Aug 05 2010 04:01 PM
| NEW YORK =#FF8000]METS AT =#FF0000]PHILADELPHIA =#FFFFFF]PHILLIES |
 | Oh, boy. The =#FF0000]Phillies. Those bastards with the nice uniforms, logos, color schemes, fonts... It's a shame it's all wasted on such a hateable city and team. They even have a nice ballpark, albeit a bandbox. And that, my friends, is where our Metsies will travel this weekend. To the City of Brotherly Love and AIDS. |  |
| So, the last you may remember, the Phillies were actually, like, BEHIND us in standings pretty recently. As we shit the bed, so did they. They matched us. Did the Mets lose? Yes. So did the Phillies! Second place futility! But wait. That stopped. It stopped PRETTY. DAMN. HARD. Things were looking up heading into the All-Star break as they had won four games in a row, a mini hot streak. Then, they immediately lost 6 out of 7 right after the ASG and things were looking up (if you hate the Philthies, that is). Thennnnn is when things turned around. You wanna talk hot? Try winning 8 games in a row and 11 out of 13 (not including the Thursday (tonight) game before the series). That's HOT. So they're showing they're contenders rather than pretenders. And that is crucial to a key difference between the Phillies and the Mets. It shows that the Phillies are a competent, well-run organization, especially relative to us. You may want to rip them for trading away Cliff Lee when they could have had a 1-2 punch of Roy Halladay and Lee (omgomgomgomgomg). And you'd be right in wanting to! I wanted to. I want to. But this is how they're different: the Phillies, as an organization, are not afraid to admit when they make mistakes. And here, they admitted it. They admitted it by adding Roy Oswalt. Is Roy Oswalt as sexy as Cliff Lee? Fuck no. But he's still pretty hot. While we hold on to mistakes like Oliver Perez, the Phillies remedy theirs. |  ARGH. |
 Mike Sweeney seems to have a nice family. | However, not all things are ENTIRELY well. Ryan Howard just hit the disabled list with a sprained [crossout]vagina[/crossout] ankle. Their answer? Trade a PTBNL/cash for Mike Freaking Sweeney (who knew he was even in the league anymore? I didn't), the 37-year-old journeyman who is a designated hitter by trade. No, really, he can't play the field. He's played 189 and 1/3 innings in the field from the 2006 season to the time the Phillies traded for him and made three errors in that limited time. They're just throwing him out there at first base. I mean, why not. They're the Phillies. It will work out somehow. Fuck me. He was on-basing .327 at the time of the trade but slugging .475. 6 homers and 3 doubles in 99 at bats. |
| Also banged up is Raúl Ibáñez with a stiff left wrist. He was scratched from the 8/1 game on Sunday with the wrist injury but has pretty much been on point since. Jamie Moyer has a sprained ulnar collateral ligament AND a strained tendon in his left elbow. It could be natural pitching injuries, or it could be the fact that he's nearly 50 fucking years old and has been using that left arm extensively for 40 of those years. And yet the man wants to come back next season still. God bless that crazy old bastard. Shane Victorino is out until mid-August with a strained oblique. Rant: the Mets screw around with their players when they strain obliques and let them struggle or sit out a ton of games and be unavailable or get hurt more while the Phillies place them on the DL. Competence versus incompetence yet again. Also, fuck Shane Victorino. |  'Fun' fact: BJ Penn was one of my favorite MMA fighters until I learned that he and Shane Victorino are really good friends. |
 | Dear Chase, I feel like I can call you Chase because you and me are so much alike. I would love to meet you some day. It would be great to have a catch. I know I can't throw as fast as you, but I think you would be impressed with my speed. I love your hair. You run fast. Do you have a good relationship with your father? Me neither. These are all things we can talk about and more. I know you have not been getting my letters because I know you would write back if you did, and I hope you write back this time and we get to be good friends. I am sure our relationship would be a real home run. Mac ______________________________________________ Boy-wonder Chase Utley hurt his poor ickle thumb back at the end of June and is still out. This only happened because I have him on my CPF NL-only team. Phils were originally hoping to have him back in early August, probably for this series, but GM Ruben Amaro says the outlook for his return now is September 1st. |
| The Lenny Dykstra/Tug McGraw Award: Players Who Played for the Mets and Phillies Correct me if I am wrong, but I only see two: catcher Brian Schneider ('08 and '09) and infielder Wilson Valdez ('09). A less than stellar crew. Schneider has played in only 32 games and has a clip of .235/.330/.400. Valdez has gotten a lot of play between the injuries to Utley, Rollins, and Polanco. 73 games (career high) with 224 at bats (career high) for a .241/.270/.353 line. Unimpressive, but predictable. Who's Hot: Over the last week, Ben Francisco is 6-for-16 (.375) with a double, a homer, and two walks. Raúl Ibáñez is 7-for-19 (.368) with two homers. Even hotter is Carlos Ruiz, who is 10-for-29 (.345) with two homers and two doubles. Jeez. Plácido Polanco is 9-for-27 (.333) with three doubles and six runs scored. Wilson Valdez is 8-for-24 (.333) with no extra base hits or anything. Still, .333. Who's Not: Rookie sensation (not really) Domonic Brown is 4-for-19 (.211) with six K's and one walk. Jimmy Rollins is 5-for-21 (.238) and still an unlikeable prick. | Matchups!(info via MLB.com. Sorry, getting lazy) Friday, August 6, 7:35 PM ET Jon Niese (LHP, 7-5, 3.78 ERA) @ Joe Blanton (RHP, 4-6, 5.86 ERA) Keep an eye on Joe Blanton in the first inning and after the fifth inning. He has a 7.94 ERA in the first inning this season, a 3.36 ERA from the second through fifth innings and an 11.86 ERA from the sixth inning on. Early and late damage have hurt. Saturday, August 7, 7:05 PM ET Johan Santana (LHP, 8-6, 3.20 ERA) @ Cole Hamels (LHP, 7-7, 3.56 ERA) Hamels allowed four runs in seven innings Sunday against Washington, but he pitched much better than that. In fact, that was just the second time since April that he had allowed more than three earned runs in a start. Sunday, August 8, 1:35 PM ET R.A. Dickey (RHP, 7-4, 2.36 ERA) @ Roy Halladay (RHP, 13-8, 2.17 ERA) Halladay appears quite ready to demonstrate his value as the playoff races begin to heat up. The veteran right-hander believes any summer doldrums are behind him now and it looked that way as he continued his mastery of Florida on Tuesday. |
Also, hey guys!