Phightins

Yeah, only reason he is in the rotation is because they are paying him $8 million. Kyle Kendrick deserves the spot way more (Kendrick is in it now temporarily until Blanton gets back, but after that he will likely go to AAA). Kendrick didn't have the best of starts last week either, but I am way more comfortable with him as the 5th starter than Moyer.

Also, there were reports today that the Phillies are talking with Pedro Martinez.

So, the Phillies still haven't said anything about Jimmy's MRI, but there is video footage of him leaving the hospital after his MRI in a boot and with a bad limp. Doesn't look good... With that said, I am anxiously awaiting Ruben Amaro Jr.'s press conference so I can find out how he plans on bull[expletive]ting the media/fans this time.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sixerville/Larry_Brown_denies_reported_return_to_Sixers.html

Sounds like it's a grade 2 calf strain, which means an almost guaranteed DL stint. [expletive]. Quite the downer considering how well everything else has gone this year. And he was playing so well. We'll probably know more tomorrow, but chances are the Phillies will feed us their typical bull[expletive], as usual when one of their big time players gets hurt.

Jayson Werth says his hip injury is not serious. Still worried about Jimmy though...

Matt Cord is great. He's a DJ on my favorite radio station too. Great guy.

The yard looks pretty sick.

I am not really into predictions. But I will say that I am cautiously optimistic about my Flyers. They got the best possible draw. They absolutely owned Marty Brodeur this season and won 5 of 6 games from the Devs. Obviously that means next to nothing, but I'd imagine they are confident that they can beat them. I'm not expecting a series win either, but of all 7 other teams in the East this is probably the team they match up best with. Also I feel bad for the Coyotes. Such an epic season, and they get matched up with by far the hottest team in hockey, and a team with a crazy good playoff track record. It'd be nice to see them win.

Jimmy Rollins injured his calf before the game and Jayson Werth injured his hip during the game. Rollins is probably more series, he is going to have an MRI tomorrow. Also I was impressed with Cole Hamels today, despite the mediocre final line. He still has that problem where he lets one bad pitch or one thing that doesn't go his way turn into a snowball effect. One can only hope that this will go away as he gets older. But 3 of the 4 runs he allowed came in the 4th inning when he let a manageable situation get out of control. Otherwise I was very impressed. The changeup was lethal as always, his curveball was about as good as I have ever seen it, and he had a much better strike-to-ball ratio than last week. Also perhaps the most telling thing was that his fastball was hitting 92-93 on a regular basis. Usually he tops out at 88-89 in April, so that tells me he worked out a lot this offseason.

Because this is the Padres first home series. There is typically a day off after the home opener (unless the team plays in a dome). There are one or two exceptions I believe.

Kind of weird that out of the eight first round series' in the NHL playoffs, seven of them have at least 3 games on Versus/NBC. One series has none, and that would be Flyers-Devils. A bit strange, but hey I'm not complaining. Don't have to deal with the national TV buffoons for the entire round.

Well at least this is an entertaining game. Makes up for the fact that Trevor Hoffman just wrecked my fantasy team..

Game 1 is Wednesday night. Best part of this series: no games on Versus or NBC.

Ouch, Carp getting rocked.

I still [expletive]ing hate shootouts. But today I love them.

Well it was nice hearing Harry K's voice again .

And it is absolutely amazing to me that some numbskulls still call the Phillies ownership "cheap".

3:00, please arrive already. Thanks.

http://www.umpirejoewest.com/newjoe.jpg ^^That is actually his album, FYI.

Yeah they are averaging over 8 runs per game. Placido Polanco went 2-for-5 today and his average dropped 37 points, lol. Obviously it won't go this amazing forever, but it's still a very fun lineup to watch.

Tomorrow is going to be wild. Wish I got tickets when I had the chance.

Mixed feelings on this. For starters, Joe West is right about one thing. Pace of game is something that Bud Selig and co. have been concerned with for a while. Yankees-Red Sox games are particularly long, mostly because those teams have probably the two most patient lineups in baseball. I have never seen the problem though. Baseball is beautiful because of the rhythm and pace of it. If a game runs 3 and a half or 4 hours (or longer), who really cares? The only people who have real issues with this are Fox and ESPN because of sponsorship/programming issues that arise when games run longer than the standard 3 hour time slot. If you are a fan and you have a problem with a game occasionally running very long, then honestly I would question your fan-hood. As for the guy saying this....Joe West should just shut his mouth. He is the worst umpire in baseball (actually I'll be generous, he is the 2nd or 3rd worst). He is a hack and nobody is going to take him seriously. Also, if players are not allowed to criticize umpires without getting fined, I think it needs to go both wys.

I have liked this season a lot overall. Wasn't a huge fan of the last episode though. It was OK.

Brad Lidge's line in low-A Lakewood today... 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K Apparently even the two outs he got were very well hit deep fly balls. Ouch.