{"id":1985,"date":"2011-06-18T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-18T17:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1985"},"modified":"2011-06-18T13:47:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T17:47:07","slug":"phils-report-card-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1985","title":{"rendered":"Phils Report Card #7"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Cole’s in serious Cy Young contention as midseason approaches<\/strong><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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

    Overall Record:\u00a0 <\/strong>44-27 (1st place; 5 games ahead of Atlanta)<\/p>\n

    For the first time since the first week of the season, the Phils had pretty much everything working during a 7-game winning streak that ended with a loss last night in Seattle.\u00a0 The offense was productive, the pitching was mostly spectacular, and this team reminded many of why they were the odds-on favorites to win the NL coming into the season.\u00a0 On to the grades…<\/p>\n

    Position Players:
    \n<\/strong>It was a solid stretch offensively, but let’s not go overboard.\u00a0 This line-up has managed to set the bar really low, so it doesn’t take much to get us excited.\u00a0 Still, seven runs or more in 4 of 5 games during one stretch\u00a0last week was really nice to see.\u00a0 Ryan Howard got things on track (sort of) by ending a 65 inning homerless drought for the team when he hit one against the Dodgers last Wednesday.\u00a0 The team has hit 13 in the ten games since then.<\/p>\n

    The most positive development has to be Chase Utley finding his stroke for the first time this season.\u00a0 He hit .353 (12-34) with an impressive eight extra-base hits, including two homers.\u00a0 He had a couple big games, and is running the bases like his old self, which is obviously a great sign of how he’s feeling on the recovering knee.\u00a0 Matching Chase in production was Victorino, who seemed to get a spark from moving back up to the 2-hole in the order.\u00a0 He hit .378 (17-45) with a home run and three steals.\u00a0 He also hit a huge two-run single on Wednesday that tied the game with Florida in the bottom of the 9th.\u00a0 Chooch had a pedestrian 11 games, but he deserves mention for his two big singles in the 9th and 10th innings of that game, the 10th inning hit being the game-winner.<\/p>\n

    Just as Victorino got a spark from hitting 2nd and having Utley and Howard behind him, Polanco took a nose-dive by moving to 5th in the order.\u00a0 He hit .167 (6-36) and has now seen his season average dip below .300.\u00a0 Though he did hit a grand slam to beat the Cubs on Friday.\u00a0 Dom Brown has had a bad (and strange) run lately.\u00a0 He hit an abysmal 4-37, but three of those four hits were home runs, including his first multi-homer game, which included an upper-deck bomb.\u00a0 The raw ability is so evident with him, but it seems like he needs to make some adjustments with his stance or swing, because he’s getting overpowered by fastballs right now.\u00a0 J-Roll had a similar stretch, but less extreme, with just 7 hits in 40 AB’s, but three of them were homers.<\/p>\n

    In the field, they continued to be less than impressive.\u00a0 Six errors in the 11 games, and that doesn’t include a handful of errant throws by Utley and a couple misplays by Ibanez.\u00a0 It looks like Utley’s throwing woes are here to stay, and hopefully they don’t come back to bite them in a key spot.\u00a0 Howard made his first error of the year, and it wasn’t even a throwing error, which means he’s really made some more strides there.<\/p>\n

    Grade:\u00a0 <\/em>B-<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Starting Pitchers:
    \n<\/strong>Take away Roy Oswalt’s starts, and the starters were completely dominant.\u00a0 In eight starts by the other four starters, they allowed one run or less in seven of them.\u00a0 The remarkable season of Cole Hamels continued, with one run allowed over 15 innings in two wins, with 9 hits allowed, 15 K’s, and one walk.\u00a0 He wasn’t even fazed when his last start was delayed for rain at the start!\u00a0 Is this a new Cole?<\/p>\n

    As good as Hamels was, Cliff Lee one-upped him.\u00a0 He followed an 8 inning\/1 run beating of the Cubs with a two-hit shutout of the Marlins on Thursday, earning him the Start of the Week award.\u00a0 Kyle Kendrick is going well, turning in his best start of the year with 7 innings\/1 run in a win over Florida.\u00a0 He pitched three scoreless innings in his previous start before exiting due to a lengthy rain delay.<\/p>\n

    Halladay shut-out the Cubs over 7 innings last week, then was touched for 4 runs in a no-decision against Florida.\u00a0 He had 17 K’s and no walks in those two starts.\u00a0 The top non-Phillie in strike-out\/walk ratio is the Pirates Jeff Karstens, at\u00a03.92.\u00a0 Cliff Lee’s is 4.63, Hamels is at 5.11, and Halladay a ridiculous 8.14.\u00a0 These guys are strike-throwing machines.\u00a0 Halladay leads the league in strike-outs and is also on pace to meet his goal of less walks than starts, with 14 walks in his 15 starts so far.<\/p>\n

    As for Oswalt, he turned in three mediocre starts, giving up 4, 3, and 4 runs in those starts, and taking two losses against one win.<\/p>\n

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

    Bullpen:
    \n<\/strong>Yes, Ryan Madson blew his first save of the year and Contreras was bombed for four runs by the Cubs the next night, but they look like blips on the radar screen, as the bullpen continues to overacheive.\u00a0 Madson gave up just one run in that blown save, and he picked up two saves and a win in his other three appearances.<\/p>\n

    Despite giving up\u00a02 runs to the Dodgers last week, it looks like Michael Stutes may have moved past Contreras, at least for the time being, in Charlie’s mind.\u00a0 It was telling that in the 9th inning of\u00a0a close game against the Marlins on Wednesday, Charlie went with Stutes.\u00a0 Bastardo continues to pitch really well, and even Danys Baez and David Herndon were effective over this stretch.<\/p>\n

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

    Cole’s in serious Cy Young contention as midseason approaches Record since last Report Card:\u00a08-3 Overall Record:\u00a0 44-27 (1st place; 5 games ahead of Atlanta) For the first time since the first week of the season, the Phils had pretty much … 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":[30,655,222,807,1031,1213,16,788,309,322,213,369],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-chase-utley","tag-cliff-lee","tag-cole-hamels","tag-domonic-brown","tag-jose-contreras","tag-michael-stutes","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-roy-halladay","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-ryan-madson","tag-shane-victorino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985","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=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1989,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions\/1989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}