight for sixteen this spring.  He has only two strikeouts which is impressive by itself.

The two teams square off again this afternoon.  Jon Lieber gets the start for the Phillies and Scott Kazmir throws for the Devil Rays.

After nearly a seven month hiatus, one of the longest running Phillies blog is back in business.  Be sure to stop by and welcome back A Citizen’s Blog.

The Phillies are off to a solid start this spring and they improved to 3-1 on Sunday with a come from behind win over the Astros.  Down 3-1, the Phillies scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra frames, and then they scored a single run in the tenth to put the game away.  Cory Lidle gave up a single in three innings and Robinson Tejada was impressive in 2 2/3 scoreless innings.  Ryan Franklin gets the start tomorrow against the Reds.

There’s a solid story on newcomer Daniel Haigwood on MLB.com.  Haigwood was one of two top notch pitching prospects who came over to the Phillies in the Jim Thome trade.  Gio Gonzalez looks like he’ll be even better although he needs some more seasoning in the minor leagues. 

I was taking a look at the Phillies depth chart at MLB.com, and I was wondering who we should expect to do better this season.  Ryan Howard would be the obvious choice since he’ll be starting the entire season.  Using Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA Cards, I have listed below the starters at each postion along with their 2005 VORP and their 2006 projected VORP (their weighted average).

Catcher – Mike Lieberthal  (2005 VORP – 16.3, 2006 Projected VORP – 12.0)

First Base – Ryan Howard  (2005 VORP – 23.5, 2006 Projected VORP - 47.1)

Second Base – Chase Utley  (2005 VORP – 54.9, 2006 Projected VORP – 34.4)

Shortstop – Jimmy Rollins  (2005 VORP – 42.5, 2006 Projected VORP – 31.3)

Third Base – David Bell  (2005 VORP – -7.5, 2006 Projected VORP – 0.4)

Left Field – Pat Burrell  (2005 VORP – 41.3, 2006 Projected VORP – 19.9)

Center Field – Aaron Rowand  (2005 VORP – 14.7, 2006 Projected VORP - 17.8)

Right Field – Bobby Abreu   (2005 VORP – 47, 2006 Projected VORP – 34.3)

Baseball Prospectus expects some big things from Ryan Howard.  On the cover of their book, they even speculate that Howard could have 50 homerun potential.  He has the biggest spike up, but it’s also because his at bats at the major league level will be going up as well.  They seem to think Pat Burrell will come back down to earth after a resurgence last year.  And they don’t think Chase Utley will match the impressive season he had in 2005.

Probably the most troubling is Bobby Abreau.  While his 2005 season was in line with his 2003 season, it was down quite a bit from an awesome 2004 campaign.  Not only does BP expect Abreau to decline a little more, but Will Carroll gave him a red light in the Phillies Team Health Report.  Also getting a red light was Mike Lieberthal (not surprising for a catcher).

Last season, the Phillies were fifth in MLB in runs scored.  Unfortunately, they were sixteenth in ERA and I don’t see their pitching being that much better this year.  Whether this Phillies lineup can score like it did last year will be a major factor in the team’s succes.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my slice of the world wide web.  My name is Jason Carver, and despite not living in Phlladelphia for several years, I’ve remained a Phillies fan.  My most distinct Phillies moment was in 1980.  Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson and jumped up to celebrate the franchise’s first (and unfortunately only) World Series win.  I was nine at the time and I remember celebrating with my dad.

Just to give the story on how this blog started out.  I have an interest in the business of the sport.  One of my weekly reads is the Hardball Times and last year they started running a Business of Baseball Report.  I got talking to the author, Brian Borawski, who also writes on his own site, Tigerblog and when he told me he was putting together an informal network of sites with a historical slant, I became very interested in getting on board.  So he helped me design this site, and here I am.

So throughout the season, I’ll be keeping track of the 2006 Phillies, but I’ll also be going back and looking at some teams and players from the past.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.  And I’ll have the comments section open so feel free to pipe in (or correct me) whenever you want.

I also hope to meet some of the other Phillies bloggers.  I linked to a few that are still posting regularly and all of them are great reads.  If I missed you, it’s not because I don’t like you.  It’s because I just haven’t found your site yet.

The Phillies are off to a good start this spring.  They’ve beaten the Yankees twice.  I know spring games, especially early spring games, don’t mean very much, but winning is better then losing.