Phils Coast Into Second Place

It seems hard to believe with the 3-7 road trip that the Phillies just came back from but it's true. The Phillies are now in second place in the NL East, with a nice victory last night. Cliff Lee earned his 9th win of the year, and he said he wanted to be on a 'winning team', now the Phillies appear to be back up on the bright side of things with two wins in a row over the ailing Washington Nationals. The Phils now have a chance at a sweep tonight over the Nats, to start this homestand off really nicely.

Should there be a cause for excitement? Well not now anyway, as the Atlanta Braves have 7 game lead over the Phillies and Nationals now and a quick look at the Wild Card standings as of today would still have the Phillies finishing 7.5 GB from a Wild Card spot. It's way too early to think playoffs, but that is a snapshot of where the Phils are in the thick of things. They aren't still in any great position, but the wins have been a move in the right direction.

Commanding the East

The Phils have had an 18-9 record against the NL East this year, and that good news is offset by the not so good news of being 7-14 against the NL Central.  The Phillies are 5-5 against the NL West so far this season.

Werthy of Praise?

The return of the Nationals brought an old friend of the Phillies back to town in former Phils player, Jayson Werth. Werth received a round of boos from the fans, and it's not all that undeserved from him seeing all of the things that he's been saying about his old team and especially 'the fans.' He's earned a tag usually reserved for players like Scott Rolen and some other players that just went out of their way to comment in such a way to earn them a distinction of persona non grata at the Phillies ballpark. 

Phillies fans have shelved the happier times with Werth on the team as a Phillie, and have put him in the 'enemy' status.

What has Werth done since leaving the Phillies? Here's his stats so far with the Nats as he is in the third year of his $126 Million dollar contract and his stats with his last year with the Phillies in 2010:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SO	BA
2010	31	PHI	NL	156	554	106	46	2	27	85	147	.296
2011	32	WSN	NL	150	561	69	26	1	20	58	160	.232
2012	33	WSN	NL	81	300	42	21	3	5	31	57	.300
2013	34	WSN	NL	39	145	21	4	0	6	16	34	.262
11 Yrs				1045	3525	565	189	19	151	511	978	.267
162 Game Avg.				162	546	88	29	3	23	79	152	.267
PHI (4 yrs)				543	1798	320	99	9	95	300	495	.282
WSN (3 yrs)				270	1006	132	51	4	31	105	251	.256
LAD (2 yrs)				191	627	102	33	5	23	90	199	.247
TOR (2 yrs)				41	94	11	6	1	2	16	33	.234
NL (9 yrs)				1004	3431	554	183	18	149	495	945	.268
AL (2 yrs)				41	94	11	6	1	2	16	33	.234

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2013.

The chart says a lot of things, Werth had his best years in Philadelphia and he has a World Series ring to show for it. Injury has forced him to sit the bench at lot in Washington last year, he missed half the season, but his numbers have been nowhere as good as they were in Philadelphia. Werth got the same contract as Ryan Howard got the from the Phillies at $126M but Werth's contract had six years on it, and Howard's extension was for 5 years. These two contracts finished worst and second to worst in an article on the worst baseball contracts ever recently in the Huffington Post.

Here is the players that Werth matches up with as of now in his MLB career: thanks to Baseball-Reference

Rain may force cancellation of game 2 with Nats series

As of 3:15pm, the rain clouds are looking ominous in the Philadelphia area, and may drop enough rain in the next few hours to force a postponement of Game 2 of the Phillies / Nats series.

The Phils pulled out a lucky win last night, a rare blown save and win by Jonathan Papelbon, but more importantly a step closer to the Washington Nationals in the standings.

The Phillies, as bad as they have been playing lately, may not be all that bad if they can turn things around and start stringing together wins.

The Phils are now just 1 GB from the Nationals in the standings, and the two teams play each other many more times this year.

What's so interesting about this Phillies team is that they just won't stop, despite all of the obstacles that appear to at times leave them unable to get a hit against mediocre pitchers. Add that to the games that the Phillies offense have stranded their starting pitchers on the mound without being able to score, and if the Phillies do make it to the playoffs this year, it may rival the 1993 team in all of the weird things that have been going in this season.

Game 2 is on tap tonight, it's Cliff Lee (8-2) on the mound for the Phils tonight, weather permitting.

Despite poor play, the Phillies are not out of it yet

The Phillies are not helping themselves when it comes to winning ballgames this year, despite how poorly at times this team has played, the team is still really not out of it for the season. The Phils are now 4 games under .500 and a solid 8.5 GB in the standings from the Atlanta Braves.

