Runs

This is a little known fact about the sport of baseball: In order to be successful, you typically have to score more runs than your opponents. When you achieve that objective, you receive more wins than losses and everyone goes to work the next day with a smile on their faces.

The Phillies used to be good at scoring runs. That was the thing that they did well. But apparently, that skill has gone away. Since June 17, the Phillies have averaged 3.77 runs per game. As a result, their record is 12-19 in that time span. Unless you have the 1992 Atlanta Braves pitching staff, it is going to be very difficult to rack up wins scoring signficantly less than 4 runs per game. Not surprisingly, also in that time span their team OPS is a pitiful .701.

I blame essentially everyone on the team not named Pat Burrell. Baseball is a game of ups and downs, but this is a Perfect Storm of everyone on the team being cold at the same time. Here are the individual OPS' in that time frame:

"Go-Go" Jimmy Rollins: .669 (69!!!!)
Shane "Killer" Victorino: .793
Chase "Margaritaville" Utley: .724
Ryan "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" Howard: .844
Pat "Girlicious" Burrell: .853
Geoff "No One Even Wants to Sponsor My Baseball Reference Page" Jenkins: .599
Jayson "Puffy Stickers" Werth: .807
Pedro "Garlic Parmesan" Feliz: .736
Carlos "Too Shitty To Even Be Given a Nickname" Ruiz: .454 (Including a .145 SLG)

It is frustrating to watch these guys continue to put 0's on the scoreboard. But I am hopeful that this offensive malaise will end shortly. Because that is what optimists do. That and score tons of chicks.

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Mike Hampton pitches for the Bravos todays against the Phils. Unfortunately, the game won't be on TV here in Chicago (Who doesn't want to watch another Yankees-Red Sox game? THANKS FOX!!!!), so I won't be able to witness first hand the first time a pitcher's arm literally falls off his body during a baseball game. But knowing Hampton's desire to pitch, he will probably pick it up, goto HUP and get it sewn back on, then pitch again in MLB in like three years.

Phaiku

Training camp is here
Westbrook is your MVP
God I hate the Mets

Lifespans of the Rich and Famous- Running Back Career Edition

NFL contract details are a bit much to digest. There's all this talk of guaranteed money, salary caps, paternity suit allowances, performance bonii, etc. But when Brian Westbrook, the soon to be 29 year old Pro Bowl, All-Pro, All-American, Al-Jazeera star of the Eagles' backfield, and his new agent Scrooge McDuck decide they want $30 million in guaranteed money in a 5 year deal, it's easy to see that this is not rational or sensical.

Westbrook is indeed the key to the Eagles offense. He is to it as Cole Hamels+Brad Lidge+Chase Utley (aka Cobrase Utlidels) is to the Phillies. He's that damn good. According to Football Outsiders, he was the second most valuable RB in the NFL last year, just a smidgen behind LaDanian Tomlinson. He ranked a very strong seventh in 2006. And yet within 3 years (at most), chances are he'll be washed up.

Such is life as an NFL running back. According to super-scientific research done by those same Football Outsiders and others, no other position on the field suffers as much from age and injuries. By age 30, most running backs, even the ones who still have their original knees, are running full speed into the imminent retirement wall, which has a nice mural of Marshall Faulk, Earl Campbell, Terrell Davis, and Roger Craig playing shuffleboard painted on it. Westbrook turns 29 on September 4th. Odds are that by Sept. 4, 2010 he'll be on his way out of the NFL.

Obviously he can avoid this probability. Fred Taylor seems to have gotten over his early career injury problems and is better than ever at age 32. Curtis Martin played well until age 78. Emmitt Smith was only mildly embarrassing as a player after 30, and nowhere near as embarrassing as he is as a commentator. He should get public speaking lessons from his step-daughter's bio-dad, Martin Lawrence. Outrageous things he would say! Anyway, the peculiar thing about probability is that when things are probable, they probably happen. And there is a probable probability that he's only got 2 or maybe 3 good seasons left. Certainly not 5.

There are things working to Westbrook's advantage. He was underused as a runner for the first 4 years of his career, so he doesn't have the mileage of several of the 30 year old washouts. Also he now wears a gypsy shrunken head charm that protects his knees. It's worked pretty well the past 2 years.

Westbrook does deserve a big pay check for the next 2 years. Anything longer and there's a good chance (yes, it is a chance, not a certainty) it will cripple the team after he breaks down. As a business, they always should pay for the performance they're expecting, not just the performance they've gotten. Perhaps they could compromise and offer something like 3 years, $20 million guaranteed. That seems like a fair deal (to me anyway, since I only make $5 million a year and know how hard it is), and would not only make him extremely highly paid for his position but would also prevent the Eagles from over-investing in Westbrook; not neccessarily in money, but in time.

Stop The Madness!

The Matt Holliday trade talk will not go away. So one more time, here is the case against trading Shane Victorino, Carlos Carrasco, JA Happ, and Lou Marson for a package of the possibly overrated Holliday and pitcher Brian Fuentes, who actually is a pretty awesome reliever but will be a free agent after this season.

Holliday's overall career numbers-
642 games, .321/.385/.556, 119 HR, 450 RBI (for those who deeply care about RBI)

Career HOME numbers AGAIN-
331 games, .363/.426/.659, 80 HR, 289 RBI

Career AWAY numbers-
311 games, .277/.341/.449, 39 HR, 161 RBI

Holliday at CBP-
a very small sample size of 59 PA, .283/.356/.547, 4 HR

For argument's sake, let us pretend that those last numbers actually approximate what he would put up for the Phillies (an OPS of .900 or so). That would still be pretty darn good, and way better than his current career numbers outside of Coors Field. Even then, it is questionable whether it is worth further gutting the farm system by giving away the guy who projects to be the Phillies No. 2 starter by 2010 (Carrasco, not Happ), a good catching prospect for a team that desperately needs a catcher, and a starter whose minor league performance shows that he may actually be better than the guy who projects to be the No. 2 starter in 2010 (this is Happ). And while Victorino may be a fan favorite because he's fast and people are led to believe he wears a hula skirt and eats poi in the clubhouse, he is actually expendable. Sorry, Spam lovers.

There is another issue with Holliday, albeit a smaller one- where does he play? The guy has only played LF his entire career, and that's where Man Machine Burrell lives. Obviously, if they do acquire Holliday they can always put him in RF and move him back to LF when the cheap-ass Phillies don't re-sign Burrell after this season's crushing playoff defeat. But what about the remainder of this year? Moving Holliday from LF to RF isn't like moving Ryan Howard to SS, but it would force him to perform in an unnatural position, which is fine for pornography, sure. But in baseball, not so good.

It's become obvious they need some help on offense. And since the Phils won't do simple things like STOP BATTING JIMMY ROLLINS LEADOFF or STOP PULLING BURRELL FROM EVERY CLOSE GAME or GO BACK IN TIME AND RE-SIGN AARON ROWAND, they probably do need to acquire another bat to make up for the damage that Geoff Jenkins, Pedro Feliz, and Carlos Ruiz cause to the offense. And that player will likely have to come in the form of an outfielder. The questionable call here is whether Holliday is the bat they need and whether the cost for his services is too high. As the supposed deal on the table is structured now, it probably is.