Michael Haftman's Philadelphia Phillies fan blog

In yet another attempt to achieve career win number 250, Jamie Moyer ran into a team with a vengeance. After being embarassed the night before, the Dodgers were out for blood against Moyer and the Phightin Phils. Moyer was cruising along go three scoreless innings before the jugular was sliced and the bloodbath ensued. He gave up 5 runs in the fourth, all earned, including a three run shot given up to James Loney. Moyer was pulled from the game with one out in the fifth after runners reached first and third. JA Happ came in and could not strand the runners, bring Moyer's final line to 4.1 IP, 7ER on 8 hits and 1 walk and strinking out 1. Happ pitched the final two outs of the fifth inning and was done for the night. That led me to believe before any announcement that Happ would indeed pitch one of the two games Saturday in Washington.

Continue reading "Ageless Wonder left wondering what happened? Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies 5/13/09"

With the release of a new book reconfirming everyone suspicions about Roger Clemens' use of steroids, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to give it a go. Clemens gave an interview to ESPN's radio show "Mike & Mike" to state his case. Highlights of the interview were that he still denies using steroids or any other PEDs, that he still friends (casuals ones at best from how he spoke of Petitte) with Andy Petitte, and that he feels that the Hall of Fame IS important to him now. The point of the interview that I found to be the most entertaining was the Clemens threw out the statement that he would not ever consider steroids or any other PED because his family has a history of heart disease. He followed that up with his STEP father died of a heart attack and that his brother had a heart attack in his 40s. My question would be then is the brother you are referring to your real brother or your step brother? It makes a monumental difference in his reasoning. How could YOU specifically have a history of heart disease if you aren't even a part of that blood stream. It's like the episode of the Simpsons when Mr. Burns is shot. Marge says she didn't have Bouvier DNA anymore only Simpson DNA.

Continue reading "A steroid users dilemma. To admit or not to admit."

Jayson Werth was the star of the game last night, capping off a superb performance by stealing 3 bases in the bottom of the 7th inning. To make the feat even better, all three swipes were with two outs. Not one person saw it coming. Not the pitcher, the catcher, the batter, the third base coach, or even the manager. Werth said to reporters after the game that he would rather see them win by the long ball. I would definitely say that manufacturing runs never hurt anyone. Werth was the first Phillie since Carlos Ruiz to steal home and the first Phillies since Gary Maddox to steal four in one game.

Chan Ho Park proved me wrong in his second straight quality start going six innings, giving up 2 earned runs, striking out three and walking none in route to his first win on the season. I think that Park has one, maybe two, more starts before being pushed into the pen. His next scheduled start is Sunday against the Nationals. He will likely be opposed by rookie Jordan Zimmerman or Shairon Martis. Zimmerman, who despite a high ERA, is putting a nice rookie season together.  He is averaging almost a strike out per inning. Martis is 1-0 in 2 starts versus the Phils this season. But don't let that record fool you. Martis has an ERA of 7.15 giving up 9 runs on 13 hits, including a homer, 6 walks and 4 punchouts in 11.1 IP. Martis would most likely face a dominant LH hitting lineup giving Dobbs the start at third as lefties are hitting .447 against him.

Continue reading "Werth helps Phillies steal win, Dodgers hearts."

With Monday being an off day for the Phightins, I thought I would take a look at our up and comers. So here we go down on the farm.

Lehigh Valley (AAA): Kyle Kendrick got rocked by Toledo yesterday in a rare mid day game. He gave up 6 earned runs over five innings. He did manage to strikeout 4 and only walked one. The part that impresses me the most about Kyle Kendrick so far is his ERA. The six earned runs brought his ERA up to 3.75. I would say that is pretty respectable compared to what we saw from him the bigs last season. Hopefully this means he is turning it around. You can never have enough sinkerballers at the Bank. Right now Kendrick needs to focus making batters miss the ball. His WHIP and his groundball rate are both hovering right around 1.50. So to get back to the bigs with the Phils or anyone else, he will need to improve both of those.

Continue reading "Down on the farm. A look at the minors."

So far this season, the Phillies' pitching has been down right horrible. Worst team ERA in all the National League. The only teams worse than the Phightins are the Yankees and Indians. The Phillies are tied for last in saves. Yes, I know that saves are a stat of opportunity, but to be tied with the Pirates and Nationals, the NL perenial basement dwellers. On to the positive. The Phillies are in first, yes lead the national league in homeruns allowed. Oh wait, that isn't good news either. Do we chalk it up to a World Series hangover? We did pitch an extra month last year.  Do we chalk it up to really missing JC Romero? Everyone besides Madson and Lidge had their role redefined because of one blunder.

The Phillies are 15-14 29 games into the season. One game over .500 with the worst pitching staff in all the national league. Those rotten dirty Metropolitans had to win 7 straight games to get a game and a half in front of us. The Phillies were one game better after 29 games last year at 16-13. I just hope that the pitching comes around and it appears that it will. Hamels had a good outing against the Braves. Myers got lifted a tad too early, but otherwise pitched pretty well. I don't think that Park will be in the rotation too much longer. The start against Santana was just an aberration. I was very in favor of Happ getting the number 5 spot out of the gate and it didn't happen. That may come to fruition soon enough. If I had to guess that will probably happen right around the same time that Romero comes back. The only way I see that happening before Romero's return would be if the Phils DFA or release Taschner and bring up Zagurski. He is the only LH reliever in the Phils system with a: MLB service time and b: a LH OBA under .200. I would bring up Bastardo, but the Phillies don't seem to be sure whether or not they want him to be a starter or reliever.

Continue reading "Is the pitching staff leaking oil?"