Things are starting to look like something good might start happening for the Phils, John Lannan is back tonight to start against the Nationals, his old team. Chase Utley is in the wings for a return soon, and so is Carlos Ruiz (he just made a rehab start in the minors).

The players on the Phillies currently just can't get runners home, the team is getting some hits, but there is very little to rally on when you can't score runs. The Phils are currently 24th of 30 teams when it comes to runs this year so far. They are also 21st out of 30 teams for on base percentage.

We're about a month away from the All Star Game, and other than Domonic Brown, I can't really think of another player on the team that should go to the All Star Game besides Brown and Cliff Lee.

More importantly, the trade deadline is also coming up really fast and the Phillies aren't exactly cruising in the driver's seat for a good playoff chance, so it will be interesting to see what the Phils try to do now with a lot of the aging stars that they might like to offer in trade, not healthy currently.

Problems with trading in the past few years is that we haven't gotten a good player in return for the team. Last year's moves were baffling, trade Hunter Pence, who at the time led all of the Phillies offensive categories in great numbers, and trade Shane Victorino who had been a great center fielder for the team. It may have all been for money that they traded both players but who did we get in return?

The season carries on tonight at home in Philly, it's the 2nd place Nationals in for 3 games and then the Mets in for the next 3 games on the homestand. This is where the Phillies have to improve, at home. The Phils are 16-15 at home so far this season.

Here are the pitching matchups for the Nats Series:

Mon. - LH John Lannan (0-1, 6.14) vs. RH Dan Haren (4-8, 5.70)

Tues. - LH Cliff Lee (8-2, 2.55) vs. LH Ross Detwiler (2-4, 3.02)

Wednes. - RH Kyle Kendrick (6-4, 3.76) vs. LH Gio Gonzalez (3-3, 3.40)

Phils may be inconsistent, but near the top in Web Gems so far

The 30 MLB teams ranked 1-30 in @BBTN Web Gems this season. Check out where your team ranks... pic.twitter.com/AVExYQu6sO
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 15, 2013

The Phillies may be very inconsistent this year, especially with their play on this road trip. The good news though is that the Phillies are near the top of a certain category known as a 'Web Gem'. This stat is kept by ESPN, and the Phillies are just under the Kansas City Royals in total number of great plays that have been featured on ESPN this season.

Check out some video from the win, a clutch Phillies comeback win on Friday night June 14, but the next day which was Saturday afternoon, they lost 10-5 vs. the Rockies at Coors Field and continued their up and down season.

Certain plays explain problems with Phillies so far

Young scooted around Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, but was out 

There were a couple plays from last night's game that stood out in my mind on why the Phillies are not doing too well this season. Yes, they did get the win last night by a score of 3-2, but the game last night shed some light on what is wrong with this year's team.

There was a close play at first base last night, it was really important for the Phillies to get this out, and the throw to Ryan Howard at first base appeared to be in time to get the runner, who was called safe. There was no protest from Howard, he just went about his business as if nothing happened on the play. It was so clear that the runner was out and first basemen especially have a knack to know if a throw beats a runner.

If the first baseman doesn't react, then the manager can't react usually. The play, which was very important, just got swept under the Phillies 'dirty carpet' of stuff that happens like this. Charlie Manuel doesn't want to argue a play that his player doesn't even react to so why would he? Ho hum, it's just another play, but they were playing it back 5 times on the TV replay and just no response from Howard, it's like he's in another dimension sometimes.

The other play that struck me was the play at the plate with Michael Young trying to score from second base. There would be a play at the plate on Young's attempt to score, but Young doesn't try to bowl the catcher down and play aggressively, he just tried to scoot around him and tag the base with his outstretched hand. Again, he was out by 6 feet, but sometimes you have to make a stance and try to score by running into the catcher, again an important play with less than stellar effort.

Yes, Young got the game tying hit late in the game, and Ben Revere's hustle against his old team spelled the win for the Phillies last night, but there is not enough of this kind of hustle and extra effort being exuded by this team.

We've seen a lot of these kinds of plays on the Phillies team this year.

The 5-game losing streak is over, and the Phillies stay out on the road to Denver and Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. A gift for the Phillies on this as Troy Tulowitzki injured with a broken rib, they won't have to face him. It's Kyle Kendrick for the Phils tonight.

Who stays and who goes with the Phillies this trade deadline?

MLB players are probably used to getting news that they won't be with a team when it comes to trade deadline time, but often they are the last to know. Rumors fly all the time but for most players, they just try to get their job done on the diamond and let the rest sort out itself.

