When looking back at the past week and the Phillies wonderful 1-5 effort, I ask myself, "Why bother with awards this week?". The team collectively sucked and other than Kyle Kendrick's wonderful performance Wednesday night against that Oakland Athletics, they didn't even bother to show up. That said, here are the weekly "awards" for the past week:
Player of the Week - CF Shane Victorino: Vic had an alright week at the plate going 6 for 20 (.300), 2 RBI, 2 R, 6 SB along with 3 BB. He posted a respectable .391 OBP for the week. Considering the team as a whole batted .174, Vic stood out as the one regular who had a decent week.
Pitcher of the Week - SP Kyle Kendrick: Kendrick pitched the best game of his young career, pitching 8 very strong innings against the A's in which he allowed just 4 hits and 0 runs scored. He was the only pitcher to record a win for the team and this strong outing lowered his ERA to a respectable 4.59 on the season.
Goat of the Week - Entire Offense Not Named Victorino: If you take Vic's numbers out of the equation, the Phillies .174 batting average for the week drops even further to a truly pathetic .159. Leading this slop of an offense were 1B Ryan Howard (.125, 7 K), SS Jimmy Rollins (.125, 5 K), RF Geoff Jenkins (.000 in 14 AB, 6 K) and LF Pat Burrell (.190, 8 K).
Injury Notes: RP Tom Gordon has been day-to-day with a sore shoulder and has not looked good in his last few outings. There is a good possibility that he will go on the DL in the next few days if his shoulder does not improve. He allowed 1 run on 2 hits in his only appearance this week.
Stat of the Week: As a team, the Phillies struck out 52 times in 190 ABs in their past 6 games. That's 27.4% of the time if you're scoring at home.
Showing posts with label Kyle Kendrick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kyle Kendrick. Show all posts
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Weekly Wrap
The Phillies had a mediocre 4-3 record this week. The offense was pretty much non-existent for the first half of the week, however the bats came alive and they were able the finish the week on a 3 game winning streak. 1B Ryan Howard is finally hitting again and the rest of the offense appears to be finally clicking. The starting pitching continues to be hit or miss but both Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer gave strong performances on the week. Both Adam Eaton and Kyle Kendrick were hammered in their starts with Myers performing somewhat in the middle. A strong bench and excellent bullpen continue to carry the club. That said, its time for the Weekly Awards:
Player of the Week - 1B Ryan Howard/SS Jimmy Rollins: In a tight race, I decided to award a tie as both players had great offensive weeks. Howard batted .321 with 4 HRs and 9 RBI on the week while Rollins batted .367 with 6 2Bs, 17 total bases, and 2 SBs.
Pitcher of the Week - SP Jamie Moyer: Moyer went 2-0 on the week while posting a 2.13 ERA. He provided pretty much the only quality starting pitching the Phillies had all week outside of Ace Cole Hamels. Without his two strong starts the Phillies easily could have gone 2-5 instead of 4-3.
Goat of the Week - SP Kyle Kendrick: It didn't take much for Kendrick to clinch the award for the week. In 2 starts, he went 6 innings and posted a 7.50 ERA. He gets a little bit of a break because his stats are slightly skewed by a 1 inning outing due to a rain delay against Toronto.
Player of the Week - 1B Ryan Howard/SS Jimmy Rollins: In a tight race, I decided to award a tie as both players had great offensive weeks. Howard batted .321 with 4 HRs and 9 RBI on the week while Rollins batted .367 with 6 2Bs, 17 total bases, and 2 SBs.
Pitcher of the Week - SP Jamie Moyer: Moyer went 2-0 on the week while posting a 2.13 ERA. He provided pretty much the only quality starting pitching the Phillies had all week outside of Ace Cole Hamels. Without his two strong starts the Phillies easily could have gone 2-5 instead of 4-3.
