Barry Jive wrote:if you want to call giving Brad Lidge the 10th-most games finished in the majors with an ERA over 7 "getting us right to the finish line" en route a blown save in the World Series, fine

Grotewold wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:i haven't been talking about Keri since maybe the second or third post of this discussion

My bad, I got confused about which angle of the Papelbon thing was being discussed. But I don't know that it's fair to call Manuel and the Phillies out for employing the approach that almost every other team employs

Barry Jive wrote:My point is that if Papelbon is healthy, he's getting that extra year because there's a snowball's chance in hell Charlie stops using an established closer due to ineffectiveness

Grotewold wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:if you want to call giving Brad Lidge the 10th-most games finished in the majors with an ERA over 7 "getting us right to the finish line" en route a blown save in the World Series, fine

I do, yeah

Lidge was actually effective for most of those playoffs. In any case, I feel like you need two dependable late-inning guys. How did it hurt to give Lidge every opportunity to play his way back into that?

Grotewold wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:My point is that if Papelbon is healthy, he's getting that extra year because there's a snowball's chance in hell Charlie stops using an established closer due to ineffectiveness

The Phillies clearly value veteranosity, perhaps to a fault. But they're not gonna run a stiff out there to pay him $13M the following year

Especially if they stink, which is what most people here seem to expect

Barry Jive wrote:If he'd played well down the stretch of the regular season I'd have been supportive but he didn't. If Charlie had used a quick hook with him I'd be supportive, but he didn't. He had a historically bad season and was rewarded with more opportunities to screw the team out of a championship.

Warszawa wrote:I was going to post how chase utley had a higher OPS last season than Mark Teixeira....but it's not true. Surprisingly close though.

JFLNYC wrote:

Warszawa wrote:I was going to post how chase utley had a higher OPS last season than Mark Teixeira....but it's not true. Surprisingly close though.

Tex' production has been in free fall since

Grotewold wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

Warszawa wrote:I was going to post how chase utley had a higher OPS last season than Mark Teixeira....but it's not true. Surprisingly close though.

Tex' production has been in free fall since

becoming a father

strange bedfellows, Elmo and ISO

Rollins, 34, had an interesting year off the field as well, with his wife giving birth to a daughter, his first child, on May 20. While there are too many variables at play to say anything definitive, Rollins' "before" and "after" baby numbers are pretty interesting:

April 5 through May 20: .229/.295/.283, one HR, 166 at bats

May 21 through September 30: .258/.324/.478, 22 HRs, 469 at bats

Rollins' power spike in the second half of the season was truly remarkable, with Rollins tying for ninth in the National League with 15 second half home runs, ahead of such noted sluggers as Jason Heyward, Matt Holliday, David Wright, and Matt Kemp. His 23 home runs on the season led the Phillies by a substantial margin, and his .177 ISO was his highest since his MVP season of 2007.

phdave wrote:Explanation?