Washington Nationals know a thing or two about low run support

The Phils take on Bryce Harper and the Washington Nationals this weekend

The Phillies haven't been the only team bitten by extremely low run support this season.

The Nats just returned to Washington from a 4-6 West Coast road trip to play the Phillies this weekend. We've all known about the Phillies inability to score well with Cole Hamels on the mound this season, the Phils have a Runs Scored average of 2.80 when Cole is on the mound, which is tied for 9th on the MLB. The Washington Nationals have been scoring worse for Stephen Strasburg, they've only been able to support Strasburg with 2.60 run support on average per start, which is tied for 5th worst in the majors.

Both Cole Hamels and Stephen Strasburg will face each other as they are starting Sunday's game in DC.

The Nats have been floating back to earth kind of quickly lately, they are only 1 game above .500 as we start this weekend series, and the Phillies can suddenly help themselves really nicely should they do really well in this series.

The Washington Nationals are only 1 game above the Phillies, and the Atlanta Braves still have a nice 4 1/2 game lead on the Nationals. So it will be good to do well in this series, the Phillies could find themselves in 2nd place after the weekend.

The Nationals have a terrible team batting average, they are 29th out of 30 teams in the majors, the Phillies though are above them with the 16th spot in the majors in relationship to team BA.

Kyle Kendrick and Jordan Zimmermann face off in this first game of the Phillies / Nationals series down in Washington D.C.

Home Run Hitters

The league leader in home runs is now Chris Davis with the Baltimore Orioles with 15, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Upton both have 14 in second place. Ryan Howard has not found his swing yet this year, he is stalled at 6 HR, even 40 year old Raul Ibanez has more home runs for Seattle with 8 so far this year

The DL is filling up with Phillies

The DL is home to three good players on the team now:

Roy Halladay is out until late summer at the earliest.

Carlos Ruiz is out for a few more weeks.

Chase Utley just went on the DL, he could be out two weeks.

Howard starts to ignite that 'old Ryan' last night

Ryan has slipped from his pedestal in Philly sports

Ryan Howard hasn't set the world on fire this season, yet. He started to make some noise last night though as the Phillies thumped the Miami Marlins behind Howards 3 H and 3 RBI last night.

Philly.com declared Ryan Howard's contract to be one of the worst mistakes in baseball today, as the long standing love affair that the press in Philadelphia has had with Howard appears to be coming to an end.

Howard has been an MLB player now for 10 seasons including this year. We haven't seen that talent in him that he had in his late 20's however, and it seems since he has signed that $125M extension from the Phillies, that he isn't the same player that he used to be at all. Maybe he's found his pot of gold and now doesn't care much about yearning to climb to greatness.

In 2008, Howard played in all 162 regular season games for the Phillies and smacked 48 HR, his efforts were a big reason the Phillies got where they went in 2008 which of course is when the won a World Championship.

It's been a series of bad events for Howard, he only played 71 games for the Phils in 2012, and then lamely announced he dropped a bat weight on his foot towards the end of the season and was done for the season. It may have been a good thing, in 71 games last year, he struck out 99 times, he ended up with 14 HR. What happened to that 'old Ryan' that wanted to win at any cost. Did he join that 'country club' mentality that he has it made and it doesn't matter anymore?

It seemed like he was trying to push his game to new areas with getting more hits for a while, then that seemed to fizzle, whatever the case, it's a lot of this type of play (poor) that has made the Phillies a mediocre team. Howard is bubbling under now, he has 6 HR and 25 RBI, not exactly great numbers for a guy like Howard. He is kind of a streaky player though, he can start to put some more numbers on the board and that's what the Phillies need him to do for the team. Maybe it started last night, maybe he's out of that funk that he's been in, we'll have to see.

Lee explains getting picked off, but why was he there in the first place

The Phillies won on Sunday afternoon in dramatic style, when Eric Kratz and Freddie Galvis went back-to-back but what happened in the middle of all of this is that the Phillies had a runner at first base. It was supposed to be Delmon Young, but for some odd reason, Charlie Manuel chose to put a pinch runner in and it was no one other than Cliff Lee.

Not known for his baserunning prowess, Lee should have been one of the last choices to use as a pinch runner but maybe Charlie thought this game was going to go 15 innings or something?

