Just another game

Tonight was just another game for the Phillies and Roy Halladay.

Yeah, just another game in which the Phanatic danced with Canadian Mounties.

Yeah, just another game in which the Phillies wore their road grays in Citizens Bank Park and pitched in the bottom of the 9th.

Yeah, just another game in which Roy Halladay faced the Blue Jays:

The Phillies righthander will square off against the Toronto Blue Jays, his former team, for the first time tonight at Citizens Bank Park. That's a big deal. He was that rare professional athlete who embedded himself into the community he worked in. His stellar performance on the field coupled with his good deeds away from the pitcher's mound made him a sporting icon in Canada's vibrant metropolis.
[...]
"It will be a regular start," he said.
No, it won't.
"Fortunately I got that out of the way in spring training," he said.
Nice try. Doesn't count.
"It's a little different being an American League team, obviously guys I've seen a lot but haven't really faced a lot. So do your homework and just go out and pitch like it was any other team," he said.
It's not the Mariners or the White Sox or the Rangers. It's the Blue Jays. And that makes all the difference.

Although, Paul Hagen couldn't get him to bite, Roy opened up a bit to his old friends in the Canadian press:

He briefly allowed himself to think about what it would have been like had these games been played in Canada as originally scheduled. "It would have been fun to go back, [but] in terms of from a media standpoint, it's probably just as well the games are here," he told the Toronto Sun on Wednesday.

No matter what he said, he did pitch like this game mattered a little more than a random interleague game. Halladay went seven innings and gave up six hits and one walk with four strikeouts in the 9-0 win.

Just another game.

The Red Sox and Tim Wakefield play really late in San Francisco. Former Phillie Pat Burrell is not starting, but Aaron Rowand is. Rowand kills Wakefield: 12-19 with four home runs and two doubles - that's a .632/.667/1.368 line.

Mr. Congeniality

I don't quite understand the metrics involved, but this Fangraphs post lists the players whose 2009 season was closest to the average for all of baseball.

It's a list no superstar wants to be on, which is why I took some glee for Christine when I read No. 3 - Aaron Rowand. The smugness subsided when I got to No. 2 on the list, former MVP Jimmy Rollins.

I'm sure J-Roll isn't happy with the ranking, but I guess it's better than where he was in July when Jayson Stark picked him as the league's least valuable player.

At least he pulled himself up from dead weight to mediocre. Yeah!

Silver Sluggers: Chase Utley and Jason Bay were honored today for their batsmanship at their respective positions.

Tonight: Assuming there would be no major SoxandPhils news tonight, we attended a preview of Pirate Radio. It rocked. I won the tickets, and a couple of goodies, from a Philadelphia Inquirer contest.

They're golden

And the awards are starting to roll in for the World Champions.

A day after he was named the best-fielding shortstop in baseball by a stats group led by Bill James (Derek Jeter was named the worst), Jimmy Rollins today won his second consecutive Gold Glove award. Shane Victorino was awarded his first Gold Glove. Congratulations to them.

But guess who didn't win an award this year? Why, that would be Aaron Rowand! Man, sucks to be him. Leave a team, and then they win the World Series and retain the award you won last year. I'm glad that players such as J-Roll and Victorino stepped up this year to end all of that nonsensical chatter about the Phillies not having the same fire and drive without Rowand. I think they managed just fine without him.

Personnel move: The Phillies fired third base coach Steve Smith. I agree with this article that Smith's bad base-running decisions fell off the radar as the Phillies started to win and the pennant race heated up. But he definitely made some boneheaded moves, and he wasn't well-liked by the fans. Turns out that Charlie Manuel didn't like him too much either. It was Manuel's decision to fire him.

[Photo credit: Reuters]

A win is a win

The pitching duel between Cole Hamels and Tim Lincecum fizzled today, but we'll take the walk-off 6-5 win for the Phillies over the Giants. And for the first time this season, we weren't shivering in the stands.

At times it looked like the young aces were pitching to expectations, but each got tagged for four runs in six innings. Each had stretches where they struck out five in three innings, but that represented all of their K's in the game. Neither pitcher issued a walk until the fifth. And, truth be told, Lincecum had a better game. All of his runs were unearned, although he didn't help himself with two wild pitches in a two-run fifth.

We have seen lots of extra-inning or walk-off wins from the Phillies through the years, but this might have been the most anti-climatic. Eric Bruntlett and Chase Utley led off the ninth with flyouts. Ryan Howard then drew his third walk of the game (he somehow managed to avoid strikeouts despite ugly swings). Pat Burrell followed with another walk. "Star of the game" Geoff Jenkins grounded to second, which should have sent the game to extra innings, but second baseman Eugenio Velez (never heard of him or 3/4 of the Giants roster) misplayed it, ending the game.


Observations from the stands: Why do people cheer Aaron Rowand? Why aren't they bitter he took a little more money to play for a team that has no chance of winning? And even if you cheer him once, you have to stop by the third game of a series. ... It's odd to be hoping that Howard somehow prolongs an inning so Burrell can bat. ... Before the game, I had a no-hit premonition and was nervous when Hamels set down the first five. ... It was Mother's Day a week early at the park. The Phanatic's mom got flowers; Brett Myers' mom got roses; all other ladies 15 and older got pink visors. Christine doesn't like pink hats. {Worse yet, the name of the sponsor of the day, Mortrin IB, is prominently displayed on the side of the visor.}


When filling out our first all-star ballots of the year, Christine and I negotiated which Phillies I would vote for and which Red Sox she would vote for. When discussing AL third basemen, I said she could choose her own because Mike Lowell hasn't played much and there's no chance Alex Rodriguez won't win it. An usher overheard the conversation but thought we were talking about NL third basemen. "Even though he's a Met, you have to vote for David Wright. He's our Chase Utley," she said. Christine disagrees. {Maybe he is their Chase Utley, but you do not vote for a rival. And whoever is in charge of the music at Citizens Bank: Stop playing that stupid "Everybody clap their hands." Everyone associates that with the Mets and Shea, and I don't want that in my ballpark.}

Finally, based on the amount of harassing I have gotten from stupid Phillies fans this year who don't like seeing a Red Sox fan in their park, Christine isn't looking forward to the June interleague series. I don't get it - except for that friendly mid-season competition, we're friends until the World Series. ... Speaking of which, both teams are in first place.

