Phillies Offseason Updates: Phils sign Ibanez. Park, Moyer

So far this offseason has been just short of disaster with the Phillies signing old Raul Ibanez to take over for Pat Burrell in left field. The Phils also nabbed Chan Ho Park, a dicey decision. Park has been inconsistent since 2001 and has bounced from team to team. One good thing has happened though, with the signing of 43-year-old starting pitcher Jamie Moyer. Moyer was a key factor in the Phils World Series run last year. A couple other moves you should know about:

The Phillies non-tendered P Scott Mathieson and then re-signed him. The young pitcher had Tommy John surgery two years ago and hopes to try to compete for a reliving job for the Phils. A more realistic thing to happen would be to come out of the bullpen for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs or the Reading Phillies. I hope he is able to come back, It would make a great story.

In other news, the Phillies traded C Jason Jaramillo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for C Ronny Paulino.
The move shows that the Phils are looking for Lou Marson to be the catcher of the future. That would probably mean that either Chris Coste and Carlos Ruiz and more likely Coste, won't be on the team next year. Keep checking back for more updates this offseason!!!

Phillies Win World Series!!!

It's been 25 years since this has happened. The Phillies won the 2008 World Series. Behind a strong starting pitching rotation and power hitting the Phils defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 4 games to 1.

IN GAME UPDATE:Happ gone after 5, Phils down 2-0

J.A. Happ didn't last as long as he would have liked. He pitched 4 and 2/3 giving up 3 hits with 2 earned runs on four walks and with 3 K's. Chad Durbin came in in relief of Happ and has thrown one scoreless innings so far. As for offense the Phillies have done nothing with only two hits. The Mets are leading 2-0 in Citizens Bank Park.

IronPigs:
Losing 6-4 to Pawtucket through 7 innings. Mike Cervanek and Brandon Watson both have doubles.


Come back for more updates!!!!

Phillies Notebook:Happ gets the nod against Santana, Mets

Phils southpaw J.A. Happ will get the nod tonight against Johan Santana and the Mets. Happ, a 6-6 lefthander, had a 5-6 record and a 3.54 ERA in 17 starts with the Iron Pigs.This will not be Happ' major league debut however, because he pitched one game with the Phillies last year. Coincidentally, his number 66 is the same as his height. Anyway he should be very happy to get out of Lehigh Valley, who have struggled to win games all year long. With Brett Myers sent down Happ will probably be up for at least several starts.
Swindle sent down:
He never got to play after being called up from Triple-A, but feel good story R.J. Swindle was sent back to the Pigs on Thursday. He was on the roster for two games and did not make any appearances. If he keeps this up I see him as a potential call-up should someone get hurt and definitely a late September call-up.
Three Pigs named to All-Star game:
When the rosters for the Triple-A all-star game were announced I was surprised to see that three Iron Pigs were on the roster. LHP Brian Mazone, INF Mike Cervenak and C Jason Jaramillo were those three players. Brian Mazone, who spent a majority of last season pitching for the Samsung Lions in the Korean League, is making his first Minor League All-Star game appearance. The 31-year-old left-hander has posted an 8-6 record and 3.28 ERA in 17 starts this season.Mike Cervenak has enjoyed one of the top offensive seasons in the IL and currently ranks 2nd in the league in hits (99) and T-7th in average (.304).
Jason Jaramillo returns to the Triple-A All-Star game for the second consecutive season after serving as Ottawa’s lone representative at the All-Star Game in 2007.

Full IL Roster

Swindle up, Myers down

Well half of this news was surprising half of it wasn't. Ok, ok, I guess I probably would not have guessed that Brett Myers would be send to the pigsty (cough, cough, Iron Pigs). If you like surprises then you are in for a treat. 24 year year soon to be 25 year old junkball pitcher R.J. Swindle was called up to the Phillies yesterday and might get a chance to pitch this weekend. Back to the word "junkball". This man is another Jamie Moyer if you ask me. But hey with a 1.35 ERA I can't blame him. More to come........

CWS Update: Fresno State, Susdorf grab College Baseball Crown

On Wednesday the Bulldogs made history. Not the Georgia Bulldogs but another Bulldogs. Yep that's right, the 31 loss, unranked Bulldogs that had to win their conference tournament to get in to the regionals. Yeah that's right, the Fresno State Bulldogs. With timely power hitting and pitching the Bulldogs were able to pull off some history with a 6 to 1 win over Georgia. They became the lowest seed to ever win a national championship. Steve Detwiler led the way in the championship going 4 for 4 with 6 RBI, 2 HR's, and a double. But even though this is probably the most talked about player in the CWS I want to talk about another player Steve Susdorf who I mentioned in an earlier post. The Phillies selected him in the 19th round. He was a key fixture in Fresno St's run to Omaha. He finished with some eye-popping stats. They read: AVG: .343, 103 hits, 32 doubles, 13 HR's and 80 runs. Keep coming for more Phillies news!!!

