General Discussion – Week of March 11, 2013 – RIP Roy’s Arm Edition

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Poor Roy Halladay’s arm.

Discuss.

127 thoughts on “General Discussion – Week of March 11, 2013 – RIP Roy’s Arm Edition”

  2. This is generally the portion of Spring Training where some pitchers develop “dead arm”. Strasburg was knocked around on Monday vs. the Braves, and for a guy they babied in 2012, there’s no concern over his start.

    While it’s very concerning, I think I’ll wait until we see how Doc responds in his next couple of starts, instead of hastily jumping to a conclusion. He’s been fairly solid this Spring up until yesterday.

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      1. This drop in velocity dates back to last year though, i think now is a perfectly good time to worry.

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        2. His velocity will never be what it was, but what we saw yesterday is not the new normal for Halladay. He’s likely going through dead arm, as has been noted above, but he’s also going to have to adjust to pitching with less velocity. I don’t think he’s finished, but those who are expecting the Halladay of years past will be disappointed.

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          1. Mike, I don’t think Roy Halladay will return to his 2010 form but should be serviceable and is a great mentor for our young pitchers. Unfortunately, I guess we can expect a few games like yesterday where he just does not have it.

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  3. Brad tweeted that Ruf is just outside Sickels’ top 150. Maybe he will (after all) sell barbeque in Ashburn Alley one day.

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  4. So on Sickels top 150 he has Biddle at 61 and Morgan at 132. Just missing were Quinn, Martin and Ruff. Its incredible anyone has Ruf ahead of Maikel Franco and Tommy Joseph.

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    1. fwiw, Sickels: “I tend to favor players who are closer to the majors than those who are far away.”

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        2. Agreed. But if you have Joseph-Franco-Ruf as 4-5-6 (as our reader pole does), weight proximity more heavily, assume Ruf’s eta is a year ahead of Joseph, and discount the Springs they’re having, it’s a little easier to see Ruf ahead than at first glance.

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      2. I checked this out and the 2nd or 3rd article down is about MiLB park factors. Lakewood is 2nd most pitcher friendly in the SAL. They said Franco would have hit 20 homers if First Energy was a league average park. Definitely an interesting read

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    2. It’s not disrespectful. It’s a joke, because we all know that after yesterday there will be 100 comments about how Roy Halladay is finished. And whether someone is a class act or not at some point their skills will diminish and decline and it isn’t a crime to talk about it

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    3. It’s a commentary on the tendencies of the media/blogosphere/fanosphere to overreact. If I really thought Roy’s arm was dead, I wouldn’t be happy to make fun of him.

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      1. I can’t believe I’m defending this joke headline. GUYS LISTEN, I AM ALMOST ALWAYS TRYING TO BE FUNNY! OFTEN I FAIL, OR SIMPLY DON’T CONNECT WITH EVERYONE ALL THE TIME, BUT CAN WE PLEASE ASSUME IT’S THAT AND NOT THAT I’M A JERK?

        Also, I am pretty sure Roy’s arm died because of the threat of HGH testing. It’s the only explanation.

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          2. We all know that RAJ traded Roy’s younger good arm for an older more consistantly crappy arm.

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        2. I didn’t call you a jerk – I said it felt disrespectful. Guess I’m the one you didn’t connect with, or I didn’t get your humor. If you’re almost always going to try to be funny (your words), and you sometimes fail, don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot because I don’t get it or misread it or don’t think it’s funny. Unless you’re looking for a mute audience. That’s an unreasonable expectation for any comedian. That’s on you.

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          1. The “jerk” versus “disrespectful” is a semantic argument at best. Being disrespectful is a jerky thing to do, right?

            Sorry you don’t find me funny, but I’m not going to apologize for defending myself against your original statement where you called my words disrespectful.

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    4. I agree that despite Brad’s good intentions, this was disrespectful. But we all know Brad is a good dude and we all make mistakes. So let’s move on.

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  7. I am thinking of larrys comment, about wishing injury to a player, what kind of person does that?. very disappoint in you larry. its only a game. very poor judgement by you. imo. hope you realize it and dont attempt to wish anymore harm on people.

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  8. Good stuff as always guys, thanks! Didn’t see anything particularly offensive about the headline. Just a little fun as some people will be writing Doc already. I thought it was pretty funny myself. FWIW, if Doc is injured, D. Young is certainly the culprit.

