Phightins

Oh I agree it was bull[expletive]. There has been a LOT of bad umpiring all around baseball this weekend.

Lol...seriously what is the point of this thread? The Phillies fans will vote yes and everybody else will vote no. Rocket science!

Pineiro is IMO one of the most underrated pitchers in all of baseball. Lohse has been up and down this year but when he is on, he is as good a 3 or 4 as you will find in baseball. Plus, as everybody has said Carpenter and Wainwright are fantastic. Their pitching is very good.

I am going to guess that ECN has something to say about Ramon Ramirez getting tossed lol.

It is the EXACT same injury as last season though. That doesn't tell me he is injury prone, that tells me they didn't address it properly the first time around.

Torn ACL....ouch. Maybe they [expletive]ed up the surgery the first time this happened? Just hope it isn't career threatening. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-eagles/Ingram_suffers_torn_ACL.html

I am not a fan of either the Red Sox or Yankees so Yankee fans please do not take this comment as being biased, but I absolutely laughed my [expletive] off at that reception Ortiz got when he first walked up to the plate on Thursday. They panned through the crowd and there were tons of steroid themed signs with his picture on it, there were a couple guys trying to start a "CHEATER CHEATER" chant....and I all I could do was think to myself "you have GOT to be kidding me...they should just take a look at their own franchise". If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I do not know what is. We know very little about the steroid era so far, but what we do know is that the New York Yankees were the steroid capital of baseball. So, as much as I typically dislike the Red Sox, I could not help but root hardcore for them.

http://www.mlbhomerun.com/2009/08/hilarious-video-with-ryan-howard-jimmy.html Hahaha

It's possible though, who knows. But Roy also seems like he wants to play for a winner, and whatever money the Blue Jays could pony up for him could easily be matched by either of the two evil empires. I think it will be for the best for both sides if he leaves.

I am not going to make excuses for the struggling offense and their inability to hit with runners in scoring position lately, but man, Paul Nauert might have the most inconsistent strike zone I have seen all year. This is also not trying to take anything away from Ricky Nolasco who was flat out dealing tonight. What really bothered me was Ben Francisco's at-bat in the ninth. Leo Nunez threw him two pitches that were borderline at best, and that had been called both balls and strikes at different points of the game. They were both low and if they got any part of the plate, they got the corner by a hair. Needless to say, they were more than questionable pitches, so Francisco turned around and said that to Nauert. Nauert started screaming at Francisco, which IMO was totally uncalled for. If you have a [expletive]ty strike zone all night and you call two questionable pitches strikes, you need to expect to hear something from the batter. So, given the fact that there was no clear strike zone and that Nauert was obviously pissed off now as well, Francisco was pretty much forced to swing at anything close to the plate, which he did to get himself out. Now, not helping matters were that Greg Dobbs and Matt Stairs both swung at the first pitches of their respective at-bats to end the game. That was just disappointing. Anywho, now that I have that off my chest, I feel a lot better!

Doubt it. I will guess that they want to start totally from scratch. If they can't win with Roy now, how will they win with him minus one of their bigger bats? I think they just need a totally new approach, because what they have been working with for the past 3-4 years isn't really working. Tough luck though, since the division they are in makes things even tougher.

He is still their property until a trade is worked out with the claiming team, or until they just decide to hand him over. They can also decide to keep him, but that would make no sense for them. This is a chance for them to shed his entire salary, and that chance will probably never come around again.

Waiver wire block gone bad? Would not shock me if the Mets claimed him...can't even imagine where else would make sense.

I would live in California, but never in LA. I would also never live in New York City, but upstate New York is really nice. That is about all I can think of right now.

Amaro confirmed today that Happ is staying in the rotation. I think they will alternate Pedro and Moyer in that 5th slot for the time being and see who steps up and earns it. But then again, by the time that is decided, it will be September which means expanded rosters and hopefully the team closing in on clinching a playoff spot, so it won't really be an issue by that point anyway. And once the playoffs (knock on wood) roll around and we go with a 4 man rotation, it is an easy call...Pedro to the bullpen and Moyer off the roster. But you can never have too much pitching depth....injuries and other things are very unpredictable.

Eh, the Flyers are already hated plenty around the league, one more guy won't change anything.

Yes Shanahan has said all along that he'd only go to the Devils or Rangers. And if they get rid of Jones they will probably have enough to get Zherdev (way to steal my idea) or Sykora or somebody like that.

Twitter is great for news/rumors/etc.

From the time Happ came to bat in the 9th until he struck out Tulowitzki to end it was the loudest I have heard the stadium yet this year (at games I have been to anyway). We have quite the dilemma here, although it certainly is a good one. There was talk of Happ going to the bullpen to make room for Pedro, but I see no way he gets taken out now. But then again, Pedro struck out 11 in 6 innings in his rehab start tonight. Can never have too much pitching I guess, but it will be interesting to see what happens.

What a gay series. Tomorrow will be the first off day since the All Star break and it could not come at a better time. We need Vic back in a hurry...he was missed badly this weekend. Some positive notes: Ben Francisco looked pretty good. Also the starting pitching continues to be really good, the two bad innings by Hamels today aside. The bats have been cold, but when you take a 2 city road trip to Chase Field and AT&T Park, I suppose that is bound to happen.

Not hard to do if you are a lefty.

If this were a multi round draft, I would take two great pitchers in the 1st and 2nd rounds. If you build around pitching and defense, even if you have a so-so offense you can still win. If I got to build a stadium to fit my team, I would build an AT&T Park, Citi Field, Safeco Field, Comerica Park, Nationals Park, or another big stadium. But if I only got to make that first pick, and the idea wasn't necessarily to build an immediate World Series contender, but to take the best "franchise player", I would take Hanley Ramirez without thinking twice about it.

Dominic Brown has been promoted to AA. We are going to have an interesting dilemma on our hands soon as he and Michael Taylor get closer and closer to MLB ready (Taylor is pretty much there already). Obviously the outfield is locked down with Raul Ibanez, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth. Perhaps the Phillies will make another run at Roy Halladay or somebody else this offseason using Brown and Taylor as trade bait, or possibly they try to trade Victorino or Werth to make room for Taylor or Brown. Who knows.

I think that the fact that we have to have discussions like this is the saddest part about this era of baseball.

Also, lets not underestimate the importance of Ben Francisco coming along with Lee. He fills a big need as well, and has had some very good at bats so far. Good timing as well since Victorino has been hurt so Francisco has needed to start two consecutive games.