It's Not Do or Die, But ...
The Phillies gotta step up this week against the Mets at Shea Stadium, don't you think?
It's Not Do or Die, But ...
Todd Zolecki
Struggling offense vs. Johan Santana. That's not a great combination, but stranger things have happened. (JEFF GROSS / Getty Images)
It's only Juy 22, so there is time.
We know how quickly things can change in just a matter of weeks. The Mets held a comfortable seven-game lead over the Phillies with just 17 games to play last season, but choked away the National League East in an epic collapse. But the Mets have turned the tables on the Phillies this year. The Phillies had a 7 1/2 game lead over the Mets on June 13, but enter tonight's three-game series against the Mets at Shea Stadium in a first-place tie.
The Phillies were 41-28 (.594) on June 13 for the fourth-best record in baseball. The Mets were 32-34 (.485). But the Mets are 21-12 (.636) since for the third-best record in baseball, while the Phillies are 12-18 (.400) for the sixth-worst record in the Natonal League.
The Phillies helped the Mets get hot by losing three-straight games to them earlier this month in Philly.
Now would be a good time for the Phillies to get their act together.
"I'm excited,'' Joe Blanton said. "Maybe there will be a few butterflies, but once you get settled in, it's about competing."
"I can't think of a better team for me to come back against," Brett Myers said. I don't like them. We're not supposed to like them. Nothing against the guys on the team - they're our rivals. We like beating them; they like beating us.''
Lately, the Phillies haven't beaten much of anybody. They'd like that to change this week at Shea.
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Billy Wagner's shoulder is bothering him. His availability this week remains uncertain.
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Here are the pitching match ups at Shea:
Tonight at 7:10
RHP Joe Blanton (5-12, 4.96 ERA) vs. LHP Johan Santana (8-7, 3.10).
Tomorrow at 7:10 p.m.
RHP Brett Myers (3-9, 5.84) vs. RHP John Maine (8-7, 4.22)
Thursday at 12:10 p.m.
LHP Jamie Moyer (9-6, 3.90) vs. LHP Oliver Perez (6-6, 4.36).
Comments (63)
I know Rollins is hurt but even if he is not he had a career yr last yr. Cholly has stated he didn't expect it to happen again. Once again lets see how Utley performs when he gets booed out of the stadium tonight. Rollins responded last yr. Lets see what Utley does? WHERE IS CHASE UTLEY?— Truth- "as for Cole, you have a point as pitchers get awarded bonuses for #s of wins." ... Actually, this is not accurate. Pitchers do not get awarded bonuses for number of Wins. The MLB collective bargaining agreement prohibits bonuses for statistical achievements. You can negotiate a bonus for awards (MVP) or other recognition (All Star Selection), but you cannot receive a bonus for hitting .300, or winning 20 games, or driving in 140 runs, or stealing 50 bases. ... and also, for the record, the average annual value of Hanley Ramirez's contract extension is slightly more than $11M per year, not $12, and Jimmy Rollins is neither as young nor anywhere near as good as Hanley is. $8M may be a little low for Jimmy, but he isn't more than a $9-$9.5M a year player, so it isn't like this contract is a grave injustice. The only player on the team who has a real gripe about money is Utley, who at $12M per year is the best bargain in baseball, and he seems to be the only one NOT obsessed with money or his contract!— acerulli
acerulli writes: "Jimmy Rollins is neither as young nor anywhere near as good as Hanley is." Huh? Rollins is the reigning MVP. Ramirez is in his third (second full) season with the Marlins. He didn't even make the All Star team last year. "$8M may be a little low for Jimmy, but he isn't more than a $9-$9.5M a year player " How's that? Aron Rowand is making $12MM this year. The current market can bear more than the $8MM Rollins is being paid for a typical J-Roll All-Star type season. However, the way Jimmy is playing right now, he doesn't deserve the league minimum.— RAS- As the old saying goes , "Where there is despair, there is hope". Here is an historical excerpt from another website on Rollins 2006 season... Though he extended his hitting streak to 38 games in the first two games of 2006, Rollins struggled in the first half of the season (.259 AVG, .744 OPS, 9 HR, 40 K) while hitting leadoff, but went on a tear after the All-Star break (he was not invited to the All-Star Game) with a .319 AVG, .965 OPS, 18 HR, and 15 K's. He set the Phillies' franchise record for home runs in a season by a shortstop with 25, a record he would later break in 2007. Rollins and Chase Utley (who hit 32 home runs) became the first pair of middle-infielders in National League history to hit at least 25 home runs each in the same season.— RAS
- Bring back Chris Snelling! He'll save the team! LOL! By the way.......Where IS Chris Snelling? I can't find him on ANY of the rosters.— Norma
