When you hit .266 in the bottom of the order and play an excellent defensive third base (and jack a huge World Series home run) you force management to look for your replacement. Leading the team in average with runners in scoring position isn’t worth much either. Nope. If you’re Pedro Feliz, you’re wondering why solid production at the back end of the best offense in the N.L. isn’t enough to keep you employed. Ditto for your defensive prowess.

Other than Alex Rodriguez and David Wright, just about every third baseman in baseball has been rumored to be Feliz’s replacement. From Chone Figgins to Kevin Kouzmanoff to Garrett Atkins to Adrian Beltre. Now Mike Lowell’s name is in the mix.

The Phillies have officially become the National League’s version of the Yankees. This is the kind of thing rich people do because they’re bored. Sick of your BMW? Go get a Bentley. Your 96-inch HD Plasma is boring you? Install an IMAX in your basement. There is no need to replace Pedro Feliz, but Amaro has to keep the Phils relevant during the off season. That’s what this move is, I just hope they don’t get bitten by the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it bug.

Let me start by noting the obvious: the following discussion is trivial, premature and theoretical. If for no other simple reason that we still haven’t seen Game 6 of the World Series played yet, there’s no way to really say who the MVP of the Series is. But for the sake of illustrating just how great Chase Utley has been so far, let’s entertain the notion that he’s been the the most valuable (read: greatest impact on the Series of any player) participant in this year’s Series.

The Phillies’ second baseman has an OPS of 1.651. That is unheard of. He’s accumulated 22 total bases and his slugging percentage is 1.222. Through 5 games, these numbers are stratospheric. He’s reached base 43% of the time he’s been at the plate. And, as everyone knows by now, he’s tied Reggie Jackson’s mark of 5 home runs in a World Series. Most importantly, Utley’s produced 8 runs with his bat.

Who else has had an impact so significant? Well, Johnny Damon has been the definition of a professional hitter, having drawn-out at-bats in late inning situations. But Damon’s clutch hitting hasn’t resulted in the raw production Utley’s has. Damon’s OPS is .911, not anywhere close to Utley’s. His OBP is fantastic (.435, .006 better than Utley’s) but he’s only driven in 4 runs and has hit no homers.

Alex Rodriguez has also come alive in the past few games. But like Damon’s OPS, his is well under 1.000. To his credit, A-Rod has made himself into a intimidating figure at the plate and while the Phillies may be wise to simply put him on base every time he’s up, his numbers don’t shine as brightly as Utley’s. He has fewer RBI (6), less than half the total bases Utley has (10) and has an OBP .65 less than Utley.

Jayson Werth has (relatively) quietly put up number better than both Damon’s and A-Rod’s. He’s hit for 11 total bases, a .400 OBP and a 1.047 OPS. The only other reasonable contestant is Derek Jeter but his numbers are comparable to or worse than both his aforementioned Yankees teammates.

I don’t think a starting pitcher can be mentioned in this discussion if for no other reason the fact that they impact fewer than half the games. Unless a pitcher is single-handedly responsible for multiple wins, he shouldn’t be in the discussion, a big part of the reason I’m leaving Cliff Lee out of the conversation. For as great as he was in Game 1, last night’s performance should be best described as solid. None of the Yankees’ pitchers’ starts can be characterized as superlative, and while Mariano Rivera scares the pants off everyone, he’s only pitched 3 and 2/3 innings. I’m sorry but that just isn’t good enough when compared against a guy like Utley who’s played in 40 innings.

Chase Utley’s performance in this World Series is the only reason it’s still going on. If the Phillies find a way to get it to a Game 7 and Utley delivers a clutch hit, win or lose his performance in this year’s Fall Classic will be remembered as one of the great efforts of all time.

Andy Martino’s “The Phillies Zone” at philly.com has a bunch of quotes today from Yankees players about the Phillies. Most of them are stock answers and they all pretty much fail to provide any bulletin board material in the Phils locker room. The one quote that I found most interesting was from A-Rod. When asked about what he thought the keys to the series would be, Orange Roid said “power is a big weapon for both teams…two Hall of Fame shortstops and two great leaders.”

