Did you know that Joe Blanton has the fewest walks per nine of any pitcher in the NL? Second in baseball? He does! #1!
Also, more interesting news, Blanton has a lower xFIP than Matt Cain, ergo, Blanton basically threw a perfect game this year.
Joe Blanton, perfect.
Joe Blanton 2011: 1 win, 2 losses. 1.476 WHIP.
Joe Blanton 2012: 7 wins, 6 losses. 1.245 WHIP.
Philadelphia Phillies 2011: 102-60, 1st NL East.
Philadelphia Phillies 2012*: 104-58, 1st NL East
Bank on it.
*extrapolated from the new Joejection system, based on Blantagorean W-L and comparison of past Blanton performance to this season so far.
Joe the winner-
Last night JoeyB tossed 7 scoreless and dominated the Professional Pirates with 8 K's. Rollins smashed a ball deep to right to which I'm positive "that ball is gone" accompanied. Utley is supposedly coming back Wednesday if everything goes well tonight in AAA. Vance the Lance gets the start tonight, things are looking up for the fightins!
(I would write more about the game but I was watching the thriller in Denver- Jeff Francis vs. Strasburg. It sounds hilarious but actually Francis did well on the new 75 pitch limit and the Rockies got just enough of Strasburg, who was also pretty dominant. Gorgonzola pitched a couple for the Nats and sorta sucked- but the highlight of the night was watching the mother duck and her two ducklings eating the players sunflower seeds in the visitors bullpen.)
Only 8 GB!
So things look bleak.
We've lost like a hundred our of 101 and are 8.5 games out of first. Not great.
But there is still hope!
To me this season feels weird, every time I sit down and watch the team they really don't seem too bad to me. The pitching seems like they don't walk many, (except the hoard of rookie relievers) and they seem to be racking up the K's as usual- but for whatever reason the results just aren't there. Call it what you will, clutch, guts, or otherwise but I think that the players themselves are too good to let it effect them for the rest of the season and that things will begin to level out. It is impossible that Lee doesn't have a win yet, but he sure has pitched well enough for several of them, it's a good microcosm of the pitching staff as a whole. They just have to get the results sooner or later!
The hitting has been complained about for quite awhile, but when you look at who they are fielding every day it really isn't much of a surprise. Pierre, The Whig party, Fontenot, Martinez, Orr, Luna. These are not all-stars by any stretch, but they have as a whole done a surprisingly good job. They are 9th in the league (right in the middle) in OPS (on base + slugging) and are scoring 4.21 runs per game which is 18th in the majors (middle of the pack again).
The fielding aside from the now stretcher-bound Galvis and the always amazing Rollins has been lacking. I don't know a good way to quantify the fielding other than observation and I think all Phillies fans would say that by observation, they stink.
The baserunning has been at the very least, decent. If nothing else you can say that they lead the league in stolen base percentage at 84% (43-8). So they're not giving away outs on the base paths either.
The only explanation is some sort of horrible voodoo shaman has been kicked out of the Geno's line because he doesn't speak English and has curse the Phillies to a season of bad luck. As fans we now must face the wrath of curse of the voodoo shaman and watch the Phearless Nine stumble about and lose all the time. If only there was someone on the Phillies who was an accomplished curse breaker...
Slumping Chase Utley Resorts to the Power of Voodoo
Oh yeah! Chase! Where is that guy anyway...
Chase Utley to begin Class A rehab stint Tuesday
