Remain Calm, All Is Well
The Phillies watched their lead shrink to 1 1/2 games in the NL East after last night's 3-2 loss to the Braves.
Remain Calm, All Is Well
Todd Zolecki
So, yeah, maybe the Phillies can't win every game down the stretch.
They lost last night to the Braves at Citizens Bank Park, 3-2. The Phillies are 10-2 since Sept. 10, which remains the best record in baseball, but lost because they were sloppy in the field and sloppy on the bases. It cut their lead over the New York Mets in the National League East to 1 1/2 games with four to play. It cut their lead against the Milwaukee Brewers, who are chasing the Mets for the wild card, to 2 1/2 games. Both the Mets and Brewers have five games remaining.
The Phillies remained calm in the clubhouse afterward, which is a good thing. But that doesn't mean they can relax. Brett Myers pitches the series finale tonight. He wants to come back from his pounding Friday in Florida. The Phillies are hoping Carlos Zambrano can outpitch Oliver Perez tonight at Shea and give the Phillies a little help heading into tomorrow's day off.
"We lost a game," Ryan Howard said. "I don't think there's any reason to go into a frenzy. It happens. The good thing is we get to come back tomorrow. Everybody else looks at four games or whatever. We play each game, then deal with tomorrow when we get to it."
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Phil Sheridan takes a look at a team that refuses to panic, which could serve them well in their final four games.
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In the Phillies Notebook: every player except Tadahito Iguchi is eligible for the postseason roster, which means Greg Golson could find hmself in the playoffs for his pinch-running capabilities. The Phillies also could skip Cole Hamels' spot in the rotation Sunday, if the Phillies clinch before then. That would set up Hamels to pitch Game 1 of the NLDS with Brett Myers starting Game 2.
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In the Baseball Prospectus Postseason Odds Report:
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The Phillies have an 87.42 percent chance to win the NL East, an 11.08 percent chance to win the wild card and a 98.51 percent chance to make the playoffs overall.
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The Mets have a 12.58 percent chance to win the East, a 59.57 percent chance to win the wild card and a 72.14 percent chance to make the playoffs overall.
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The Brewers have a 29.30 percent chance to win the wild card.
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Bob Ford, John Gonzalez and Sheridan banter about the Phillies' chances.
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The Mets caught a helluva break in last night's victory over the Cubs. ... The Brewers won a thriller. ... They also are pitching CC Sabathia tonight against the Pirates. It's his second consecutive start on three days rest.
Good news: four different Phils have HRs against Jo Jo Reyes this year, and Howard and Utley aren't even among them. This is a great opportunity tonight. Go Phils, go Cubs, go Brewers - I want the Mets out of this thing.— NJLouis66- Beef: acording to the article the follwoing 7 are FA: Pat Burrell, Jamie Moyer, Scott Eyre, Tom Gordon (club option), Tadahito Iguchi, Rudy Seanez and So Taguchi (club option). I think that Moyer, and Eyre and sure to be back, and hope they get SSeanez and perhaps Iguchi (upgrade from Bruntlett) arbitration are: Howard, Hamels, Victorino, Werth, Blanton, Madson, Dobbs, Durbin, Condrey and Bruntlett. Cheap management is going to take a beating (this should make Truth happy)— jeff gross
- Jeff: With Vic and Werth being everyday players next year they are prob going to have the biggest raises. Along with Madson and Dobbs. I think we can get Iguchi, Eyer, and Seanez for cheap. But that's if Seanez wants to play another year.— Beef69
- The Phillies are drawing an average of over 42,000 fans a game. They ought to have the money for a few extra million dollars for next year. Question is will they spend it? Only time will tell. GO PHILS!!!!— James TL
- Little mistakes cost us the game last night. Cole's throwing error. Pat's base running mistake. We CAN'T do stuff like that the next 4 games! And is anyone else really tired of the "Cole never gets any run support" and "Jimmy is our spark plug. We win when he gets on base." excuses? Eliminate Jimmy and pretend that Chase was our lead-off hitter. He had hits his first 2 at-bats (one a double), and no one was able to get him home. By the way.....I've never thought Coel was our *ace*. My vote was always for Jamie. And now Brett. LOL!— Norma
- They will have money, the question is where to spend it. With the raises the arbitratin guys are going to get, and the re-signing of a few of our own FAs, there may not be money to go to a major FA pitcher or bat.— jeff gross
