I haven't been Chyan hard enough

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Yeesh

The Phillies had to sell their soul for a win, but Satan still couldn't perform the miracle of getting them to collect timely hits, so run-forcing walks, HBPs and fly balls had to account for most of the offense. But a win is still welcome after the hideousness of the previous three games.

Pat the Bat!

I missed all but two middle innings of last night's game, having been at the gym and then at a sports bar where it was not shown. But when Moyer gives up two over six, Burrell goes 2 for 2 with RISP and the Phillies cruise 8-2 on the road against the annoying Fish, I know it was a good night.

Myers goes tonight, and I'll be watching. I have a feeling that if the bats get going just a little better, Myers and Hamels are going to produce a lot of back-to-back win scenarios to take the sting out of the occasional preceding sweep.

Victori? No!

Trying to steal third with Howard and Utley behind you? Uncool.

And having a horrendous bullpen? Also uncool.

Phillieeeeeeeeeeeeees, c'monnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.....

Opening Day observations

• Brett Myers looked good, but I can't think of anything more unfortunate than having two outs in the eighth with a one-run lead, an 0-2 count, and throwing a pitch that someone like Edgar Renteria can hit 420 feet.
• Booing Pat Burrell? On Opening Day? What a pile of losers Phillies fans are.
• Shane Victorino looked overmatched. Actually, he looked horrible.
• The Phillies went ahead on a dumb mistake by the Braves, and it'd be nice if this year they could win on the dumb mistakes, not lose on them.

Quick thangs

I've been exhausted and working too much and not blogging, but I've still kept up with a bit of Phillies news. Some thoughts:

• I like Chase Utley for MVP this year.
• The more I think about Adam Eaton, the more I'm convinced that 3/$24M deal is bad enough to rival the 5/$44M deal Juan Pierre squeezed out of the Dodgers.
• Speaking of which, if we trade Lieber, we damn well better be ready to slot in Scott Mathieson or somebody else if Eaton craps the bed.
• If Victorino doesn't steal 25 bases this year, Davey Lopes was hired for nothing.
• People keep saying the Nationals could be the worst team ever, but that pitcher's park is enough to give the biggest schmoe confidence. Getting lit up in a Grapefruit park doesn't necessarily translate.
• I'll bet Chipper Jones doesn't play in 50 games, and I'll bet Andruw Jones hits more home runs than Ryan Howard. And then he goes to the American League and is never heard from again.
• I have so many young Marlins on my fantasy team who I want to succeed statistically again this year, but I hope they don't come as close to being a thorn in Philly's side as they did last year.
• If Gordon goes down, close with Fabio Castro. Dad would agree with me, I bet.
• I love my Ryan Howard t-shirt, but I gotta go to the gym more so I don't fill it out so much below the logo.
• Once Barry Bonds breaks down or breaks the record, send Pat Burrell and Carlos Ruiz to the Giants, they can send pitching prospect Tim Lincecum to the Cubs, who can send Jacque Jones and Mark Prior to the Phillies. Prior is injured nearly beyond repair but there would always be that twinkle of possibility of recovering past greatness, and irrational investment like that is the principle on which the Phillies are founded.
• I think the Phillies go 90-72, lose the division to the Mets by two games but win the wild card by two games. Baseless predictions are the principle on which my Phillies phandom is phounded.
  

I KNEW IT!

One Marlin says Girardi helping Lieber amounts to "expletive."

Even so, Dontrelle Willis shrugs it off.

Burrell, etc.

Mike Schmidt hones his God-given ability to not leave well enough alone. I guess it's good for him to soften his comments about Burrell, but he clearly meant what he said before and he should have enough respect for Burrell as a man to stick to his accusation of "mediocrity." Which is a little harsh, but not far off.

Sheridan takes a more historical tack, and indirectly chastises Philadelphia fans for the millionth time. Old news, Philly-boy.

Finally, Burrell says his foot feels good -- I have totally not heard that before, or something -- and Schmidt thinks McGwire should apologize for his testimony to Congress. Hey, one of these days your advice will be taken in the spirit in which it's offered, right Mike?

Starting over

Say the entire MLB tossed all its players back into a pool for a re-draft, but each team was allowed to hold onto one player before that happened.

Who would you keep?

Who would I keep? Chase Utley.

Here's my argument for him over Ryan Howard:
1) Position scarcity. Many more power-hitting first-basemen of Howard's ilk (if not caliber) than second-basemen of Utley's.
2) Speed. Utley has it, even if he's no Shane Victorino, and Howard doesn't.
3) Though they both strike out a decent amount, Utley's swing is more compact, so I can more readily imagine him cutting down on the K's.

They're about the same age, Utley born December '78, Howard born November '79, and they both hit lefty. And in fact, they can both play first base, whereas I don't think you'd ever want to put Howard at second.

Let me hear some arguments for Howard.

