Another Series Win for the Phillies

The Phillies won their 5th series in a row, beating the San Francisco Giants at home, winning 2 out of 3 games. They had a chance for the sweep yesterday, but to be honest, were due for a letdown game, and really did not play well.

The Phillies won game 1 behind a strong performance from Roy Oswalt. The game was not going well, as Oswalt allowed two 1st innings runs, and the Phillies offense got off to a sluggish start against Giants starter Barry Zito. That was until the 5th inning. The Phillies put a 2 spot in both the 5th and 6th innings to take a 4-2 lead. After the Giants got one back in the 7th, the game was tight, and went into the 8th inning seeing the Phillies clinging to a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the 8th, the Phillies loaded the bases, and arguably the team MVP, Carlos Ruiz, came to the plate. Ruiz ripped a double off the wall, the Phillies would go on to score 5 in the inning to win the game 9-3.

The 2nd game of the series started out much the same. Joe Blanton was on the bump in this game, and has to have the worst 1st inning ERA in the history of baseball. Not surprisingly, Andres Torres led off the game with a mammoth home run into the 2nd deck in right field. Blanton did calm down however, and would only give up 1 more run on a solo home run by Pat Burrell, his 2nd in as many games in the series. The Phillies offense, led by Jimmy Rollins, once again put up numbers. They got to Matt Cain, Jimmy Rollins ended up a double short of the cycle, and Dominic Brown hit a huge home run. The Phillies smashed the ball all game, and ended up with 2 doubles, 3 triples, and 2 home runs, and won the game 8-2.

The Phillies went for the sweep yesterday with Cole Hamels on the mound. The Phillies have not scored for Hamels all season, and that trend would continue. Hamels is usually able to keep the Phillies in games even when they are not scoring for them; unfortunately, this was not one of those nights. Hamels gave up 3 1st inning runs, and Jonathan Sanchez shut down the Phillies, as the Giants avoided the sweep and won the game 5-2. The Phillies 2 runs weren't scored until the 9th inning.

The Phillies have won 5 straight series, and that is really all you can ask for. If the Phillies keep taking 2 of 3 every series, they will be in good shape. Unfortunately, the Braves are playing way over their heads, and currently lead the Phillies by 2.5 games in the NL East. The Phillies do lead the wild card however now by 1 game over the Giants, and 2 games of the Cardinals.

The Phillies sit at 2-1 on this current 10 game homestand, and I really think you need to go 7-3 on this homestand. This means they need to go 5-2 against the Nationals and Astros; this is something they should be able to do against 2 bad teams. The Nationals come to town for a 3 game series starting tonight. Roy Halladay takes the mound tonight for the Phillies.

Phillies Begin 2nd Half of Season

The All-Star break is over, and the Phillies begin the 2nd half of their season tonight with a 4 game series in Chicago to play the Cubs.

The Phillies unfortunately with their poor play over the past month and a half leave them with a lot of work to do in the 2nd half of the season. The Phillies are perenially a very good 2nd half team recently, but you hate to have to rely on that in order to make the playoffs. The Phillies currently sit 4.5 games back of the NL East leading Atlanta Braves. The Mets are in 2nd place, 4 games behind the Braves.

The Phillies have had their injury issues, but you don't want to blame all of their problems on the injuries. Bottom line, the Phillies offense the first half of the season is the worst it has been in a long time. Sitting out parts of the first half of the season were Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco, Chase Utley, and Carlos Ruiz. The Phillies still are without Polanco, who is due back possibly this weekend, and Chase Utley, who will probably be out for another month. Ryan Howard has been the only real consistent bat in the lineup, as he had an all-star first half of the season, and is almost batting .300.

The pitching staff has been up and down, but better than expected. The only reason the Phillies are even 4.5 games back is due to the pitching, which has picked up the hitting. In fact, the final 2 games before the all-star break, the Phillies won consecutive games 1-0, behind solid starting pitching from Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels. Halladay has been everything he was brought in to be. Cole Hamels has been solid this year so far. Kyle Kendrick and Jaime Moyer have been very up and down, and Joe Blanton has been flat out bad.

I hate to keep bringing up the worst trade in Philadelphia sports in my lifetime, but trading away Cliff Lee was a horrible mistake by Ruben Amaro, Jr. People say get over the trade and stop talking about it; however, the trade is significant and applicable to how the Phillies are playing now. If you want to agree with Amaro and say the Phillies couldn't spend the money, then you can blame Amaro for giving Moyer a 2 year deal, and not trading Joe Blanton, although there wasn't much demand for Blanton. Also, if you want to agree with Amaro and say the Phillies needed to replenish the farm system, this is just untrue, because if the Phillies had kept Cliff Lee this year and then let him walk, they would receive 2 first round draft picks as compensation. You could easily argue that these 2 first round picks would be much better than the prospects that the Phillies did get.

