2007 Philadelphia Phillies Thread - DIVISION CHAMPS MOTHER fargER!!!!

[Munson]

playoffs?

You talking about playoffs?

[SunMo]

phillies.com

His epiphany came while shagging flies in the outfield, at some point between his June 29 disaster start against the Mets and his Tuesday outing in Los Angeles. Veteran Jamie Moyer pulled him aside and reminded him to not be in such a hurry.

"He told me that I control the game," Durbin said. "He said the bus doesn't leave until you're done pitching. I took that to heart and was thinking about it. I'm not trying to throw the ball every two seconds. It almost seems too easy. Slowing the game down is ultimately how you control it."

Cy Durbin

[Seabiscuit36]

phillies.com

His epiphany came while shagging flies in the outfield, at some point between his June 29 disaster start against the Mets and his Tuesday outing in Los Angeles. Veteran Jamie Moyer pulled him aside and reminded him to not be in such a hurry.

"He told me that I control the game," Durbin said. "He said the bus doesn't leave until you're done pitching. I took that to heart and was thinking about it. I'm not trying to throw the ball every two seconds. It almost seems too easy. Slowing the game down is ultimately how you control it."

Cy Durbin

Moyer's teaching has been amazing.  The guy just continues to help the younger guys who are willing to listen. 

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

ACE.

[MDS]

From the sound of it, activating Myers will be the Phillies' big trade-deadline move

[PhillyPhanInDC]

Howard appears to have been restored
By MARCUS HAYES
hayesm@phillynews.com

SAN DIEGO - It's feast or famine, but when they're feasting, they gorge.
The Phillies scored 66 runs in their six wins since the All-Star break. They put up 15, seven, 12 and nine runs in their four wins on their West Coast road trip against the Padres and the Dodgers, who had the two best pitching staffs in baseball when the Phils' trip began.

Not surprisingly, reigning National League MVP Ryan Howard is in the middle of it.

Howard's handlers hoped he would catch fire in the second half of this season, as he did in his Rookie of the Year surge in 2005 and in his MVP run last year.

He went 9-for-26 with four homers in his first six games coming off the break, and they were cautiously optimistic.

Then, on Thursday, Howard took three walks from Cy Young Award candidate Chris Young. Their eyes got big.

In the next three games Howard went 7-for-9 with eight RBI and two homers, both Saturday, off lefty David Wells.

Howard was named the NL Player of the Week for what he did from July 16-22: 11-for-22, leading the league with five homers, 13 RBI, 10 walks, a 1.227 slugging percentage and a .636 on-base percentage.

Color the Phillies excited. Howard finally seems to have regained his MVP form.

"He looks a lot better at the plate," said Chase Utley, the Phillies' offensive MVP to date. "He looks a lot more comfortable. Yeah, I think he's got it back."

"It" is the form that pushed him to the NL MVP award behind a team-record 58 homers, 149 RBI and a .313 average.

He stands at .279, with 27 homers and 81 RBI. He's getting hotter all the time.

Howard - consistently ultraself-critical - pointed to a natural progression of improved health. He spent 2 weeks in May on the 15-day disabled list recovering from a strained left thigh suffered early in spring training. That break, combined with the 4 days of light work during the All-Star break - he participated in the Home Run Derby - explains his finally finding a comfort zone.

Besides, he didn't want to push things.

"This was the first time I'd ever been on the DL," Howard said. "When you come back, you don't want to rush everything. You don't want to try to make up for everything you've missed."

He was hitting .204 with six homers and 23 RBI when he landed on the DL.

He's hitting .318 with 21 homers and 58 RBI since.

He's at .379 with eight homers and 24 RBI in July.

Thursday was the first time he took three nonintentional walks in a game. Howard saw 28 pitches from Young. Earlier this season, Howard would not have shown that sort of patience.

"Sometimes, you try to do too much," hitting coach Milt Thompson said. "A lot of teams are not going to let him beat them. Chris Young was not going to let Ryan beat him."

And Howard wasn't going to beat himself.

"That shows you he's seeing the ball real good," manager Charlie Manuel said. "When he's seeing the ball good, that's what happens."

What happens is the ball gets deeper into Howard's hitting zone, and he crushes it. His homers Saturday went to centerfield and left-center at Petco Park, the league's stingiest home run park this season.

He also singled to right-centerfield in the fifth, a two-run hit that ended Wells' day and proved – especially to Howard – that his hands are quick enough to pull pitches, even against lefties.

"That single to right-center was as good an at-bat as his home runs," Manuel said.

"It definitely helps the confidence," Howard said. "The biggest thing for me, this season, is to have good at-bats. One leads to two good at-bats. Then, two good games."

Then, say, 74 in a row? The Phillies sat at .500 at the All-Star break with 74 games left, the playoffs still within reach. They hoped for pitching help, they hoped for a healthier bullpen and they prayed Howard would heat up, again.

"He's a notorious second-half player," Thompson observed, and he's right. Howard is a .328 hitter with 49 homers and 130 RBI after the break the last 2 years.

Both years, he anchored a run toward the playoffs. He's 16-for-36 with six homers, 14 RBI since the break, and the Phillies have won six of 10. He might have to keep carrying them.

Despite recent proficiency from their pitching staff, the Phillies are counting on the likes of Jose Mesa and J.C. Romero to bolster their bullpen, with waivers expert J.D. Durbin and Double A call-up Kyle Kendrick in the back of their rotation.

Manuel figures the Phillies will need at least 90 wins to make the playoffs. That means a 40-24 record the rest of the way.

"If you do the math, you see we've got to go like hell," Manuel said. "We've got to score like hell."

Finally, Howard appears ready to do his part.

"It's a good feeling," he said. "Right now, you want stuff to start clicking. To make that push." *

Chokedog what?

Wow. I figured there was no way in hell they'd make the playoffs. The homer in me held out hope however, but after reading those bits from Manuel, the homer in me just OD'd on Xanex.

[ice grillin you]

yeah the dog has been on fire lately

but let me assure you under no circumstances will this team make the playoffs...dont even do it to yourself (again)

[Geowhizzer]

But, but... Brett Myers is coming back!

[PhillyPhreak54]

Training camp on Friday...that will make the no playoffs somewhat easier to digest.

And by no means do I want them trading for a pitcher. Like I said last week - it would make zero sense to overpay for some scrub bitch like Kyle Lohse or whatever other AAAA level pitcher would cost them at least Mike Bourn.

[SunMo]

wheels once again tripping over his clit to rush to defend the phillies and once again Sarge destroying him

[SD_Eagle5]

Jimmy Rollins = Bud Light

[MDS]

wheeler is insufferable. kendrick slows some slop up there and schneider, who sucks, crushes it for a bases clearing double. but wait, little kyle made a tiny mistake, and big bad brian is just too good and he kills the phillies. id rather listen to sd talk about star wars for 3 hours.

[Rome]

3-2 Expositionals.

I hate farging Chris Wheeler.  No matter how farging bad the opposing team's announcers are they're better than that baldheaded corksucker.

DIE.

[Rome]

Stop reading my thoughts, ass.

[ice grillin you]

and big bad brian is just too good and he kills the phillies

thats his MO...phils never make a mistake the other team somehow pulls off the play of the decade...