While he doesn’t name Rollins as such, clearly one of the two HOF shortstops he refers to is Derek Jeter (who is a lock for Cooperstown). So unless Rodriguez is talking about himself as the other HOF shortstop (a position he has played quite a bit of in the past), one has to assume he’s refering to Jimmy Rollins.

But is Jimmy a Hall of Fame-caliber shortstop? Thegoodphight.com has a piece on this topic from a few years ago and puts together a number of questions, the answers to which suggest that Rollins has built a pretty solid candidacy. Baseballreference.com has Rollins significantly behind likely Hall of Fame pace in both its “Hall of Fame Monitor” and “Hall of Fame Standards” (though both these refer only to offensive production). Though when you look at the website’s “similarity scores,” the names of Bobby Doerr and Ryne Sandberg (both in Cooperstown) are listed as “similar players” to Rollins.

To me Jimmy Rollins is a long way from the Hall of Fame. For a player who’s been in MLB for only 10 seasons to be spoken-about as a Hall of Famer, that guy needs to have Pujols-like stats. Through 10 campaigns, Rollins is a .274 hitter and has 1629 hits. While his defensive skills are among the best in baseball, to say he’s punched his ticket to Cooperstown is surely premature.

With that said, Rollins has an MVP to his credit, 3 All-Star appearances and 2 gold gloves. While those numbers aren’t sufficient to Willy Wonka him into the Hall, perhaps the most important thing he can do for his legacy in the short term is to produce in the leadoff position in this World Series. After all, 2 World Championships go a long way with the voters.

Noted playoff choke artist, Alex Rodriguez, is having himself one of the great postseasons of all time. In 7 playoff games, he’s hitting .407 with 11 hits, 5 home runs, 5 walks, 11 RBI and an OPS of 1.469. Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News seems ready to crown him the greatest player in post season history. Because the Yankees play in a market where media attention is in short supply, you may not have heard that A-Rod’s amazing performance is the driving force behind the Yankees being on the verge of meeting the Phillies ten one week from now in the World Series.

Playing first base on that Phillies team is a guy you may have heard of. His name is Ryan Howard and he was named the NLCS MVP last night. So far this postseason he is batting .355 with 11 hits, 2 home runs, 8 walks, 14 RBI and an OPS of 1.203. Rich Hoffman at the Daily News has some high praise for Howard.

With the Yankees on a collision course with the Phillies, the question arises: Would you rather have Ryan Howard or Alex Rodriguez on your team for the World Series? The Yankees slugger is making more than twice what Ryan Howard earns this season ($32 million-$15 million)

American League All-Star Game starting pitcher, Roy Halladay, said today in St. Louis that his chances of leaving Toronto are 50-50. “For me, it would be a flip of the coin” says Halladay. And a not-so-subtle hint was dropped by Halladay, suggesting the N.L. will be his final destination: “I’d rather hit than face Jeter, A-Rod, Matsui and Teixeira.”

Halladay’s statements suggest that his primary interest in waiving his no-trade clause would be directed towards landing with a World Series contender. Rumors have the Phillies at the front of the pack with Milwaukee and St. Louis in the mix. Hidden amongst the mountain of accolades he’s accumulated is the fact that Halladay has never thrown in a post-season game. He’s locked into another contractual year in Toronto; with the way the A.L. East is comprised, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be in the playoffs for the next 2 years if he remains in Toronto past the trade deadline. Of course, trades require more than the suitor-and-the-chased dynamic of free agency; the Blue Jays obviously have quite a bit to do with this. But J.P. Ricciardi’s comments from last Monday are a clear indication that Toronto is looking to cash-in big time by shopping Halladay before July 31.