Delmon Young is back off the disabled list, but Manuel is treating him as if he is a cripple or something. It was one of the strangest moves Charlie has made in a long time, but I don't think Lee should have been blamed by getting picked off, just as you wouldn't throw a pitcher out there as a pinch hitter.

Charlie blundered this terribly, ended up laughing about it all, as it ended up as a victory for the Phillies.

It was the first time ever that Aroldis Chapman gave up back-to-back home runs in his career.

Phils win Sunday but lose two players to MRI

The great news is that the Phillies came back in dramatic style on Sunday to beat the Reds and take the 3 game series with them behind back-to-back home runs. It's always better when you win, and the Phillies celebrated like there was no tomorrow at home plate with the victory.

Now Carlos Ruiz, who injured himself running the bases during the game, and Ryan Howard, who says his knee is 'sore' will undergo an MRI on Monday to see what is going on.

This all happens as Roy Halladay is sidelined for many weeks until late in the season at the earliest.

The Phils have been on their .500 trek for a long time, even going 5-5 in their last 10 but they can't seem to string a long winning streak together to turn the corner of the mediocrity.

The Phillies go out on the road for 8 games that culminate on Memorial Day in Boston and then they play Boston on Tuesday the 28th before returning home and facing the same Boston Red Sox at home in Philadelphia for two games on Wednesday and Thursday night, the 30th of May.

The Phils haven't slipped out of this race yet in the middle of May as they are 4.5 games out of first, but the future looks extremely cloudy for the next month or so with the possible injuries to Ruiz and Howard possibly being out for a few games.

For now though, it's on to Miami for the Phils for a three game series that starts on Monday night with Cole Hamels will seek win number 2 of the season for the Phils. His season hasn't been the one he has probably imagined, but he can start turning that around with a couple of wins.

Phillies pitching: What is going wrong?

The Phillies haven't been exactly setting the world on fire with the starting pitching this year, and let's look at some of the reasons why.

First we'll check out a list of the best pitcher's in the MLB, and the numbers that they have put up.

 It's Clayton Kershaw leading the way so far with a 1.40 ERA in 64.1 IP, and his 4-2 record. He's given up 4 HR and has 67 SO. Closely following Kershaw is Shelby Miller from the St. Louis Cardinals.

We have a top 15th finisher so far, in a surprise, it's Kyle Kendrick sporting the 15th best ERA in the MLB at 2.47 with is 4-1 record, I think at this time, he has to be a frontrunner for an appearance in an All Star game.

What are the rest of the Phillies doing? Let's look at the snapshot that I took tonight of Phillies pitching:

We all know about Roy Halladay, and his troubles. We knew something was wrong, and Halladay could no longer hide what was happening to him. In 7 games, he was in a word, awful. 2-4 with 9 HR and 33 ER later, Halladay is out for probably most of the year at 8.65 ERA. We may never see him again in a Phillies uniform on the mound, it would be a terrible way for him to end his Phillies career, but it just may happen like that.

Cole Hamels got his 6th loss the other night, he's hasn't been too good, sporting a 4.61 ERA and suddenly the talk is starting, 'is Cole Hamels injured too?" He has an incredible 24 BB so far and has given up 9 HR, which is the same as Halladay.

Cliff Lee has been having a respectable year so far in comparison, he is 4-2 with a 2.86 ERA only issuing 9 BB but has surrendered a team high 52 H already to opponents.

Jonathan Pettibone has been a bright spot and of course Kyle Kendrick have been the bright spots for the Phillies in a definite surprise for all of the fans of the team.

What is the problem with this team? Look at this pitching and the hitting that we've seen so far from the offense and it's hard to believe that they are almost a .500 team. Just think they could be doing with only a little bit more success from both pitching and offense.

It's the Cincinnati Reds in for the weekend series, those Phillies bats better start waking up or we're going to be seeing some serious shake ups on this team by the All Star break. Then we may be asking, did the Phillies wait too late to try to retool this team that isn't working. We'll see what happens next.

Phillies and Zambrano? now I know this franchise is in trouble

Zambrano from last year with the Marlins vs the Phils

The Phillies seemed to make all of the right moves a few years ago, fast forward to now though and the deals that Ruben Amaro Jr is making don't make a whole lot of sense.

Take two moves that happened near the trade deadline last year. The Phillies traded Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence away for virtually nothing. Two players that really make an impact on a team. I know a team can't 'afford' to keep them with the contracts that these ballplayers are making now, but I question how we didn't get anyone in return from them that was worth or close to what they were worth.