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  9. I saw a few innings of the the Phils – Yanks game. Sometimes you can get a good reading about guys from the opponent’s announcers. They were gushing about Brown’s hit in the 3rd inning against Andy Pettitte. He was down in the count and appeared that Brown was trying to cover the outside corner of the plate. Pettitte went at Brown on the insude corner. Most times you see a young guy pull back and it’s a called 3rd strike. Not Brown. He pulled his hands in a stroke a run scoring single. The announcers talked about it for a while saying that it was a nice piece of hitting. Ruf looked terrible in his early 2 ABs. I didn’t see the HR. Pettitte struck him out with an 89MPH fastball. Pettitte’s such a crafty lefty that he set him up with pitches Ruf couldn’t even swing at. It was clear that Ruf was looking for a change-up and the 89MPH fastball was past him before he was set to swing. Field’s looked pretty bad on the muffed chopper. At full speed it looked like Field’s might have trouble getting the guy even if he fielded it cleanly but when they showed it again, it was a play that even below average fielders would have made. I don’t think he’s long for big league camp. Last thought, you think Halladay was bad, Lee couldn’t seem to get any pitch where he wanted. He was walking guys. Missing every spot he was throwing to. That Yankee lineup, even with Jeter back, would have some trouble beating a AAA team. It’s one outing but clearly not a good outing.

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    1. It’s great to see that Dom appears to be putting it all together and becoming a confident player. I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes this season.

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      1. By all appearances, we could be looking at a very significant breakout here – this season he could easily go from having been a borderline major leaguer to being a borderline star (or an actual star if everything goes right). I think the progress is going to be that dramatic. More to the point, I think we are going to finally get the Domonic Brown we always thought we would get. Having seen Brown play this year (he looks as good in ST as any player I can remember – and, as I previously explained – these appear to be actual changes, not just a player hitting into good luck), it looks like the team was particularly wise in not trading him all this time.

        On Galvis – I kept telling folks this guy is the real deal. His fielding is otherwordly and he is hitting with consistent power. It looks pretty obvious that he’s going to hit well enough to be a regular – the only question is whether he will evolve into first division regular. I wouldn’t bet against him. He’s still improving at the plate.

        On Ruf – Sure, the fielding leaves a ton to be desired, but getting that type of baptism by fire, at a new position, in the worst possible place to field fly balls other than the old Candlestick Park (the winds in ST, especially this year, are almost comically bad), means we need to cut him a little slack. At the plate, sure he’s going to get fooled from time to time – he’s a slugger, all sluggers get fooled, especially those learning to handle big league pitching. But other than that, his approach looks good, his bat is pretty quick and I just think his timing has been a little off and he’s been pressing. In short, I haven’t really seen anything to suggest he’s not the hitter we thought he was. Ruf can hit. Whether he can be a starting big league left fielder will be determined later.

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        2. Good post. Im not sure on what to make of Freddy or Ruf at this point but it looks like Brown figured something out. Going to be a big year fro those three.

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        3. Catch, I would rank myself on the optimistic side of the spectrum regarding Galvis, certainly among knowledgeable commenters (of course including you in that category). I am encouraged by the fact that he continues to show a little pop, though I think “consistent power” is gilding the lily. But, with the usual SSS caveats, a 12/2 K/BB ratio does not inspire confidence. If he hits .240/.280/.380 – and I think that’s about where he will be this season, with of course some room for growth going forward – well, that’s really still pretty marginal.

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          1. I agree with this. I think he has enough power for a player with his profile, so I’m not really concerned there. I just wonder if he’ll have a good enough eye and enough plate discipline to be a decent hitter. He chases too many bad balls from what I’ve seen of him. His o-swing% (percentage of pitches outside the zone that he swung at) last year was 39%, which is not good. But his z-contact was about 89%, which means when he swings at pitches in the strike zone, he makes contact at a slightly better than average rate.

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  10. I wish I were as optimistic not that I disagree with Brown and Galvis optimism. I thought if Halladay was healthy and better than he was last year we had a shot at winning 90 games. I gave them a very limited chance if that got them into the playoffs to do anything meaningful but thats still a good season right?

    Well now I’m not seeing it. Halladay scares the crap out of me to be frank especially when Kendrick and Lannan are the depth behind him. If RAJ wasn’t in enough of a quandary he’s found himself where no GM wants to be. Not quite good enough to stay the course not quite bad enough to justify tearing it down.

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    1. I’m with DMAR on this. With the current lineup & relievers, the team pretty much needs to have the best or near best starting pitching in the league. I’m taking a bit more of a wait and see attitude than some regarding Halladay, but he surely isn’t close to the pitcher he was before last year, and at this point there’s at least some chance that he might be entirely cooked. Lannan and Kendrick are both serviceable or even decent 5s, but Kendrick as a 4 is a stretch. The staff still projects to be better than average, but it’s hard for me to be very optimistic about this season.