Aside from everything else he does better than just about everyone else, Halladay is an innings eater, something the Phillies desperately need from the starting rotation. In the past 6 seasons, Halladay has averaged 6 complete games, twice recording 9 complete game seasons and has led the A.L. 4 times. He has 3 complete games so far this year putting him behind only Zach Greinke (5) for the Major League lead. He’s led the A.L. in innings pitched 3 times since 2002 (including last season) and is averaging 7 1/3 innings in 17 games this year.

With the Phillies’ pen stretched to its limit because of short starts, this aspect of Halladay’s game adds so much more than simply wins, ERA and strikeouts. The ability to be a workhouse in the starting rotation is one of the few spots in baseball that actively takes pressure off teammates and makes their jobs easier, and therefore makes them better.

What I’m not going to do is mention PEDs in this post since bloggers who mention players and drugs in the same sentence are doomed to scorn and righteous indignation from the players themselves and the mainstream media. With that said, there are a number of big-time players in baseball this season who are having seasons that seem to indicate that they’re slowing down. Obviously, Jimmy Rollins’ 2009 campaign has raised some questions and the one that seems the most pertinent is whether he is over the hill.

Rollins is currently sitting in the corner for two games because of his performance, or lack thereof. His numbers this season are significantly below his career average in every offensive category, but the stats that are most pertinent to the team are the following: the Phillies are 28-7 this year when he scores a run and they were 42-15 last season when he crossed the plate at least one time. More than the player himself, the leadoff position on this team is being hurt by Rollins’ struggles and so the impact his slump is having can’t be overstated.

I don’t know what the solution is, but the situation reminds me of some other players in the game who seem to be having significantly subpar seasons after amassing awesome careers, and these guys aren’t exactly in Jamie Moyer’s age group. Despite his recent upturn, David Ortiz looked like his career was over after hitting .186 after the first 47 games. And then there’s Alex Rodriguez, who is coming off an injury but to hear it from Buster Olney, he may be a man in decline.

Is age the factor in these players’ cases? Is it injury? Whatever the causes, we see three guys who are having seasons that aren’t just off, they’re significantly off. So the question is why. Or perhaps more importantly to their teams, how do they right the ships?

Tonight is a great baseball night. The two best rivalries in East Coast baseball are in full swing as the Yankees look for their first win against Boston this year (their 7th try) and the Phillies are in New York to take on Jeans Shorts Nation. The Phillies-Mets rivarly has come into its own in the past 3 seasons as both teams have been competitive simultaneously, one of the things that adds luster to any rivalry. Like the Yankees and Red Sox who seem even favorites to vie for the AL East each season, the appeal of the Mets-Phils rivalry just keeps getting better as they’ve been (arguably) the best two teams in the NL for the past few years. And with the Phillies World Championship won, both these rivalries as well as all 4 teams individually have put East Coast baseball back where it should be, at the top.

The only thing I’d like to see more of in the Phillies vs. Mets rivalry is nastiness. Boston and New York have a longer history of mutual hatred and even in recent years have produceed more fireworks. To name a few, you’ve got Pedro dropping octogenarian, Don Zimmer (above) and Jason Varitek KOing A-Rod. Sure, Jimmy Rollins and K-Rod have talked smack before the season but where are the beanballs and the brawls? Say what you want about the Sox-Yanks being overhyped but there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind those two teams genuinely hate each other. I’d like to see a little more of that from the players when the Mets and Phillies collide.

With apologies to Manny Ramirez, A-Rod and Raul Ibanez, Zach Greinke is the story of the 2009 baseball season. He is 8-1 with a .84 ERA. Let me repeat that: he is 8-1 with a .84 ERA in 10 starts. To put that in historical perspective, the last pitcher to have a sub-1.00 ERA after 10 starts was Juan Marichal. That was in 1966.

Greinke is 6-0 at home this year. He has not given up a home run in his last 103 innings. Of his 10 starts this year, 5 of them were complete games, including both outings against Detroit. He has pitched 75 innings this year and has 81 strikeouts and only 12 walks. His WHIP is .88. To put his ERA in perspective, it is almost 4 runs better than the AL average and his strikeout total is 63 Ks better than the league average. Finally, underneath Greinke’s beard is not a chin, just another fist.

