2011 Philadelphia Phillies Season Thread (choking awful pos team, DIAF)

[ice grillin you]

again no one but ignorant youngins care what mike stutes does in june

its so funny how you say playing .500 ball for the last month doesnt matter but mike stutes and antonio basticho pitching well means everything

its a joke

ok so since stutes and basticho are young, inexperienced, unproven players therefore they well most likely fail in the playoffs

or because they dont have loads of playoff games under their belt im supposed to soil my underoos with the thought of them pitching the seventh inning of a 1-run playoff game against the cardinals.

k.

again if youre gonna puss out then get out. im a man i can take a loss without crying. if they lose it wont kill me but im not gonna sit there and wait for it to happen. dont be scared of nothin.

no one said they would fail...im on record as saying i am cautiously optomistic about madson at closer and i love stutes and basticho as young pen arms...but its a farging obvious concern whereas your crew who thinks because the pen has been good in april and may that all is well

if you cant see the difference btwn durbin romero madson and lidge in 08 and stutes basticho contreas and madson in 11 then i dont know what to tell you

[MDS]

08 is probably a little better there on paper but until those guys dont get the job done for a consistent period of time im not really going to worry about it

on top of that you can figure lee, halladay and hamels will get them into the 8th on a regular basis which means you wont need the middle relief guys as much. that 1 game oswalt will start where his black flares up in the 6th would be a different story.

[ice grillin you]

08 is probably a little better there on paper but until those guys dont get the job done for a consistent period of time im not really going to worry about it

on top of that you can figure lee, halladay and hamels will get them into the 8th on a regular basis

yeah why worry about anything they will all just pitch complete games in the playoffs

and lol at 08 being a "little better" -  "on paper"....i dont even know what to say anymore

[Munson]

So IGY is bashing the bullpen because two of the guys towing the line are getting their first real shots at doing it for the whole season, and since we're onyl 2 months into that season, we should be worried?

Pretty sure they've been the best bullpen in baseball this year besides the Rays.


Also, IGY luvs him some W's for pitchers, and continuously bashes the starting rotation as not even the best in it's own division....but they have two guys in the top 5 in wins. And they're the only team with two guys with 8+

[MDS]

08 is probably a little better there on paper but until those guys dont get the job done for a consistent period of time im not really going to worry about it

on top of that you can figure lee, halladay and hamels will get them into the 8th on a regular basis

yeah why worry about anything they will all just pitch complete games in the playoffs

and lol at 08 being a "little better" -  "on paper"....i dont even know what to say anymore

yup never said they would pitch complete games. i said theyd go 7+. which they normally do. so..okay. fun.

and as i recall pre-08 season chad durbin was a failed starter, jc romero was a washed up red sox castoff and brad lidge was damaged goods. but it all worked out, didnt it?

but other than that a very accurate post.

[Rome]

The 2011 Phillies have the EXACT same record (38-26) after 64 games that the 2008 Phillies had.

Just saying...

[Sgt PSN]

The difference though is that at no point before or during the 08 season were the Phils consensus WS favorites.  NL East favorites maybe but it still took a late season surge along with another Mets slump in September for the Phils to win the division and they just got hot and stayed hot through the WS.  It probably helped a little that their opponent in the WS was Tampa and not a savvy, veteran team like Boston or New York.  I don't say that to cheapen it like igy would, but these are still things that you can't dismiss.  The pieces fell into place for that team and they took advantage of it.  Kudos to them for that.  But that team definitely needed things to play out exactly as they did just to have a shot at the title. 

So comparing them to the 08 team at any point in the regular season is just silly.  If anything, the fact that this veteran team with the "deepest" starting rotation is no better through 64 games than the young(er), up and coming team of 2008 makes me a little uneasy.   

That said, this team will still be there in Oct.  But the pitching has to be there and the offense will have to get timely hits. 

[SD]

In regards to how they're playing throughout the season who cares. The goal is to make it to the playoffs, every team has the talent to win the whole thing but the team that rises to the occasion at the right moments is the team that wins it all. Take the Giants of last season or the Phils in '08, nobody thought either team had enough talent to pull it off but both did. The difference for the Phillies that season compared to 08/09 is that they didn't get timely hitting like they did and the Giants did.

[Rome]

I'm just saying that even with the atrocious hitting they've had they're still identically positioned as in 2008.  This is a good baseball team and it has every chance to be great if they start hitting the ball.  I think they will, actually, because there's just too much talent for them not to hit all year long.

I'd still like another piece, though.  Too bad the farm system has no one ready yet especially from the right side.

[MDS]

they dont have the pieces to get another player, or the money, and if not even sure 1 average right handed hitter is going to make a difference

the reason they cant score runs on a consistent basis isnt the fault of any one player. its the sum of the whole, so trading for mike cuddyer and benching ibanez or brown or whatever wont really change anything.

[Rome]

Other than peanut head no one has hit yet.  There's no way that's going to continue all year.  Eventually they'll hit and if the starting pitching stays good this thing might be over by Labor Day.

[MDS]

not sure its going to be that easy but im thinking 1 or 2 people are going to have a problem with that prediction

[Rome]

It's a pie in the sky prediction but it's certainly a possibility.

[Rome]

Freaking raining... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[Rome]

Chase is starting to heat up.  That was a bullet.