Philly Sports Chat

Posts Tagged ‘World Series’

The Canadien Press

I think it’s safe to say that anything less than another World Series appearance for the Phillies this season would be a disappointment. That’s an unfair comment to make about most teams because with all sports it’s hard to reach the top once and close to impossible to reach it 3 times in a row. But with this team, they manage to improve every off season and improving a World Series team means another World Series is obtainable. Read the rest of this entry »

That was the quote of the day by the Phillies new third baseman. As you’ve probably heard by now, in his lastest move, Ruben Amaro Jr brought in Placido Polanco to play here for the next 3 years and replace Pedro Feliz.

When you compare the numbers of him and Pedro Feliz, this is an upgrade at third base but the question is, how big of an upgrade is it?

He’s a few years older than Pedro but received a gold glove this season and currently has the highest fielding percentage (.993) at second base among active players. Of course he’ll be moved to third base on the Phillies because 2nd is Chase Utley’s spot but that’s nothing new to Polanco. He used to play that position in his career and started his first stint in Philly as the third basemen. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a couple of days ago the Phillies fell behind to the Yankees 3-1 in the World Series. While in that moment in time it may have seemed impossible for the Phillies to come back and win it, they’re now only one game back after Cliff Lee pitched another great game.

Tonight the series goes back to New York City for the final two games and the Phillies need to win both of them.  The key for a historical come back is just taking it game by game. Read the rest of this entry »

The strangeness of Cole Hamel’s season started early when he obviously wasn’t the same guy on the mound as he was last season or in the playoffs. Last post-season he was arguably playing like the best pitcher in the world- literally. He’s had a rough year by our standards and finished the regular season 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA but most of use thought he would snap out of it and be the 2008 Hamels for the 2009 playoffs. Instead, everything got wierder.

Before game 2 of the Rockies’ series, he famously described his anger about the Phillies’ constantly receiving day games and how he doesn’t like pitching in them. He drew controversy from that comment and, while it didn’t anger me too much, I think he could have kept that to himself. He came out and got got shelled by the Rockies in a loss, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings.

Things got even stranger last week after his poor performance against the Yankees in game 3 of the World Series. He was quoted afterwords by the media saying things like Read the rest of this entry »

I hate the Yankees- always have and always will- but when i read the things coming from some of their fans and the New York media, I can’t help but laugh.

Most of their comments have something to do with their 26 championships but we all know that has nothing to do with this series. The days of Yankee dominance are long gone and with all the money they have been using to buy the stars, it’s probably a tough thing for their fans to face. They bought A-Rod in 2004 and this will be his first ever world series. I have a feeling they had higher expectations than that.

The Phillies are the defending World Champions and they won it all in a season when the Yankees didn’t even make the playoffs. They’ve had a good season but their fans and the media have no room to talk about how much better they are than the Phillies. My only guess as to why they’re doing this is because their a bit nervous and think that putting on a tough act will get into the heads of the Phillies or their fans but trust me- it won’t work.

The media has been trying to take low blows on the city of Philadelphia, the Phillies and their fans all week and it’s comical. There’s no need to bring cheesesteaks, Will Smith and Rocky Balboa into the World Series debate but they are trying and getting nowhere with it. Just let the players play.

So New Yorkers, keep talking all you want but you better hope that the Yankees come with all they have to back up your stupid comments. It will take everything to keep up with our Phillies.

I was at the game last night - not only because I wanted dollar dogs - but because the atmosphere when the playoffs are approaching and the Phillies are inching closer to the division title is pretty exciting.

That level of excitement in the stands was there for the first few innings of last night’s game. The rally towels in the sold out stadium were waving every time a Phillie got on base. Citizens Bank Park was rocking for all the big plays like the balked-in run and Lance Berkman getting tagged out for missing home plate. You could tell that the playoffs were around the corner just by looking around. There was a level of excitement that I haven’t seen since the playoffs last year. The fans showed up but where were the Phillies?

It was the perfect night for them to bring the magic number down to 2. A sold out home game full of rowdy fans- but they didn’t bring the bats and the pitching was of the mark for most of the game.

As the games go by, the atmosphere of the home games will get more and more exciting and intense. The fans will be going to the games with high expectations for each one. There can’t be many more games like last night’s where the energy from the stadium is drained in a matter of minutes. They need to show up ready to play in games like this. These should be the easy ones and it’s only going to get tougher from here.

The play-offs are approaching and the Phillies and their fans have high hopes. Last year at this time, the Phillies were fighting hard for a playoff spot. Nothing was for sure and nobody knew if they would even make it to the post season or not. This year has been different. They are the favorites to win the division and they have been playing like it all year. They have an 8 game lead over the Braves and are considered my many experts as an NL favorite. Here are 3 reasons they are a better team this year than last year.

Cliff Lee

The mid-season trade for starting pitcher Cliff Lee has proved to be one of the greatest moves in team history. Like a few stars before him, he got traded from the AL to the NL and has been dominant in every game so far. He has a 5-0 record in 5 starts and an era well under 1. He is such a big improvement to this rotation especially since last years World Series MVP, Cole Hamels, hasn’t been playing his best ball.

Read the rest of this entry »

So another weekend and another big series for the Phillies. It’s not hard to make the case for this series being the most important one of the season. In the past few weeks, they have been seeing their division lead dwindle down to 4.5 games. The Marlins are the closest to catching them but the Atlanta Braves are right behind them too (5 games back).

The question will be what Phillies team decides to show up. We could see the team that swept the Cubs with a combination of great hitting and pitching. Or we could see the team that got blown away by that team from Florida the series before. Division series are usually close and hard to predict but I am leaning towards the “good” Phillies showing up for this series.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is no secret that the Phillies are a contender to land the starting all star pitcher Roy Halladay. We wrote about it a while ago. The only thing for the fans like you and me to do is sit, wait and watch. We have been getting comments from people on both sides of the issue. Many people want the guy wearing a Phillies uniform at all costs. Others do not want to risk winning for years to come for an old pitcher that may be gone in less than 2 years.

To me, this trade would clearly help the team get closer to a repeat but it totally depends on who they trade. Too bad the fans don’t make the decisions. The people who have a greater say in what happens are the World Series champs themselves- the Phillies All-Stars.

This has been a hot topic for the past few days between these players and the media and it seems like they all want to win NOW. Which means BRING IN HALLADAY! It is kind of obvious that the current Phillies would want to bring him in now. The move would make them a front runner to win the World Series in my opinion although it could damage their future. These guys know they would win with Halladay now and they don’t care about 5 years from now becuase they do not know where they will be playing.

Werth and Howard are both quoted in this article from the Phillies’ website expressing their desires for the ace pitcher.Werth even says “If you were ever going to sell the farm, I think now would be the time. But that’s just me speaking, who has a short window of a career.”

I definitely do not blame these guys for saying this. Heck, if that were me I would be begging Ruben Amaro to bring him in. There is no question it would improve the current organization. We will see how this plays out. Any thoughts?

-Bret