Charlie Manuel Watch Thread - 2010 Edition

[93henfan]

Poor Bruce Bochy, looking like a chump for pulling Lincecum.

[93henfan]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, mark Madson down for another blown save.

[93henfan]

What a crazy last three innings.

Nice finish to an otherwise bad road trip; makes the long flight back a bit more pleasant.

[Ivytalk]

What a crazy last three innings.

Nice finish to an otherwise bad road trip; makes the long flight back a bit more pleasant.

Nelson Figueroa, the new closer!

[GannonFan]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, mark Madson down for another blown save.

I'm not sure why they even bother trying to use Madson in there - there's ample evidence that he's a great setup guy and a horrible closer, so stop using him as a closer. Put anybody else in there.

On the bright side, Lidge looked great in Reading so I imagine he'll be back even as early as this weekend. Blanton looked good last night too so he'll probably get his first start against the Cardinals on Monday.

[GannonFan]

I had read Murph's column in the the Daily News today. Here are the next eleven pitchers:

# Tim Lincecum
# Jonathon Niese
# Mike Pelfrey
# Johan Santana
# Adam Wainwright
# Brad Penny
# Kyle Lohse
# Chris Carpenter
# Tim Hudson
# Derek Lowe
# Jair Jurrjens

That's not easy. Then you get the Yanks, BoSox, and Twins at the end of the six weeks. Yikes.

And of those guys only Santana and Carpenter would really worry me - the Phils can touch up any of the other guys on that list. You gotta think a lot of those guys are looking at starting against the Phils and saying "yikes, that's not easy".

[93henfan]

Moyer vs Santana. Clash of the Titans.

[GannonFan]

Well, even though Lidge is now back, Madson is off to the DL - apparently he broke a toe when he kicked a chair after coming out of the game Wednesday when he blew the save (in a game the Phils ultimately won 7-6). The link incorrectly calls it a loss (the game, not Madson).

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phil ... _list.html

In other news, several fans have also gone to the DL after kicking something following the watching of Madson blowing another save on Wednesday. Luckily, all those fans will still be active to watch tonight's game against the stinkin' Mets.

[93henfan]

In other news, several fans have also gone to the DL after kicking something following the watching of Madson blowing another save on Wednesday. Luckily, all those fans will still be active to watch tonight's game against the stinkin' Mets.

So Thing 2 breaks his toe and now we get Thing 1 back to blow saves. Sweet.

[93henfan]

So, uh, how 'bout that effort tonight?

[Ivytalk]

So, uh, how 'bout that effort tonight?

I know it's still early, but I'm getting a bad feeling about this season. Beyond Halladay, the pitching is frightful, and the O is inconsistent. Oh, well, I have my 2008 highlight reel...

[93henfan]

Good to see Cy Halladay pitch like his regular self today. 3-hit, complete game shutout. Take that, Muts.

[93henfan]

From Philly.com:

When J.A. Happ landed on the disabled list because of a forearm injury nine days ago in Atlanta, the Phillies' hope was the lefthander would make a relatively quick return.

"I would say it would be closer to weeks than months," general manager Ruben Amaro said at the time.

Now, it seems likely that Happ will miss at least a month after a discouraging 20-pitch bullpen session Friday at Citizens Bank Park.

"It didn't go as well as we expected," pitching coach Rich Dubee said before Saturday's game against the New York Mets.

[Ivytalk]

Good to see Cy Halladay pitch like his regular self today. 3-hit, complete game shutout. Take that, Muts.

The Bionic Man.

But can Grandpappy Moyer come through tomorrow?

[JMU DJ]

Man I hope this holds up! Great at bat by Moyer to get the bases loaded walk with two outs off of Santana followed by the Flyin' Hawaiians Grand Salami!


EDIT: Followed by an Utley two run shot


Wow, Santana looks shook.

[93henfan]

Someone from Queens must have pissed off Victorino as a kid in Hawaii or something. He's a Met-killer.

[bluehenbillk]

Maybe Shane not running that passed ball out on Friday woke everybody up. Glad to see order restored.

[93henfan]

Glad to see order restored.

Blanton is back tonight. That's another step.

