Phightins

Favorite NFL Team: Philadelphia Eagles Favorite Player All-Time: Brian Dawkins Favorite Current Offensive Player: Desean Jackson Favorite Current Defensive Player: Trent Cole Favorite Moment: Super Bowl Jersey's Owned: Duce Staley, Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens, Lito Sheppard, Shawn Andrews Number of Games Been to: Preseason game w/ Diesel, would go to more if tickets weren't so damn hard to come by. Players Met: Jon Runyan on the train last night haha. Also saw Winston Justice at a Yankees game but Diesel was the only one who actually talked to him.

Werth is a free agent next year, Ibanez in 2 years, and Victorino still in arbitration years and is under team control until after 2011 (although I expect them to lock him up long term this winter). I think Taylor will be used as trade bait since he's a bit older and is MLB ready right now, but Brown will be kept around as the heir apparent to Werth/Ibanez.

Brown is going to be amazing, but he won't get a shot for another two years unless Victorino or Werth are traded. Once Ibanez is gone, Brown is the left fielder, barring anything unexpected between now and then. Drabek clearly has top of the rotation stuff. I have heard him compared to Tom Seaver, but the issue with him will be staying healthy. Also from what I hear he is a class-A douche bag, and I know that will not fly on this team. I think they want him to start next season in AAA, and with all of the starting pitching depth at the Major League level there is no reason to rush him along. As for Taylor, he is probably MLB ready right now but clearly there is no spot for him on the big league roster. I view him as trade bait since his value is super high right now.

In this "Scoscia vs. Girardi" debate, team payroll is 100% irrelevant. The manager has no control over that. All they can do is work with the roster they are given, and in both cases, their teams are amazing on paper. If you are going to use that fact to disqualify Girardi, shouldn't the same go for Scoscia?

You could argue that the Angels from top to bottom are right on the same level as the Yankees on paper, smaller payroll or not. So what difference does it make? If you are going to use that argument for Girardi, you have to realize it goes both ways.

Don't see any way it isn't Jim Tracy in the NL. As for the AL, I dunno, Ron Washington perhaps? That team really turned a corner this year.

Andrews to IR, done for season. Baskett cut, Garcia activated, Vick removed from exempt list.

I think he is saying that Gehrig and Ruth would get destroyed playing today, which is very possible, yet also impossible to prove. It is also 100% irrelevant for this argument.

Kolb still has not had a full game, he has only come in for McNabb in games that were already out of hand. He has also never gotten to practice with the first team offense (an Eagles policy that makes no sense to me). But anyway, he will have both of those luxuries this week, so I'd say this is his one and only chance.

This season Carlton had is fascinating to me. A 1.97 ERA in 346 innings is ridiculous enough, as is the fact that he had exactly half of the Phillies wins....but 30 complete games.....30. How crazy is that? And only 27 wins. 3 of his complete games did not even result in a W. The difference in time periods is astounding. I was going to post some old Cy Young/Walter Johnson stats to show the difference in era's, but you only have to go back to the early 70's and Carlton/Seaver to see it.

Probably, but stats are stats, and those guys were the beasts of that era. Who cares how good they would be in today's era, it is irrelevant. I understood what he was trying to say. It is like today having 2 slightly better versions of Albert Pujols hitting 3 and 4 in a lineup.

Actually I copied it down wrong. Gehrig had 52 doubles, not HRs. Only 47 HRs lol.

Garcia isn't playing unless Kolb gets hurt. Andy is committed to Kolb.

Pretty cool. I have been rooting for him to land somewhere.

Okay, I know there are way more options that I did not post, but out of these I honestly think Pedro's 1997 season is the best, considering all of the factors, particularly the era he did it in.

Probably, too bad that will likely never happen in today's game.

Don't get it here, why?

