Location: Philadelphia, Pa. | Ballpark: Citizens Bank Park (43,500) | Spring Training: Clearwater, Fla.
Owner: Bill Giles, David Montgomery | GM: Pat Gillick | Manager: Charlie Manuel | World Championships: 1
They catch a break in that the Brewers can only use CC Sabathia once in the first four games of the series. The Phillies should tee off on the Brewers' righty starters; their lefty-leaning lineup will have more trouble with big CC ... Brett Myers was awful until mid-summer, devastating between then and Sept. 14, then awful again in his final two starts. Go ahead, you figure him out ... Yes, Brad Lidge gave up two monstrous dingers during the Astros' postseason run in 2005. Big deal. He has mostly been a wonderful pitcher since then. I don't buy into the whole psychological-wounds thing.
09/23/2008
5
8
Obviously, they're peaking at the right time ... There might not be a ton of guys in the Philly 'pen capable of inducing late-game offensive paralysis, but they've been getting the job done for a few months now. Hell, even Clay Condrey, a guy whose fastball couldn't dent a throw pillow, is excavating the team from rough situations.
09/16/2008
8
9
Here's an idea: Next season, custom-print calendars for the clubhouse that identify every month as September. ... If Carlos Delgado is an MVP candidate, then so is Ryan Howard. The counting stats are closer than you'd think based on the Delgado-rules chatter -- .244/44 HRs/133 RBI for Howard vs. .267/35/104 for Delgado -- and the OPS figures are almost identical, plus they both sucked for large swaths of the season before rallying down the stretch. ... Kyle Kendrick's removal from the rotation is more than addition by subtraction; it's like addition cubed by subtraction times multiplication, or something. On his best day, he's a flutterballer.
09/09/2008
9
9
Even with the series win over the Mets, they're still 7-11 against their NL East overlords this season. ... It seems borderline sacrilegious to say it aloud -- and yes, as a stat, wins say almost as much about the team as the pitcher -- but Jamie Moyer is now tied with Juan Marichal on the all-time list. ... Jimmy Rollins has regained his "sparkplug" tag, swiping bases and generally having the same effect on opponents as a persistent rash.
09/02/2008
9
10
They have a slightly easier schedule than the Metsies the rest of the way, with only a three-game series at Shea and a four-game visit from the Brewers looming as legit obstacles ... More Moyer in '09, please. He's allowed more than three runs just once since June 1 ... Has anybody ever written anything about recent acquisition Matt Stairs without identifying him as a "professional hitter"? Maybe we can append that description to include "hippo in cleats," which neatly encapsulates his clumsiness outside the batter's box ... The real professional hitter in recent weeks, of course, has been Jayson Werth, without whom the Phillies would have been swept by the Cubs last weekend.
08/26/2008
10
14
Nice job returning the favor against the Dodgers. ... I hereby pronounce Brett Myers officially fixed ... I harp on this every week, but Chase Utley ain't right. You watch -- next March, we'll read a story about how he played the second half of the season with fractured ribs, a deviated septum and three sick children at home.
08/19/2008
14
9
They got swept -- four games -- in L.A. and somehow eked out two wins against the lowly Padres despite scoring six runs total in three games. Only Cincinnati, San Diego, Washington and San Francisco score fewer runs on a per-game basis. ... Maybe the hitters will fatten up -– there's a Ryan Howard joke in here somewhere -– against the Nats this week, or maybe they won't. I've lost interest, frankly.
08/12/2008
9
10
Great offensive teams don't go through 23-inning scoreless streaks against the likes of the Marlins and Pirates. ... Uninformed speculation here: Is Chase Utley nursing some kind of double-secret injury? ... Charlie Manuel might look and sound like an individual pursuing a career in ice-cream service, but you have to like how he gets up in his players' faces when they dog it. ... Speaking of Manuel, he can complain all he wants about how Brad Lidge might've been damaged by warming up 17 times before entering the All-Star Game, but he sure didn't help matters by using Lidge five times in six days last month.
08/05/2008
10
11
They did what they had to do, going 5-1 on their Washington/St. Louis road trip. ... Somebody might've slipped something into Shane Victorino's FDA-approved nutritional supplement. He has hit seven dingers in his past 19 games; his career high for a season is 12. ... Jamie Moyer always beats the Marlins (10-0, 3.03 ERA), which means he'll get lit up Tuesday night now that I've cherry-picked that stat. It's inevitable.
07/29/2008
11
12
They are certainly making things entertaining, what with the ninth-inning rally against the Mets last Monday, the six-run comeback Saturday and the five-run comeback/multi-dinger derby Sunday. ... Here's a fun exercise for baseball/chemistry nerds: compare NL bullpens to the unstable elements that dot the periodic table. In this tortured exercise, the Philly 'pen would be technetium. ... The Sillies finally got somebody to explain the concept of "sunk cost" to them and optioned Adam Eaton to the minors. Is there such a thing as addition by multiplied subtraction?
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/28/2008
4
-
It is not too often a lineup can boast a trio of MVP candidates. The question is whether the pitching staff is deep enough after Cole Hamels and Brett Myers to limit the opposition in Citizens Bank Park. We're not sold on Brad Lidge's ability to keep the ball in the ballpark or to stay level-headed.
CBS Sports Store
Phillies Pinstripe Tee by Mitchell and Ness $49.99Shop Now!
