{"id":719,"date":"2010-09-08T11:05:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T15:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=719"},"modified":"2010-09-08T11:44:48","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T15:44:48","slug":"phillies-semi-weekly-report-card-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=719","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Semi-Weekly Report Card #13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card<\/strong>:\u00a0 6-2<\/p>\n

Overall Record:\u00a0 <\/strong>80-60 (1st in division; 0.5 game ahead of Atlanta)<\/p>\n

Yes, after a strong week, the Phils have finally run down the Braves and moved back atop the NL East for the first time in over three months.\u00a0 Not to take anything away from what they did, but it didn’t hurt that the Braves seem to be doing their best Mets impression here in the season’s final month.\u00a0 Atlanta was 2-5 on the week, including losing their last two games to the lowly Pirates.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s impossible to say that the Phils haven’t earned their current position.\u00a0 Since July 21st, when they sat 7 games behind the Braves, they’ve been the best team in baseball, with a 32-14 record.\u00a0 It’s just another example of something that we’ve been harping on for a few years now: this team is at its best when the pressure is highest.\u00a0 Not only are they now leading the division, but they’re also only half a game behind Cincinnati for the best record in the NL.\u00a0 We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, just getting into the playoffs is really the most important thing, but considering the NL finally won the All-Star Game, as well as how well the Phils have played at home, it would be pretty nice to\u00a0secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.<\/p>\n

On to the grades:<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase celebrates his Rocky Mountain Slam<\/p><\/div>\n

Position Players<\/strong>:\u00a0 It was clearly\u00a0a huge <\/em>improvement from the ‘F’ grade they\u00a0earned\u00a0in the previous\u00a0Report Card, and the 6-2 record may suggest\u00a0a good week from these guys, but there were still plenty of issues.\u00a0 Let’s start with the good news:\u00a0 they scored\u00a0just over 5 runs a game, more than doubling their output from the previous week.\u00a0 They were even able to pick up a win in Colorado when the pitching staff allowed\u00a011 runs, thanks to a 12-run outburst led by a Chase Utley grand slam.<\/p>\n

Individual highlights:\u00a0 The big news is that Utley and Howard are looking good.\u00a0 Utley hit .387 with 11 RBI, while Howard launched 3 homers.\u00a0 Victorino had a huge week, hitting .367 with 2\u00a0homers and 6 steals.\u00a0 Polanco hit .333, including the Hit of the Week with his RBI single in the 8th inning on Tuesday to put the Phils back ahead after the bullpen blew a 3-run lead.\u00a0 On the negative side,\u00a0Rollins continued to struggle.\u00a0 A 2-for-19 stretch prompted Charlie to drop him to the 5-hole for the past two games, where he responded with 3 hits.\u00a0 That 5-hole belongs to Werth though, so Rollins might just be stopping over there on his way to Victorino’s\u00a0vacated 6th or 7th spot in the order.<\/p>\n

Rollins is nice segue into the bad news:\u00a0 They failed to score more than 2 runs in 3 of the games.\u00a0 They were shut down by two mediocre Brewer pitchers\u00a0at home.\u00a0 Then, the real low-light, getting one-hit over 6 innings by a 28-year-old making his ML debut, en route to a 7-1 loss on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0the real problem was with the defense.\u00a0\u00a0Having trouble hitting the ball is excusable, but handing out extra\u00a0outs and extra runs with careless defense at this time of the year is not.\u00a0 Tuesday night’s win would not have been as close were it not for a misplay by Howard and Blanton on a groundball in the 3rd inning, an unnecessary throw home by Utley in the\u00a07th, and a wild throw home by Werth in the 8th.\u00a0 All told, the Phils made 8 errors in these 8 games, and that doesn’t even tell the whole story about the sloppy defensive play.<\/p>\n

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

Starting Pitchers<\/strong>:\u00a0 Certainly not a banner week for these guys, but they were\u00a0solid for the most part.\u00a0 The Start of the Week, for the second\u00a0straight week, goes to Cole Hamels, who\u00a0threw 7 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits, in a 1-0 win over the Brewers on Friday.\u00a0 Cole has an 18-inning scoreless streak going.\u00a0 Runner-up is Oswalt’s effort last Wednesday, when he allowed just 1 hit in 6.1 shutout innings, but did walk 6 Dodgers.<\/p>\n

