kruker wrote:Eskin on ESPN OTL's. Unbelievable that he is speaking for the city right now and more unbelievable that he's speaking authoritatively about the Phillies.

I find that repulsive yet completely believable.

The Dude wrote:Garza's splits are crazy in regards to outside stadiums vs. domes and grass vs. turf. That could explain the games he's horrible vs. great in

Thanks for the tip. I checked it out myself and he's horrible in the open air and on grass and pretty mediocre in away games. I'm feeling better and better about Game 3.

drsmooth wrote:are we supposed to have seen the upper tier of rays starting pitching thus far?

because I struggle to find words to describe how underwhelmed I have been.

not to discount the accomplishment the rays' 2008 season represents, but in my judgment they've had a major case of rockies' overachiever fever working

love to see games 3, 4 & 5 effect a cure

For comparison:

Jamie Moyer's season ERA+ was 120. Scott Kazmir was at 125, James Shields at 122, and Matt Garza at 118.

Jamie Moyer's pitching win shares were 15.1 (33 Games Started). James Shields was at 16.0 (33 GS), Matt Garza was at 12.7 (30 GS), and Scott Kazmir was at 12.4 (27 GS).

Cole Hamels blew all of them away with 142 and 19.2 (33 GS), respectively.

My friend just said he won tickets off of some drawing on the Phillies website? Did they offer tickets again? And I didn't win again? WTF? Anyone know anything about this?

CalvinBall wrote:My friend just said he won tickets off of some drawing on the Phillies website? Did they offer tickets again? And I didn't win again? WTF? Anyone know anything about this?

Yeah, there's a drawing for two tickets every day.

Polar Bear Phan wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:My friend just said he won tickets off of some drawing on the Phillies website? Did they offer tickets again? And I didn't win again? WTF? Anyone know anything about this?

Yeah, there's a drawing for two tickets every day.

Yea I saw that but I don't think that is it. He said he had to respond within the hour and it said he made the final cut or something similar to that.

I presume the board will be a little busier this time tomorrow.


GO PHILLIES!

ek wrote:Mr. Garza

I'll tell you what, facing the Phillies lineup, compared to facing the Red Sox lineup, the Tigers lineup, or the Yankees lineup, you get a bit of a break with the Phillies lineup.

Right, the Tigers and the Yankees were just deadly this year.

What a moron.

Ha. Did he say that today or something? He can't be serious.

Does he know how bad he is on the road? In stadiums with grass?

ek wrote:Mr. Garza

I'll tell you what, facing the Phillies lineup, compared to facing the Red Sox lineup, the Tigers lineup, or the Yankees lineup, you get a bit of a break with the Phillies lineup.

instructions:
1- blow up to 20' x 20', post in phillies clubhouse.
2- scroll on phanavison continuously throughout game
3- announce on public address system instead of playing player's music intros

Things that scare me:

LHP Jamie Moyer career numbers against:

LHB Carlos Pena: 10 for 20, 3 doubles, 2 homeruns, 2 bb, 4 k
LHB Carl Crawford: 9 for 19, 1 double, 1 triple, 0 bb, 1 k

No one else has more than 10 ABs against him. The case for the Phillies being more likely to win according to the BP odds is that the Rays have trouble with LHP. This is largely based on the splits of Carlos Pena (.994/.654 in 2008, .894/.752 career) and Carl Crawford (.754/.641 in 2008, .792/.695 career). The other LHB that Moyer will be up against is Iwamura who does not have much of a split at all. Otherwise, the Rays will trot out RHB and switch-hitters.

Moyer's ability to keep impatient hitters in check might be neutralized by the Rays who had the third most BB in the MLB this year.

Moyer needs to have a good game.

The Rays' hitters walk less on the road and their pitchers surrender more homers.

Garza was 7-3 at home with a 2.89 ERA and 5 HR allowed.

He was 4-6 with a 4.53 ERA and 14 HR allowed on the road.

Tampa's team OPS was .800 at home with a .317 BABIP vs. .728 OPS and .287 BABIP on the road.

ek wrote:Mr. Garza

I'll tell you what, facing the Phillies lineup, compared to facing the Red Sox lineup, the Tigers lineup, or the Yankees lineup, you get a bit of a break with the Phillies lineup.

he's an ethieraholic

ek wrote:do we know what time the pregame festivities start?

Entire world series rained out. No make up scheduled.

cartersDad26 wrote:

ek wrote:do we know what time the pregame festivities start?

Entire world series rained out. No make up scheduled.

This just in -- the rest of the games will be played in LA between the Dodgers and the Red Sox. It don't rain in LA.

ek wrote:Rollins, ss
Werth, rf
Utley, 2b
Howard, 1b
Burrell, lf
Victorino, cf
Feliz, 3b
Ruiz, c
Moyer, p

Ugh.

I get the logic behind the "don't do anything that looks like panic" approach. But Victorino and Werth should be switched, and it's going to get old real quick seeing this Rays team, with their multiple quality lefties in the bullpen, not having to face any difficult choices in trying to stifle Utley and Howard at the end of games.

brought down the tv from my bedroom to complement the big screen, ready to go now

ek wrote:yeah I agree with the Vic/Werth thing and I actually thought he was going to do that. but I knew he wouldn't split up Utley and Howard. That was something that is never going to happen

Why not?

He did it until the last series in Sept

Well, he hasn't done it yet in the playoffs, so I think it's fair to say it won't happen again in the next five games.