      IMO the hole in left (or right, depending upon where they put Brown) is really starting to loom large (and, of course, there are no decent options on the horizon for the next couple of years either – even our good corner outfielder prospects in the lower minors both might need to move to first base, and, in any event, are at least 3 years away). There was a point where I thought that a Mayberry/Nix platoon would be okay, but (a) I don’t think the Phillies will do that, and (b) Manuel has his strengths as a manager, but properly managing a platoon does not seem to be one of them. I like Ruf and root for him, but my belief that he can’t field well enough for the position has only been reinforced.

      All the more reason why, despite the risks and costs thereof, they should have taken the plunge into the FA market this past off season for a corner outfielder.

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      1. They couldn’t afford to take the plunge for a FA OF. We have the Youngs, because that’s all that fit in the budget. We don’t have the YOungs because RA was under the delusion that they are great players. They are the cheap fixes he could afford. We also traded our #3/4 starter for Revere, rather than signing a non-comp FA like Pagan, because he comes at low salary. As he always does, RA spent up to his budget. All of the very expensive players on the roster just made the amount of unspent budget small. RA chose to ‘sort of, kind of fill’ 5 holes, rather than doing a good job filling 2-3 of them. That allows him to trumpet that we are a contender (if everything breaks right, which with an old team and marginal FA signings, it never does). Revere is useful going forward and can be part of a rebuild on the fly. The other FAs we signed, not so much, they are strictly for 2013. It’s called eyewash.

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        1. I don’t think we are disagreeing – obviously there is a difference between describing rather than approving of this off seasons’s moves. But I absolutely think the money available (and he didn’t quite spend up to his budget, unless the budget was lower this year than last*) could have been much better spent.

          IMO, unless Ruf improbably turns into a decent fielder in left, the corner OF situation is going to be problematic for AT LEAST the next couple of years, maybe longer depending upon trade/FA options. And this makes my fear of a superficially decent D. Young season all the greater. If Young has a (say) 1.5 WAR season, given the lack of internal or FA options next off season, Amaro WILL sign him to a 2 or, more likely, 3 year contract with an AAV between 6 and 12 million. And that would be a disaster of epic proportions.

          *I’m not sure COTs properly accounts for all personnel costs, but for year to year comparisons it is quite accurate. The team’s payroll this year is down 18 million from last year.

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          1. Actually I’m not worried about left. I say role with Brown and Revere and whatever is the next best defensive option (Mayberry/Nix) and that line-up should score you enough runs to win in Hamels/Lee outings most times out.

            I’m not even sure what they do with Roy if it turns out he is the Roy of last year. DL him maybe.

            I’m not worried about next year as we’ll be cash rich and there will be a decent crop of plug in guys, Ellsbury, Choo, Pence, Corey Hart maybe. Pitching you can target Garza or Volquez. I’m not worried about D Young getting re-signed. He might have a decent year with the bat but no way he can play an adequate RF.

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            1. They won’t DL him unless he is seriously hurt. He won’t be a PHillie next year so giving him 2013 off doesn’t help us going forward. If Halladay can pitch to #4/5 starter quality, he will pitch.

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            3. It depends entirely upon how well he pitches this year. If he ends the year on the DL, then absolutely no qualifying offer for him. If he looks like he can be a #2/3 then yes, you do it. It’s just one year and better than multiple years to a free agent #3/4 who’s going to want $21 mill for 3 years.

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          2. I believe a big part of our disagreement about left (or right, depending upon where Brown plays) is related to differing expectations of organisational competency.

            For this year, I’m pretty confident I am correct. Yes, a strict Mayberry/Nix platoon would be adequate. That won’t happen. As I said, Young is likely to get the most playing time in the other corner, and,to the extent that Mayberry and Nix get some playing time, it won’t be with any concern to getting the platoon advantage. Manuel has his virtues as a manager, but maximizing the platoon advantage isn’t one of them.

            For the following two years, it is certainly possible that my worst case scenario won’t come to pass. (Let’s hope that D. Young removes all doubt by having a horrible – that is, typical D. Young – season.) But chances are that the Phillies end up paying too much for mediocrity. The next FA market is going to be worse than the past one; not only are the options worse, but supply and demand will push up salaries. The team could end up paying more for less than if they had played the FA market this past off season. I doubt Pence would sign with the Phillies – there seemed to be some bad feelings after the trade – but how would people around here feel about paying him (say) 60 million over 4 years, and surrendering a draft pick?

