The Lions' Pride

too long of leish for Diekman. They are trying to blow this game.

Even though the Phillies squeaked that one out, I'd be fuming if I was a starting pitcher on this team. The bullpen is downright horrendous. Forget the offense for a minute because the Phillies have actually had quite a few leads late in ball games and have probably lost 95% of those games. Glad they won though.

5 in a row.
Above .500 for the first time since their opening day win vs. the Pirates.
20 of the next 23 games are vs. teams above .500.

Phillies get their 6th win in a row beating the Red Sox 6-4 in game 1 of their 3 game series. Papelbon got the save vs. his former team and was quite pumped about it.

O's take game 1 of the Beltway Series in 11. No room to breath in this division even after a strong start Rays are only a game back.

Can you guys please read where this thread goes on Verlander. How much of a homer can a person be? (granted this ND fan also once argued with me that Brian Kelly had absolutely nothing to do with that student's death and it was all Nature and God that caused his death, so he's not the brightest bulb).

Just didn't realize Tigers fans were such homers. Pretty incredible. Must be the Notre Dame and Michigan fans coming out in them.

saw that earlier today, told my GF to watch out! You never know when The Bat might strike!

Not a fan of his swing. It's long, and he reminds me of adam dunn, .235 and 40 jacks.

My wife asked me about what's wrong with the Phillies last night. I said they are an old team, who hasn't been a good situational hitting team for at least 4 years. With the current roster, they need to play hit n run, bunt, sacrifice, but the problem is, they have too many swing and miss guys. Outside of Pence and maybe Ruiz, they have no one who scares anyone.

Mitch Williams each night is on MLB saying, trade Hamels to the Angels for Mark Trumbo and Jerome Williams, because you ain't keeping Hamels, get something for him, and the numbers Trumbo puts up in CBP would be insane.

I'm not a big fan of trading 28 year old LHP, but in this case, they may have to. The Phillies look like a dead team right now.

.235 and 40 jacks will get him a 15M a year, 5 year deal as a FA... so it could be worse...

But I completely disagree on the swing, it is quite a bit more compact than Dunn and he definitely makes more contact. Dunn is much more upright, and lets it fly, when he connects its dangerous... Dunn's K's at a 30% clip, which is a big factor in his .235 average... Adams is K rate is about 15% in the minors, he hit .365 in rookie ball, .340 in A, .300 in AA with increased power and .340 in AAA in 150 AB's... don't see any resemblance to how he profiles to a .235 hitter. Not at all...

just basing on the very few swings I've seen at the MLB level.

Justin Smoak, Matt Wieters, Matt Gamel were all guys with very high averages, and insane power at the MiLB level. Wieters is .240, Smoak is serviceable, but not the elite hitter that he was portrayed, and Gamel has shown zero ability to drive the ball like he did in the minors.

Time will tell about Adams but there is a laundry list of guys who tore apart the minors that did nothing in the pro's.

Matt Wieters isn't a .240 guy, and is currently one of the top 2-3 catchers in baseball. Way off base...

Mat Gamel was suppose to take over for Prince at 1B like 3 years ago... he was in AAA in 2008 and still there in 2011 after a few cups of coffee in the show. If a guy, 28 years old is repeating a level for the 3rd time, he should have success.

Adams has made a linear jump through the minor league system.... rookie ball, low A, A, AA, AAA... no repeating levels, which is usually when the big numbers kick in for a guy, when he is a year or two older and repeating a level and has hit everywhere he has been, period.

As for Smoak... better look again... when he was drafted, 13 overall in 2008, some thought he was the best bat in that draft... the most HR he ever hit in the minors was 13, and hit over .300 once time in a 66AB sample size in AA in 09...

One other difference... Adams was a 23R pick, who know one thought would ever make an impact... you are comparing him to bonus babies that were all drafted high in the first round as amateurs... really makes no sense.

If you don't like him, you don;t like him, up to you... but to make random comparisons to guys that are nothing like him at all.. well thats just silly... As for your laundry list of minor leaguers... well duh.... of course not every guy that is successful translates to MLB... if you don't think its exciting for a central PA kid to get a shot at the big leagues from PO High School, then what can I tell ya... But to be on a recruiting web site, where all we do is fawn over kids that "have never done anything", and "time will tell" for all of them, you think you'd be able to understand some excitement for a kids "potential".

Charlie was just on MLBXM at lunch time.... I am sure his quotes are going to get some run in the Philly papers.

I didnt write it down, so not exactly verbatim... basically he said "Sometimes you have teams, where all the guys are into it, and only care about baseball and getting better... and sometimes you have teams like this one, where some of the guys have alot of other things going on too"... then tried to back track a bit... but definitely didn't sound like he was too thrilled with the way they are handling themselves in the clubhouse.

Well, good news is... if they decide to tear it down in another six weeks, they will have some players to move to rebuild that farm system.
We'll take Victorino and Hamels in Detroit for Castellanos and Turner... Fix 3B for the next decade for you, and a legit young stud with "potential" to be an ace.