The Phillies trade deadline could be interesting this year. We may see some players traded to other teams, and some players acquired by the Phils.

Certain players names are coming up more than others recently. Jonathan Papelbon is one name that keeps coming up in trade deal rumors. We'll have to wait till any deal is done though because right now that is all it is, speculation.

If the Phillies traded a pitcher like Papelbon, they would have to have someone in to take his place. Right now, there is no one on the Phillies roster that would be able to be the closer. Lately, Charlie Manuel has been using Antonio Bastardo an awful lot in a late innings pitching role. Could the Phillies brass possibly think he could handle the role? Hopefully not, because the results probably wouldn't be that good.

A pitcher that seems to be making his way to the club is Carlos Zambrano, and that isn't too good either. Zambrano has been trouble for every team that he's played for, and isn't a solution to what the Phillies need right now. Trading any current starter for a replacement in Zambrano would be a mistake, perhaps inserting him into the lineup for one of the two Phillies younger pitchers may be ok for the moment. Hamels and Lee should be players that are untouchable.  I don't think you go out and trade your best pitcher as of now on the staff and that is Cliff Lee.

What the Phillies need in player staff is the same as they needed at the end of last year. A couple of solid fielders that can hit, they found one for the moment in Domonic Brown, but anyone else is tenuous.

The other need is relief pitching, the Phillies relievers haven't been good at all.  You could start there and completely revamp it, with some changes it may become better.

Aging veterans with big salaries could be hard to find a willing team, the Phillies seem to have plenty of that catagory on the team now.

We'll have a month speculation to go, so it could be a worrisome time for the players who may be on their way out. Or if they look at it in another light, it may be the best thing that will happen to them this season.

Can the Phillies turn it around before the All Star Break?

Phillies announcer, Tom McCarthy, said it right last night after the game when the Phillies (31-34) lost to the Minnesota Twins (28-33), "June has been a horrible month for the Phillies."

The month of June was starting to look promising, for a while, with the Phillies rolling up a 5-game win streak that started June 2nd, and ended on the 6th of June. So it hasn't been all bad news, but the Phils now find themselves in a 4-game losing streak and the reasons why are pretty simple.

The middle relief pitching for the Phillies has been horrible. The tandem of Mike Adams, who was supposed to plug a bad hole in the bullpen for late relief, and Jeremy Horst, who has a 5.55 ERA in 26 games so far as a relief pitcher.

Mike Adams now has a 1-4 record on the season, with the loss last night. In 21.1 IP, Adams has a 4.22 ERA. Throw Antonio Bastardo into the mix, he's walked 14 batters in 27 games, and and has allowed 19 H in the process. This all adds up to throwing close games away when the Phillies are ahead.

In 2012, the Phillies middle relief consisted of Bastardo, Schwimer, and Qualls for a large part of the season, among others, and they couldn't get the job done either.

This season it's kind of the same story as far as the team not doing too well, when the Phillies need good relief, they almost never get it. When the Phillies really need batting, they just can't hit the ball. When the Phillies do well with hitting, they get beat up with pitching. That has been the problem lately.

In the next couple weeks, we'll be hearing about whether or not the Phillies should be buyers or sellers when the trade deadline comes around. Last year, the Phillies dumped two good players in Victorino and Pence, but really got next to nothing for them to make the Phillies better. This year, hopefullly things change. Ruben Amaro can make a deal of two, but at least make a good deal. Don't deal off a pitcher like Cliff Lee and give us Carlos Zambrano. If that kind of move happens, I think you'll see a mass exodus of Phillies fans. The kind of moves that have been made in the last 12 months by the Phillies for the most part don't make any sense. Delmon Young, Ben Revere, and Carlos Zambrano all on the Phillies? If you told me this 18 months ago, I would have thought you were crazy, but maybe the fans are for allowing these kinds of moves to happen with this team that was one of the few elite teams in the league.

Revere not the center fielder that will take the Phillies to playoffs

You can't help not liking Ben Revere, he's a guy with a smile on his face when the chips are down. For the Phillies unfortunately, the chips are down. The team's recent 5-game win streak now has turned into a 3-game losing streak. As good as this team looks for brief periods, the opposite is true just a couple games later.

For the Twins last year, Ben Revere was more consistent, and helped that team out a whole lot better than what he has been able to do here in Philadelphia in 2013. Last year, in 511 AB, Revere held a .294 BA for the season, he has been no where near that number with the Phillies, and though he has raised his average up to .244 now, he's just not a contributor to the Phillies offense.