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            1. And to forestall the “how can you root against a Phillies player” canard, I don’t really consider D. Young a Phillie. Am I required to root for a “player” just because Amaro makes a hideous mistake in player acquisition? What if he re-acquired Ugueth Urbina – would I be required to root for him? Really? (For the record, I’d rather have Urbina on my team than Young.)

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            2. And as for my speculation about the Pence contract, this goes back to what I’ve been saying about the new normal in the FA market. We may look back on this past off season as the last time when FA contracts were half way reasonable. It’s supply and demand – on the one hand, increasingly weak FA markets (because teams are locking up their star talent before it hits the FA market), and on the other hand, plenty of new TV money available. One can certainly disagree about how teams should react to this reality, but a reality it is. Assuming Pence has something of a rebound season (likely IMO), 4/60 is quite likely. And SOMEONE is going to give Cano his 10/200 deal (I wouldn’t).

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      2. If Halladay really bottoms out, the regret may be less the signing of a good outfielder than the failure to sign a guy like Dan Haren (I hate that almost every time I think of an astute move over the last few years, the Nationals come to mind in one way or another). I wonder – and I am being dead serious about this – whether it would be acceptable with the framework of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Phillies and Cardinals to work out a one-year sign and trade deal for Kyle Lohse – the trade consideration would be modest. He’d be very nice as a back end starter this year and, at this point, Lohse might welcome that type of approach.

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        1. By mid-season, Phils may prove to have a number of trade chips to work with. What if Biddle, Martin and Morgan all have solid years, and Pettibone sees a modest increase in K%? Wishful thinking that all will have good years, but the depth is there and little chance that a true ace develops out of this group, though I still think scouts are underestimating Biddle. This could be a punishing year for the Pharm if the Phils are ‘in it’ come July

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  11. I say Cole can get you 15-18 Wins minimum, Lee 12-14 wins, Kendrick 8-9, Lannan 10-11. Last year if you only looked at the Giants they got 71 wins out of their 5 starters. That means Halladay or some combination there of would have to get you 19 wins to equal that staff if you take the more aggressive win totals from our knowns.

    It’s an arbitrary number no doubt but you get the idea. Now all of the sudden we go from being concerned with run production to starter production.

    In contrast the Tigers got 61 wins out of their starters but they leaked in from a weak central

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    1. That’s an interesting post and gives you something to think about. My only issue, and this is really nitpicking, is that I think Hamels can give you 15-18 wins, but not at minimum. Last year was the first year since his 2nd season, i think, that he won 15 games or more.

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        1. Need to figure an edge to Hamels but a more complimentary spread with Lee. If Cole is worth 15-18, isn’t Lee worth at least 14-17, or 13-16?

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          1. I was trying to be conservative. I set his(Lee) over/under at 14. Last year it seemed defense cost him quite a bit of games. Yes he could easily be in the 16/17 range but that still leaves the win total needed from Halladay/someone esle at near 15.

            I guess we have no choice but to let this thing play out again. But the Roy of last year is going to tax your BP. Thats a tall order.

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  12. My creative juices are flowing today so here is my plan to build a WS contender for 2014.

    Call the Rays they should covet a guy like Ruf and they need a 1B what is he worth to them? I love him but I’m sorry I don’t see a successful transition to the OF.

    Call the Angels, Jerry who do you want for Grichuk not named Joseph or Biddle. If possible make it happen within reason Ruiz maybe. Matt loves when I beat the Grichuk drum.

    Land Garza in the FA market or next best option or both. Is Biddle ready to be the 5th starter?

    If Utley has a decent season extend him for 1 year max otherwise Galvis. Drum roll please your 2014 starting line-up:

    Revere
    Rollins
    Brown
    Howard
    Joseph
    Grichuk
    Asche
    Galvis
    SP: Hamels, Lee, Garza, Biddle, some other guy!

    Genius right?

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    1. Grichuk….like this guy. Good defensive player with pop in his bat and still young. Though will cost a pitcher Martin or Morgan, or a position prospect, ie Franco or Asche, along with Ruiz..

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      1. I don’t see the big deal about Grichuk. 23/92 BB/K ratio with .823 OPS in the offense-heavy Cal league (nearly 100 points lower than Gillies at the same age in that league). I’m not giving up Martin, Morgan, Franco or Asche for that.

