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“View from the Philly Pressbox” – Pirates Series

In Philadelphia Phillies on April 9, 2012 at 11:47 am

In our first installment of the “View from the Philly Pressbox” we’ll review the 3 games series, at Pittsburgh, against the Pirates, in which the Phils lost two out of three.

We learned the following:

Roy Halladay and Jonathan Papelbon were really good in the opener, combining for a 2 hit, 1-0 shutout.

Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle lost his mind by pitching to Carlos Ruiz with the score 0-0, with Phillies on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and Freddie Galvis, in his first major league game, and the pitcher, Halladay due up. Chooch hit a SAC Fly to rightfield that was all Halladay needed. 1-0 Phillies.

Cliff Lee can still be good even when he’s not at his best. He gave up 2 hits and 1 run through 6 innings, allowing a run on a wild pitch. Lee appeared to be struggling with his location some and wasn’t happy with some balls and strikes from the umpire but still pitched very well.

Games will end on bang-bang calls on the bases. This one was close and went against the Phils allowing the winning run to score giving them their first lose.

The Vanimal, Vance Worley, doesn’t appear to have any sophomore season concerns. Worley threw 6 innings of 5 hit, 1 run baseball, leaving with a 4-1lead.

Overall the Phillies starters threw 20 innings, gave up 9 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks and had 14 strikeouts and Cole Hamels hasn’t pitched yet.

The Phillies hitting is awful!! They accounted for 20 hits, 1 by Halladay, in the first three games against average pitching, hit 1 home run, had 2 doubles and only scored 6 runs.

Juan Pierre needs to be the leadoff hitter that can get on base and make things happen. If Charlie Manuel wants John Mayberry to get At-Bats it needs to be at 1st base. Not that Mayberry can’t play leftfield, but Pierre needs to be in the lineup until he proves he can’t get the job done. Shane Victorino is not a lead-off hitter and Jimmy Rollins is not a number 3 hitter. Our thought is play Mayberry every day at 1st base and bat 5th so opponents don’t walk Hunter Pence like they did Sunday with Jim Thome hitting behind him. The Phils need to establish a 5th hitter in the line-up and leave him there until he fails.

How long of a leash do you have with Freddie Galvis? He needs to hit something! 0-10 in your first series is not a great start, especially for a guy who isn’t a notoriously good hitter to begin with. He has played well in the field but he needs to hit. The Ty Wigginton, Galvis, Brian Schneider experiment in the 6, 7 and 8 spots produced a 0-9 with 2 walks for the day. They did score 2 runs. That won’t get it. Tack on another 0-4 for the 9th spot and it wasn’t a very good day.

Why pull Worley after 6 innings and only 78 pitches?

Lastly, Charlie let Sunday’s game get away. As long as I can remember being around baseball there’s been a cardinal rule of “NEVER let the other team’s best player beat you”. Charlie decided to pitch to both Jose Tabata and Andrew McCutchen with a runner on 3rd and 1 out in the bottom of the 9th inning. David Herndon was fortunate enough to strikeout Tabata for the 2nd out before McCutchen hit the game winner off the centerfield wall. Baseball wisdom says they should’ve walked both Tabata and McCutchen and set up a double play situation with Adam Walker. Those runners meant nothing so why not put them on base. Choosing to pitch to Tabata was one thing but letting McCutchen, easily the Pirates best player, beat you with two empty bases is inexcusable.

With that said, it’s early in the season and today’s game against the Marlins brings Hamels to the mound. There’s nothing like the home opener. As we stated in our Phillies Profile on Hamels, the link is attached, https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/phillies-profile-cole-hamels/, we expect a great season from him and it starts today. The Phillies pitching is going to be fun to watch but we sure need some answers at the plate, and soon.

For now, WE’RE OUTTTTTTA HERE!!!!!

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Phillies Profile – Freddy Galvis

In Philadelphia Phillies on March 30, 2012 at 8:40 pm

Over the next 28 days Philly Pressbox (https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com) (@phillypressbox) will be doing a review and analysis of each Phillies player, Manager Charlie Manuel and the coaching staff leading up to Opening Day 2012.  On Day 22 we preview, Freddy Galvis.

Freddy Galvis – The 22 year old Venezuela native is going to get his first shot in the big leagues starting 2012. Galvis was expected to be the heir apparent to Jimmy Rollins at shortstop but the injury to Chase Utley has changed that. Galvis has never played an inning at 2nd base in the minor leagues, 523 games at shortstop and 1 game at 3rd base, but appears headed for the opening day lineup in place of  Utley. “The good thing about Freddy is that he’s such a heads-up player. He thinks in the game,” said Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg, who managed Galvis after he was promoted to the AAA Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. “He has very good instincts, and I think that’s what allows him to be ready for all the plays that do happen at second base. And he’s a very creative player. Very good at improvising and making a play. Those are good traits to have playing the middle infield. I think he’ll have no problem at second base.”

The real question about Galvis is can he hit big league pitching. A switch hitter, his minor league experience has been at the lower levels, only playing 33 games at the AAA level. His career minor league batting average is .246, however, he did hit .298 in his 33 games at Lehigh Valley. He has also hit only 18 home runs in his minor league career. Now to keep this in perspective, it’s not unusual for players to struggle at the plate when they enter the minor leagues at 17 years old. It takes time to develop physically, understand the pitching and learn discipline at the plate. The important thing for such a young player is to continue to improve. The Phillies feel that Galvis has done that and is ready for his big league shot. GM Ruben Amaro added, “I like Galvis. Has Galvis done anything to warrant us not playing him? He’s been our best player this spring,” he said. “Can he hit enough? We’ll find out, probably. We’re going to give him a chance.”

 

Personal Analysis:

We don’t expect a great deal from Galvis to open the season. Hopefully he can be steady in the field and hold down the fort until Utley returns. Galvis will be hitting at the bottom of the lineup so anything above a .250 batting average will be a bonus. All indications are that Galvis works his tail off and has been willing to learn throughout his minor league career. Let’s hope he maintains that attitude at the big league level. The Phils will be keeping a backup middle infielder, possibly Pete Orr since Michael Martinez will be starting the season on the DL, who will push Galvis for playing time if he doesn’t hit but we expect the Phils will give Galvis every chance to be successful while Utley is out.

Tomorrow we will preview David Herndon.

The series: Day 1, Charlie Manuel. Day 2, The Coaching Staff. Day 3, Roy Halladay. Day 4, Cliff Lee. Day 5, Cole Hamels. Day 6, Vance Worley. Day 7, Joe Blanton. Day 8, Carlos “Chooch” Ruiz. Day 9, Ryan Howard. Day 10, Chase Utley. Day 11, Jimmy Rollins. Day 12, Placido Polanco. Day 13, John Mayberry, Jr. Day 14, Shane Victorino. Day 15, Hunter Pence. Day 16, Brian Schneider. Day 17, Jim Thome. Day 18, Kyle Kendrick. Day 19, Antonio Bastardo. Day 20, Ty Wigginton. Day 21, Chad Qualls.

Feel free to click the FOLLOW button on the bottom right of this page, input your email address and receive your Philly Pressbox posts directly in your email.

We would like to thank our sponsor for their support. Please check out the new trends for Spring Phillies baseball gear. http://www.shop.com/ul!52667!Spring+baseball-trends.xhtml?credituser=C9407795 Also, check out the All Sports Philadelphia Team Jerseys on the following link. http://www.shop.com/ul!52674!Philly+Jersey:s-trends.xhtml?credituser=C9407795. Lastly, click on the business card below to see all of their items.

 

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