All-Star voting: National League: C-Carlos Ruiz; 1B-Adrian Gonzalez; 2B-Utley; 3B-Bill Hall; SS-Hanley Ramirez; OF-Burrell, Justin Upton and Shane Victorino. American League: C-Jason Varitek; 1B-Kevin Youkilis; 2B-Dustin Pedroia; 3B-Mike Lowell; SS-Edgar Renteria; OF-Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury (write-in); DH-David Ortiz.

Comforting words

It's still two weeks from Opening Day (only one for the Red Sox), and the Phillies are already pining for the centerfielder toiling away in San Francisco. Charlie Manual, who recently realized his teams start slow, says the team's awful spring training play could be because Aaron Rowand isn't here:

Rowand has been missed. I believe in players policing themselves if they can. Some guys can't police themselves and they actually don't know how. If that's the case, then somebody has to police them.

Great, what's next, blaming the starting pitching problems on the departure of Curt Schilling? (I'm currently listening to WFAN's Ed Randall talk about going to see Starvin' Marvin Freeman's big-league debut.)

{I'm giving Manuel a little bit of credit here. I think he's trying to embarrass the team. The way they have been playing this spring has been embarrassing, and they need to step it up. Someone in this million-dollar clubhouse should be able to fill the role that Rowand played. And let's face it, this is no time to look back fondly on Rowand. He turned down more money per year and a chance to win for a 5-year contract for less money per year playing for the Giants. When someone willingly signs with the Giants, it kinda makes me wonder about his desire to win in the first place.}

Another Phillie, J.D. Durbin, is looking for a light. Maybe his candle got snuffed out in his cooler pants:

I look in the mirror every day. I try to find myself more than anybody, I think. I lost that fire that burns inside me. I still go out there and compete 100 percent, but I don't have that over-the-top, kick-butt, Brett Myers attitude, and I think that's hurting me.

This is just the mindset you want your team to have when it's supposed to build on last year's surprise win. It could be worse. Imagine if the Phillies had drafted Rocco Baldelli, who's injured again, and fans had to watch Chase Utley starring for the Devil Rays:

"The crystal ball is not always real shiny on draft day," said assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle, recalling the 2000 draft. "If Baldelli would have been available, it would really have been a toss-up between him and Utley. It would have been one of those serious draft-morning discussions."

{Luckily, it's all a moot point, and the Phillies ended up with the player they needed. As for Cooler Pants, well, have fun starting the season in AAA. I've rooted for you, despite the hideous MySpace page and photos. And if you don't have that fire to win right now, let someone who does fill that roster space.}

Better news out of Sox camp this morning: Daddy Daisuke Matsuzaka is likely to start in Japan with Jon Lester going in game two. And Josh Beckett throws today.

Baseball Mogul update: Had a relatively quite offseason. Ryan Howard signed for $8 million a year, so I'll keep him and Prince Fielder for awhile. Signed Pat Neshek to bolster the bullpen and Scott Moore to replace Garrett Atkins at third. I couldn't find a taker to dump Atkins, but probably will next offseason. I'm not happy with the 9-13 start, though.

Former Phils in the agate this week

Pitching prospect Gio Gonzalez, who seemed destined to have a career shuffling between Chicago and Philly, is headed to the rebuilding A's in the Nick Swisher trade. And Matt Smith, the most productive piece of the Abreu/Lidle fleece, has been put on waivers.

Gonzalez, originally a White Sox prospect, was traded to the Phils in '05 with Aaron Rowand and Daniel Haigwood for Jim Thome. With Rowand gone to the Giants, the only piece left from this is Fabio Castro, who I still think should have been used more in the past two years. Castro was picked up from the Rangers for Haigwood who last year was released by Texas and picked up and released by the Red Sox. Gonzalez was traded back to the White Sox in the great Freddy Garcia deal last off season.

Getting nothing in trades of superstars is nothing new for the Phils... in 2000 they gave up not-yet World Series hero {gag} Curt Schilling to the D-Backs for Travis Lee, Vincente Padilla, Omar Daal and Nelson Figueroa. (Padilla was the first scrubby Phillie who always seemed to be pitching when we go to a game. That designation then went to Cory Lidle. Last year thankfully we got a good mix).

Then, of course there was the 2002 Scott Rolen deal that also netted a future World Series hero {gag, again}, Mike Timlin, who stayed for half a season. They did get a productive Placido Polanco, but flipped him three years later for Ugueth Urbina, who pitched well for half a season before that little attempted murder thing.

And that brings up the Abreu deal. I'm guess I'm glad it happened. Though the Yankees got a good player, he's overpaid and doesn't help the team regain the mental toughness that's been lacking. But I still think the Phils should have been able to get something for him.

This week, they released Matt Smith, ending his 23 game Phillies career. Also in the deal was minor league SS C.J. Henry, released by the Phils, taken back by the Empire, and P Carlos Monastrios* and C Jesus Sanchez who were both still in A ball last year. Monastrios could still pan out, but you'd like something to be able to point to for Abreu -- even if he was first obtained for Kevin Stocker.

*Correction 9/4/08: Oops. Guess we've had Carlos Monasterios' name spelled wrong for the past eight months. He was still in Clearwater this year.