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      2. See, that’s the thing. If they could get him for someone in the 11 to 19 prospect range (plus Ruiz, who is gone after this year regardless), go for it.* But IMO Asche and Franco and Martin and Morgan are all more likely to become solid or better major league players. There’s something to be said for re-configuring talent (in the sense that the team has an arguable prospect redundancy at third base and among starting pitchers, and a deficiency in corner OF prospects), but if we’re going to do that I think we should aim higher than Grichuk.

        Don’t get me wrong Grichuk is a decent prospect, but the combination of risk (he really needs to work on his approach, and there is some fear that his 2012 was a product of where he played) and lowish upside (unlikely to be a star; I agree with others that the Werth comparison is misplaced – his upside is probably worth with half as many BB, which is a huge difference) IMO make him a les valuable prospect that the players who you listed.

        *I know that they won’t get Grichuk for that, my point is that he isn’t worth what the team would need to give up for him.

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    2. I have seen Grischuk and he is not better then anything we have in the minors. But if you insist just wait till rule 5 draft this year und you can have him without giving up anything.

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      1. Seriously if they don’t protect Grichuk I’ll buy you season tickets to the minor league affiliate of your choice and you do the same if they leave him unprotected.

        I’m wrong more than I am right so should be a fair bet for you!

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      2. No way he is left unprotected, the Angels system is so weak that they cannot let free talent go. My argument with Grichuk is that he isn’t a difference maker (his ceiling is solid regular much like Asche) and you just aren’t going to win that trade. There is a small chance the Angels don’t know what they have, but this is a first round pick, if he comes cheap there is something wrong otherwise the price will be prohibitive. You are better off developing your own guys or using them to get an established player. Not to mention there is little chance he is ready to be a regular before mid to late 2014.

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        1. Matt before we got him did anyone think Jayson Werth was a difference maker? yes I am making the statement that is the comparable….

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          1. Werth stagnated due to injury, but he was a Top 100 prospect in all of Baseball 4 times between 1998 and 2002 and he had a high ceiling. Werth had become a “failed” prospect when the Phillies got him, you aren’t going to get that player before they fail. Just for comparison here is Werth’s A ball line (age 20) .305/.403/.395, Werth didn’t have big power but he had much better plate discipline and hit tool.

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            2. The point is you are comparing to very different things a prospect on his normal development cycle and a former top prospect who had a string of injuries that derailed his career. You don’t give up your guy that you are nurturing for anything less than sure thing or a complete win in your mind, without having given up on that player. If we were hearing the angels were down on him for dumb reason and you could get him for cheap that is completely different.

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          2. You could literally use that logic to argue for acquiring any player. Let’s try to trade for Ben McMahan from the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. I’ve never heard of him before but I had never heard of Werth at one point either and that worked out.

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    3. Not really sure what you’re aiming for with that … I mean, it’s all defensible I suppose, but it wouldn’t likely be a contender. You could say that your real goal is contention down the road, i.e., 2015 on, and I’m not optimistic about the team contending in 2014 in any event, but my basic reaction is meh. I’m on record regarding my reservations about Grichuk, and I don’t really see Galvis hitting well enough (at least as a 24 year old) to play second base. That’s a bottom third of the league lineup in terms of offensive production. I like the young guys, but relying that much on 4 1/2 rookies (Galvis is the half, not technically a rookie but 2014 would be his first year as a regular), along with 3 aging veterans, is IMO not a recipe for success. And while i like Garza, I predict that he will get a larger contract than he merits in a weak FA market.

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  13. The more I see Inciarte play, the more I like this guy. But alas, his only starting position would be CF with his lack of power and that is not available now. As a 4th, he may have some value.

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    1. Alas, the active streak of 10,647 days that the word ‘alas’ failed to show up in any post on the internet has ended

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      1. Just for kicks, I searched “alas” in Google News. It returned 42,000 results from over the the past few weeks. Steve, maybe you need to broaden your online horizons …

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    2. If he makes the team it is as a 5th OF in case Cholly doens’t think he has any other decent CF defensive replacements. He’d be the Galvis of the OF. Not saying I wouldn’t prefer him to Manuel’s past penchant to trot Martinez out there. Martinez got to trot out to the OF in 9 games last season. That’s a measure of how much work Inciarte might get, apart from pinch running. Takes what should be one of your top 3 or 4 PH bats off the bench, though, unless you need a guy to bunt. A measure of how bad the Phillies were last season is that they gave Martinez 115 AB and he racked of an OPS of .460. INciarte could probably OPS that much.

