Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Urgent News

I would like to extend my congratulations to Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown for his first-career "NL Player of the Week" honors. In the past week (six games since 5/21), Brown has 7 H in 22 AB (.318) with 8 RBIs, 4 R, 2 2Bs, a 3B, and 2 HRs for a .773 SLG. He has no walks or hit-by-pitches, but he has avoided the strike-out: 4 K's for a .389 BABIP (batting avg. on balls in play). His hot streak extends to May 20th (seven games), where he went 2-4: 1B, HR, RBI, R, SB in that game.

Since May 20, Brown is 9-26 (.346), 4 Ks (.409 BABIP, 15.4% K-rate), 3 1Bs, SB, 2 2Bs, 1 3B, 3 HRs, .846 SLG, 5 R, 9 RBIs, 1.192 OPS

Injury Updates: CF Ben Revere has no broken bones after his collision with the gate in yesterday's ball game. He may be sore for a few days, but he should be ok. Ryan Howard is taking his knee issues (swelling, soreness, cartilage issue and possible meniscus tear) day-to-day, but a DL stint is still possible... albeit not likely.

Tonight (7:05 PM EDT): Cliff Lee tries to replicate the 3 hit shutout he threw his last time out.

On a sadder note, I would like to extend my thoughts, prayers, and condolences to the family of orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum who passed away today. He most recently performed surgery on Halladay's right shoulder and was the Angels' team doctor.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Injury Updates & Today's Game

Sorry I haven't posted much, but here's a few updates:
  • In the span of 24 hours at one point this week, the Phillies had a slew of injury updates: Chooch (Grade 2 Hamstring strain); Utley (Mild Grade 1 oblique strain); Howard (left knee swelling; meniscus issue, which may require off-season surgery); and Adams (sent to DL on 5/20... retroactive to 5/11, activated today).
  • Obviously, we have an explanation for Halladay: arthroscopic surgery to clean up a bone spur, bone chip, frayed labrum & partial rotator cuff tear will sideline him until mid-to-late August (he'll be throwing in about 5-7 weeks from today). He was sent to the 60-day DL.
  • Back to Chooch, it is obvious his .325 season last year was an Adderall fluke, but his defense has never been flukish as evidenced by 2010.
Game Preview: Phillies (24-25) at Nationals (25-24) - 1:35 PM EDT

Phillies ace Cole Hamels has essentially converted 1.0 K/9 to 1.0 BB/9 and has a partially skewed 1-7 record & 4.45 ERA. He is looking for more than the 2.8 runs of support the Phillies give him on average and was so frustrated, he didnt want to say something out of anger that he might regret, so he left the clubhouse after his last start. Perhaps the stress of having to be perfect each time out is a factor in the inflated ERA & BB rate and the deflated K rate. Let's hope Hamels gets three or more runs of support from the offense that is without Utley and Howard (DL and rest respectively) but has done better as of late.

Hamels will face Stephen Strasburg who is 2-5 with a respectable 2.66 ERA. The Nats also don't score a lot of runs, but Strasburg certainly helps himself out with the sub-3.00 ERA. Strasburg will face off against Charlie Manuel's line-up, who is batting .200 in their career against the Nats:

SS Rollins, 2B Galvis, 3B M. Young, RF D. Young, LF Brown, 1B Frandsen, CF Revere, C Quintero, P Hamels

Current score: 0-0 in the bottom of the first.