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Phillies Profile – Roy “Doc” Halladay

In Philadelphia Phillies on March 11, 2012 at 3:16 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.  Day 3 in our series is our first look at a player, Roy “Doc” Halladay

Roy Halladay – “Doc” has clearly been the best pitcher in the major leagues over the last 10 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Phillies. In the first 4 seasons of his career Doc carried an 18-17 record. That all turned around in 2002 when he became a 19 game winner. He led the league in innings pitched for the first time and made his first All Star team. He followed that up with 22 wins in 2003. He led the league in complete games and again in innings pitched, made his 2nd All Star team and won his first Cy Young Award at the age of 26. Halladay pitched 6 more seasons for Toronto amassing 89 more wins, including a 20 win season in 2008, and 45 loses over that time while making 5 more All Star teams. Following is a summary of Halladay’s Toronto Stats:

148 wins – 63 loses, 3.43 ERA

49 Complete Games

15 Shutouts

1495 Strike Outs

6 All Star Teams

1 Cy Young Award

In 2010 Doc became a Phillie. Since then he has won 40 games while losing 16 for The Fightins. His ERA is 2.40. He won the Cy Young Award in 2010, with 21 wins. He finished second in 2011. He has also led the league in complete games in both of his seasons with the Phillies with 9 in 2010 and 8 in 2011. The individual highlights of Halliday’s Phillies career are his perfect game on May 29, 2010 against the Florida Marlins and his playoff game no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on October 6, 2010. Docs Phillies 2 year statistics are as follows.

40 wins – 16 loses, 2.40 ERA

17 Complete Games

439 Strike Outs

2 All Star Teams

1 Cy Young Award

Halladay prepares to begin his 15th big league season. He will turn 35 in May. Doc has led the league in innings pitched 4 times and has thrown over 200 innings 6 seasons in a row while averaging 236 innings per season over his career. With the announced retirement of Tim Wakefield, Halliday is now the active career wins leader with 188. He should also reach the 2000 career strikeout mark this season.

Holliday’s combined career stats:

188 wins – 92 losses, 3.23 ERA

2531 Innings Pitched

66 Complete Games

20 shutouts

1934 Strikeouts

8 All Star Games

2 Cy Young Awards

Personal Analysis

Halladay is the anchor of the Phillies outstanding staff. His work ethic off the field and concentration on it are legendary. Doc leads the younger members of the staff by example. His performance has shown no signs of declining as the numbers show. We see Doc winning 18-20 games and to continue to eat up innings as he has in the past taking pressure off the rest of the staff by facing the number one pitcher on each of the opposing staffs. As stated earlier, Phillies fans should have the opportunity to celebrate Halladay’s career milestones of 200 wins and 2000 strikeouts in 2012.

Tomorrow we will review Cliff Lee.

Philly Pressbox would like to welcome our Sponsor, Shop.com. www.Shop.com/BobSullivan .

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PHILLIES PROFILE – THE COACHING STAFF

In Philadelphia Phillies on March 10, 2012 at 12:36 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.  Day 2 in our series is on the most unrecognized position in all of sports the Assistant Coaches. These men spend endless hours behind the scenes working with the players as groups and individually either at home or on the road. These are thankless jobs that are held by baseball lifers. Here is a look at the 2012 Phillies staff.

The staff consists of Greg Gross, batting coach, Rich Dubee, pitching coach, Sam Perlozzo, 1st Base coach, Juan Samuel, 3rd base coach, Pete Mackanin, bench coach and Mick Billmeyer, bullpen coach.

Greg Gross – “GG” has spent nearly every year of his adult life in a baseball uniform beginning as a player in 1970. He reached the big leagues in 1973 and played for 17 seasons with the Astros, Cubs and Phillies. Of course GG was a member of the 1980 World Champion Phillies. When his playing career ended Gross started back at the bottom and worked his way through the coaching ranks. He began his coaching career at the high school level, moved to the Colorado Rockies organization and then back home to the Phillies in 2001. He is presently in his second stint with the Phillies at the big league level as the hitting coach after spending time at Batavia (A), Clearwater (A), Reading (AA) and Lehigh Valley (AAA).

Rich Dubee – Rich is probably the most well recognized of the Phils coaching staff due to his visibility during mound visits but also because he is the caretaker of what many consider the best pitching staff in baseball. Dubee is beginning his 30th season coaching in professional baseball almost exclusively as a pitching coach. He coached in the Kansas City, Montreal and Florida organizations before joining the Phillies in 2002. He worked at Clearwater (A) and Wilkes Barre (AAA) before being promoted to the Phillies in 2004 as pitching coach. He has held that position since.

Sam Perlozzo – Perlozzo is another baseball lifer. He begins his 40th season in professional baseball. He was drafted out of high school in 1972 and has never left. Sam was a player, mostly in the minor leagues, from 1973-1981. In 1982 he began his coaching career and has never left. He began his coaching career in the Mets minor league system serving from 1982-86. He was promoted to the big league level in 1987 working for the Mets, Reds, Mariners and Orioles before joining the Phillies for the 2009 season. He was the manager of the Orioles for parts of three seasons. Sam is presently the 1st base coach and is also responsible for baserunning.

Juan Samuel – Sammy is a Phillie fan favorite after spending the first 6 ½ seasons of his 16 year playing career, that included 7 teams, with the Phillies. As a Phillies player Juan was named The Sporting News Rookie of the Year in 1984. He became the first player in NL history to reach a quadruple double in each of his first 4 major league seasons. He holds the Phillies record for most SB in a season (72 in 1984) in the modern era (post-1900). For the decade of the 1980s, Sammy ranks 3rd among all Phillies in AVG (.263), OBP (.310), SLG % (.439), at-bats (3503), runs (523), hits (921), doubles (176), HR (100), RBI (413) and total bases (1539), trailing Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and Von Hayes in each category. Sammy was inducted in to the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2008.

Sammy began his coaching career in 1999 with the Detroit Tigers before moving on to the OriolesHe returned to the Phillies for the 2011 season. He served as interim manager of the Orioles in 2010 and posted a 17-34 record. As well as being the 3rd base coach Sammy is also responsible for the outfielders.

Pete Mackanin – When it comes to coaching experience Pete has done it all. He has been a minor league instructor, a minor league coordinator, a minor league manager, a manager in the Dominican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan Winter Leagues, a pro scout, a major league advanced scout and a major league coach with the Expos and Pirates and an interim manager of both the Pirates and Reds before joining the Phillies as bench coach for the 2009 season.

Mick Billmeyer – Mick is another coach who started his career as a minor league player and never left. Mick played in the minor leagues for 9 seasons but never made it to the big leagues. He learned the catching trade well and immediately moved in to a coaching position with the Angles organization in 1994 as the bullpen/workout coordinator. Mick joined the Phillies organization in 2000 as the minor league catching coordinator. He was promoted to minor league catching instructor in 2004 and again to bullpen coach in 2008. 

Tomorrow we will start our player previews with Roy “Doc” Halladay.

Philly Pressbox would like to welcome our Sponsor, Shop.com. www.Shop.com/BobSullivan .

Please click the following link http://www.shop.com/ul!46125!Phillies-trends.xhtml?credituser=C9407795 for all of your Phillies needs as well as any other shopping needs. Shopping made easy right from your home.

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PHILLIES PROFILE – MANAGER CHARLIE MANUAL

In Philadelphia Phillies on March 9, 2012 at 7:19 am

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 Manual and the coaching staff leading up to Opening Day 2012.  Day 1 in our series is Manager Charlie Manual.

Charlie enters his 8th year as Manager of the Phillies. In his 7 years at the helm of the greatest era in Phillies baseball Manual has led the team to 646 wins and 488 loses, 1 World Series championship, 2 National League Pennants and 5 consecutive NL East titles. The Phils have never finished lower than 2nd in the East under Manual. Interestingly enough Charlie has never won the Manager of the Year award.  Below are a few highlights of Charlie’s career as the Phillies manager.

• Set the Phillies record for most wins ever by a Phillies manager (646), passing Gene Mauch on the all-time list

• Set the Phillies record for most wins in a single season (102)

• 2011 marked the second straight season he led the Phillies to the best record in the major leagues (102-60)

• Is one of only two managers in NL history, along with former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, to win 5 straight division titles since divisional play began in 1969.

• Is the only manager in Phillies history to lead the team to 5 straight division championships (2007-11)

• Guided the Phillies to the 2008 World Championship, the 2nd title in franchise history and 1st since 1980

• Managed the 2009 & 2010 NL All-Star squads, snapping the AL’s 13-year unbeaten streak in 2010

• Managed the Phillies to the 2007 NL East Championship, the first postseason berth for the team since 1993

• Became the first Phillies manager to have 4 straight full winning seasons since Danny Ozark had 4 straight, 1975-78

Personal analysis:

A key point for any coach or manager is that players want to play for them. This has been a strength for Manual. The players don’t play under a lot of rules, be on time and play hard all the time. The few problems in the last 7 years that have become public have been quickly taken care of behind closed doors and not aired out in the public or press. This is especially evident by the return of future Hall of Famer Jim Thome who credits Manual for his career success in baseball and Jimmy Rollins desire to come to Philly to finish out his career. They want to play for Manual. Winning creates more winning and Charlie Manual has been the leader of the Phillies. Another key item to Manuals success is his ability to remain even keel. He understands as well as anyone that the season is not a sprint but a marathon. He rests players when he feels they need it, he rests pitchers when they need it but overall never panics when the team hits slumps during the season. Theses slumps are part of baseball due to the long 162 game season. If Charlie has a weakness it seems his handling of the bullpen can come in to question, however, we’re going to give him a pass based on his overall success. Manual knows his players better than anyone else so if he makes what appears to be a crazy bullpen move it’s for a baseball reason and not normally a gut feel decision.

Looking forward to 2012 our prediction is that the Phillies will win their 6th straight NL East title, their 3rd pennant and 2nd World Series championship under Charlie Manual.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the Coaching Staff.

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Pick Your Favorite All Time Phillie

In Philadelphia Phillies on February 11, 2012 at 11:00 am

After watching a disappointing 1 point 76ers lose to the Clippers last night we woke up to several inches of snow on the ground and it’s still snowing. It made me think that we’re only a week from Pitchers and Catchers reporting to Spring Training in Clearwater. Opening day of April 5 is not far away!!!

 What a great time to look back at our favorite Phillies of all time.

 Depending on how old you are there are different groups of Phils that you would probably consider your favorites. I’m sure you have your own list but here are a few to jog your memory. Remember you only get to pick 5. It makes it a lot tougher.

1950’s – Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Del Ennis, Andy Seminick, Jim Konstanty, Willie “Puddin Head” Jones

1960’s – Jim Bunning, Johnny Callison, Richie Allen, Tony Taylor, Cookie Rojas

1970’s & 80’s – Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, Gary Maddox, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, Tug McGraw, Greg Luzinski

1990’s – John Kruk, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, Curt Shilling, Dave Hollins, Jim Eisenreich, Mitch Williams

2000’s – Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Roy Halliday, Cole Hamels, Brad Lidge, “Chooch” Ruiz

Here are my 5 favorites Phillies of all time:

  1. Mike Schmidt – I could switch 1 and 2 with no problem. Schmitty played every day, hit 548 Home Runs, won 10 Gold Gloves and 3 MVP’s.
  2. Steve Carlton – There was no one better. Lefty won 329 games with 4,136 strikeouts. He won 4 Cy Young Awards. To put his career in perspective he has 141 more wins and over 1,200 more strikeouts than Halliday who’s arguably the best pitcher of this era.
  3. Brad Lidge – His perfect season in engrained in my head. In 2008 he was 2-0, 1.95 ERA, and 41 saves in 41 opportunities in the regular season and added 7 more saves in the playoffs. This is possibly the greatest season ever by a Phillie at any position. In 4 seasons with the Phils he had 41, 31, 27 and 1 save for 100 regular season saves and 12 post-season saves.
  4. Johnny Callison – My first favorite Phillie as a kid. He played for the Phils from 1960-1969 and hit 185 Home Runs. He was a runner up MVP in 1964 and the All Star game MVP.
  5. Chase Utley – Although it doesn’t look like Chase is going to get the Hall of Fame numbers I thought he was I still just like everything about the way he plays. He’s fundamentally sound player you love to coach and have on your team. As “Harry The K” would say “Chase Utley you are The Man”!!!

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Philly Broadcast Legends

In Misc Philly Sports, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Phillies on January 30, 2012 at 8:06 am

Philly Pressbox originally published this article on January 30, 2012. We’ve been asked to republish it several times by our readers so here it is. We hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment.

With the passing of Penn State legendary coach Joe Paterno this week it was somewhat lost in the news of the passing of a Philadelphia legend Andy Musser. Musser was often below the radar in the Phillies broadcast booth from 1976 – 2001that was full of larger than life personalities but Andy was a true professional, a gentleman and a man that could broadcast any sport and do a great job of it. Many people know Andy from those Phillies years but he also broadcasted the Eagles from 1965-68 and the 76ers from 1965-71. That’s 34 Philadelphia sports season in the books for Andy. Great Job!!

Andy’s passing made me think about the broadcasters that we’ve had in Philadelphia over the years. Do you realize that if you were born after 1955 you had never heard a Phillies game that was not broadcasted by a Hall of Famer? When I first started watching and listening to Phillies baseball it was Bill Campbell, Rich Ashburn and By Saam. All are HOF members in their own way. Campbell as a broadcaster in the Basketball HOF, Ashburn as a player in the Baseball HOF and the legendary By Saam as a broadcaster in the Baseball HOF. Saam called Phillies games from 1939-49 and again from 1955-1975. Campbell was replaced by Harry Kalas and another 38 years of broadcasting from a Baseball HOF member. Add to that the one year stints of Hall of Fame players Robin Roberts in ’76 and Mike Schmidt in ’90 and “The Box” was loaded with All Stars. Another long time member of “The Box” is Chris Wheeler who just completed his 34th season with the Phillies as well as Musser and his 25 years.

Moving on to the Flyers, people my age learned the game of hockey by Hall Of Famer Gene Hart. Hart was a Flyers broadcaster the initial 67-68 season and then full time from 1971-1992. Who will ever forget Gene calling the games of the Broad Street Bullies and the Stanley Cups? The Hart legacy lives in with his daughter Lauren singing the National Anthem and God Bless America at all home games. Here’s an interesting Flyer broadcast fact for you, during the 1970-71 season Flyers Sunday games were broadcast by former Phillies 1st baseman and later National League Commissioner Bill White. White was the first black to announce an NHL game. The Chief, Bobby Taylor spent 16 seasons, Gary Dornhoefer 14 and now Jim Jackson has been bringing us games since 1993. Maybe HOF will be in JJ’s future one day.

The Eagles Merrill Reese, although not a Hall of Famer at this time, has been broadcasting games on radio since 1977 and does he do a great job? How many of you have turned down the TV to listen to Merrill do the play-by-play along with his many color commentators, Herb Adderly, yes the HOF player, Bill Bergey, Stan Walters and now Mike Quick call the game the way it should be called. Tracing way back to 1940 By Saam was doing the games up until 1955, minus the 50 and 51 seasons when Bill Campbell took over. Campbell called the games until 1964. In ‘64 Saam was back for one last year working with Campbell and former Eagle Tom Brookshier. Musser took over from 1965–1968. Charlie Swift covered from 1969-77 and Reese joined Swift in 1977 until now. What a run of great announcers! Did you know that future Baseball HOF broadcaster Jack Buck did Eagles games in 1961? Anyone who was able to go to games at Franklin Field and the early days at The Vet will never forget the booming voice of PA announcer Matt Goukas Sr. who handled the duties from 1953-1985. Goukas was legendary! His call of 2nd down and niooooooon (2nd & 9) is still in my head after all this years. Amazingly enough when Goukas retired Dan Baker took over and he has been the PA voice of the Eagles ever since not to mention handing the same duties with the Phillies since 1972 and doing Big 5 basketball from 1977-1989. Baker has been a busy man in Philadelphia.

Speaking of PA announcers we can’t forget “The Zink”, Dave Zinkoff. Zink was with the Philadelphia Warriors and then the 76ers from 1946-1985. Zink had many favorites but “Dipper Dunk” for Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Errrrrrrrrrrving and Moses Maaaaaaaaaaalone have to be at the top of the list. Of course we can’t forget Bill Campbell again. Campbell along with his work with the Eagles and Phillies called Warriors games from 1946–1962 and 76ers games from 1972-1981. Andy Musser followed and Mark Zumoff has been holding it down since 1994.

There can’t be another city that can say that they’ve had a run with broadcasters and announcers that Philly has had. From Saam to Campbell to Ashburn to Kalas to Musser to Hart to Goukas to Zinkoff to Baker to the present day guys of Reese, Wheeler, Zumoff  and Jackson it’s been quite a run. The bar has been set very high.

As Gene Hart would say, “Good Night and Good Hockey”!!!

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The Phils, Hamels and Spring Training

In Philadelphia Phillies on January 18, 2012 at 10:29 am

I woke up this morning to the great news that Cole Hamels is back in the fold for another year. As I’m looking out the window watching the snow fall on this frigid January day the Hamels signing makes me think about getting started in sunny Clearwater Florida. I can see Doc Halladay working out at the Carpenter Complex as I’m typing. As far as Hamels $15 million is nothing to sneeze at but I’d sure like to see a long term deal, 3 -4 years, made to keep Hamels through his prime years. It seems hard to believe that Cole is just 28 years old since he’s been in the big leagues with the Phils since 2006. I think he was the most consistent of the starters last season, including Halliday. The offense just didn’t score runs for him. His 2011 stats of 14-9 with a 2.79 ERA and 0.99 WHIP (walks, hits per innings pitched) were career bests. He could have easily won 4 more games with a little more offense.

That brings us to the 2012 season. Is this a better team than the 2011 team? As it stands today I don’t think so. It’s safe to say that the offense hasn’t improved at all. We have lost Raul Ibanez, it was probably time to go, and plan to replace him on a full time basis with former part timer John Mayberry. Mayberry deserves a chance after having a nice 2011 as a reserve. He hit .273 with 15 HR’s and 49 RBI’s. The problem is that Mayberry has never had more than 8 RBI’s in a season before that and he’s 28 years old. To be safe there needs to be a backup plan. At this point the outfield reserves are Lance Nix and Dom Brown. I’m not comfortable there. Obviously there’s a lot expected from Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence in the other outfield spots. Pence will have his hands full early in the season with Ryan Howard on the disabled list. Pence will likely be asked to bat in the clean-up spot.

The infield hasn’t changed except that it got a year older and hopefully gets healthier. This is the year for Chase Utley. Utley is still a solid player but has fallen out of the elite group over the last couple years. Most of that has been blamed on health issues, which may be true; however it’s time to get back to the old Chase. Over the last 5 seasons his batting average has been .332, .292, .282, .275, and .259. His HR numbers have also declined over that period, 22, 33, 31, 16, and 11, and with that comes RBI reductions, 103, 104, 93, 65 and 44. Chase turns 32 years old this Spring. As stated earlier this is a critical year for both Chase and the Phillies success. Placido Polanco had an outstanding first half of the season. It was obvious he fought through injuries for a good part of the season. He was still selected to the All Star game and won the Gold Glove at 3rd base. Polly is 36 years old. He needs a healthy 2012. It’s good to have Jimmy Rollins back. I like JRoll but didn’t want to over pay him or sign him for too long. He’s been the leader of the line-up but has obviously tailed off since his MVP year of 2007. His average from 2007-2011 has been .296, .277, .250, .243 and .268 although his On Base Percentage has stayed pretty much level. Jimmy needs to get on base and be the guy that drives this offense. JRoll is now 33 years old. That brings us to Ryan Howard and his health. The Phils need a healthy Ryan Howard and they need him soon. Howard still strikes out way too much but there are only a few players that can say they’ve driven in over 100 runs 6 years in a row while hitting between 31 and 58 HR’s over those years. Howard is also 32 years old and won’t be able to keep producing these numbers forever. The infield bench doesn’t look much different. We’ve added future Hall of Famer and 1st class guy in Jim Thome and his 604 career home runs and Ty Wiggington as reserves. Thome is expected to be the left handed and Wiggington the right handed reserves/pinch hitters off the bench.  Wouldn’t it be great if Thome can be ready to start while Howard is injured and produce great numbers? The other infield reserves are Wilson Valdez and Michael Martinez. They both are adequate reserves. One of these two likely won’t be around when camp breaks. Overall I don’t see any improvement in the infield.

The catchers are still Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider. Chooch had a nice season last year and has become a top notch catcher in the National League. He caught 132 games last year and turns 33 years old before Spring Training. Schneider does a nice job as a backup but it’s time to be getting someone ready to take over the catcher spot in the near future.

The starting pitching will still be strong with Halladay, Hamels, Cliff Lee, and 2 of the 3, Vance Worley, Joe Blanton or Kyle Kendrick. Whoever loses out on the 5th starter spot will move to the bullpen unless a trade is made. I like Worley and Blanton in those spots but Kendrick pitched well at the end of last season.

I’m having real problems with the bullpen. I’m okay with the signing of Jonathan Papelbon. In the last 6 seasons he’s recorded 35, 37, 41, 38, 37 and 31 saves. He’s a proven guy that can get it done. With that said I’d like to have seen Ryan Madson stay. Obviously something went wrong whether it was the Phillies, Madson or agent Scott Boras. Either way, Madson didn’t get the free agent deal he was expecting, 1 year – $8.5m with Cincinnati, and will not be back. It would’ve been nice to have Papelbon and Madson if it was possible. The rest of the bullpen looks like Antonio Bastardo as the lefty, Michael Stutes as the righty. Both of these guys had outstanding rookie years before running low in the gas tank toward the end of the season. That leaves just 2 spots left, assuming that either Valdez or Martinez is not with the club clearing out a spot, those choices are Jose Contrares, coming off an injury, David Herndon, Michael Schwimer, Joe Savery and Justin De Fratus. I don’t know about you but that bullpen doesn’t scare me. The key could be Savery, a former 1st round draft pick that seems to finally be coming in to his own as a left handed reliever. He needs time to prove he can pitch at the big league level.

It’s time to get started. I think I can hear bats and balls as I’m looking through the snow. It’s time to make another run to a World Championship!