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    3. If Inciarte makes the club (I personally would like to see it) it will be because management believes that Frandsen and Galvis will hit enough in their bench roles that they can carry a defensive replacement/pinch runner. Inciarte would easily get exposed as a full time player but he has enough of a clue what he is doing that he shouldn’t be completely overmatched in an AB here and there.

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  14. For what it’s worth

    I’ll be down in Clearwater next Friday through Sunday with a few of my high school sons watching games (watching Friday and Sunday’s Phillies games at Bright House and watching the Yankees/Tigers on Saturday because one of my sons is a blasted Yankees fan – he’s lucky he still has a roof over his head!). Let me know if you’ll be down there – I’d love to say hello to any of our friendly regular contributors.

    Also, I am looking to figure out best places to eat (I am told we have to go to Lenny’s – we’ll do that) and, more importantly, how to find out team workout schedules and minor league game schedules. I am pretty clueless on these fronts – any leads would be appreciated.

    I will report back on what I see – we should be getting down to the last cuts at that time.

    Thanks y’all.

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    2. Lenny’s is a must!!! Get there early in the morning to beat the crowds. You are one lucky man. Going to Clearwater is one of the greatest experiences ever!!!!

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      1. I haven’t been down to ST since I was a kid in college – close to 30 years ago when I was still a Mets fan (I grew up in NY suburb, so I have an excuse). I saw a lot of Mets/Phillies game because the Mets were in St. Petersburg at the time. It was a different world back then. The teams played on fields with little chain link fences – the same ones you see at little league fields. That was all that was separating you from them and you were often no more than 15 feet away. One of my favorite memories was of Frank Howard – all six foot eight of him – who was a coach for the team and, when you walked up to the field, unprovoked, he would ask you how you were doing, where you were from, how long you were there, where you ate and more . . . honest to God. I still remember that – he has to be one fo the nicest people baseball has ever seen. A true gentle giant.

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        1. Wear your ‘phuturephillies’ baseball cap and I will look for you during CSN Sunday’s televised game.

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    3. catch, you probably knew all along there had to be a reason to go on the Phillies Forum on philly.com and for you there is a reason. There is a guy known as Les229 who lives in the Clearwater area and is knowledgeable about everything to do with attending practices, spring training games, where to eat and the like. If you don’t see answers already to the questions you have, you can ask him on line and expect a response within a day.

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        1. Catch – suggest Friday you inquire into minor league schedules when you reach Brighthouse Field. Training complex is immediately adjacent to the main field and this time of year you’ll see a good deal of activity there every morning. Lenny’s is more notorious than a good eatery but certainly worth a visit. Clearwater Beaches about 20 minutes or so from the fields as well.

          Are you flying into Tampa Int’l or St.Pete/Clearwater?

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          1. Flying into Tampa on Southwest. Staying about 15 min. north of Clearwater. Any recommendations? i was going to get an early dinner in Tampa after the game on Sunday (before our late flight) before heading to the Tampa airport – isn’t there a really famous Cuban restaurant in Ybor City everyone goes to?

            Thanks for the advice on the schedules. That is very helpful.

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            1. Ybor City isn’t as close to Tampa Intl. as it seems, I would plan for a day after a game. I went for four years and I never ventured to the Tampa area with the exception of one Yankees game. The Original Hooters is in Clearwater along with a ton of seafood restaurants if you go about 10 min away to beautiful Clearwater beach. The real gems when it comes to places to go is in Dunedin where the Blue Jays play, the road to Dunedin is two streets down from Bright House Field, and for a quaint, little town main street in Dunedin has no doubt some of the best food and shops in the many times that I went down to Spring Training. Most importantly, if you venture to the minor league fields, make sure to report back on what you see!

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            2. Columbia Restaurant. They have a link. Avoid Ybor in the evening though. It’s become quite the hangout for 21yr olds who are celebrating their coming of age. If you’re bringing the kids I’d suggest u do Ybor during the day.

              If you’re flying into Tampa but staying north of Clearwater, you may want to avoid coming over to Tampa outside of Steinbrenner field. But once you’re there, there’s a couple casual sports-bar-eatery types that are fine for kids. Recommend Lee Roy Selmon’s – great environment, great place to catch a game and good food to boot. A number of nicer restaurants I could recommend as well.

