They play 27 outs, you know

I heard that about them. Pretty fucking inspirational.

What was the Rays' stupid thing last year? It was like 11=9 or something

Now that you mention it, one of the things I like most about last year's team and this is that they have no slogan.

The Dude wrote:I heard that about them. Pretty $#@! inspirational.

What was the Rays' stupid thing last year? It was like 11=9 or something

Their thing last year was 9=8, meaning 9 players playing 9 innings would get them one of the 8 postseason spots.

20 players wearing fauxhawks and 10,000 fans with cowbells would get their asses beat in the World Series

TomatoPie wrote:Fair to say that Rollins and Vic are undisciplined?

Rollins, maybe -- he had a decent walk rate the last few seasons before it went to crap this year. He's turned into a 6- or 7-hole hitter miscast as a leadoff guy.

Victorino though has morphed into a nearly ideal leadoff man -- solid batting average and walk rate, with good extra-base power (but not so much that it's wasted at the top of the lineup).

TomatoPie wrote:Regarding "game smarts" -- seems like Utley has a lot, Victorino, a lot less. On target?

You'll have to clarify what you mean by game smarts. All players make the occasional brain fart -- of all current Phillies, I'd say Jayson Werth is most prone to this, but it's really impossible to point to specific events to say why. Victorino has made a couple of obvious baserunning gaffes in the past that may be sticking in your mind, but I don't think overall he's lacking in baseball smarts.

Chase seems to be a pretty heady player -- that fake to first, throw home in the World Series was one of the most brilliant plays I've ever seen a baseball player make. I guess I would say that he has pretty great baseball smarts.

robhinkle wrote:

The Dude wrote:I heard that about them. Pretty $#@! inspirational.

What was the Rays' stupid thing last year? It was like 11=9 or something

Their thing last year was 9=8, meaning 9 players playing 9 innings would get them one of the 8 postseason spots.

Even though technically, they only qualify for two playoff spots (AL East or AL Wild Card).

Thanks larry l.

Mountainphan wrote:With all due respect TP, suggesting this team doesn't have "game smarts" could be one of the silliest things I've read here in awhile.

Right up there with Cliff Lee hating latinos.

(That one's true though)

TomatoPie wrote:

Mountainphan wrote:With all due respect TP, suggesting this team doesn't have "game smarts" could be one of the silliest things I've read here in awhile.

I'm all ears, convince me.

I think any fan that watches one team more than any other, or all others put together, is going to focus on what s/he perceives as the characteristic flaws of that team. Most of us have groused about the Phillies' occasional problems stranding runners; some more specific circumstances, such as a leadoff double or man on third/one out are especially likely to elicit a "DOOMED!" remark. But if you look at the numbers, hitting with RISP is a strength of this team, not a weakness.

The suggestion that the Phils comparatively lack "game smarts" (even before we get into how that's defined, as to which I have no idea) only holds up if you can make a strong case that other teams have more. But just in this year's playoffs thus far, we've seen the Twins run themselves out of innings and take bad approaches with guys on base in others and the Angels play awful defense. Those two teams are supposedly all about fundamentals and "doing the little things."

Victorino does dumb stuff more often than I'd like. But he's one guy, and it's likely that his aggression on balance does more good than harm. Against that, you have Utley, Ibanez, Ruiz et al, who I think show pretty strong awareness on the field.

You know who was dumb? Rowand.

TenuredVulture wrote:You know who was dumb? Rowand.

He played too hard to think.

According to Wikipedia, Rollins has a cerebral approach to the game with a near photographic memory for pitchers. I think he's an intelligent baserunner, but I don't see much evidence of a cerebral approach at the plate.

This is an error.

I may be pulling this out of my poop shoot, but I could have sworn hearing that the Phillies take more pitches per AB than any other team? I'm not a stats guy, so can someone either cal me a BSer or corroborate? Then again, that would prove their lack of smarts since it takes them more pitches to realize they are batting

slugsrbad wrote:I may be pulling this out of my poop shoot, but I could have sworn hearing that the Phillies take more pitches per AB than any other team? I'm not a stats guy, so can someone either cal me a BSer or corroborate? Then again, tha

Werth lead all of baseball (or at least all of the NL) in terms of pitches per PA. I'm not sure if the team as a whole did.

slugsrbad wrote:I may be pulling this out of my poop shoot, but I could have sworn hearing that the Phillies take more pitches per AB than any other team? I'm not a stats guy, so can someone either cal me a BSer or corroborate? Then again, that would prove their lack of smarts since it takes them more pitches to realize they are batting

They were t-4 in the NL in P/PA at 3.87 as a team in the reg season.

Werth though is #1 in the NL at 4.5

Werth 4.5, Utley/Howard/Ibanez 4.1, Ruiz 4.0, Rollins 3.6, Vic 3.5, Feliz 3.3 (shocking)

Looked back through the thread and didn't see this. Did anyone else hear clueless national announcer guy say how CBP sounds like the Boston Garden? Umm, excuse me but we've been chanting "Beat LA" for over 30 years now. F Boston, F NY, F LA and F all the media hype sports world-revolves-around crap.

The Marty Show wrote:Looked back through the thread and didn't see this. Did anyone else hear clueless national announcer guy say how CBP sounds like the Boston Garden? Umm, excuse me but we've been chanting "Beat LA" for over 30 years now. F Boston, F NY, F LA and F all the media hype sports world-revolves-around crap.

Boston Garden is where the chant originated. I think that's what he meant.

So that's why he's on the roster