- Did anyone catch Buster Olney's live chat yesterday? There were a few things Phillies that were discussed. 1) Olney thinks that it is 60-40 that Cashman will leave NY. He also feels that the Phils will make a run at him and would hire him over Arbuckle and Amaro. 2) Olney says the two biggest names on the trading block this winter are Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard. He said that other GM's around the league have told him that since long term contract talks between the Phils and Howard are going nowhere, the first order of business for our new GM will be to assess Howard's trade value. Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=22575— bski
- It'll be interesting to see how the weekend games set up with bad weather predicted Thurs. into Sat. morning. If Fri. game is rained out, we could have had a day/night double header on Sat. But now the Sat. game was changed to 3:55 so Fox can air it. But now...A day/nighter on Sunday? Hope this doesn't come back to bite them.— Norma
- the Phillies will have a ton of money next yr. Keep in mind Thomes 12mil? comes off the payroll. The Phillies included that figure in their 109mil payroll entering this season...— Truth
- Norma--I was thinking the same thing when I saw the forecast for the next several days...YIKES! Also agree with your choice(s)for the club's ace pitcher.— KarenA
- Actually Truth, the still owe Thome between 3 and 4 mil, I think. But they could save money by no resign Burrell and decline the options on Gordon and Taguchi. Nervertheless, that will be upset by all the raises the arbitration guys and some players like Utley and Myers are going to get next year.— EL Zorro
- I agree with Zorro, If Pat is gone, his salary is spent on his replacement. (Sorry, Golson is not starting next year) The money saved on Gordon, Thomes, Taguchi, Bruntlett (or iguchi) and perhaps seanez is more then spent on the raises given to Victorino, Werth, Madson, Dobbs and Durbin. We still need to pay Howard and Hamels. What money is there Truth??— jeff gross
- Jeff Gross aka stat man- Despite your ramblings your point is null and void. First of all Thome's money alone will cover the raises(this is the Phillies were talking about) They set a record at the turnstyles thereby inflating what should be redistributed in the form of payroll. This teams payroll has to be 120 million if they want to keep this nucleus together. I however do not think the payroll has to be that high to be competitive in this division.... Jeff Gross just b/c they spent 109mil this yr does not mean that they are only allowed a cost of inflation increase in payroll, there are other facors.— Truth
- Some figures from Phillies Zone 2/28/08: "The Phillies will play $6 million of Thome's contract with the Chicago White Sox this season. (They pay him $3 million next year, too.) Helms is owed $2.15 million in salary, plus a $750,000 buyout for his 2009 club option" (I think we payed his salary this year, not sure on option) to bring his figure to $2.9 million. Here are the salaries for everybody other than Thome and Benson: Pat Burrell ($14 million), Ryan Howard ($10 million), Brett Myers ($8.5 million), Chase Utley ($8.5 million, which includes a $1 million signing bonus), Adam Eaton ($8.125 million, which includes a $750,000 signing bonus), Jimmy Rollins ($8 million, which includes a $1 million signing bonus), Tom Gordon ($6.5 million, which includes a $1 million buyout for a 2009 club option), Brad Lidge ($6.35 million), Jamie Moyer ($5.5 million), Geoff Jenkins ($5 million), J.C. Romero ($3.75 million, which includes a $750,000 signing bonus), Pedro Feliz ($3 million), Wes Helms ($2.9 million, which includes a $750,000 buyout for a 2009 club option), Jasyon Werth ($1.7 million), Ryan Madson ($1.4 million), So Taguchi ($1.05 million, which includes a $125,000 buyout for a 2009 club option), Chad Durbin ($900,000), Eric Bruntlett ($600,000), Cole Hamels (a projected $500,000), Shane Victorino (a projected $490,000), Kyle Kendrick ($445,000), Chris Snelling ($450,000), Greg Dobbs ($440,000), Carlos Ruiz ($425,000), Clay Condrey ($420,000), Chris Coste ($415,000) and J.D. Durbin ($402,500). Moyer gets an extra $500,000 when he reaches 165, 175 and 185 innings pitched. He threw 199 innings last season, so it's not a stretch to think the Phillies will be paying him $7 million. Other players have incentives and bonuses in their contracts, too.— jimmymack
- Truth: as always, you ignore facts. Kendrick is 21-13 since call up in June 2007. I never used the word "quality" to describe Kendrick but based on his career stats to date, what is your definition? And Thome's 2008 (6MM) money won't come close to covering the raises the Phil's will have to give to cover arbitration and negotiated raises in 2009. Your posts continue to be nonfactual, so you won't see comments from me praising your posts as very good...LOL.— jimmymack