Goat of the Week - SP Kyle Kendrick: It didn't take much for Kendrick to clinch the award for the week. In 2 starts, he went 6 innings and posted a 7.50 ERA. He gets a little bit of a break because his stats are slightly skewed by a 1 inning outing due to a rain delay against Toronto.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Model of Mediocrity
Interesting and befuddling stat of the day:
2008 Longest Winning Streak - 2 games
2008 Longest Losing Streak - 2 games
The Phillies have simply been unable to get any sort of momentum going over the first 16 games of the season and interestingly enough it is not the pitching which is hamstringing this team. The Phillies are actually 3rd in the NL in Quality Starts (6 IP, 3 ER or less) from their starters and the Bullpen has been fairly solid as well. The Phillies hitting has been up and down all season though and they have simply not been clutch. 3B Rally Killer has led the way despite his late inning heroics on Tuesday with multiple momentum killing GIDPs, weak popups with men in scoring position and the ever popular ground out to 3B or SS when the Phillies are trying to advance a runner with less than 2 outs. However, more puzzling, 1B Ryan Howard has been just as inconsistent. While he has 3 HRs so far, he his batting a pitiful .189 with 20 Ks in just 53 ABs. In other words he's striking out in over 30% of his plate appearances. That is a ridiculous stat and if he keeps it up, he will easily shatter his own single season strikeout record.
In other news: SS Jimmy Rollins is not expected back in the lineup until Saturday at the earliest. I'm beginning to wonder why he wasn't put on the 15 day DL to rest his injured ankle. UT Eric Bruntlett has been brutal in his place both in the field and at the plate. He now has 4 hits in 7 games since taking over for JRoll at Short.
Good News: SP Kyle Kendrick had his first Quality Start of the season yesterday and SP Adam Eaton continues to perform well in the first couple weeks of the season. Eaton is 3 for 3 on Quality Starts this year and he is posting an ERA of 4.12 in the early going. His GB rate is up and he appears to be pitching to contact more this year instead of trying to strike batters out. That's a good sign of his confidence.
Even Better News: SP Brett Myers appears to have "turned it on" and is working on his second straight QS after looking timid in his first 2 starts. He's challenging hitters now and his K/9 rate has gone up in 4 straight starts. He's looking to improve to 2-1 on the season if the Phillies hold on to win this afternoon.
2008 Longest Winning Streak - 2 games
2008 Longest Losing Streak - 2 games
The Phillies have simply been unable to get any sort of momentum going over the first 16 games of the season and interestingly enough it is not the pitching which is hamstringing this team. The Phillies are actually 3rd in the NL in Quality Starts (6 IP, 3 ER or less) from their starters and the Bullpen has been fairly solid as well. The Phillies hitting has been up and down all season though and they have simply not been clutch. 3B Rally Killer has led the way despite his late inning heroics on Tuesday with multiple momentum killing GIDPs, weak popups with men in scoring position and the ever popular ground out to 3B or SS when the Phillies are trying to advance a runner with less than 2 outs. However, more puzzling, 1B Ryan Howard has been just as inconsistent. While he has 3 HRs so far, he his batting a pitiful .189 with 20 Ks in just 53 ABs. In other words he's striking out in over 30% of his plate appearances. That is a ridiculous stat and if he keeps it up, he will easily shatter his own single season strikeout record.
In other news: SS Jimmy Rollins is not expected back in the lineup until Saturday at the earliest. I'm beginning to wonder why he wasn't put on the 15 day DL to rest his injured ankle. UT Eric Bruntlett has been brutal in his place both in the field and at the plate. He now has 4 hits in 7 games since taking over for JRoll at Short.
Good News: SP Kyle Kendrick had his first Quality Start of the season yesterday and SP Adam Eaton continues to perform well in the first couple weeks of the season. Eaton is 3 for 3 on Quality Starts this year and he is posting an ERA of 4.12 in the early going. His GB rate is up and he appears to be pitching to contact more this year instead of trying to strike batters out. That's a good sign of his confidence.
