Phillies offseason cont...

[MDS]

Manuel said he wanted to give Abreu at least 10 days off this year. WRONG IDIOTA.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Good. He needs to keep him healthy. Last year he was hurtin bad in September.

We're going to need him in the stretch run and the playoffs.

Yes, the Phils are going to the playoffs.

[Geowhizzer]

Keep him out of the Home Run Derby.  Maybe Victorino can spell him there.

[PhillyPhreak54]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Go to NY to be with your boy Joey The K, loser.

[PhillyPhreak54]

My boy Crazy Vicente...watch him have a good year too.

[PhillyGirl]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Go to NY to be with your boy Joey The K, loser.

Why exactly are you booing him? *that IS Myers right?*



And I am SO glad Padilla is gone. How could you NOT be?

[PhillyPhreak54]

Nope, that is our old buddy, Rheal "The Crazy Canuck" Cormier.

And I might have been the only Padilla fan in the area. The guy has very, very good stuff.. Last year he pitched pretty good when he finally got healthy. I understand why they let him go though. His arbitration numbers could've paid him upwards of $4.5M. So they traded him to get out from that salary. Franklin cost them $2.6M and they have a logjam at the #5 SP spot (Franklin, Floyd, Tejeda, Brito and the longshot Hamels).

When Padilla is healthy and his head is on straight (cue Wheels' repetitive statements about Padilla and his spaceship) he has devastating stuff.

[PhillyGirl]

LMFAO...tell me that pic doesn't look like Myers in the face? I was thinking maybe he lost some weight, but I guess not. LOL

I LOVED Padilla's stuff. WHEN he was healthy and WHEN his head was on straight.

However, that happened about as many times as I had growth spurts in my lifetime.

[PhillyPhreak54]

It does look like Brett.

[Canadian]Maybe that hoser can pitch like Brett this year, eh?[/Canadian]

Now I need a Molson beer with all this Canaian talk goin on.

[MDS]

Padilla's had 4 years. It was the same inconsistant stuff year after year. He is what he is. There is no changing el Loco, at least on this club.

[Sgt PSN]

The Padilla Flotilla was reason enough to keep him.  You people need culture. 

[PhillyPhreak54]

Rowand: Full tilt into the fence
Phillies new center filder sees a team ready to beat the experts.

By Todd Zolecki
Inquirer Staff Writer

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Chicago White Sox were supposed to be a fourth-place team.

Better than the sad-sack Kansas City Royals, worse than everybody else.

"Same old same old," said Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand, who spent his career with the Sox before they traded him and pitching prospects Gio Gonzalez and Daniel Haigwood to the Phillies in November for Jim Thome and $22 million. "They said we didn't have enough offense. The pitching was pretty solid, but we didn't have enough in the bullpen. It was what it was."

It was dead wrong. John Bolaris-predicting-the-snowstorm-of-the-century wrong. The Sox opened the season 24-7, held off a late-season push by the Cleveland Indians, made the playoffs, swept the Boston Red Sox in the American League division series, beat the Los Angeles Angels in five games in the AL Championship Series, and swept the Houston Astros in the World Series to win their first championship since 1917.

"As a player, you could be picked to finish last," Rowand said. "It's all in your heart what you believe you can do. We had a lot of talent on that team. There are a lot of teams that maybe aren't picked to win the division, but have talent. If everything goes right for them, if you get the bounces every now and then, and you know everybody goes out and concentrates on their job every day, you've got a chance to win every day. As long as you [do], you're going to be OK."

The preseason forecasters are expected to pick the Phillies to finish no better than third in the National League East this season because of a suspect pitching staff and because the Atlanta Braves remain the Braves and the New York Mets loaded up on talent. But Rowand sees a team with the capabilities to surprise a few people, just as the Sox did last season.

Phillies fans aren't nearly as optimistic.

"They finished second here last year. By a game," Rowand said, referring to the wild-card race. "How can you not be excited after the run they put together last year? It's about getting out there and getting going from the start."

It wouldn't surprise the Phillies if Rowand emerged as a clubhouse leader.

First, he has talent. Closer Tom Gordon, who played with Rowand in 2003, said he was one of the best defensive outfielders he had seen. Rowand has a reputation for sacrificing his body to catch a ball.

If he slams into an outfield fence at full speed? Just a job hazard.

"He's nothing to be messed around with," Gordon said. "He was built for football, but he's playing baseball. Not too many guys will hit a wall like him. But somehow, he gets up. I've always seen him play the game hard and the right way."

Rowand also demands much from himself and his teammates, and isn't afraid to speak his mind. Last season, while the Sox were finishing April at 17-7, the Phillies were stumbling along at 10-14. Throughout the Phillies clubhouse, players talked about the season's being a marathon and how nobody had ever won a pennant in April.

Stuff like that.

"That's crap," Rowand said. "That whole thing is crap. You have to bring it every day. Some days you're going to win and some days you're going to lose. Some days you're not going to have your best. But you can come out every day with intensity. You can run balls out. You can run down balls in the outfield. Sometimes those things make a difference even when you're not swinging the bat well or pitching well.

"You can put yourself behind the eight-ball real quick. Last year, if we didn't start the way we started, we wouldn't have made the playoffs the way Cleveland played at the end of the year.

"That just goes to show you how important every game is. They're not just important from August on. They're important in April. They're important from Day 1."

Kenny Lofton and Jason Michaels were a very successful platoon in center field last season. They hit a combined .322 with six home runs and 67 RBIs with a .397 on-base percentage.

Rowand hit .270 with 13 home runs and 69 RBIs with a .329 on-base percentage.

Rowand considered last season a down year offensively. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said he thought Rowand could hit .300 (he hit .310 in 2004) and hit 20 to 25 home runs (he hit 24 in 2004). If he does that, he would be a nice addition to the lineup. But the Phillies consider Rowand an upgrade over Lofton, who turns 39 in May, and Michaels, whom they never considered an everyday centerfielder, for other reasons.

"Defensively, first and foremost, he's a better defensive player than those two, although they did a fine job," Phillies assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "I think the way our outfield is set up, he helps both our corner guys. And again, those little things, the way he goes about his business, he's going to do what it takes to win games. The fact that he's going to have the type of presence in the clubhouse we think he's going to have, all those things can add up to those two to five games we're trying to win from last year that can make you a championship-caliber club."

Rowand has assimilated well into the Phillies clubhouse. He likes what he sees so far.

"It seems like everything clicks pretty good here as far as the guys," he said. "My first year in big league camp in '99, I walked in and Jeff Abbott and Jaime Navarro are having a fistfight in the clubhouse.

"This is a good mix. We have some talent here."

Even if the prognosticators don't see it.

The bolded parts are why Aaron Roward will be a fan favorite and a leader for this team. I'm not ready to call him a Lenny Dykstra type catalyst yet, but he very well could be.

He could be exactly what this team needs. That and Brett Myers speaking up about not liking what Gillick said about having no #1's is the type of moxy that this team needs.

[NGM]

This guy is definitely the farging man.  I might have to go purchase a jersey.

[MURP]

I agree Phreak.   I think getting  Rowand was a much better move than the philly media would have you think.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

"Defensively, first and foremost, he's a better defensive player than those two, although they did a fine job," Phillies assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "I think the way our outfield is set up, he helps both our corner guys.

That's his way of saying that Burrell and Abreu are of questionable defensive quality.