{"id":561,"date":"2010-07-01T23:12:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T04:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2010-07-01T23:13:13","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T04:13:13","slug":"phillies-semi-weekly-report-card-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card #8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card:\u00a0<\/strong>3-4<\/p>\n

Overall Record:\u00a0<\/strong>41-36, 3rd in\u00a0division (4 games behind Atlanta)<\/p>\n

\"utley\"Well, it\u00a0has been a bleak day in Phillie Nation.\u00a0 The big hit came with the announcement that Chase Utley will need surgery on his injured thumb and will miss at least the next two months.\u00a0 It’s a devastating loss for a team that has already been scuffling for the past month and find themselves in third place as the midway point of the season approaches,\u00a0after back-to-back\u00a0NL pennants.<\/p>\n

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the team then went out and got\u00a0beat by the NL-worst Pirates, and a pitcher who had an\u00a0ERA of 11.00 (not a typo)\u00a0over the course of his 4 starts coming into the game.\u00a0 And just to\u00a0rub a little more\u00a0salt in the wounds, Brian Schneider left the game with a thumb injury.\u00a0 With Carlos\u00a0Ruiz and Paul Hoover already hurt, that means the Phils could be using their 4th and 5th string catchers if Schneider has to miss any time.\u00a0 That’s the point it’s\u00a0reached with the injuries:\u00a0I’m wishing Paul Hoover was healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the\u00a0last few years, us Phillie fans have been continually surprised and amazed by the\u00a0toughness of the team, and their ability to\u00a0will themselves to wins.\u00a0 It’s July 1st, and the\u00a0Phils are down 4 games in their division, they only have one starting pitcher they can completely count on, their bullpen is shaky at best, and they have 7 players on the DL, including their best player\u00a0out for\u00a0a long stretch.\u00a0 If they can find\u00a0their back into the postseason this year, it might be their most\u00a0unlikely feat yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trade Rumors<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re 30 days away from the trade deadline, so it’s time to start really tracking the rumors that\u00a0are flying around.\u00a0 The\"haren\" rumor du jour surrounding the Phillies\u00a0revolves around\u00a0Diamondbacks ace Dan Haren.\u00a0 David Murphy of the Daily News has a good breakdown of a potential Haren deal<\/a>.\u00a0 To summarize,\u00a0Haren’s pros: he’s very, very good, he’s made 3 straight All-Star games, he’s already\u00a0signed through 2012 with an option for 2013, his contract\u00a0is reasonable, he’s averaged over 220 innings in his 5 full seasons, his name starts with H-a, which would fit great with Halladay, Hamels, Happ. His cons: he’s currently having the worst year of his career (4.56 ERA), the asking price will be steep, most likely requiring Domonic Brown.<\/p>\n

Ruben Amaro will also be looking for an infielder that can help offset the loss of Utley for the next two months and add some power from the bench when Utley returns.\u00a0 The most common rumor has been\u00a0journeyman\u00a0Ty Wigginton, who’s having a solid season for the Orioles.\u00a0 I’m not sure how good he is defensively at second, but presumably he could play third, with Polanco at second, as long as Polanco isn’t out for a long stretch himself.\u00a0 And with that, onto to this week’s report card…..<\/p>\n

Position Players:\u00a0 <\/strong>It was a fairly average week production-wise for the offense, but the odd thing was where much of that production came from: bench players.\u00a0 Ross Gload started it off with 3 hits and 4 RBI in a rare start on Friday night.\u00a0 Ben Francisco got a start on Sunday and responded with 3 hits, including 2 doubles and 2 RBI.\u00a0 On Tuesday, the day Utley and Polanco were placed on the DL, Schneider and Wilson Valdez stepped up by each stroking 3-run homers.\u00a0 In fact, over the last four games, Valdez is 6-13 with two homers.\u00a0 Finally, on Wednesday, Dane Sardinha accounted for the only Phillie runs, with a 3-run homer of his own.\u00a0 Notable among the regulars, Ryan Howard had a hit in all seven games, but just one multi-hit game.\u00a0 It was also a somewhat sloppy week defensively, with 6 errors committed.<\/p>\n

Grade: <\/em>C+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers: <\/strong>Roy Halladay faced his old team, the Blue Jays, on Friday night and they surely weren’t surprised to see him pitch a gem.\u00a0 Halladay’s 7 shutout innings earn him Start of the Week honors.\u00a0 It was almost sad to hear the Blue Jay announcers\u00a0calling that game and having to watch Halladay dominate for a team other than their own.\u00a0 In Halladay’s other start of the week, he pitched solidly against the Reds but surrendered a two-run homer in the 8th\u00a0inning and took the 4-3 loss.\u00a0\u00a0Jamie Moyer posted his third straight excellent start, giving up\u00a0two runs in 7 innings to beat the Jays on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The lowlights came from Kyle Kendrick (not a surprise) and Cole Hamels’s first start of the week.\u00a0 Kendrick gave up 5 earned runs, including Scott Rolen’s 300th career home run (ugh).\u00a0 Hamels went just 4 innings, giving up 5 runs, in a loss\u00a0to the Jays.\u00a0 It’s sad to say, but Hamels has been nothing more than an average pitcher ever since the ’08\u00a0World Series ended.\u00a0 It would’ve been hard to believe that would happen at the time.<\/p>\n

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

Bullpen:\u00a0 <\/strong>If you take away the 9th inning of Tuesday night’s game in Cincinnati, the pen had a\u00a0fantastic week.\u00a0 Aside from that inning, the pen pitched 12 innings and gave up just one run.\u00a0 However,\u00a0relief pitchers have a different job than starting pitchers, and\u00a0runs allowed don’t tell the whole story.\u00a0 It’s all about being able to get the\u00a0most important outs, the ones in the late innings of close games.\u00a0 The pen was only presented\u00a0with that situation once this week, and Brad Lidge blew it.\u00a0 He came in with a 6-3 lead and quickly retired the first two batters he faced, before disaster struck.\u00a0 A walk, a single, and long Joey Votto homer followed, tying the game at 6.\u00a0 Luckily, the Phils put up 3 in the\u00a010th and Jose Contreras was able to put it\u00a0away.\u00a0 But, the questions remain, of course.\u00a0 Lidge\u00a0has looked great at times this season, but he’s hitting a rough patch right now, giving up 6 runs in his last 4 innings pitched.<\/p>\n

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

Up Next:\u00a0 <\/strong>The Phils have 3 more games in Pittsburgh and it’s really important that they win at least two of them.\u00a0 Following the Utley news, they\u00a0could really\u00a0use some positive momentum heading into a big series with the Braves on Monday.\u00a0 It looks like the starters for that Braves series will be Halladay-Hamels-Moyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card:\u00a03-4 Overall Record:\u00a041-36, 3rd in\u00a0division (4 games behind Atlanta) Well, it\u00a0has been a bleak day in Phillie Nation.\u00a0 The big hit came with the announcement that Chase Utley will need surgery on his injured thumb and … 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":[13,1028],"tags":[689,23,30,222,1041,1045,327,16,1044,309,218,1042,1043],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","category-phils-weekly-report","tag-ben-francisco","tag-brad-lidge","tag-chase-utley","tag-cole-hamels","tag-dan-haren","tag-dane-sardinha","tag-jamie-moyer","tag-phillies","tag-ross-gload","tag-roy-halladay","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ty-wigginton","tag-wilson-valdez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","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=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}