[GannonFan]

Well, certainly didn't expect to see Santana get that rocked, but I'll take it. You have to wonder about where Santana is headed at this point - that's the second game in 2 years where the Phils have gone yard 4 times in a game against him (and heck, last year they did it in the Grand Canyon of baseball, Citi Field). And when they showed his velocity over the past few seasons you'd have to be worried as a Mets fan that something looks wrong with Santana. Not that I mind, mind you. Kinda makes you scratch your head when people were really arguing who the best pitcher in the NL East was going to be this year.

Good to see the Phils restore order in the world. They lose listlessly on Friday night and then, a game and a half behind the Mets and facing the Mets two best pitchers, the Phils just go out and smack the Mets like it was '07 and '08 and '09 all over again. Just a beautiful thing to see.

On the bad side, it sounds like neither Rollins or Happ or Madson are coming back until the end of the month at the earliest. Kinda makes you happy that Amaro was able to get Castro in here this year and dump Bruntlett - if I had to watch Bruntlett play everyday for a month and a half I'd be close to losing it and kicking a chair like Madson did.

And if they've decided to move away from Kendrick, I wouldn't mind seeing them give that Carpenter kid another shot in the majors.

[Ivytalk]

The WIP guys were likening Madson to Kevin "Wide Left" Brown this morning!

[bluehenbillk]

Well, certainly didn't expect to see Santana get that rocked, but I'll take it. You have to wonder about where Santana is headed at this point - that's the second game in 2 years where the Phils have gone yard 4 times in a game against him (and heck, last year they did it in the Grand Canyon of baseball, Citi Field). And when they showed his velocity over the past few seasons you'd have to be worried as a Mets fan that something looks wrong with Santana. Not that I mind, mind you. Kinda makes you scratch your head when people were really arguing who the best pitcher in the NL East was going to be this year.

It wasn't necessarily Santana's velocity, as Joe Morgan pointed out his fastball had nothing on it last night, was basically a straight pitch. Doesn't matter how hard you throw & even location isn't as big of a deal if your pitch has no movement. That's why they were just crushing him last night.

Does anyone know if Santana was asked last night if he still feels he's the best pitcher in the NL East?

[GannonFan]

Well, certainly didn't expect to see Santana get that rocked, but I'll take it. You have to wonder about where Santana is headed at this point - that's the second game in 2 years where the Phils have gone yard 4 times in a game against him (and heck, last year they did it in the Grand Canyon of baseball, Citi Field). And when they showed his velocity over the past few seasons you'd have to be worried as a Mets fan that something looks wrong with Santana. Not that I mind, mind you. Kinda makes you scratch your head when people were really arguing who the best pitcher in the NL East was going to be this year.

It wasn't necessarily Santana's velocity, as Joe Morgan pointed out his fastball had nothing on it last night, was basically a straight pitch. Doesn't matter how hard you throw & even location isn't as big of a deal if your pitch has no movement. That's why they were just crushing him last night.

Does anyone know if Santana was asked last night if he still feels he's the best pitcher in the NL East?

But don't movement and speed, especially with a fastball, often go hand in hand? If he's losing velocity on the fastball, it's not going to move as much. And even if it moved the same, just the fact that it's coming in slower is going to give the batter a little extra edge in terms of adjusting to the movement. Either way, it's not good for a Santana-type pitcher to be losing velocity like he has. While he's been pretty good for the Mets, he hasn't approached the performance he used to give for the Twins prior to the move.

[93henfan]

CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!!!!!









(and Hamels wasn't bad either)

[Ivytalk]

Good to see a well-pitched game by Hamels, Lidge and Contreras. Maybe Contreras can take Madson's 8th-inning job.

[GannonFan]

As you say, great to see the outings from Hamels and Lidge - if both of them return to form, along with Blanton giving a solid contribution in the #3 pitching spot, then that cures a lot of ills.

Although he's not back, it's good that they haven't diagnosed Happ with anything serious. There's still talk of him coming back by the end of May, which is as good as can be expected when you go out with a sore elbow.

Madson's gone until the All-Star break, though. Hopefully that will give him time to work through his anger issues. And issues with chairs too.