Featured Card: 1993 Topps Gold Ruben Amaro, Jr, the architect of whatever this team was, is, and will be in 2013.
Here's the second and third slices of the 2013 season, which brings us to the end of April....what's the saying about April? April showers bring May flowers....does that mean an under .500 April means a blazing, blooming May? Let's hope there's no such thing as past results do not predict the future....1/6 of the way through this season, and this feels like a flawed, mediocre team that needs help or improvement from somewhere:
Record after 3 slices: 12-15
Record during these slices: 8-10
Teams that did damage: Pirates, Reds, Cardinals, Indians
Teams that crawled away: Mets, Marlins
Welcome to the Team, may your reputation be wrong: Delmon Young made his debut and hit a home run in his first at-bat. Hopefully, that sets a trend.
Welcome to the team, young grasshopper: Jonathan Pettibone, has a respectable debut with 6 K and then earns his first MLB win in the next start.
Happy Trails: To Humberto Quintero and Ezequiel Carrera, we hardly knew ye both, and they will join a long line of briefly tenured Phillies.
Is there a doctor in the house? John Lannan joins the walking wounded and goes on the DL; this is accounted for the curse of Chase Utley that he started three years ago. Retribution occurs when he's on the team, of course.
Ask for a sinker, and I'll give you a boat with a hole: To Kyle Kendrick, who's succeeding by upping his GB% and K%, including a complete game shutout against the Mets.
Please don't be the start of a trend because that would cause panic: To Roy Halladay and the pitching staff for allowing 7 HRs in a loss to Cleveland 14-2 on 4/30
Worst Day of the Season So far: To April 17th: the game the day before was suspended due to rain, they lost in 9 pitches, and then got blown out 11-2 in the nightcap against those Reds.
Welcome Back, Chooch! : To Carlos Ruiz, who comes back from his suspension just in time, with Erik Kratz sporting a 44 OPS+, an improvement would be nigh impossible to secure from that batting spot.
Can I Get some 7th inning stretch support? To Mike Adams and Phillippe Aumont....and well, almost everyone else in the bullpen....sample size caveats aside....that's a lot of runs given up in the late stage of games, especially against the Pirates.
Remarkable Pitching Stat Negative Edition: Chad Durbin allowed his first seven inherited runners to score, and has now allowed 9 of 11 last I checked. Is there anyone else in the league allowing greater than 50%. Chad Durbin, I give you the Baez/Qualls Award for April.
Hitting for Average is a Skill: To Michael Young, had a 16 game hitting streak and is hitting .341, though has no power, at least it's a start.
Game of the Slice: Scoring 1 in the 7th and 4 in the 8th to defeat the Cardinals 7-3 on 4/21.
Pinch-hitting is like sleepwalking except with a bat: To Laynce Nix, who's hitting 7 for 13 with a 2 HR and a 1.615 OPS as a pinch-hitter, pretty clutch.
Chase Utley is still the best hitting 2nd baseman in the NL: I don't know if this is a fact, but he has a 134 OPS+ so far and has a team-high 5 HR
Positive Prediction for May: Ryan Howard hits more than 7 HR this month...write it down.
Negative Prediction for May: Roy Halladay goes on the DL.
Realistic Prediction for May: The Phillies go .500.
No comments:
Post a Comment