DNL - Week in Review - 4/7 to 4/11

Despite the legitimate excitement generated by both the Flyers and Sixers making the playoffs, the Phillies talk did not disappoint:

April 7th

Regarding the torrid start of Pat Burrell, Rich Hoffman said:

At a certain point everybody will begin to say, "well, it's a contract year." Now I don't know that that's it or not. His history is great one month, and really, really awful, tough to look at the next month."

True. Contract year or not, we should be encouraged that Burrell seems to be picking up where he left off in the second half of last season. Unless you're Les Bowen, who said:

What scares me about him is he doesn't ever seem to have much insight into why things are going well or why they are going poorly. You ask him what he did to turn things around, he has no idea. So he could just as easily start looking at inside strikes over and over again as hitting them out like he is doing right now. There is nothing to criticize right now.

But I've got three or four really good columns ripping him to shreds ready to go the moment there is, he added. Maybe they should have spent a little less time on Burrell and a little more time on the $10 million dollar man.


April 9th

On the issue of Jimmy Rollins' ankle, Bob Cooney said:

DL . . . This time of year, something like that . . . DL . . . If you don't DL him, you could go through the whole year without having [Jimmy at 100%] . . . If you DL him you are guaranteed only no having [him] for two weeks or so . . . if this thing lingers and lingers that first to third thing goes away - oh, Jimmy has to pull up at second because the ankle is still bothering him a little bit . . . can't have that.

Eddie Moran agreed:

Soft cast him and shut him down right now. There are 152 games left, get it out of the way and fix it right now.

Lacking the first-hand knowledge that can only come with being on the Phillies medical staff, I must agree with them. I suppose we will know more when we see the starting line-ups Tuesday night.


April 10th

John Marzano preaches to the choir:

It made me more angry and more frustrated the other day when I watched Kyle Lohse go out and throw seven and two-thirds innings, shutout baseball. For $4.25 million, solidify your starting rotation, give you the #3 starter that you need - we talked about before, you have a #1, a #2, and three #5s, we mentioned that before - if you get that #3 starter, you put him in the rotation, the whole team is going to feel better about themselves, I can't understand for the life of me why, for $4.25 million, the Phillies wouldn't go for that.

Paul Hagen asked, "But John, who, in your mind, didn't go for it?"

JM: You hear things, you don't know how true it is . . . the truth that I heard was that, "well, we hit rock bottom when we signed the third baseman, we gave him the three year contract, we didn't have any more to spend."

PH: So you don't blame the general manager necessarily?

JM: I blame the organization . . . I'm not finger pointing at Charlie, I'm not finger pointing at anyone. But I'm like, come on! This is Philadelphia! If you want to have a chance to just be competitive, yeah, that's fine, go to Kansas City. If you want a chance to be a World Series champion, loosen up the purse strings every once and a while. I'm not saying the Phillies don't spend money. We've been around these people all the time. I think they're wonderful people but . . . Do you really believe the Philadelphia Phillies are committed to winning a World Series Championship?

An excellent question, one I asked here... And I couldn't agree more regarding Kyle Lohse, as I noted here... All I can say is, preach on Brother John!

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Daily News Live - Week in Review - 3/31 to 4/4

Comcast Sportsnet's Daily News Live is a staple of my television diet during baseball season. The panel of sports journalists - which changes daily - engages in lively discussions focusing mainly on Philadelphia teams and their comments range from insightful and educational to insane and inane. With any luck, I'll share some of the previous week's highlights - or lowlights, depending on your point of view - every weekend. Enjoy.


April 1st

During a daily feature called the Quick Six - six questions in three minutes - the day after this, host Michael Barkann asked Rich Hoffman, "Phillies fans: Justified to overreact or just one game?"

Hoffman responded, "Justified to overreact? Justified? No... Justified to overreact... What does that... How can you be justified to overreact?"

Kudos to Mr. Hoffman because, as I'm sure he knows, overreact means "to react or respond more strongly than is necessary or appropriate."As a result, it would be difficult to justify an overreaction. Poorly worded question notwithstanding, Mr. Hoffman soldiered on:

"The fans were predictable. They booed Adam Eaton on the way in... and they booed Tom Gordon on the way out. [panel laughter] They are entirely predictable... which means the sky is falling."

Hard to argue with that. Although I don't think either Mike or I am near "sky is falling" status yet. Just for the record, I am not even near "the wheels have come off" status which precedes "sky is falling" by at least two levels.

The next question went to David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News, "Should J.C. Romero have pitched the 9th?"

Murphy replied, "Hindsight is 20-20... Yeah, of course, now... But if you know Flash Gordon is going to give up five runs, yeah, I mean I should have pitched the 9th. But no, J.C. Romero is just not a two inning guy. He's just not."

Mr. Murphy went an entirely different direction with that question than I would have. In 2007, Romero only pitched two innings once - on the final day of the regular season. So while Mr. Murphy is correct factually, we really don't know whether or not Romero could have pitched two innings on that day, especially with a day off Tuesday. Personally, my first reaction to that question was yes. No doubt about it. Although to be fair, I meant that in terms of the order the fellas came out of the bullpen as I described here. But even given the more literal interpretation of the question, the answer is still yes.

Lastly, Mr. Barkann turned to Marcus Hayes, a man who often makes me want to throw things at my tv when he answers a question about a team - Phillies, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers - with, "They are what they are." The question was, "Moving Brett Myers back to the rotation will [blank]."

Marcus held a long thoughtful look on his face as his time ran down. Then he said, "I don't know. It will be a bone of contention for the rest of the season. And it's not a move that I agree with. I think that Brett Myers is your closer for the next 10 years... I don't think he's your stop-gap starter for the last two years of his contract. I never agreed with it. I liked the move when it happened, moving him to the bullpen. I hate the move, moving him back to the rotation."

Consider this fair warning. Marcus Hayes and I agreeing on something may very well be a Vatican-sanctioned sign of the impending apocalypse. Well argued Marcus. Yikes, my hands nearly cramped typing that. Better move on quickly...


April 2nd

Another Quick Six question, this time to Stan Hochman, "Cole Hamels needs to [blank]."

"Be satisfied with this particular chiropractor that the Phillies have hired. The first guy that asks for a psychiatrist, that's the guy that makes history on this team. Cole Hamels needs to stay healthy and he will win 19 games this year."

Mr. Hochman, you are a curmudgeony old man, but you make me laugh. And well done with that reasonable prediction for Mr. Hamels. Now if we can just get Bill Conlin to take the same medication you are, this will be a great season.

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With the Flyers and Sixers battling for their playoff lives, there was very little Phillies conversation by comparison. But if this season is any like the last few, there will be some good stuff coming out of the DNL shows as the season progresses.

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