The other 6 starts of the week were\u00a0fairly middling efforts.\u00a0 Oswalt allowed 4 runs in 7 innings in his other start, and Halladay had the same line (on four solo homers) in his only start.\u00a0 Joe Blanton was the victim of some poor defense, allowing 4 unearned runs in his two no-decisions, along with 6 earned ones.\u00a0 He was really knocked around in Coors Field\u00a0on Thursday, giving up 10 hits in 4.1\u00a0innings.<\/p>\n

Kyle Kendrick took the loss on Sunday, allowing 4 runs or more for the 5th time in his last 6 starts.\u00a0 Thanks to a double-header on Monday, Vance Worley made the first spot-start of the year\u00a0for the Phils, and allowed 2 runs in 5 innings.\u00a0 There’s been talk of Worley replacing Kendrick in the rotation.\u00a0 The good news is that, thanks to off days, the Phils will only need a 5th starter three more times.\u00a0 Worley was solid, but he wasn’t overly impressive.\u00a0 He might have a\u00a0future in the rotation (as early as next year), but I would just stick with\u00a0Kendrick for those three starts, unless he gets even worse.\u00a0 We’re in a pennant race now, and Kendrick\u00a0has the experience.<\/p>\n

Grade<\/em>:\u00a0 C+<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
\"\"

Lights Out for Lidge?<\/p><\/div>\n

Bullpen:<\/strong>\u00a0Kind of a difficult week to sum up for the pen.\u00a0\u00a0On the one hand, the Phils were 4-0 in 1-run games, but two of those games were only that close because the pen allowed multiple runs.\u00a0 It was\u00a0odd to see Madson stay on for the 9th inning of a 1-run game on Tuesday.\u00a0\u00a0It seemed like Charlie was being overly cautious\u00a0about working Lidge too much, but he revealed after the game that Lidge has been feeling elbow soreness, and is unavailable until at least Friday.\u00a0 This is, obviously, not good news\u00a0for the Phils or their pen.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score\u00a0in the 8th on Tuesday, Madson\u00a0did have another strong week, giving up no earned runs in 5 innings.\u00a0 He’s now allowed no earned runs in 24 of his last 25 outings, which is\u00a0really impressive.\u00a0 Phillie fans long ago\u00a0gave up hope of Madson being able to handle the closer role, but he’s certainly first in line for the job if Lidge is out for an extended period of time.\u00a0 Despite a very\u00a0shaky save in Colorado on Thursday, Lidge also had a good week, giving up no earned runs in 4 innings.<\/p>\n

Chad Durbin had a rough week,\u00a0allowing 5\u00a0runs in 4 innings, and Contreras had a rare poor outing on Tuesday, giving up\u00a0those 3 runs that tied the game at 7 in the 8th.\u00a0 The lefty situation\u00a0continues to be a pretty huge concern.\u00a0\u00a0Romero has come in and walked the only\u00a0batter he faced in his last two games,\u00a0Bastardo\u00a0continues to be largely ineffective, and Mike Zagurski gave 3 runs in his first appearance\u00a0since being re-called.\u00a0 Veteran starter Nate Robertson may get a look as a situational lefty in the coming days.<\/p>\n

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

Up Next<\/strong>:\u00a0 This is one of the first Report\u00a0Cards where the team’s record really doesn’t correspond to the grades.\u00a0 That probably\u00a0tells us that the 6-2 record was a bit of a mirage this week.\u00a0 The Phils actually only outscored their opponents by\u00a0one run in those 8 games, which makes\u00a0those C\/C+ grades look more logical.\u00a0 But it’s all about picking up W’s, so clearly\u00a0it was a successful week.\u00a0 Let’s give\u00a0some credit to Charlie Manuel for\u00a0finding a way to win 6 of these 8 games.<\/p>\n

The home stand wraps up tonight with the Marlins again, followed by a road trip to New York and Miami.\u00a0 Keep an eye out for whether Kendrick or Worley\u00a0gets the nod to start in Citi Field on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record since last Report Card:\u00a0 6-2 Overall Record:\u00a0 80-60 (1st in division; 0.5 game ahead of Atlanta) Yes, after a strong week, the Phils have finally run down the Braves and moved back atop the NL East for the first … 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":[23,382,30,222,14,308,367,16,788,322,218,213,369,1064],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","category-phils-weekly-report","tag-brad-lidge","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-chase-utley","tag-cole-hamels","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-joe-blanton","tag-kyle-kendrick","tag-phillies","tag-placido-polanco","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-ryan-howard","tag-ryan-madson","tag-shane-victorino","tag-vance-worley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","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=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}