EVIL~! alkeiper

I was mystified too, but Fultz has been really good in the bullpen the last two seasons.

Ryan Madson 5.72 (6 starts) Cory Lidle 5.65 (5 starts) Brett Myers 7.13 (5 starts) Cole Hamels 6.49 (5 starts) Eude Brito 10.38 (2 starts) Scott Mathieson 6.75 (2 starts) Gavin Floyd 15.75 (1 start) Adam Bernero 36.00 (1 start) You left out Anthony Reyes and Chris Carpenter. I did not exclude a single starter. You'll note four spot starts gone horribly wrong. Even Brett Myers stunk before the domestic assault incident.

I've never seen a pitching staff fall apart like this, so badly. You haven't seen a Phillies game the last month, have you?

Yeah, baffles me too. Meanwhile, Vicente Padilla has a 4.56 ERA in Texas.

It's really time to end this farce and put Ryan Franklin in the rotation. No, he's not a good starter. But when you've exhausted your 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th best options, it's probably a good idea to try out the guy you paid $2.6 Million for.

Phils traded for Fabio Castro. According to BA, he's got starter's stuff but he's undersized (5'8"), making him a relief candidate. He's a Rule V pick so the Phils have to keep him on the big club.

Like I said a week ago, Murton was slugging .361. How long do you put up with that when his replacement has hit more home runs in a third of the at bats?

It was Xavier Nady. What's truly remarkable is that the Tigers are now 8.5 games up in their bid for the playoffs. Still, this is a scenario where they could win 95 games and still miss out. I get the impression that the American League isn't so much good as it is imbalanced.

Isn't this Milo's last season?

Agreed about the NCAA tournament. No 16 seed has ever won a game, meaning the 61-64th best teams have never won a single game, let alone the entire tournament. And they want to let in 64 teams WORSE than those teams? March Madness is great for the gambling industry, but it's a lousy way to crown a champion. They'd be better off CUTTING teams from the tournament and switching to a double elimination format.

People say this all the time. It almost never works that way.

Phillies.com presents the power of positive thinking!

First off, playing experience doesn't really effect how good or bad an analyst is. Peter Gammons is terrific and never played pro ball. Joe Morgan was a Hall of Famer and he's horrid. In Orestes' case, he spent those years playing Japanese baseball. He hosted a spanish language baseball program on XM Radio before joining one of the english language shows when Larry Bowa left to coach on the Yankees. He's not the best analyst but he's reasonably intelligent and hasn't yet prompted me to throw my radio out the window.

I have no clue. Myers has been awful though (even before the domestic assault). Madson's been awful, Eude Brito got hammered, Floyd got crushed, Lidle's been bad, and Jon Lieber's hurt. Scott Mathieson got smacked around for the first time today. NO ONE who starts for this team can get the job done. These have been awfully frustrating games to watch because it seems they're down 4-0 or something like that within the first three innings. They were never in either game today.

What a disgusting performance from the Phillies this month. 8-16, now 11.5 games out of first place. Worse, we're now mere percentage points better than the Marlins. That's inexcusable. We fire our GM because he managed "only" 88 wins, and our new GM can't even keep us above a team openly holding a firesale?! I mean no disrespect to the Marlins here. It's just frustrating to see a team like that turn out better than what should have been a legit contender.

Wow. Even the burgers are extreme!

The Designated Hitter is actually the owners' concept. Charlie Finley was the big supporter of it. Essentially games in the early 70s featured little offense and poor attendance. The DH helped both problems. I've thought about writing more in the future. What people don't realize is that the DH is used EVERYWHERE except the National League. The minors use it, college baseball uses it, and international baseball uses it. As far as the All-Star game's concerned, it really doesn't matter because the pitcher will not hit unless a team bats around in the first inning. What's the point of throwing off the voting for that? Besides, it gives the NL some leeway in that they can select a deserving player to start that got snubbed by the fans.

Anyone else happen to listen to the radio broadcast? The announcers went on some kind of immitation tangent shortly afterwards that was absolutely hilarious.