The news today just got more bizarre, the Phillies inked Carlos Zambrano to a minor league deal? The guy is plain and simply a bad apple, he doesn't mix in well with others and he's all about 'me.' Not the kind of player the Phillies need at any cost. Did you see any other team that wanted to even entertain the services of Zambrano? No, and for good reason.

The moves the Phillies are making now are kind of stupid, and we deserve better.


Carlos Zambrano's numbers:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	GS	Awards
2001	20	CHC	NL	1	2	.333	15.26	1
2002	21	CHC	NL	4	8	.333	3.66	16
2003	22	CHC	NL	13	11	.542	3.11	32
2004	23	CHC	NL	16	8	.667	2.75	31	AS,CYA-5,MVP-28
2005	24	CHC	NL	14	6	.700	3.26	33
2006	25	CHC	NL	16	7	.696	3.41	33	AS,CYA-5,SS
2007	26	CHC	NL	18	13	.581	3.95	34	CYA-5
2008	27	CHC	NL	14	6	.700	3.91	30	AS,SS
2009	28	CHC	NL	9	7	.563	3.77	28	SS
2010	29	CHC	NL	11	6	.647	3.33	20
2011	30	CHC	NL	9	7	.563	4.82	24
2012	31	MIA	NL	7	10	.412	4.49	20
12 Yrs				132	91	.592	3.66	302
162 Game Avg.				14	9	.592	3.66	31
CHC (11 yrs)				125	81	.607	3.60	282
MIA (1 yr)				7	10	.412	4.49	20

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2013.

Pettibone gets win 3 on season, Phils near .500

Jonathan Pettibone has been a diamond in the rough for the Phillies so far this year, Pettibone was called up for John Lannan when he suffered an injury. Jonathan is now 3-0 in his first 5 starts to his Major League career. The Phillies have ended up winning 4 out of the 5 starts that Pettibone has started in as well.

Sometimes if you're good when you are called up from the minors, the scouting reports aren't all in on a pitcher, and these better pitchers can have a lot of success just based on Major League teams not knowing too much about how a young pitcher delivers his pitches. For others, they keep their success and become great major league pitchers, and it will be interesting to see a few more starts from Pettibone especially given the fact that Doc Halladay will be out most of the season, if not all of it.

Pettibone's wins so far have come with a combined 17 K's in all 5 starts, so he isn't exactly mowing down teams with strikeouts. Jonathan's ERA is a 3.41 which is below the league's average for starting pitchers.

Brown starting to show his Spring talents

Domonic Brown is starting to display a little of the greatness that he showed in Spring Training this year, he now has tied Chase Utley in home runs for the Phillies with 7. Ryan Howard is still lurking on the Phillies offense with 6 HR and 22 RBI on the season.

The Phillies have been very patient with Dom Brown, and early in the year in a locker room interview he made a comment that kind of didn't sit too well with some fans, that the Phillies can either 'play me ' or trade me, and it didn't seem too much of a difference to him what it was.

Utley's complaint of booing in the home confines

 It's a long running tradition with some passionate Philly fans of baseball, when the Phillies don't do well, these fans start to get their emotions out and boo, yes, the Phillies did deserve to get booed the last time they played at Citizens Bank Park, they were lackluster and deserved to get motivated.

Chase Utley made mention of the booing in San Francisco out there when speaking about how great the fans were out there in the city by the bay. 

Sorry, but this is Philly and when ballplayers are making millions of dollars to play a game, and don't do well at all, these players are going to hear it. The ticket fan base are a lot of blue collar workers, not corporate types that fill the seats in other stadiums. 

Hamels is looking for win number 2 this afternoon

  Afternoon baseball today at CBP in South Philly, a businessperson's special is that they call it. Cole Hamels in on the mound for the Phils and he is looking for win number 2 on the season, he is at 1-5.