              My advice; spend as much time in Clearwater as possible. Living in NE PA for the first 30 yrs of my life, I never realized the quality of the beaches on the Gulf Coast. Far difference from what we see on the Atlantic coast. There’s something about it down there which compels you to just relax and take it all in. While on Clearwater beach, you’ll hear a lot about Shepherds Bar. Like Ybor, unless you’re there to get drunk and pick up chicks (i’ll meet you there if you are), you’d get a much better experience having lunch at one of the beachside restaurants such as The Pavilion and Frenchy’s have open-walled places right on the beach. Again, if you’re going balls to the wall, by all means, go to Ybor and/or Shepherds. Else I recommend grabbing lunch or evening snacks at one of the aforementioned. Live entertainment, a beer in hand, decent food, and the Gulf of Mexico in the background. Not too shabby

              Sorry everyone for taking up so much space here but thought other’s might be interested as well

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            3. BTW, Lee Roy Selmon’s less than a half-mile from the airport. Sporty but still a nice place. Might be ideal of a bite before you depart

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            4. Thank you. It was very nice of you to take the time to lay this all out. I hope it is helpful to others as well. Best.

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  15. Phillies re-signed IF Andres Blanco. That may be an indicator they are making plans for Freddy Galvis to make the team, and anticipate Yunieski Betancourt to opt out on March 24.

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  16. Thoughts on Manuel’s expressed intention to manage past 2013?

    IMO, while he has substantial merits – I am not down on him the way I am down on Amaro – he is not the right guy to manage what will be a younger/rebuilding team in 2014/2015. I have reservations about Sandberg, but think he would be the right guy for integrating the younger players into the lineup.

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    1. All predicated on the team’s performance this year I would presume. If the Phils miss the playoffs, I don’t think he’ll be asked to come back irrespective of his intentions

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        1. I would agree with that. They’re doing the right thing with Charlie but I suspect the FO might be more inclined to part ways than Charlie would. Still, a WS and I think Charlie returns even at the risk of losing Sandberg who I like, but am not convinced will be the great manager than some seem to believe

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    2. I know Manuel is popular due to the championship and from what I read players love playing for him. I still see mistake after mistake in his choices and think he is an average manager. I think the Phillies achieved despite Charlie Manuel. I’ve been ready to move on from Manuel for a while, but haven’t seen a viable alternative. I think that the Phillies have treated this situation adequately; and am interested to see how Sandberg evolves this year. I don’t know if he is the replacement, but this year is his interview.

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      1. I’ve said before that Manuel’s greatest strength may be in the hard to measure, but IMO crucial, role of keeping a high paid, high ego group of baseball players motivated, loose and happy. He’s a player’s manager in the best sense (i.e., also does not appear to let them walk all over him).

        As a tactician, he has his good points (he rightly does not emphasize “small ball” strategies) and bad points (lack of emphasis on gaining the platoon advantage, and poor bull pen management), but he’s well within the range of the acceptable on that score. If his tactical deficiencies cost the team more than a game or two at most over the course of the season, I would be shocked.

        His personnel choices are sometimes curious, but how much of that is him as opposed to the front office is unclear.

        His biggest deficit IMO is one that hasn’t mattered much till now, but will matter increasingly. I do think he has a preference for veterans (partly rational but not entirely so), and seems to not be at his best integrating young talent into the team (though in fairness he managed that task well in his first couple of years at the helm).

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        1. He’s old and time to go, players don’t relate to someone who just lays on a pole for nine innings and never motivates anyone. Plus the players know they have him in there back pocket, he plays the old guys and that gets you no where, look what young guys like Brown and Freddy have done when given there chance, it’s time for a manager with some balls who will take chances and shake things up a little bit. Why do we keep playing these old guys when we have young youth in the org that we don’t use, Del young couldn’t catch a fly ball for the Tigers what make you think he can do it here, a lot of bad org decisions……. Let’s move on.

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  17. I really think charlie is okay at best manager,but the fans love him. he makes so many imo,dumb moves. it kills me. he loves to sit there and play for the three run homer, i love when a team gets first two guys on and bunts, puts so much pressure on the other team, do we pitch to the next guy or walk him and try to cut the run at the plate or play for two, so many things can score a guy from third verus from second , error, pass ball , balk. catcher inference,fly ball, and so on.

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    1. By and large, too much sacrifice bunting, especially early in a game is the single best way to score fewer, not more, runs. Good baseball generally does not involve voluntarily giving the other team outs. There are exceptions in late inning baseball, but, generally, it’s a mind-numbingly bad strategy, even when you have a good pitching staff.

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    2. Earl Weaver also waited for the three run homer. If you have the power like Charlie does, go for it. It worked pretty well over five years. Last year they lost their power and were not structured to overcome it. When the power returned, they did much better.