Also nobody has even talked about pitchers. Sandy Koufax 1965- 41 GS, 26-8, 2.04 ERA, 27 CG, 382 SO, 71 BB (His 1966 season was just as impressive, if not more impressive) Pedro Martinez 1997- 31 GS, 17-8, 1.90 ERA, 13 CG, 313 SO, 37 BB Greg Maddux 1995- 28 GS, 19-2, 1.63 ERA, 10 CG, 181 SO, 23 BB (Most impressive part about Pedro and Maddux is that they did this in a very offense-heavy era) Steve Carlton 1972- 41 GS, 27-10, 1.97 ERA, 30 CG, 310 SO, 87 BB (on a side note, his 27 wins were exactly half of the total wins the Phillies had that year) Tom Seaver 1971- 35 GS, 20-10, 1.76 ERA, 21 CG, 289 SO, 61 BB (Oh what I would give to have been around in the 70s to see a Phillies/Mets game when Carlton and Seaver pitched against each other) Bob Gibson 1968- 34 GS, 22-9, 1.12 ERA, 28 CG, 268 SO, 62 BB Way way more options, this is all I feel like posting for now though.

The back of the bullpen is hands down the biggest concern. Right now the rotation is as good as it has been in my lifetime, for sure, perhaps ever. Rollins's numbers are skewed horribly by a brutal first half, but he has been playing more to his career averages since the end of June, which is really all he did last year too. And not sure what the deal was with Hamels for most of the year, but since the middle of August he has mostly been the Hamels of old. He is probably our #3 starter in the postseason anyway. But yes, back of the pen is a huge concern. There is no way Lidge is the closer in the postseason unless something changes drastically in the next 3 weeks. Madson has been pretty inconsistent too though, but I suspect either he or Brett Myers will catch fire and claim the closer's role. But you pretty much nailed it, all that really matters is who is playing well come October and who can keep it going throughout the whole month. Just look at the Phillies last year, nobody thought they could beat the Dodgers or Rays. The Cardinals in '06 are the best example, IMO. They won 82 or 83 games in the regular season and won the World Series. Baseball is so unpredictable.

Bonds's 2001 season is hands down one of the 3 or 4 best of all time if you ask me. I was just throwing in options that nobody had mentioned yet.

Can they? Absolutely. Will they? Who knows. I sure hope so. Once you get into the postseason it's so unpredictable. All about who gets hot at the right time.

On paper yes. We probably should have swept them last week too and only got 2 of 3. Ya never know, that's the beauty of baseball I guess.

Position players? I am a fan of Cobb in 1911. To add a couple other options... Babe Ruth 1927- .356 BA, 60 HR, 164 RBI, 1.258 OPS Mark McGwire 1998- 70 HRs, .470 OBP (of course the 28 intentional walks did not hurt), 1.222 OPS Lou Gehrig 1927- .373 BA, 52 doubles, 47 HR, 175 RBI Jimmie Foxx 1932- .364 BA, 58 HR, 169 RBI, 1.218 OPS

This is true. However, unlike most Eagles fans who are ready to throw Kolb until the Delaware River, I am not giving up on him yet. I am going to give him a chance to show me something on Sunday. Apparently the Eagles are the only NFL team that does not give the backup QB any snaps with the first team during game week. The only time's that Kolb has really gotten to play have been to replace McNabb in games that were already essentially over by the time he got in. This week Kolb will get to practice with the first team, and assuming he plays (I'd say the chances are very high), the entire game will be his. If he is brutal on Sunday, then you can probably count me in to the group that has him officially labeled as a bust.

Also, the magic number is down to 14 (meaning that any combination of Phillies wins and Marlins losses adding up to 14 will clinch the division). The Phillies open a 3 game series with the Nationals tomorrow, and the Marlins are in St. Louis for 3 starting tonight. Matchups for Nationals series: Tomorrow: Cliff Lee vs. Garrett Mock Wednesday: Joe Blanton vs. Livan Hernandez Thursday: Cole Hamels vs. JD Martin