Philly Sports Chat

Posts Tagged ‘Cole Hamels’

Last night’s game was exciting and it was won by a very unlikely hero- Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz is one of the most underrated players in the league in my opinion. He’s definitely a top 3 defensive catcher in all of baseball. He just rarely get recognized outside of Philly because he doesn’t produce much offensively in the regular season (the post season is a different story).

Last night, Chooch got his much deserved moment to shine. It even earned him a post game interview  with Sarge and 2 pies in the face. Of course that didn’t deter him from finishing his interview with utmost concentration and determination - what a guy!

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In the midst of the Phanatic’s birthday celebration with his friends “Clammy Sosa” and “Harry Canary”, Cole Hamels threw his best game all year. But it went to waste becuase the Phillies couldn’t back him up with the bats.

Hamels started 2-0 but still showed room for improvement in his first 2 starts. He came to play today and was almost perfect in his third start of the year. He pitched 8 full innings giving up 7 hits and striking out 8. His only mistake came in the 2nd when he gave up a home run to Uggla. He finished allowing 2 earned runs because he was responsible for the man on first who scored after Madson came in.

Surpisingly, the problem in this Marlins series was the offense. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night the Phillies got a nice win but it didn’t have much to do with Cole Hamels. It was a much anticipated night for the Phillies. Many people say the success of their season rides on the play of Hamels who carried them to a World Series title in 2008 but was basically nonexistant in their 2009 run. It makes sense to say that too.

They obviously have the offense to beat anyone and even if one or two players are going through a rough patch, the other hitters will have their backs. In Roy Halladay they also have the ace that will guarantee to keep the team in the game. They had that last year in Lee but one of the biggest reasons they couldn’t get it done was the performance of Hamels and the other starters. They just didn’t compare to the Yankee’s rotation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Phillies have been to the World Series two years in a row.  They won it all in 2008 and last year they came up short against the infamous New York Yankees.  This off season was long and a lot of things went on as far as rehab, acquisitions, and releases.  With Spring training coming to an end and opening day right around the corner, here is a look at the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies roster as of now.

The infield will look relatively the same except at the third base position.  Pedro Feliz was not resigned and instead, Placido Polanco returns for his second stay with the Phillies.  Last year he batted above .280 and hit ten home runs.  He also drove in 72 runs and stole seven bases.  During spring training Polanco Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that the Hamels we saw last season wasn’t the Hamels we’ve all grown to know and love. He had the highest era of his pro career with 4.32 and he ended the season with a losing record for the first time ever. On top of that, he pitched about 30 innings less than he did the year before and had almost 30 less strike outs.

Down the stretch and into the playoffs we could tell something was up when he was saying and doing questionable things. Read the rest of this entry »

Last season Joe Blanton had a very solid year going 12-8 with an ERA just over 4.  You can’t ask for a much better performance than that out of your forth or fifth starter.  In the post season, his play was forgettable, but then again the whole team didn’t play that well besides of course Cliff Lee.  Entering the off season Blanton and the Phillies weren’t quite sure what the future held with their relationship.  Blanton was asking for about $10 million in arbitration.  Last year he didn’t even make $5.5 million.  However today Read the rest of this entry »

Cliff Lee got the start today.  He took over the number one spot in the rotation for the playoffs, as Cole Hamels will now pitch tomorrow.  Cliff Lee had never pitched in a playoff game before today.

He came out and he gave the fans a scare at first.  He was giving up hits and putting himself in jams that could have easily put the Rockies ahead in the game early.  However, he eventually settled in nicely.  Perhaps he needed to work out the butterflies and that was why he was off a little in the beginning.  Anyway, he ended up allowing six hits and one earned run in nine innings of work.  Three of those hits came in the first three innings and two came in the last.  So Read the rest of this entry »

The first round of the playoffs starts on Wednesday and the Phillies are taking on the Colorado Rockies.  Just two years ago the Rockies swept the Phillies also in the first round of the playoffs, and as a result they went on to appear in the World Series.  That was then, and this is now.  We all know what the Phillies can do,  but what about the Rockies this year?  What type of team are they, and how do the Phillies match up against them?  Here is what I think.

The Rockies are a very well rounded team.  Statistically, both the Phillies and the Rockies are very close.  Their team batting averages are both around .260.  Their team ERA’s are comparable, with the Phillies ERA only .06 points lower. Both teams have over 100 stolen bases. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another one of our fill in the blank statements. Read our opinion and tell us how you would finish the sentence.

The Phillies players, coaches and fans all have high hopes for this team. Even though things have changed since last season within their organization and other teams around the league have gotten better, anything less than another title would be a disappointment to many people. One of the few things that could possibly stand in their way of this is something going wrong with the Phillies internally.  A lot of essential pieces of the team must work together and make as few mistakes as possible during the month of October if they want to accomplish this rare task of repeating as champs. The question we are asking you is what is the thing their changes depend most on.

The Phillies’ Hopes of Repeating Depend Mostly on _____.

Our Opinion: Their Pitching. There are plenty of things you can fill into this spot like their bats, Ryan Howard, the competition, ect. But we think the key piece to them winning will be the performance of their pitchers. We say this with a few people in mind…

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So the Phillies are playing well and I know I’m not the only fan that is looking for the team to make another W.S. run and defend the title.  I don’t like to talk to far ahead, but I thought it would be cool to narrow down a list of things that the team needs to do in order to keep the title of World “Bleepin” Champs.  So here is what I see as the vital signs of a repeat:

1. Brad Lidge needs to return to his “perfect” self.
2. Jimmy Rollins continues to play like the leader of the team making plays both offensively and defensively.
3. Ryan Howard needs to stop stiking out… just kidding
4. JA Happ needs go into the playoffs and pitch like hes been there before.
5. Chan Ho must stay settled in as a great bullpen pitcher
6. The bench players and situational starters need to be clutch down the stretch (Stairs, Bruntlett, Dobbs, etc.)
7. Jamie Moyer needs to pitch like hes 45 years old.
8. Offense needs to hit other teams Ace’s…cough cough Tim Lincicum
9. The new additions need to contribute and do what the orginaztion brought them in to do…especially Lee.
10. Finally, the fans need to act like we are the best fans in the MLB… cuz we are.