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    3. I guess that 3-R HR worked today. Brown hit a 3 run HR off Koruda in the 4th. Lerud just hit 2 R homer in the top of th 9th. Pitching has been stellar today (so far) too. Valdez 3 innings 3 H no runs. Adams, Durbin (who can handle 3 innings) and Stutes getting the job done. I wish I could say that we’l see lot of that this year.

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  18. By the way, it looks like the dust is settling in the bullpen wars. Here’s how I see the bullpen shaking out coming out of ST absent an injury or some dramatic reversal of performance. These aren’t my preferences – they are my predictions. I say all of this with one caveat. It’s possible that, while the outfield situation shakes out, the team might carry 6 relievers in early April and an extra outfielder. If that’s the case, either Stutes or Aumont will go down – more likely Aumont, although he would come back within a month or so thereafter.

    Papelbon
    Adams
    Bastardo
    Durbin
    Horst
    Aumont
    Stutes

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    1. i think Valdes makes the roster. yes that is three lefties, but i think they see valdes as the long man.

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  19. I love stutes but i think he goes down to pitch more. just my opinon. but its looks like I was wrong about aumont, he is getting better, i never thought he would get to the majors and help,

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  20. THE game that sticks out to me is against the mets in 08, 7th inning and we are up 3-2 and get two runners on and he doesnt bunt and we lose 4-3. and in the inning there were two fly balls outs ,thats what i mean its was against santana . couldnt understand why he didnt bunt and put pressure on the mets,late in the game. i can understand early maybe, but late you put as much pressure on other team as possible,

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  21. The 2013 draft is 3 months away………With the 16th pick the Philadelphia Phillies take?????????Do they take the best player available, regardless of position??? Do they take a pitcher???? Do they take a reach pick with upside potential???? Do they take a HS or College player????

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    1. Player projected to be the best major leaguer regardless of position, except if it is a relief pitcher

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    2. Yes, take the best player available. Whomever he is he is years away from contributing at the major league level, so we really have no idea what we will need then. What we know we need is a potential star to be part of the new core, at whatever position he plays. Yes, a pitcher is fine. Yes, H.S. or college are fine, although at 16 you need to make sure that the college guy you pick has the potential to be an impact player. The obvious college picks will be off the board, although sometimes an Utley hangs around until then. No, no, no do not reach for a high/risk, high/upside guy. We’ve learned two things from recent drafts. First, the Hewitts have a huge chance of fizzling and it dents the system when they do. Second, the high risk/high potential guys are available later in the draft. There is really no difference between Hewitt and Golson, vs Hudson, Altherr, Brown, James, Pointer. You don’t need to spend a first rounder, let alone a mid-first rounder, and over $ 1 million to get a speedy, athletic, toolsy, high risk/high reward project type guy. There seems no edge to the first round reach pick, vs the guy taken several rounds later and a lot cheaper.

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  22. By the way Catch, I was just in FLA and saw the Phils play the pirates in Bradenton. Spring Training games are awesome!!! I watched Morgan warm up in the bullpen and then throw 3 scoreless innings. He was impressive. Stood next to Tommy Joseph. He is built like a brick house!!! There are tons of excellent places to eat in Clearwater. Plus Clearwater beach is one of the nicest beaches in the USA. I like to go to a place which is about a 10 minute ride south along the coastline in Indian Rocks Beach called Crabby Bills. Good food and good people.

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  23. I haven’t seen this on here, so sorry if it’s a repeat. Rupp hit 3 HRs in his first two spring training games. Now obviously its early and its spring training, and this is a classic SSS scenario, but … this guy could really break out this year as a legit catching prospect. The defense is solid, the power is obviously there, his BB/K rate was decent last season (10.3%/19.7%). Imagine what he can do in Reading …

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    1. Logically, I would think his prospect status would jump this year, based on moving from pitchers’ league FSL, to hitters’ park Reading. His HR totals should jump this year, and like Ruf, his numbers will get padded a bit, because he will probably have to stay at Reading all year.
      I hesitate to automatically assign big numbers to Rupp though, because the same could have been said for Valle going into last year, and he didn’t do anything.

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      1. But Valle has horrible plate discipline while Rupp’s is good. I expect a big bump from Rupp and then I expect him to be included in a trade. Seriously.

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        1. It’s interesting to wonder who would have more trade value should the trends continue into the first half of this season: Rupp or Valle. If Rupp hits well at REA and Valle continues to show a poor approach, would Rupp become the more coveted C in a trade proposal?

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