Philly Sports Chat

Wow it’s really the weekend again? Well another weekend, another series for the Phillies. Tonight they open one against the Nationals in the nation’s capital and I don’t think there’s any reason they can’t stretch the curren winning streak to 11 games.

Since we did our weekend preview last week, the Phillies have been on a tear. On their current winning streak, the team ERA is under 2.0 and they have outscored the opposition 46-17. That’s incredible. The even better part is they’ve climbed back from 7 games behind the Braves to only 2.5. Here’s a preview of their next 3 games.

Friday: Roy Oswalt (0-0, 0.0) vs Craig Stammen (2-4, 5.50)

Technically those are Oswalt’s numbers because he’ll be making his debut for the Phillies tonight. Read the rest of this entry »

As much as this trade is going to be good for the team, it still sucks giving up J.A. Happ.

As I’m writing this post, Oswalt has accepted but we still don’t know all the pieces for sure.  We know that JA Happ will be sent to Houston along with a few minor league prospects. The analysts say these prospects will likely be pretty good but there is no definite answer as to who they are.

The only bad part of this deal is that Happ had to be involved. The move does make the playoff rotation A LOT better but not necessarily the regular season rotation. Happ wasn’t the weak link. Read the rest of this entry »

As the schedule was playing out, it looked like the Phillies and their fans were going to get their first look at Stephen Strasburg this Sunday in the closing game of their series with the Nationals. That all changed when he missed his start last night due to inflamation in his shoulder.

I was personally looking forward to the first time the Phillies offense met Strasburg. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, judging by their latest power rankings they don’t. They released their latest power rankings, the training camp edition, and they don’t even have the Eagles in the top 15.

To be exact, they placed them at 17 overall. That’s a ten spot drop from the end of last season when ESPN had the Eagles ranked #7 before the offseason started. It’s an even further drop from last years preseason rankings which had them at #4. That means the Eagles got a lot worse in the eyes of the experts. Here’s a breakdown of the rankings.

The top five are the following: Colts, Saints, Vikings, Cowboys & Ravens. Just out of the top five is the Packers, who the Eagles play on opening weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

And with that, the Phillies are only FIVE games out of first place.

As soon as their 4 game losing streak ended, they responded with a 4 game winning streak and an offensive explosion- and it’s not over yet. During the losing streak they averaged 3 runs per game and during the current winning streak they’re averaging nearly 6. Read the rest of this entry »

Neither of these players will be playing this weekend...

The Phillies finally got a win yesterday but it took them 11 innings to score a run. After the game, their hitting coach was fired and they traveled back to Philly to start a new series. We’ll see if the firing of Thompson will light a fire under them or have a negative effect.

Tonight the Phillies play at home for the first time since before the all-star break. They’ll be playing the Rockies who have a better record than the Phils but are in third place in the NL West behind the Padres and Giants. If the Phillies were in the NL West, they’d be in 5th place. This is no easy matchup.

Friday: Roy Halladay(10-8, 2.40) vs Aaron Cook (4-5, 4.65)

Roy Halladay gives the Phillies their best chance to win one this weekend but he hasn’t been pitching well recently. The good news is that it’s a home game. Doc has a 1.87 era in his 11 starts a CBP this year. Read the rest of this entry »

The Phillies are playing like one of the worst teams in baseball and their aren’t any excuses anymore.

The trades they pulled off and signings they made in the off season were supposed to make them even better than last year’s NL Champions. Sure they’ve been battling injuries all season but most of those players are getting healthy and that’s not an excuse for everyone else who’s perfectly fine but playing poorly.

Looking back, some of the moves made by Amaro this offseason look pretty bad. Getting rid of Cliff Lee instead of paying him for one more freakin’ year seems to be a mistake.

I know they wanted to “replenish their farm system” but the players they got in return are nothing special Read the rest of this entry »

Just when we thought things were looking up, we were brought back down again.

Last week, the Phillies went into the All-Star break by sweeping the Reds- one of the best teams in the NL- in a 4 game series. It was the best way they could have wrapped up the first half and it gave us all excitement heading into the stretch run.

We were brought back to reality this weekend after the Phillies dropped 3 of 4 to the lowly Chicago Cubs. Read the rest of this entry »

It will be even harder to beat the Packers if Rodgers brings the 'stache back.

This game makes the list partially because it’s the first game of the season for a very young team and partially because the Packers are really really good. It will be Kolb’s first game as the leader of the franchise and he will be met by one of the league’s best defenses.

The one bright side to this game is the fact that they’re playing in Philly. The home field advantage helps a lot but in the big picture, it doesn’t make it any easier to take down one of the NFC’s best. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2008, Brad Lidge engraved himself into the Phillies record books by having a perfect season. It included 41 saves in 41 chances, a 2-0 record and a 1.95 era.

Lidge wasn’t so perfect in the All-Star game though and on July 15th, 2008, he lost the game for the National League Read the rest of this entry »