Also, Ruben Amaro needs to make the correct decision and try to trade Raul Ibanez. Ibanez is having a bad year, which you kind of had to expect, as Ibanez is up there in age. If no one wants Ibanez, most people feel like the Phillies should trade Jayson Werth. I do not however. You need Werth in the lineup, as he is one of the positives in a poor lineup, and is the only power right handed bat. Bottom line, Dominic Brown absolutely needs to be a starter on this Phillies team, like yesterday. According to Ruben Amaro, Brown can't replace Ibanez because Brown isn't a left fielder. Ohh right, I forgot Ibanez is an outfield covering gold glover out there. Brown technically is a right fielder, but I have to imagine can fill in left field for the rest of the season. Dominic Brown was recently listed as the #1 prospect currently not in MLB by ESPN.com. He can definitely give a jolt to the lineup.

Either way, the Phillies need to step up their game, and have a solid 2nd half if they want to make the playoffs. Luckily, this is nothing new for the Phillies, as they usually do have very good 2nd halves.

Phillies Re-Up Howard

The Phillies extended Ryan Howard's contract today, giving him 5 more years on top of his existing contract, and $125 million. The deal lasts from the years 2012 through 2016, with a club option for 2017.

When the deal kicks in, it will make Howard the highest paid player in Phillies history, and the 2nd highest paid player in baseball if you average out the years. Howard will make $20 million each in 2012 and 2013. He will then make $25 million in 2014, 2015, and 2016. There is a club option on Howard in 2017 at $23 million, and if they buy him out at that time, it will be for $10 million.

This is definitely the right move to do, if the Phillies let Ryan Howard play in the 2011 season and he even played above average, teams would be throwing a lot of money at him. This secures a guy who will bat in the middle of the lineup for years to come. Howard is also a good guy, and good team player, and a guy who seems like he will work hard after getting a big pay day, wanting to win for the fans and the city.

The bigger question is now what the Phillies plan on doing with Jayson Werth or Raul Ibanez. Amaro gave a terrible contract to Ibanez, who is off to a slow start this year. Not surprising, since Ruben Amaro made the worst trade Philadelphia has seen in quite some time. Anyways, this is probably Werth's last season as a Phillie, unless they did sign him to a long term deal, they would need to go way over payroll next season since Ibanez will still be getting paid. If the Phillies could keep Werth, and eventually let Dominic Brown replace Ibanez, that would be optimal.

The Phillies also could use Werth or Ibanez as a trading chip to acquire a starting pitcher at the trade deadline. Obviously the Phillies would rather unload Ibanez, but probably won't be able to get much for him, especially if he still keeps playing the way he is. The Phillies, unfortunately, due to not having God, I mean Cliff Lee on the team, are in need of starting pitching. Ever starter except for Halladay has gotten off to a bad start. You know its not a good thing when I am looking forward to Moyer's next start.

Latest on Halladay Trade

Roy Halladay was in Philadelphia today, but as of now, a deal for the Toronto Blue Jays ace is still not yet completed. It appears to be very close however.

It also appears as if the Phillies will not just be getting Halladay and giving up Lee in the deal. It looks as if the Phillies will be giving up some prospects, and getting some prospects in return. I have heard different reports throwing out the names of Phils prospects Michael Taylor, Dominic Brown, and Kyle Drabek. The name Kyle Drabek is familiar because he is the Phillies top pitching prospect, and the man who supposedly the Phillies would not trade at the trade deadline this past season. Dominic Brown is probably the Phillies top position prospect at this point, and possibly their #2 overall prospect behind Drabek. Both Brown and Taylor are top outfield prospects, but Brown is said to be a much higher prospect than than Taylor.

Also, it is interesting to note that Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ, along with Dominic Brown were in Philadelphia today to take physicals. This could mean they could be part of the Halladay trade, they could be part of possibly another trade, or they could just be taking an offseason physical for the Phillies. It would be hard to imagine the Phillies would get rid of Lee, Blanton, and Happ, or even 2 of the 3, which would seriously deplete the starting rotation. As it is right now, we really don't have a good #5 starter.

Reports say that this deal could take days to finalize with no possible announcement coming until Wednesday. We will stay tuned to find out the latest.