Revere is particularly prone to grounding into double plays as a Phillies player, in all of 2012 with the Twins, Ben had 8 GIDP on the season, with the Phillies so far in 58 games he has already hit that mark, with better than half the season to go.

This season Revere has had many opportunities to drive in some runs but has only been able to get 6 RBI on the season, or 1 RBI for every 32.2 AB so far this year. He's a player that we knew coming into the season that wasn't adept in hitting home runs, he still doesn't have a home run in his baseball career, and a lot of the time, seems to struggle in just hitting the ball out of the infield.

The type of player that Revere is would be a nice edition to a rebuilding club somewhere in Miami or maybe Houston but not the kind of center fielder that the Phillies need. Revere is arbitration eligible after this season as well, is there anyway a player can be paid less than the minimum when he doesn't produce?

Revere can make some great runs and track down the ball in the outfield that is true. His offense though is not on par with a type of player that the Phillies need, right now they need someone that could drive in some runs, and not struggle to do it. A home run here and there would help as well.

The Phils shouldn't be big sellers at the trade deadline, but their choice of deals should be wiser than it has been. The Phillies GM, Ruben Amaro, went from signing players that he probably shouldn't have for mega-million dollar deals to looking at bargain thrift store pickups and expecting them to produce gold when in fact it's the team now that ends up looking like a fool.

Revere's career numbers so far:

Year	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	SO	BA
2010	MIN	AL	13	28	1	5	0	0	0	2	0	5	.179
2011	MIN	AL	117	450	56	120	9	5	0	30	34	41	.267
2012	MIN	AL	124	511	70	150	13	6	0	32	40	54	.294
2013	PHI	NL	58	193	20	47	4	1	0	6	14	25	.244
4 Yrs			312	1182	147	322	26	12	0	70	88	125	.272
162 Game Avg.			162	614	76	167	14	6	0	36	46	65	.272
MIN (3 yrs)			254	989	127	275	22	11	0	64	74	100	.278
PHI (1 yr)			58	193	20	47	4	1	0	6	14	25	.244
AL (3 yrs)			254	989	127	275	22	11	0	64	74	100	.278
NL (1 yr)			58	193	20	47	4	1	0	6	14	25	.244

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/10/2013.

Phillies A Mediocre Investment At Betting Window

It's been an up and down year for the Philadelphia Phillies that has left them with a record right around .500 through the first week of June. They've been an enigma for not only their fans but for professional baseball bettors in Las Vegas. It's hard to figure which way this team is going in the standings and at the betting windows they've also been 'treading water' accumulating small losses overall and in most situations.

Through the games of June 10, 2013 the Phillies have lost -6.15 units overall—not great but far from the worst 'profit/loss' performance in Major League Baseball. To put this into context, there are six teams in the MLB that have lost double digit units in the 2013 season. Furthermore, the Phillies aren't alone in losing money among NL Central teams as the Atlanta Braves are the only team in the division that has turned a profit.

Philadelphia has been a marginally better betting investment on the road than at home. Away from Citizens Bank Park the Phillies have lost -2.9 units compared to -3.25 units at home. Their performance against lefthanders (-2.15 units) is slightly better than their performance against right handers (-4.0 units) but once again nothing that is particularly significant. This is the same thing you'll find in most of the Phillies situational performance breakdowns—small losses across the board.

Baseball bettors focus closely on starting pitchers and it's no secret to Phillies fans that the usually dependable Cole Hamels is having a disastrous season with a 2-9 record and a 4.56 ERA. He's been an even bigger disappointment from a sports betting standpoint with the Phillies losing 11 of his 13 starts for a whopping -12.9 unit loss. Hamels has the dubious distinction of having lost more money than any other starter in Major League Baseball and one of only two hurlers to have posted double digit losses so far in 2013 (Joe Blanton of the Los Angeles Angels is the other at -11.7 units).

Tyler Cloyd is the only other Phillies starter that hasn't been a profitable investment in the 2013 season though he's lost less than a unit (-0.8 units). The rest of the Phillies starting rotation: Cliff Lee (+1.6 units), Kyle Kendrick (+3.5 units) and Jonathan Pettibone (+5.25 units). Roy Halladay lost -4.1 units before he headed to the disabled list.

The next week could be crucial for the Phillies' season as they continue a 10 game road trip after having lost 3 of 4 in Milwaukee. They'll travel to Minnesota and Colorado for their next six games and they're definitely 'winnable' contests. Minnesota is under .500 at home and Colorado isn't as dominant as Coors Field as in years' past. You can be sure that baseball bettors will also have their eye on the Phillies looking for value betting opportunities.