Wonder if those firefighters think it lol worthy too

they prob asked him for an autograph and to sign their nascar hat

Revere gets 1.95 million for 2014

my cousin mose wrote:they prob asked him for an autograph and to sign their nascar hat

Probably already knew him from the local Hooters.

Phillies seem to be beating the "if Ryan Howard is healthy mantra" pretty hard. Amaro, Bowa, etc.
The real conspiracy theorists might even posit that they know he is not.
So that they have a built in excuse for themselves.

Even if Howard does return to his 2010/2011 numbers, that's still not enough to compensate for the other holes in this lineup.

"if Ryan Howard is healthy..." what? They'll finish .500? I'm sorry for sounding like a Debbie Downer but they are completely delusional is they think this is a playoff team. If things rest on the health of a 34-year old guy who hasn't played a full season over the last two seasons combined it is going to be a long fucking summer at CBP.

Jesus Christ. Look forward to spring training. Enjoy baseball. Complain when they lose.

Also, Crazz Daddy says the phillies hired their analytics intern full-time a few weeks ago, so we all win!!

My bad; I thought I was on the board where people post opinions and stuff. I apologize.

cshort wrote:Even if Howard does return to his 2010/2011 numbers, that's still not enough to compensate for the other holes in this lineup.

though i've become convinced that rube's stupidity will result in neutralizing the phillies positives this season, i still take exception to statements like this. it is not consistent with the most reasonable projections. i think rollins and howard are just about dead, but for ruiz, asche, brown, revere, byrd, and utley there are recent numbers that demonstrate that it is reasonable to expect >2.5war performance out of each. revere, 3war in 2012, looked on track for that when not hurt last year and isn't old. utley is utley. brown was a 3 win guy last year and isn't old. byrd is old and maybe a cheater, but put up 4war in 2013 post suspension and there is video evidence to support an successfully changed batting style as a reason to believe some of the improved hitting will stick. ruiz is declining and asche still evolving, but the projection systems like them both.

moreover,
cesar and freddy and ruf and rupp and frandsen are all good enough that they can deliver above-replacement performance when used just enough to keep the starters healthy and rested and take advantage of platoon splits. do that (instead of rubes keep-my-lineup-together-so-they-can-prove-me-right-unless-they-all-die-of-exhaustion-so-i-can-blame-it-on-bad-luck plan), and the odds are that performances of the regulars come in on the high side of the projections rather than below. that gives an average of 3 wins from every regular lineup position.

the roster problem heading into the season is pitching, not hitting. only two starting pitchers i feel comfortable with, and one of those is alarmingly old. two are cuban mysteries. all the younger sp options are coming off of injuries. paps is at least as dead as rollins/howard. adams is injured, bastardo comes off a drug suspension, and the rest of the pen consistently inconsistent, though i like their upside.

so, normally, i would be expecting the offense to deliver more war than the pitching this season on the way to around 80 wins, or couple more with optimal usage.

the other problem is that the aforementioned grind-down-the-proven-vets approach is almost certain to result in most of the regulars underperforming their projections.

but it really, really doesn't have to be that way. this offense could and should be a decent one, even though it probably won't be.

i praise your lengthy optimism.

traderdave wrote:My bad; I thought I was on the board where people post opinions and stuff. I apologize.

It wasn't meant as an attack on your opinion (hence the lack of quote)- more of a blanket reaction to all of the worst-case scenario worshipers that have taken over. As always, everyone is entitled to his opinion. I just can't believe how ugly this board has become. Just trying to love the one I'm with over here.

there was a few articles this morning on espn about the phillies

they're old, out of touch, and they made weird moves

graphs and charts trending downwards

omg

1 wrote:Just trying to love the one I'm with over here.

Aren't we all, Brother 1.

1 wrote:Just trying to love the one I'm with over here.

YEAH WELL HOW HAS THAT WORKED OUT FOR YOU IN THE PAST

we signed shitass Barry Enright to a minor league contract

joe table wrote:we signed shitass Barry Enright to a minor league contract

Impressive.

Enright once nearly made the diamondback top 11 prospects despite being no good.