- "Aron Rowand is making $12MM this year" ... Ok, first of all, Aaron Rowand is a terrible example, because he is overpaid, which is why he is on a horrible team. No good, sensible team would offer him $12M per year, not 5 guaranteed years. "Huh? Rollins is the reigning MVP" ... So are we caught up in titles now? Rollins had a career year last year, no doubt, and I was thrilled to see him win the MVP, but last year was far from the typical Jimmy Rollins season. In fact, if you go back through his career, his numbers right now are fairly typical of Jimmy Rollins at this point in the season. Everyone needs to stop thinking that last year is what you can expect from Jimmy Rollins every year... it is that exact kind of thinking that has overhyped Ryan Howard so much. Ryan Howard is not the player who won the '06 MVP; he is, more accurately, a slightly more productive version of Adam Dunn.— acerulli
- Well for starters, the TITLE of reigning MVP makes him the de-facto best shortstop in the league until he is dethroned.— RAS
- "Well for starters, the TITLE of reigning MVP makes him the de-facto best shortstop in the league until he is dethroned." ... That is just plain stupid. So every player who wins the MVP should immediately have his contract torn up and be paid more than the highest paid player at his position? And you can TITLE and DE-FACTO all you want...if you take off the Phillie-colored glasses, you would see that Hanley Ramirez AND Jose Reyes are superior players to Jimmy Rollins, and if either one of them played the game with any brains at all, you wouldn't even be able to debate it. I love Jimmy Rollins (usually, not at the moment, though), but I refuse to overvalue him. He is a very good player. But he is typically a second-half player, and I am not one to argue anyone deserves to be paid obscenely for only performing for half a season. He won the MVP last year basically because it was the ONLY time in his career that he played well in BOTH the first half AND second half of the season. Now he is back to taking the first three months off, apparently, like Bobby Abreu before him and Ryan Howard after him. Isn't this the exact same notion that had Phillies fans so angry with Pat Burrell for so long, that he was being paid $12M per season to only perform for half the season?— acerulli
- Jimmy Rollins is in eigth place salary wise this year for shortstops: Jeter $21.6MM, Furcal $15.7, Tejada $14.8, Guillen $12, O. Cabrerea $10, Rentaria $10, Lugo 9.2, Rollins $8. Compared to the rest of these stiffs, Rollins is way underpaid. It's not waht YOU THINK they should be paid, but rather what the market dynamics will bear. I am not advocating a new contract for Rollins BTW. He signed his name to the parchment, now he has to honor it.— RAS
- acerulli: Thanks for teh correction. I thought they could get bonuses for stats. I guess I'm wrong— jeff gross
- Phillies get swept by the Mets and fall to third, never to recover again.— dinohntr
- "I am not advocating a new contract for Rollins BTW. He signed his name to the parchment, now he has to honor it." ... I completely and utterly agree. Besides, he is not by any stretch old. He will have a free agent year in which he will be able to find a team to grossly overpay him, like some of the ridiculously overpaid stiffs on that list. I just don't want to see the Phillies make the same mistakes other teams have made by paying guys too much for too many years based on a single season's performance.— acerulli
- it is so nice to see so many optomistic Phillie fans on the site today. Anyone wanna bet they win the division by more 3+ games with Howard hitting 45 HR and Rollings hitting .300??— jeff gross
- Jeff Gross: "acerulli: Thanks for teh correction. I thought they could get bonuses for stats. I guess I'm wrong" ... No problem. I don't get this rule anyway. I suppose the thinking is to ensure players don't get too one-dimensional, trying to hit 50 home runs to reach some performance incentive, because we wouldn't want Ryan Howard to go up there trying to do nothing but hit home runs, ignoring all other aspects of the game, would we? ;)— acerulli
- "it is so nice to see so many optomistic Phillie fans on the site today. Anyone wanna bet they win the division by more 3+ games with Howard hitting 45 HR and Rollings hitting .300??" ... um, no on Jimmy hitting .300, yes on Howard hitting 45 HRs. I have no idea if the Phils will win the division by 3 or more games, but I still believe they are going to win it. Look at it this way, it took the Mets playing the best they can possibly play for three weeks, and the Phillies playing the worst they can possibly play for SIX weeks, just for the Mets to get even. The Phillies will start to hit again, the Mets will suffer for playing Tatis, Easley, Chavez, Evans, et. al. everyday, and the division will sort itself out. I would expect the Phillies will still win 88-90 games, the Mets no more than 85-87. The Marlins will fade also. You can outslug your own bad pitching sometimes, but you cannot overcome awful pitching AND awful defense forever.— acerulli
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