***Official 2007 Philadelphia Phillies Thread***

[.Alex.]

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Also the way he just stands there after called 3rd strikes doesn't help.

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You're going to take some 3rd strikes when you draw walks like he does.

I also love how fans take turns criticizing him for both taking too many pitches AND swinging at bad ones.

[Bremen]

No, I don't mean that he takes them. Rather how he stands there AFTER the strike is called.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also the way he just stands there after called 3rd strikes doesn't help.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're going to take some 3rd strikes when you draw walks like he does.

I also love how fans take turns criticizing him for both taking too many pitches AND swinging at bad ones.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo - the idiocy of the common Phils fan in a nutshell.

NL leaders in OBP
Bonds
Chipper
Pujols
Helton
Lee
followed by Burrell and then Utley.

Yep, 6th in the whole league. SLG and OPS are almost identical to Helton, and Phils don't play in Coors.

[PokerFink]

A lot of people hate Burrell because it often seems like he just doesn't give a [censored].

[PokerFink]

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Obviously losing Utley is a blow. However, as great as he is, Chase is probably only worth 7 or 8 wins over the course of a season (someone can correct this if it's a little off but I think that this is right from memory) over a player like Iguchi. (ex. phillies would be 88-74 w/ utley and 81-81 w/ Iguchi all season). So losing Utley for a month costs the Phillies only about one game on average.

With some positive variance over the next month the Phils could be fine....baseball is a TON of variance. To say that this one injury "eliminates" the Phillies is beyond ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great post.

Also, to everyone saying "Utley is the centerpiece of the offense" and "Utley is having an MVP year"... have you even seen Howard's numbers? Utley isn't our best offensive player.

[Bremen]

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Utley isn't our best offensive player.

[/ QUOTE ]
His EqA is higher. Although I doubt a difference of .002 is all the significant.

[boc4life]

Just saw this and thought it was pretty interesting

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/st...ps_oddselo.php

These are the playoff odds from Baseball Prospectus when adjusted using ELO scores. ELO scores look to "rate" teams based on their current form and gives them a score, much like a chess or Scrabble rating.

On this page, the Pct3 column is the ELO rating for the teams. According to this, the Phillies are the best team in the NL.

Coinflip for the playoffs...Can we land on the good side for once?

[boc4life]

Also, Phillies add Kyle Lohse for minor leaguer Matt Maloney

Never heard of the minor leaguer, good to have another experienced arm in the stable. Guess it's time to wave goodbye to "The Real Deal" Durbin. I was starting to enjoy watching him pitch, too

[WFDeac]

I wouldn't be surprised if they send Condrey down and put Durbin in the bullpen for long relief. With 4/5 starters being Eaton, Loshe, Kendrick, and Moyer there are bound to be a few games where the starter gets bounced in the first 3 innings and we could use J.D. to eat 3 or 4 innings.

[Hoya]

Durbin will almost certainly be moved to the pen.