Phillies bats cool as Cards win 3-2

Well the Phillies didn't score 20 runs this time. They didn't even score five. They scored as many as the Cards did yesterday. 2. Great. The Phillies have had a history of doing this but not this year. They had several 20 run and runs in the teens and the run production didn't come down much. But today was a classic example of what usually happens. Anyway it wasn't beacause of pitching. Adam Eaton finished with a quality start tossing 6 and 2/3 giving up 3 earned runs. He was also the only one on the Phils who had multiple hits(2) So I guess it was the bats. I guessed right. On national TV(Fox) producing only four hits. It is hard to make a long story of that. So this recap will be shorter than the last. Anyway J.C. Romero came in and pitched a scoreless session(1.1 innings). The fans came to pack the stands with an attendance of 45,089. I would like to mention how good those fans are. They support their team by packing the house and cheering on their team. But here is one thing that you generally don't expect especially with a backup. So Taguchi got a standing ovation last night during an at bat against the Cards. Let's compare that to the Phils fans: Reliver Ugueth Urbina threw one ball against the Rangers in the summer of 05 and the Phils fans were booing the heck out of him. I hear they boo Santa Claus. Anyway St. Louis has a good set of fans even if the yaren't my favorite team.

Phillies draft pick enjoys The Road to Omaha

Stephen Susdorf of Fresno State University and Eryk McConnell of North Carolina are at Rosenblatt Staduim right now but not to play for the Royals. Both players were selected in last week's Amateur Draft by the Phils. Susdorf, an outfielder, played a big role on The Road to Omaha for his team the Fresno St. Bulldogs. Susdorf finished with a .345 average, third on the team. He had 95 hits including 29 doubles and 11 homers. He went 3 for 6 with a homer against to help his team advance to the College World Series.

Awards:
Senior outfielder Steve Susdorf swept the majority of the biggest WAC awards this season. He was tabbed was the preseason WAC Player of the Year back in January, followed that with the 2008 WAC Player of the Year Award in voting by the league's coaches and was selected the MVP of the WAC Tournament last weekend in Ruston, La.. During the season he set the all-time RBI record at Fresno State, the first player in Bulldog history with more than 200. On May 8 he was named to the ESPN the Magazine First Team Academic All-District 8 First Team. It is the second time in his career that he has been honored, and on May 26 he was selected second-team Academic All-America by CoSIDA. He added to his trophy case by being named to the Long Beach All-Regional team, the second straight year he was selected to the NCAA All-Region squad.

(Awards from from http://gobulldogs.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl)

Phillies defeat Cards 20-2

Well the title says it all. The Phillies kicked some bird butt. 20-2 was the final score. Yes no typo.
Kyle Kendrick pitched a stellar seven innings allowing 1 earned run on eight hits.The Phils smacked four homers including a back(Chase Utley (22)to back(Ryan Howard(16)(2) to back(Pat Burrell(17) jack of Cards pitcher Todd Wellemeyer who pithed 3 and 1/3 giving up 8 earned runs on 8 hits. Carlos Ruiz finally started hitting and went 4 for 6 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI. J-Rol was 0 for 4. Ouch. And "Ouch" could apply to this too: In the eighth Cards pitcher beaned Howard in the leg. The immediately threw Springer out of the game and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa came out to argue and was also tossed. Then Rudy Seanez threw a pitch behind Brendan Ryan in the bottom of the eighth, and St. Louis third-base coach Jose Oquendo was ejected for arguing that Seanz should been thrown out.YEAH!!!!! Howard, from St. Louis, has always had good success at Busch Stadium and added to that by going 3 for 5 with those two homers and 5 RBI. The Phillies improved their record to 41-28 second in the NL only behind the Chicago Cubs(43-25), While the Cardinals fell to 40-29. The two teams meet again today at 2:30 central time on Fox. Come here for live Updates!!!

Instant Replay:Should it be Used???

Pat Burrell smacks a home run. Instant replay is being considered.
Well it's the most talked about subject in Major League Baseball. Instant Replay should it or shouldn't it be used??? Well in my opinion the answer is a very clear "YES". Yep you heard me "Yes". Why you ask??? Well there is one obvious reason: Many home runs and questionable and called wrong. Here is a scenario: The Phillies are losing to the Mets 6-4. J-Rol is on second and Chase Utley is on first with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Ryan Howard hits a towering ball towards the left field foul pool. The umpire calls it foul and Howard goes on to strike out. But cleary on the replay on TV it was fair and and barely squeaked the pool to the right. Home run, right?? Wrong. The Phillies often in the past years end up finishing one or two games(until last season). Well just think a couple of games like that and bang there goes your playoff spot. I think baseball should use this strictly for home runs though. Most people against this are old who claim, "Oh it would take away from the game,boo-hoo!!!!!!" Yeah yeah. Anyway I think replay is a must. Whether they use it this year or in the Arizona Fall League I do not no. I guess Bug Selig is the man.

Everthing Phillies Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog!! This blog with contain information,photos,videos,updates,and much much more of the Philadlephia Phillies and their minor league teams. Enjoy!!