That's a Relief
Brett Myers pitched well last night against the Nationals. The Phillies badly needed to see that.
That's a Relief
Todd Zolecki
Whew.
The Phillies badly needed Brett Myers to pitch well last night against the Nationals at Nationals Park. Ruben Amaro Jr. said Monday that Myers is "going to have to perform well. We're trying to win our division, so we're going to try to put the best starters out there we can to win. We're not locking ourselves in with anything. We believe he'll stay in the rotation, but we have to keep our options open, and we will." Charlie Manuel said yesterday afternoon that "right now I feel like we've got to give Brett a few more starts to see where he's at."
Myers allowed one unearned run in seven-plus innings in a 2-1 victory over the Nationals.
It's a step in the right direction.
There's no question the Nationals are a bad team. In fact, they have the worst offense in the National League. But Myers did exactly what he is supposed to do against the worst offensive team in the National League: he dominated them and won. The Phillies hope it's something to build on before his next start Sunday against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Phillies still believe Myers can be the No. 2 starter in their rotation to compliment Cole Hamels. Last night was an important step toward getting there, but he's not in the clear yet.
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In the Phillies Notebook: J.A. Happ is in the bulllpen (for the moment), Ron Mahay could be headed to the Phillies, Pedro Feliz is on the DL and Chase Utley's sore right hip looked OK.
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We get the question all the time: whatever happened to Julio Mateo? It appears he's been hanging out with the Fratellis, who had a nice little counterfeit operation going in Astoria, Ore.
cg, you would have given up Cardenas AND Carrasco for Blanton? secondly, Outman is not a reliever, he was just a solid projectable 4/5 ML starter that the Phils braintrust intended to ruin by converting him to one in midseason. He will be in the Oakland starting rotation next year.— CyHamels
I think the arrival of Jay Happ on the scene this week probably had alot to do with Myers' effort on and off the field yesterday. The not so subtle message to Myers is "Keep screwing up dude... your replacement is already here."— RAS- RAS or anyone: I haven't had a chance to peruse the paper today. Please tell what Myers did yesterday.— Truth
- I'll be the first to admit that pitching is something that goes right over my head. No pun intended. LOL! While watching on TV, I can't tell a curveball from a slider. But I CAN read mechanics and body language. And Brett definitely looked better in those aspects. Yes, he beat a *minor league* team. But he still threw good pitches. And hopefully upped his confidence level. As I said in the previous topic....Even though we weren't scoring well, we got several goods hits. A few caught right at the wall. Shane & Chase's. Yeah, I know, "An out is an out." But I think we're starting to make better contact. And a lot less K's from the top of the order. Chase was 2 for 4 with NO K's. And his two outs were both flys to right. Good sign he's on his way back. And with his HR, I guess his hip is feeling better. LOL!— Norma
- CG: to play the corners you need a good arm. Unless you want a defensive liability out there. As for Outman, from what I remember he wasn't so great as a reliever. This was his first year in the pen and his numbers weren't great. If you can prove otherwise, I'm listening— jeff gross
- KarenA....I agree with you about LA and Scott Franzke. I'd love to see them do some on-air stuff. I was actually going to ask LA that exact same thing at Phillies Phest, but he was busy talking to a staff person at the time. I had a chance to talk with Scott for awhile in the airport on our way home from Spring Training. He was very *subtle* in his evaluation of Eaton. Very funny guy!— Norma
- Great outing by Myers over a cold-hitting Nationals line-up. He threw a few mistakes that thankfully weren't hit out of the park...It was great to see Jimmy being selective at the plate, just like he was last year...Other than Chase's homer, the offense did nothing against another pitcher they were seeing for the first time...Tonight, it's Tim Redding and his rising fastball. Unless everyone can lay off the high cheese (which is usually out of the strike zone), I predict a lot of strikeouts and flyball outs— southpaw57
- "the offense did nothing against another pitcher they were seeing for the first time".....That was the problem. We were seeing him for the FIRST time. Not familiar with his *stuff*. I'm hoping for the best against Redding tonight. He definitely has the Phils number. And we face Lannan tomorrow night. Chase....DON'T crowd the plate against this guy! We can't afford another broken hand! LOL!— Norma
- Cy, I absolutely have done that. Outman was moved to a reliever therefore he IS a reliever until he is moved into a rotation. I believe that he would be better than Carrasco. Here were Outman's numbers with Reading this year:
5-4, 3.20 ERA, .257 BAA, 3HRs, 66Ks, 39BBs. I'm pretty sure that's a pretty good year.
Carrasco on the other hand is 7-7, 4.32, .254 BAA, 13HRs, 109Ks, 45BBs. Which I consider decent considering he's given up 13HRs and his ERA over his last 10 games is 5.70. As for Cardenas, where was he going to play? He was in A ball and everyone thought he was a savior. As for the corner OFs need a good arm, explain Juan Pierre playing LF.— cg - Yo, Zo!......Or anybody.....Where's Chris Snelling? I can't find him on any of the Phillies minor league rosters. Did he go with the trade for Blanton?— Norma
- cg: Playing the posistion and being good at it are two different things. Not to mention that he plays center field and not on the corner. When he played on the corner he had 0 assists.— jeff gross
- Further more, he had 2 errors in 70 games there this year and has a FP of .984--nothing to write home about— jeff gross
- jeff, how many assists does he have in CF. He WAS the LF before Jones decided that hitting was no longer an option in his career.— cg
- How many assists does the best corner OF have currently? Here are corner OFs with 4 or less assists:
Jason Bay, Johnny Damon, Eric Byrnes, Carl Crawford, Jack Cust, David DeJesus, Matt Holliday, Carlos Lee, Gary Matthews Jr., Carlos Quentin, and Alfonso Soriano. That's just LF, I decided going through RF would probably be just as long. That's 11 LFs, starters for their respective teams.— cg - Oh, and Pierre has only played 5 games as a CF as opposed to 70 in LF. Matt Kemp and Andruw Jones are the CFs in LA.— cg