Yeah, having good stats doesn't necessarily grant an All-Star selection. You should be one of the two or three best players at your position. Everyone complains about how the All-Star game has lost its flair, and that it used to be different. The truth is the All-Star game, like any athletic contest, is hit or miss. Pete Rose's collision was 35 years ago. You'd think they would have a better example. In the last decade we've had Pedro mowing down Sosa/McGwire, Ripken's home run, and Torii Hunter robbing Barry Bonds. All without the game counting.

Perhaps, but at the time Roberts was still on the shelf with a serious injury.

The Mariners had Japan's all time leader in saves, so that's a poor example. I think it's ill advised for the Tigers to start dealing prospects to make a run. It'll hurt the club in the long run in exchange for slightly better odds this season. Given their young pitching, they're not in a position where they need to win now.

All they have to do to upgrade their closer's spot is to shift Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney or Jamie Walker. Once the playoffs start, they can get bold and move a starter to the bullpen. And the fact that they're 52-25 with a bad closer should really tell you how much closers are worth.

Fun with ESPN's sortable stats! Your 2006 Cub-Killer All-Stars. C: David Ross (5 for 19, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs) 1B: Lance Berkman (8 for 23, 1 HR, 4 RBIs) 2B: Dan Uggla (8 for 23) 3B: Miguel Cabrera (8 for 16, 3 HRs, 10 RBIs, 8 BBs) SS: Khalil Greene (7 for 29, 2 HRs, 9 RBIs, 2 SBs) LF: Adam Dunn (13 for 39, 7 HRs, 8 RBIs, 11 BBs) CF: Ken Griffey (11 for 39, 4 HRs, 6 RBIs) RF: Brian Giles (7 for 21, 6 RBIs, 11 BBs) Hon. Mention: Dave Roberts (9 for 21, 6 SBs, 0 CS) SP: Bronson Arroyo (3-0, 1.74) SP: Eric Milton (2-1, 2.95) SP: Chris Capuano (2-0, 0.00) SP: Zach Duke (2-0, 0.56) SP: Jason Schmidt (1-0, 1.00, one run CG) CL: Brad Lidge (3 saves, 5 apps. 8 Ks, 3.60 ERA) RP: Scott Cassidy (2-0, 0.00, 4 apps.) RP: Braden Looper (5 apps, 6 IP, 3 Holds, 0.00 ERA)

Here's the ballot I usually compiled. AL 1B- Travis Hafner 2B- Placido Polanco 3B- Alex Rodriguez SS- Miguel Tejada C- Victor Martinez OF- Manny Ramirez OF- Vladimir Guerrero OF- Vernon Wells Placido Polanco? Yeah, it looks bad now, but there really were no inspiring choices and he almost led MLB in batting average last year. Other players might be ones who are underperforming, but have several All-Star seasons under their belts, and are still in their prime. I think Vlad's first ten seasons are more indicative than 70 games of his true level of talent. Martinez was the best hitting catcher in baseball the last two years. If I voted now, I'd probably pick Mauer. Hafner's better than Ortiz. It's not my fault that Ortiz gets all the press. NL 1B- Albert Pujols 2B- Chase Utley 3B- Miguel Cabrera SS- Rafael Furcal C- Paul Lo Duca OF- Bobby Abreu OF- Jason Bay OF- Brian Giles Furcal's another player in the underperforming category. I lean towards the player with the track record rather than the player with a hot half (ala Jose Reyes). Others are pretty self explanatory. Vern's right in that the All-Star game should retain the DH. No one watches the game to see the pitchers hit. Also, the All-Star voting really should split the outfield into left, center and right. The worst part of the All-Star game is seeing a corner outfielder pigeonholed into center.

In your blog you mentioned that Shannon Stewart MVP vote in 2003. That year Stewart came over to the Twins and helped to revitalized a sluggish Twins team and pushed them into the playoffs. I actually thought that he deserved consideration for MVP, but did not deserve to win. The problem was that they got better because their team pitching improved in August/September, while their hitting remained the same. I just always viewed Shannon Stewart as a coincidence.