Mench isn't one

• So sad we didn't get this guy in exchange for Lieber. I understand guys having pride and wanting to play all the time, but painting your manager into a corner is bush-league. Plus, he also apparently doesn't wear the right-sized shoes.
• If I have to have a guy on my team who smacked his wife, I suppose I'm glad it's him.
• Having a fast guy steal bases is a concept that only occurred to the Phillies once they hired a former base-stealer as first-base coach? My head hurts.
  

Mahalo, Victy!

• How about this promotion?
• Rowand reacts to Linebrink-trade rumors.
• Linebrink reacts to Rowand-trade rumors.
• Joe Girardi gives Jon Lieber advice on mechanics in the middle of the 2006 pennant race? I know they were once battery-mates, but if I read that as a Marlin or a Marlins fan I'd be ticked off.
• A guy I've never heard of has a bum shoulder. Dang.
• A cap that dries in 10 minutes and doesn't smell? Blasphemy.
  

Inky links and quick thoughts

• No more tix for opener. Hope that trend continues for the rest of the season, as long as I can get my hands on a couple.
• Rollins is feeling his oats. That's a real expression, right?
• Conlin wonders what kind of April all the dudes will have?
• Gillick is old-school.

At this point, what 25-man roster do you go with? Here's mine:
C: Barajas, Ruiz
1B: Howard
2B: Utley
SS: Rollins
3B: Nunez, Helms
LF: Burrell, Werth
CF: Rowand, Roberson
RF: Victorino, K. Garcia
SP: F. Garcia, Myers, Moyer, Eaton, Hamels
RP: Gordon, Smith, Geary, Madson, Castro, Alfonseca, RP from Lieber trade

New caps!

Here's a bunch of links to atone for my inattentiveness:

• Sheep baa in appreciation of MLB's new headgear policy.
• Time to snap up passes to one-night stands.
• A breaking story from the AP: Apparently it has been a long time since the Phillies attended the postseason. Huh.
• Nice work if you can get it, but on the Phillies, it'll be harder than usual for some marginal big-leaguers.
• Jayson Werth shares a cringe-worthy anecdote about bones breaking.
• I'm clearly stealing my bulleted-links style from this man, whose blog you'll need an ESPN Insider account to read in full. That's true of a lot of the good stuff on this site, and I pay 75 cents a week for the privilege. I don't think that's too steep, and as someone who hopes to eventually write for a paper with a solid online business model of paid subscription, I want to be able to put my money where my mouth is. Or something.
• A familiar mug, sans moustache, weighs in on a Phils team whose confidence has surged.
• The onetime gold standard in center field is entering his contract year and looking beyond Atlanta. I would not bet against a 45 HR-120 RBI-.280 AVG campaign.
• Another Drabek!
  

Back, back, back, back... not gone

Registration for Yahoo! fantasy leagues begins Thursday, and the fact that I'm giddy about being able to get on a fantasy-league message board and name my team tells you 85% of what you need to know about my personality. Sit next to me during a movie or a Maryland-Duke game to pick up the rest.

This will be the seventh year of my 10-team keeper league from my college newspaper. We're pretty far-flung by now -- over seven states! -- but it's still such a fun dialogue, with the right balance of civility and idiocy. I'm already poring over my 2006 roster in preparation for three things:

1. Choosing who to pursue and protect in the faux free-agent signing period. Any player a general manager (me) adds to his team once the season begins is classified as a free agent. When the offseason rolls around, the other nine teams can place bids on him. The more you want a guy, the earlier you'll commit to drafting him. So if the highest bid on Joe Blow is Round 3, I can either let him walk or I can keep him one round later, in Round 4. Conversely, if I want to pursue a free agent, I know I'm only allowed to bid on eight players in all. (We're allowed to keep 12 to begin the year.)
2. After we sign free agents, we decide who to keep in the 23-round draft. Players must be kept one round earlier than they were drafted the year before. So if John Smith was drafted in Round 20 in 2006, and I want to keep him, I forfeit my Round 19 pick this year. It gets a little more complicated when I keep multiple guys drafted in the same round or keep a guy several years in a row, but you don't give a crap. Actually, if you've read this far, maybe you do, but I need to move on.
3. The draft lasts 27 rounds, plus injury time. 2006 draftees can't be kept in Rounds 24 through 27, so this is the spot for rising minor-leaguers and veteran spare parts. After the 27 rounds, for every dude who's already on the disabled list, you get to draft another guy to take his active roster spot until he's healthy again.

The draft is March 31, but the free agent draft and keeper deadline are early next month, and I'm competing in a league chock-full of sports journalists, so I have to overprepare.

Here's my roster. It's an NL-only league. Who should I keep? If you have two guys in the same round, you have to draft one of them a round earlier. I can keep between six and 12 guys.

Oh yeah: I draft first in every round.