 Cole's starts so far:

Rk	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	SO	HR	ERA
1	Apr 1	PHI	@	ATL	L,5-7	GS-5	L(0-1)	5.0	7	5	5	5	3	9.00
2	Apr 7	PHI		KCR	L,8-9	GS-6	L(0-2)	5.2	9	8	8	2	1	10.97
3	Apr 13	PHI	@	MIA	L,1-2	GS-6		6.0	3	1	1	5	0	7.56
4	Apr 18	PHI		STL	L,3-4	GS-7		7.0	5	3	3	8	0	6.46
5	Apr 23	PHI		PIT	L,0-2	GS-8	L(0-3)	8.0	7	2	2	6	1	5.40
6	Apr 28	PHI	@	NYM	W,5-1	GS-6	W(1-3)	6.0	2	1	1	8	0	4.78
May		Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	SO	HR	ERA
7	May 4	PHI		MIA	L,0-2	GS-8	L(1-4)	8.0	4	2	2	6	2	4.34
8	May 9	PHI	@	ARI	L,1-2	GS-6	L(1-5)	6.0	6	2	2	3	0	4.18
		PHI						51.2	43	24	24	43	7	4.18

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2013.

  

Monday Bookshelf: The Philly Fan's Code by Mike Tanier

It's the story you've been wanting to read. The Philly Fan's Code by Mike Tanier, is a book that I really liked reading. The book came out in the Fall of 2011, but if you haven't checked this book out yet, it's getting to be the season when you may be down at the shore, and need a good book to keep you company on the beach. This is a good book to do just that.

In this book, Mike writes about the 50 toughest, craziest, and most legendary athletes on Philadelphia team in the past 50 years, so there is a lot of players that we can relate to. Give it a read, there may be some players in the book you haven't heard about for some time now.

Mike Tanier covers football, baseball, and the wacky side of sports for the New York Times among other writing endeavours.

The Phillies are off today, getting ready for the Indians on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Buy the book here

Phils depart Arizona with Mom's Day Win

The Phillies Phestival is on Thursday - a really fun time for charity!

It looked as if the Phillies road trip wouldn't be all that successful as the Phillies were down by two runs late in the game in Arizona on Sunday afternoon. All of that changed though as Chase Utley electrified the Phillies offense in the ninth inning and sparked a rally that saw the team come back and win in the 10th inning.

Ryan Howard had a terrible road trip in Arizona, he was zero for 16 at the plate, and then on his 17th at-bat in the series he got the game-winning hit to lead the Phillies to victory on Mother's Day. It was the first hit that Howard had all in all four games against the Diamondbacks. That always makes the long trip back home to Philadelphia extra nice when the Phillies win.

The Phillies offense has mirrored Howard's efforts so far, the Phillies offense is near the bottom of the entire league in every offensive category that there is on batting. The team is 25th overall in Runs at 134, 26th in On Base Percentage, and 23rd in Batting Average.

The Phillies aren't the only team in the major leagues that aren't doing too well with a high payroll, throw the Anaheim Angels in and the Toronto Blue Jays into the same category as the Phillies when it comes to payroll and how good their teams are doing in each division.

The Phillies are 5-5 in their last 10 games, and the road trip in San Francisco and then Arizona, had them with a 4-3 record for the road trip. It was important for them to somehow leave Arizona with a victory and they did.

The Phillies have an off day on Monday, and then take on the Cleveland Indians for a brief two-game series in Philadelphia. Then the Cincinnati Reds arrive in Philly on Friday for a weekend series which includes a Saturday afternoon Fox TV appearance on the 18th of May at 4:05 PM.

After next weekend, the Phillies depart on another road trip that spans eight games and leads them into the Memorial Day weekend, when they will be finishing up a weekend series with Washington on Sunday and then playing in Boston on Monday, Memorial Day 2013.

Phils rally in SF, can't sweep - onto Arizona

 The Phillies had some fight in them in SF

The Phillies stormed back in yesterday's game with the San Francisco Giants, it looked as if it were in the cards that they would sweep the Giants. It was not to be however, as the Phils dropped the third game of the series and showed they have some fight in them.


 The Phils came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game in the 9th but lost in extra innings.



  It's onto Arizona now for the Phillies in their first trip there of the season and the only trip there this season for 4 games starting tonight and going through the weekend till Sunday. The Dbacks (19-15) are coming off a win against the Dodgers. It's Cole Hamels going for the Phils against the 4-0 Patrick Corbin out in Arizona in game 1 of the series.


  If you like a great baseball story, check out Zack Hample's blog as he travels around all of the Major League ballparks this year collecting baseballs! He's a ballhawk, and we've had him on the Phillies Talk Podcast before, check out his travels here:  http://zackhample.mlblogs.com/



 Roy Halladay update- By now you've probably heard or read that Roy Halladay needs surgery to fix some of his shoulder problems, here's Roy to tell us about it: