Bench Will Press

I think that all of this rain we are supposed to get today is ridiculous, but what are you going to do? On a more happy note, the Phillies won last night, so we are on pace for 98 wins. I must say that that is pretty impressive even though we were playing a lot of the bench last night. It was great to see John Mayberry Jr. launch a massive home run and to see Ben Francisco launch a pair of his own. It always makes me excited to see the bench getting involved because we are going to rely on them quite a bit during the playoffs. I assume that all Phillies fans remember Matt Stairs' homerun two years ago that drove the Phillies past the Dodgers and into the World Series. The bench is necessary for success, and I feel like the Phillies have one of their best benches in a while this year. They have power, experience, and speed and several players that probably could start on another team but are trapped behind the Phillies All-Stars. For example, Ben Francisco is a pretty good player, but being trapped behind Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, and Raul Ibanez doesn't help anyone get playing time. So, watch the impact that the bench will play this postseason!
Photo by michaelroper on Flickr

Playoff Picture

It was a different experience last night watching the Phillies when it doesn't really matter. Don't get me wrong, I totally would prefer them to win, but it's kind of comforting knowing that no matter what happens, we have won the East. I think that the Phillies are definitely onto something though. Maybe if we secure the division every year ahead of time, I can enjoy this stress-free baseball for about a week. However, it seems like almost the entire league is pretty well clinched since now the Yankees and Rays have grabbed the last two playoff spots and the only thing that matters to them is who ends up with the wildcard. The National League is a little less predictable. We have the Phillies and Reds definitely in, but we are still waiting on the other two teams. However, I am predicting about the Braves and Giants will be in as the remaining two teams, but San Diego also has an outside chance. The way it looks right now, if my picture comes true, the Phillies will have Cincinnati in the first round. That would only be the first step on the way to another World Series!
Photo by DeusXFlorida on Flickr

NL EAST CHAMPIONS

Of course, I was correct. I was correct that the Phillies would win the National League East. Behind Roy Halladay last night, they finished off the Washington Nationals to clinch the division. Now, this gives us the ability to set rotation correctly to have the big three going against whoever our first-round opponent ends up being. Of course, I know that the Phillies can score enough runs to beat whoever they are playing on any given night, but I would rather win 9-0 than 9-8. I know that a win is a win, but since the playoffs are so high stress anyway, I would rather not have to be stressed out every night. However, I feel like the Phillies will probably not be that courteous all the time. They have had to scrap out many victories in the ninth inning and just like everyone else, but the difference is that the Phillies were better at it than most other teams. The bullpen was able to hold the lead most of the time, so that was encouraging because there's absolutely nothing worse than having a bad bullpen blow a win.
Photo by dougtone on Flickr

Avoiding Temption

Josh Hamilton has to be one of the smartest men in Major League Baseball. I read a story last night that talked about the Rangers winning their division. Of course, following this victory, there was the customary drenching of the locker room with champagne. Now, most of you may know that Hamilton is a recovering alcoholic. Many years of drug and alcohol abuse hindered his career, but once he finally broke the habit, he broke out and became the All-Star that everyone knew he could be. Now, I am not an alcoholic and I've never even drunk alcohol (which is good because I am underage), but from what I've heard alcoholism is incredibly slippery slope that is easy to slide back down even if you have kicked the habit for a while. So, Hamilton did the intelligent thing even if it might not have been fun. He left the party. In fact, he never even went in. According to the story I read, he even changed in the trainer's room to avoid the temptation. Congratulations Josh, you showed rare intelligence to avoid the trap and not fall into it again. Awareness of your own faults is a huge step that everyone must make everyone to improve.
Photo by Keith Allison on Flickr

East Coast Trend

Unfortunately, the magic number stays at two, but I bet that will change today. However, that really isn't the important part right now. Why bother speculating about something that will happen? Anyway, let's talk about what might happen with Carmelo Anthony. It is kind of interesting because for years we have been talking about how dominant the West Coast is. It seems that every year in the NBA finals the team from the West Coast has always been the favorite. Now, the East Coast is getting all the hype with the triumvirate in Miami and maybe with Carmelo moving to the Jersey shore. I wonder if this will significantly alter the power balance in the NBA however. The West is still powerful and the three in Miami are still from the East Coast, just reorganized. However, if all of the fire from the East is concentrated on one team, maybe they'll be able to play with the West. Many of you know I have been skeptical about Miami's success simply because I doubt each individual star will be able to get as much attention and therefore as many shots as he did before. But, I hope I'm wrong because I would like to see a little more diversity.
Photo by laffy4k on Flickr

Formulaic Victory

First off, it is awesome to see that the Phillies magic number is down to two although I was little bit nervous after Brad Lidge put runners on first and third with two outs. However, it's kind of funny because I watch the Phillies pretty much every game, and I have seen the trend. I have seen that pretty much every game, the Phillies will be ahead by some margin going into the ninth. Somehow, enough runners will get on base that the tying run is at the plate or in some cases the go-ahead run. Finally, Brad will run the count almost full and then throw a slider in the dirt that the batter inevitably swings at. Of course, because Carlos Ruiz is the best defensive catchers in baseball, he always knocks it down and proceeds to throw out the runner at first. It is pretty formulaic, and it seems like the Phillies just enjoy raising everyone's blood pressure. I think that really is the simple reason behind it. Everybody would turn off the game and go to bed if it was always a 1-2-3 ninth. So, remember this when you're watching the Phillies in the World Series. They might let you get close, but they will pull it out in the end!
Photo by Julie, Dave & Family on Flickr

Jose Who?

I thought it was amazing that José Bautista hit his 50th home run last night. I know that he had been having an awesome year, but I didn't realize that he had shot up so quickly. He is also the first Toronto Blue Jay to hit half a century of bombs, so that is an honor in and of itself. Until this year, Bautista kind of flew under my radar, and I'm not sure why. However, if you look at his stats (which I'm doing on Baseball Reference), his previous career-high in home runs was 16 and that was in 2006. Before this year, he only had one season where he even played near full-time (2006 with Pittsburgh). He has nearly doubled his career home run output this season with 50 so far, and he only had 109 for his career. I cannot honestly remember any other player who has had that type of breakout after already having been in the Major Leagues for six years. So, I must congratulate José for his amazing year, but it is a shame that he played for Toronto where he was able to fly under the radar for so long.
Photo courtesy of http://f00.inventorspot.com/images/4_1196909807_baseball_player.jpg