{"id":1928,"date":"2011-04-25T20:05:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T00:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2011-04-25T20:07:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T00:07:36","slug":"phillies-report-card-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1928","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Report Card #2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Hopefully Jose won't be out too long<\/p><\/div>\n

Record since last Report Card:<\/strong>\u00a08-3<\/p>\n

Overall Record:\u00a0 <\/strong>15-6 (1st in division)<\/p>\n

Following a sweep in San Diego over the weekend, the Phils now have the best record in baseball, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of reason for concern.\u00a0 The hot-start from the offense over the first ten games has disappeared, and Jose Contreras landing on the DL leaves the bullpen very thin.<\/p>\n

Position Players:
\n<\/strong>The Phils haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since April 9th, more than two weeks and 14 games ago.\u00a0 Since our last Report Card, they’re averaging less than\u00a0three runs a game.\u00a0 Really, it’s pretty amazing that they’ve been able to win 8 of 11 in that\u00a0stretch.\u00a0 I noted in the last Report Card that 7 of the 8 starters were hitting over .300.\u00a0 Now,\u00a07 of the 8 are UNDER .300, with Ibanez at .187.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lone bright spot in the line-up has\u00a0been the two table-setters\u00a0at the top, Victorino and Polanco.\u00a0 Victorino’s OBP is .352 (up 25 points from\u00a0last year), he’s scored 15 runs,\u00a0and hit the game-winning homer against the Brewers last Wednesday.\u00a0 That\u00a0game-winner was made possible by a 3-run shot from Polanco earlier in the game that tied\u00a0it at 3.\u00a0 That was a crucial hit, as the Phillies had been shut out the day before and were working on a lengthy scoreless streak.\u00a0 Polanco is hitting .366 to easily lead the team.<\/p>\n

All that good work at the top has largely\u00a0been wasted because Rollins is just not producing anywhere close to what’s needed from the 3-hole.\u00a0 He’s slugging .305 and has just\u00a0two RBI in 21 games, even with plenty of runners on in front of him and Howard’s big bat waiting on-deck.\u00a0\u00a0Charlie may be moving toward a platoon in left field, as John Mayberry\u00a0has swung the bat well and Ibanez has been lost.<\/p>\n

Grade:\u00a0 <\/em>D<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers:
\n<\/strong>The starters have given up\u00a0two runs or less in 9 of the past 11 games, with the only poor outing\u00a0coming from Halladay when he gave up 6 runs to\u00a0Milwaukee.\u00a0 His two other starts were masterful though, with a complete game to beat Washington and a 14 strike-out performance to beat the Padres yesterday.<\/p>\n

Roy Oswalt\u00a0had to leave his start vs. the Marlins with a back injury, but he came back six days later and gave up\u00a0one\u00a0hit and no runs in 6 innings\u00a0to beat the Padres.\u00a0 Hamels, as usual, dominated his hometown team with 8 shutout innings in San Diego.\u00a0 After a rough start to his season, Blanton looked really good against a tough Brewer line-up before also beating the Padres over the weekend.<\/p>\n

All that being said, the best start was turned in by Clifton Lee, who posted a 3-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts against\u00a0the Nationals.\u00a0 All in all, the starters posted a 2.25 ERA and averaged over 7 innings per start.<\/p>\n

Grade:\u00a0 <\/em>A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bullpen:
\n<\/strong>The pen and the team took a big hit when Contreras was put on the DL.\u00a0 It’s a scary initial diagnosis that sounds like it could\u00a0be\u00a0a significant injury, but hopefully not.\u00a0 Contreras has looked great in the closer role.\u00a0 He’d converted all five save opportunities and hadn’t surrendered a run in 8 innings total.\u00a0 It was really impressive to see the 39-year-old blow a fastball by Ryan Braun to end the game last\u00a0Wednesday.\u00a0 Charlie had been using him a lot, which may have contributed to the injury.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan Madson will take over the closer’s role, which\u00a0is always\u00a0scary, but he’s already converted his first two opportunities and has given up just one run in 9 innings of work.\u00a0 The even bigger problem is the options\u00a0left to get outs in the 7th and 8th innings, especially with J.C. Romero also being placed on the DL last week.\u00a0 The main\u00a0set-up men are now Danys Baez, Kyle Kendrick, and Antonio\u00a0Bastardo, all of whom\u00a0have pitched well this year, but it’s hard to have too much confidence in any\u00a0of them with a 1-run lead in the 8th inning.<\/p>\n

David Herndon\u00a0has struggled and can’t be counted on for big outs right now.\u00a0 The two guys that have been called\u00a0up to replace the injured are Mike Zagurski and Michael Stutes.\u00a0 Charlie will\u00a0obviously do everything he can to keep them out of key\u00a0spots, but there’s no doubt that Phillie fans will\u00a0have some nervous moments late in games in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Grade:\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>B+<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Record since last Report Card:\u00a08-3 Overall Record:\u00a0 15-6 (1st in division) Following a sweep in San Diego over the weekend, the Phils now have the best record in baseball, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of reason for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[14,308,1031,16,788,408,309,213,369],"class_list":["post-1928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-joe-blanton","tag-jose-contreras","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-raul-ibanez","tag-roy-halladay","tag-ryan-madson","tag-shane-victorino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1928"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928\/revisions\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}