Philadelphia Phillies

Thanks once again to tipster all-timer @ChickPhilA, who is in Ocean City this weekend and saw these ugly-ass caps on the boardwalk. I might be able to get away with this one if I was Jimmy Buffett and going on stage somewhere in the area but I don’t even think Shane Victorino would wear this monstrosity. Okay, maybe it’s kind of cool but I think if I’m going to wear it once for a laugh someone else is going to have to buy it. This looks like Jeff Loria designed it. If I had Jeff Loria money I wouldn’t buy this.

Philadelphia Phillies (23-25) at Washington Nationals (25-23) Jonathan Pettibone (3-0, 3.00) vs. Dan Haren (4-5, 5.54) TIME: 7:15, Nationals Park TV: FOX Weather: 50′s, partly cloudy Media: Twitter and Facebook The season of ups and downs continues.  The Phillies have been playing their best baseball of the year as of late, but they dropped last night’s game to the Washington Nationals.  The Phillies have yet to build a significant winning streak, but it would be great to start one this Memorial Day weekend. Jonathan Pettibone will attempt to put the Phillies back into the win column.  Since being called up, Pettibone has done better than the Phillies could have asked.  He’s been consistent and has yet to toss a bad outing.  In each of his six starts, Pettibone has had a quality start or better.  He will look to continue his success tonight in D.C. Dan Haren has a pretty good resume, but he has struggled thus far this season.  He has yet to earn the $13 million that he will make in 2013, as his ERA is well over five.  He is coming off his worst start of the season, in which  he allowed seven runs to the always weak-hitting San Diego Padres. Lineup: Your Gameday Beer: Victory Hop Devil Ale, suggested by Gary J. via Facebook GO PHILLIES!

Jonathan Pettibone aims to improve his record to 4-0 as the Phillies hope to rebound from a series-opening clunker to the Nationals in D.C. Ben Revere had been riding somewhat of a hot streak entering Friday night's game. He had gone 7 for 18 over his previous four games, which included two doubles and three runs. In the month of May, he was hitting .370 overall and had grounded into just one double play. Then last night against the Nationals,...

Progress Report for Ruben Amaro's 2013 offseason moves by Scott Butler 5/25/13 The Phillies are two games away from the 50-game mark of the season and it gives us a decent sample size to start bashing constructively criticizing Ruben Amaro's 2013 moves. Ruben Amaro attempted to squeeze one last drop form the best era in Philadelphia Phillies history. Limited payroll flexibility and a barren farm system made that task a difficult one for Rub. As opposed to making high profile free agent acquisitions, he was forced to make several "low risk-high reward" moves. Let's take a look at those moves. Continue reading this post This post has been generated by Page2RSS

The IronPigs square off with the Norfolk Tide this evening at 6:35 PM. If you’re able to go, please be sure to help out if you can with their efforts to help the folks in Oklahoma who have lost so much this week. From the IronPigs: IronPigs INF and Oklahoma native Josh Fields along with his wife Ashleigh are hosting an auction and raffle on Saturday, May 25 at Coca-Cola Park during the IronPigs-Tides game will all proceeds benefiting the tornado relief efforts in Moore, Okla. For those that are unable to attend on Saturday, Josh and Ashleigh have also set up a donation site to accept monetary contributions at the following link: http://www.youcaring.com/other/home-base-oklahoma-city-tornado-relief/61171 “My family and I want to do all we can to send support to our home state,” remarked Fields. “We would really appreciate the support of IronPigs fans to make a difference in the devastated region of Central Oklahoma.” The couple is seeking to raise more than $10,000 with all proceeds benefiting the United Way of Central Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund. The auction will include one-of-a-kind and unique IronPigs memorabilia and collectibles, including autographed cleats, gloves, bats and balls from various members of the 2013 club. Monday’s devastating tornado, which resulted in a significant loss of life and widespread destruction, has left many Oklahomans in severe need. A native of Ada, Okla., Josh graduated from Stillwater High School and continued both his baseball and football careers at nearby Oklahoma State University.

Legendary magazine writer Pat Jordan penned the epic “Thin Mountain Air” for Philadelphia Magazine in 1994. The story pulled back the curtain on the reclusive Phillies’ Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton whose relationship with the media was beyond adversarial. And when I say “pulled back the curtain”, I mean that it showed the beloved pitcher to be a fucking lunatic: He believes that the last eight U.S. presidents have been guilty of treason, that President Clinton “has a black son” he won’t acknowledge and that his wife, Hillary, “is a dyke,” and that the AIDS virus was created at a secret Maryland biological warfare laboratory “to get rid of gays and blacks, and now they have a strain of the virus that can live ten days in the air or on a plate of food, because you know who most of the waiters are,” and finally, that most of the mass murderers in this country who open fire indiscriminately in fast-food restaurants “are hypnotized to kill those people and then themselves immediately afterwards,” as in the movie The Manchurian Candidate. He blinks once, twice, and says, “Who hypnotizes them? They do!” …and it just gets weirder from there. Earlier this month, Deadspin republished the story as part of “The Stacks”, their collection of classic bits of sports journalism. The phrase “must read” gets thrown around a lot, but trust me when I say that this is something you really must read. It’s honestly hard to believe that a guy that popular can be so loopy.

The Jefferson Memorial is one of the nicest in DC The Phillies are quite content in playing in Washington Nationals stadium, despite getting the loss last night, the Phillies have an overall record of 88-59 at the home of the Nats since they moved in from Montreal in 2005. The Phillies earned most of the wins which came at the expense of terrible Nationals teams that were on the field for the first 6 years or so of the franchise's history. In fact, the Phillies now have lost 4 of the last 5 series in Washington in what is becoming a disturbing trend for the Phils. The last series win here in Washington by the Phillies came last year in last day of July/early August 7/31 to 8/2. If the Phillies are going to be more successful this season, they will need a much better clutch performance from Ben Revere. Revere grounded into a DP with the bases loaded against the Nationals, and he's been up 4 times so far this season with the bases loaded and only has produced 1 RBI and has 0 hits in all of those AB's with bases loaded so far this year. That is the Phillies problem, a lack of clutch hitting when it calls for an RBI or rally. Ryan Howard for example has only been up to bat one time with the bases loaded, in that one AB he produced 2 RBI. In 39 AB's that Howard has had with runners in scoring position, he has struck out 17 times and that is far too many times that he is striking out in those situations. Game 2 of the series tonight in DC, it's Jonathan Pettibone vs Dan Haren

5/25/13 - Re-evaluating Ruben Amaro's 2013 Moves This post has been generated by Page2RSS

Zach Collier is absolutely raking right now – 1.103 OPS in his last 10 games, OPSing .754 in May. Logan Moore with homeruns in 2 straight. He’s hit safely in 8 of his last 10 and he’s OPSing .703 now in May, which is a marked improvement over his April. And Roman Quinn is OPSing .868 in May after a horrid April, (a rash of errors not withstanding, that’s a .330 jump over his first month at Lakewood). If we learn anything from May every year, it’s that April is just another month – it just happens to come at the beginning of the year. Also the top level of split level homes are hard to keep cool in summery weather. Maybe it’s just me, but it barely cracked 90 outside last week and I was ready to move into the basement. Although that would be perfect for a blogger, right? Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20130524

JIMMY ROLLINS reached the 1,200 milestone in runs last week with a solo homer against the Reds at Citizens Bank Park. He is just the second Phillie to reach that level, joining Mike Schmidt (1,506).