Key Acquistion for the Phillies

Just this past week the Phillies have added a key acquistion to fill the void at third base. Pedro Feliz the former Phillies third baseman has left the team because the offer that the Phillies gave to him was not to his liking. In Pedro leaving the team the Phillies signed gold glove second basemen Placido Polanco from Detroit. Placido had a stint with the Phillies where he was a utility player, which makes him that more valuable if a player went down with an injury. Since Placido played second base for the last few years, critics have questioned how this change to third base would effect his play. Charlie Manuel has coached him already and seen him play in a number of positions and has the confidence that he will do a stand up job. I feel that Polanco will be just fine at the position as he has played it before. The pickup for the Phillies is great because they did get him for the price that they were willing to pay. Pedro Feliz was a great player in the field for us but his bat was suspect. With Polanco he may not be as smooth in the field as Feliz but his bat is by far a lot better. He can hit to all fields with power and is better running the bases. Polanco is overall a great professional ball player that will help the Phillies hopefully to make another run at the World Series next season.

The World Series

The World Series has been in full swing lately and it looked extremely promising after the Cliff Lee performance in Game 1 where he threw a complete game shutout against long time friend and former teammate with the Indians CC Sabathia. To take the first game in NY was very crucial in setting the tone of the World Series. Chase Utley was the man like always putting two balls out into the right field bleachers off of the dominating Sabathia. What a great game that was and it seemed like everything was going to repeat for the Phillies in this one, but one cannot be too optimistic, we are playing the richest team in baseball who only wins because they have the money to spend. In game 2 AJ Burnett took the hill as did Pedro Martinez for us. Pedro and the Yankees have some history with each other with his days in Boston as well as with the Mets as you probably saw on FOX when he was pitching. Both pitchers were great but the Yankees prevailed winning game 2. In game 3, Jayson Werth blasted a pair of solo home runs and Cole Hamels was superb through the first three frames before the Yankees broke through thanks to an Alex Rodriguez replay homer. Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins again found no answers at the plate before a raucous home crowd. Yankees taking the lead in the series 2-1 with a score of 8-5. Game 4 was really the downer for me as well as for the majority of the Phillies Phaitful. The fought and clawed there way back all game to find themselves tied up at 4-4. It was looking promising when Lidge entered the game because he has been his old self in the postseason this year. I had no problem with Charlie putting him in in a tie game looking for our bats to get hot for the win in the bottom half of the inning. But that was not the case. Lidge after striking out Jeter was done in by a strange stolen base sequence and a pair of doubles that put us under. I do not really know how I feel about game 5 with Cliff Lee on the mound. I feel he will throw well but it seems like we just live and die by the long ball way too much and for that to be the case in the World Series I do not know how we can pull this game off. What do you guys feel about the current situation down 3-1 in the series? Should Charlie Manuel have asked or demanded Cliff Lee to throw against Sabathia, their ace. It is the World Series don't you think you have to match your opponent in any way especially if you are already down in the series and the Yankees are looking to take a commanding lead. That is all for today, hopefully I will talk about my time at the parade because I still have the littliest bit of Phaith for this group of guys.

Good Bye Colorado

Well everyone, they pulled it off once again. After a bummer loss in game 3 in one of the coldest games playing around freezing, the Phils redeemed theirselves in game 4 to take the series in Colorado and move onto the NLCS to faceoff against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Is this going to be a repeat performance heading into the World Series? Well lets hope so. What I found so fascinating as I sat at my friends bar in his basement over fall break was the resiliency that the Phillies had in the latter innings to get back on top. I had witnessed the Phillies give up their one run lead create that into a 2 run deficit in the 8th inning which happened so quickly. But Jimmy Rollins one out single in the 9th inning, a fielders choice for Victorino, walk to Utley, and big Ryan Howard smoking a line drive to the right field wall allowing 2 to score. I was ecstatic as I was witnessing one of the most drama filled games I have seen the Phillies play in a long time. Brad Lidge looks like he is back to his old self but I feel that all the fans are still on edge and feel that Ryan Madson would be a more solid choice in the closer role. I guess Charlie Manuel will keep surprising us with his precise decision making. What I found to be amazing is how Charlie Manuel can make a change in the lineup and somehow his decision is one of the most crucial it seems in the game. Late in the game I believe it was the 8th inning, Manuel put Ben Francisco into left field for defensive purposes to relieve the older Raul Ibanez. This was a great move as Raul had batted already the previous inning. With men on base for the Rockies, there was a flair hit into left field that Ben Francisco got a great jump on and made a huge diving catch to keep the game at a one run lead for the Phils. The question I have for you today is from that clinching game what do you feel the play of the day was?

Hey Phillies fans! This blog is intended to keep those readers who are a part of the Phillies Pfaithful who love to watch, talk, and live Philadelphia Phillies baseball. The World Series Champions are slowly paving their way to another successful season as their magic number is down to 3 games as they beat the Brewers last night by a score of 6-5. Jimmy Rollins got things started by hitting his 21st homerun of the season in the first at bat of the game. This was JRoll's 33rd career leadoff homerun. "To a man, we would like to go out there, handle our business and keeping winning. Get on a good stretch, and by doing so we'll have some momentum going into the playoffs. We're doing OK. We do some things good. Some things like, what the heck is going on out there? It looks like a Little League game right now. But let's put a nice homestand together and see where that takes us," stated Jimmy Rollins on the game and season. The one question that I pose to you readers is how is the back end of our bullpen going to fair with the playoffs coming right around the corner. Will Brad Lidge get back to his old ways once the postseason begins?