Phightins

Jimmy Rollins, where art thou?

Ben Francisco gets there easily without having to do the belly flop.

The Swisher HR was not half as bad as the Tex HR, but is still borderline in any other park.

Roy Halladay 2010 ERA vs. NL: 1.51 Roy Halladay 2010 ERA vs. AL 9.26

Just saw the replay of the Swisher HR. It was deeper than I initially thought. Just crazy strength I guess, to break a bat and still hit a deep fly ball.

Tex's landed right over the 314 marker. And Swisher's was not long gone at all. Hell, he broke his bat and it barely cleared the fence. And I wouldn't say any homerun is "cheap" since both teams have to use the same dimensions, but I just don't understand how they could be allowed to build a stadium with those dimensions in today's age. The RF porch at Citizens Bank Park is generally called a joke, but it is 15 feet deeper than the one at Yankee Stadium. It's definitely not "unfair", just a tad ridiculous. Just IMO.

As a Phillies fan, I really don't want to complain about the dimensions of a stadium. But Good Lord, that RF porch at Yankee Stadium is a joke.

Also, Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick have been swapped in the rotation. If anything good comes out of this, it means we won't have to deal with the endless jokes/references saying "Jamie Moyer and Andy Pettitte are old!".

Slight lineup shuffle tonight. Chase Utley is now hitting 2nd and Placido Polanco is hitting 3rd. Not sure if this is just a one game thing so they don't have back to back lefties at any point against Sabathia, or if this will be permanent. I do like the idea of Polanco batting 3rd though, at least until Utley gets back in gear. Also, Raul Ibanez is in LF and Ben Francisco is the DH, which does not make a whole lot of sense to me. At Fenway I understood this, since Ibanez has more experience playing balls off the Green Monster, but frankly, you'd think that the use of a DH would be a great chance to get Ibanez out of the field.

A couple of notes for today.... -Conor Jackson traded to Oakland - Adam Everett released by Tigers -Mark Mulder officially retires No shock with Jackson getting traded, and I am sure this is just the first domino to fall with the Diamondbacks. As far as Mulder, what a shame. Such a promising career ending way too early. Also sucks for the Cardinals, who traded Dan Haren for him back in the day.

One of the beat writers, Anthony SanFilippo, has written that he's talked with people in the organization and that is the attitude they have. So we'll see. Unfortunately, I think JVR is going to be traded for a goalie. I am guessing that Giroux is untouchable. The only two attractive trade chips the Flyers have are Jeff Carter and James van Riemsdyk (obviously Giroux too, but I think (hope) that he is untouchable). They have no first or second round picks.

I like Dan Ellis. Cool dude too (I follow him on Twitter). However, I disagree with your last statement. From what I have read, the organization is fed up with signing one mediocre, journeyman goalie after another, and they are ready to risk it in hopes of finding a young "franchise" goalie. Probably easier said than done, and who knows if that is what they are really thinking. But, enough is enough, they have not had a true, confidence-inspiring #1 goalie since Ron Hextall, and have only had 3 or 4 in franchise history.

I'd love Schneider or one of the LA guys (Quick/Bernier, not sure which they'd be more likely to move).

Interesting... The 3 Yankees starters for this series were the 3 guys they used all throughout the postseason last year. None of the 3 Phillies starters were on the postseason roster (actually I think Kendrick may have been for the NLDS, but regardless...). Obviously Halladay would have been, but it is still an interesting tidbit.

Matchups for NYY series... Tomorrow: Roy Halladay @ CC Sabathia Wednesday: Jamie Moyer @ AJ Burnett Thursday: Kyle Kendrick @ Andy Pettitte

They sell Kobe/Lebron shirts when they are in Philly.

A 4 run inning! That was nice. Of course, it ends with a double play.

So, we get the bases loaded and nobody out in the first, and don't score one run. Yeah....

It's on TBS (but for some reason it is blacked out here).

Out of Stras's 7 fastballs in the first inning, 4 were clocked at 100 and 3 were 99. Good lord.

I wish the Phillies could play the Orioles this year . Although we can call it even with the 3 extra home games.

Yeah. Strasburg and Santana in the same game. It'd be a good one to see.

Turner just had one. Citi Field will probably get one soon. CBP hopefully will too, although we just had it at the Vet in 1996.

It was great for the first 3 months. And those 3 months is part of what propelled us to the pennant, so it's hard for me to hate on it in that regard. But, it just looks like a lot of his bat speed is gone. He has always had a ridiculously quick bat and it just doesn't seem like it's there anymore. It is still June though, so you are right we should give him time, I am just not holding my breath on him returning to his old form. Bad decision by Ruben to give him 3 years, no matter how you look at it. At the time of the signing, he should have been able to see this situation coming. I am sure he did not see Raul falling off the face of the earth by halfway through year 2, but he knew Jayson Werth would be up for an extension, and he also knew that we have a bunch of very good outfielders in the system (the only position we have a lot of at the time being, especially now with Drabek gone), and that chances are at least one of them would be MLB ready by the winter of 2010 (as it looks like Domonic Brown will be). Giving an aging corner outfielder 3 years seemed like a mistake to many at the time, and now it looks very bad. I am not too thrilled with what Ruben has done so far, to be honest. With the rest of the NL East projecting to be a hell of a lot better within the next 2-3 years, Ruben better get it together.

I'd like to hear your reasoning for this. And also, I think you need to look up the definition of "franchise".