Let me start my defense of Manny Ramirez by saying two things: one, my argument is based on the information we have at our disposal only a few hours after news of his suspension for failing a drug test was announced. And two, had J.C. Romero not been suspended 50 games earlier this year, perhaps we’d have a different take on the Manny situation as we wouldn’t already have debated a suspension for very similar circumstances. With that said my defense of Ramirez is directed at the issue of his legacy, specifically his worthiness for the Hall of Fame.

In its panic-driven fervor to create the image that baseball is doing something about steroids, MLB has to make examples of players who violate its drug policies. I get that and agree with it. The problem from a perception and legacy perspective for players like Ramirez is that the policy includes so many banned substances, ranging from over-the-counter and prescription additives to drugs and supplements to outright anabolic steroids. Therefore, if a player is to be remembered for violating the policy, he will probably be remembered as a juicer, which in Ramirez’s case (and Romero’s) isn’t accurate.

The point I’m making here is that there’s a world of difference between knowing, deliberate and on-going use of a substance that’s primary purpose is to alter the athlete’s physique and performace and unwittingly putting a banned additive in your body. If we believe his story, Ramirez’s positive test was a result of a drug he took after his doctor not only prescribed it, but according to Peter Gammons, initially believed it to be baseball-safe. Yes, just like J.C. Romero, it is incumbent upon Ramirez to check every last ingredient but if a player can’t trust his doctor’s advice, whom can he trust?(newsday reports that the substance in question is a women’s fertility drug, human chorionic gonadotropin)

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Tim Donaghy? No, you probably don’t since the NBA is still operating. Let’s just take it back a year and revisit the biggest miscarriage of athletic integrity since the Black Sox. Somehow, the A-Rod toothpaste-gate saga has stayed in the news for the past year but Donaghy has been quietly taken off to jail, despite his public assertions of star-player favoritism, a practice everyone who’s seen more than one NBA game knows takes place. Pete Rose sits outside Cooperstown because he bet on himself and yet the NBA, which is known for being the most inconsistently-officiated league in sports, has a referee convicted of altering the outcomes of games (as well as loads of info on other officals and league policy) and the story dies. It’s only mind-boggling until you realize the Worldwide Leader in Sports doesn’t say shit about it because ESPN now has a huge contract with the NBA.

Michael Vick is back in the news today. It seems that Tony Dungy paid him a visit at the federal prison Vick is summering in. You’ll notice nothing in the article I’ve linked to says anything about this meeting other than that it was “positive”(whatever that means). Just another installment in the never-ending story about the greatest offender of morality since Klaus Barbie. I mean, it’s not like Vick killed a human being with car while drunk, or anything. The Vick epic almost makes me pine for more Brett Favre coverage. Almost.

Up in Canada, Guy LaFleur has been found guilty of giving contradictory evidence in a legal proceeding involving his son’s sexual misdeeds. LaFleur is a national sports hero in Canada who faces up to 14 years in prison upon sentencing. Granted, LaFleur has actually been convicted but I’ll be curious to see how Canada’s legal system comes-down on one of its celebrities, someone on par with say, Kobe Bryant or O.J.. We all know sports deities in the U.S. can go around raping women and killing their wives without so much as a guilty verdict; I wonder if the Canadians will throw the keys away on LaFleur for lying to protect his son.

And last but definitely not least, Joba Chamberlain’s mom has been busted for selling meth. I don’t know what a 44-year old female meth dealer in Nebraska looks like, but I’d image she’d look something like this. Chamberlain had about the most situationally-inapproriately thing to say about the news: “you’ve only got one mom, man, and you’ve got to be thankful for her.” Guess so. Anyway, I don’t want to give the impression I’m uncompassionate or enjoy making light of dysfunctional trash. Unless of course, those involved are immediate family members of New York Yankees, in which case I’m all for it.