Round 1: Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt
Round 3: Mark Mulder
Round 4: Armando Benitez
Round 5: Geoff Jenkins
Round 7: Austin Kearns, Brett Myers, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Lieber
Round 9: Ryan Dempster
Round 11: Brandon Claussen
Round 13: Ryan Madson
Round 14: Nick Johnson
Round 15: Adrian Gonzalez
Round 17: Dan Uggla
Round 21: J.J. Hardy
Round 22: Jeff Francoeur, Jeremy Hermida, Juan Encarnacion
Round 23: Anibal Sanchez, Taylor Buchholz, Dustin Nippert
Free agents: Oliver Perez, Aaron Cook, Cesar Izturis

News of the day

Chase gets paid.

Moyer gets sentimental.

Pre-Clearwater promotions.

Late Sunday night update: Dan Rubin's blog.

Unbelievable oversight

I totally forgot... Congratulations to Ryan Howard, National League MVP. I frankly thought the vote would be a lot closer, and I could have voted for him or Pujols.

But as sophisticated as baseball nerds are these days with their sabermetric stats, some writers still can't resist a gaudy number of home runs and RBI.

I'd still love Ryan to strike out as little as Pujols does, but I hope he never becomes such an ego-swollen jerk. As it is, if I lived in St. Louis, I'd be prouder of my native son Howard than of my resident brooder Pujols.

Mrs. Utley's move pays off

Chase got a four-year extension, seven years total, at $12M per.

I like it. He's 28 this season, 34 in the final year of the deal (2013), probably exiting his prime though still quite talented. Easier to get him to agree to a four-year extension past the three he has now than to get him to sign a four-year deal once he's a 31-year-old free agent. That ain't happening.

Also, the annual cost is a steal. Ryan Howard, though, will not be a steal. If he makes less than $18M per, I'll do cartwheels. He's still sewn up through this decade, but hard to imagine the Phillies going into arbitration with him again next year, not having locked up a long-term deal.

One pet peeve: In several of the stories announcing Chase's deal, his age was not listed. As a reader, I'd like to know how old the man will be when he's up for a raise again. Bearing that in mind, I told you up front.

-yan-ard, Brett Myers and Geoff Geary are still up for arbitration. I honestly don't know what strategy I'd support on the hotheaded wife-slapper. Reader(s), suggestions welcome!

I'll work on updating the site and making it a bit more user-friendly during the conference title games today.

Lineup ideas

Given what the Phillies have right now, what lineup do you trot out there on Opening Day 2007? Here's what it'd probably be:

1. Rollins
   
2. Victorino
   
3. Utley
4. Howard
5. Burrell
   
6. Rowand
   
7. Coste/Ruiz
8. Nunez
9. pitcher

I'd much prefer:

1. Victorino
2. Rollins
3. Utley
4. Howard
5. 3B received by trading Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd
6. Burrell
7. Rowand
8. Coste/Ruiz/Estrada
9. pitcher

Let's hear your lineups. What 3B makes the most sense? Any chance of getting good value in return for Burrell, or, for that matter, Madson and Floyd?

Pitchers and catchers report in how many days?

Welcome, Phillies fans. It's 11 short months before playoff tickets go on sale again, so let's get started talking about the team you hate to love.

Though I'm a Delaware Valley native, I live in Louisville, sandwiched between the territories of the Redlegs and the Redbirds; local AAA squad the Bats has been an affiliate to both. I've been here for more than a year, and following my favorite team is harder than it used to be, as is raving and bitching with family and friends about its performance. Thus, this blog -- better late than never.

Here are a few of the things I hope to maintain on this site, based upon how much interest is demonstrated:

• Live game chat threads
• Short previews and wraps

Batgirl does an exemplary job with those elements of her site for the Twinkies.

A few more things:

• Strategy discussions. Gillick's wheeling and dealing, as well as Manuel's in-game moves.
• Performance appraisals. who's better or worse than expected?
• Link swapping. Have a good Phillies photo, video or blog that fans would like?
• Media takes from Philly and beyond. A rundown of story links in one spot every day.
• Sharing your stories. Were you at the park for a Rollins triple? Did you catch a foul screamer? Did Art Howe's shopping cart mow you down at Giant?

Obviously, lots of things will be only occasional, and most of this won't get up to speed until well into spring training. But I'm expecting the 2007 season to be very, very fun to watch -- the team could be anywhere from slightly above average to the class of the National League -- so I'm getting you used to this site now. Be ready to chat up a storm.

Oh, about thread comments. There are plenty of places on the Internet where any jerk can post his nasty, worthless stinkbombs, but this will not be one. Don't get me wrong, pessimism and despair are accepted and even embraced. (These are the Phillies, and I am not an idiot.) Comments with value, positive or negative, will be untouched in the hopes of constructive discussion.

So enjoy what's left of the World Series, root for Ryan Howard to be voted MVP in November, and check back every so often this winter.