Even Better News: SP Brett Myers appears to have "turned it on" and is working on his second straight QS after looking timid in his first 2 starts. He's challenging hitters now and his K/9 rate has gone up in 4 straight starts. He's looking to improve to 2-1 on the season if the Phillies hold on to win this afternoon.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
A Night Best Forgotten
I live in Vermont which means I don't have the privilege of watching the Phillies on local TV whenever I please. So when they are nationally televised in HD like they were last night, I tend to block off that time so I can enjoy the game uninterrupted. I figured I would be in for quite a treat as the Phillies were looking to make it 10 straight against their division rival, the NY Mets. To say the least, I was somewhat disappointed by their lackluster effort in all aspects of the game. UT Eric Bruntlett was brutal filling in from MVP SS Jimmy Rollins. Bruntlett committed two little-league level errors in the games and looked out of place in JRoll's shoes. 3B Pedro Feliz, AKA Rally Killer maintained his place as the Phillie most likely to end any potential run scoring in the course of a game. He was only saved from grounding into another inning ending doubl-play when the usually surehanded Jose Reyes muffed an easy ground ball. However, not to be undone, Feliz promptly hit a weak popout to second base when he came up to bat in the top of the 8th with the bases-loaded and 2 outs. From here on out, I will never use Rally Killer's true name. He will need to earn that privilege back and I kinda doubt that it will ever happen.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, they got absolutely no support from SP Kyle Kendrick. Kendrick, a second-year player, lacked control for most of the night and got pounded when he did manage throw strikes. Kendrick is somewhat of a mystery. No one ever expected him to make the Major League roster last year, let alone win 10 games. He lacks an true out-pitch and gets by on hitting his spots and not walking anyone. He cannot afford to walk anyone as hitters bat .280 off of him with around a .330 OBP. As he also doesn't strike anyone out, his numbers don't project him having a very long career. I think alot of Phillies fans are going to be greatly disappointed by Kendrick this season. Last night, he threw a decent sinking fastball that stayed in the 89-92 MPH range and hit 93 MPH on occasion but he couldn't locate either his changeup or breaking ball with any consistency. He managed to walk 6 batters (a career high by the way) in just over 2 IP. He loaded the bases in both the 1st and 2nd innings on walks and in the 3rd on hits and errors by his defense. He was pulled in favor of RP Chad Durbin after 2 1/3 innings. Luckily for the Phillies, Durbin was able to stop the bleeding and contributed 3 2/3 strong innings with no runs allowed despite pitching the day before. Durbin also lowerd his ERA to 1.13 over 8 innings in 6 appearances in the Phillies first 9 games. He has thus far shown himself to be Manager Charlie Manuel's best option out of the pen.
Overall, the Phillies bullpen has proven to be very deep early in the season, especially after the return of CP Brad Lidge. Durbin, Lidge, Romero, and Gordon have all been excellent. Gordon's only bad game so far came on Opening Day. Since then he has not given up a run in his past 4 appearances. Rudy Seanez looks to be a fine addition to the back end of the pen and RHP Ryan Madson should also contribute. So far, the 12th pitcher Clay Condrey is the only reliever to be really concerned about and I honestly doubt he'll see much meaningful action for the Phillies.
New and Notes: LF Pat Burrell continued his early season tear going 2 for 4 last night raising his average to .400 on the year with 3 HRs/9 RBI. Much maligned starter Adam Eaton looks for 2 strong performances in a row as he faces off against SP John Maine tonight at 7:10 pm. CF Shane Victorino took a step backwards last night going 0-5 with 1 K lowering his average to .162. 1B Ryan Howard continues to struggle at the plate and is batting .188 so far this year. RF Geoff Jenkins made a spectacular diving catch in the 3rd inning last night to help stop the bleeding and the RF platoon of Jenkins and Werth appears to be working out so far early this year (Combined stats: .278 AVG, .381 OBP, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R)
Unfortunately for the Phillies, they got absolutely no support from SP Kyle Kendrick. Kendrick, a second-year player, lacked control for most of the night and got pounded when he did manage throw strikes. Kendrick is somewhat of a mystery. No one ever expected him to make the Major League roster last year, let alone win 10 games. He lacks an true out-pitch and gets by on hitting his spots and not walking anyone. He cannot afford to walk anyone as hitters bat .280 off of him with around a .330 OBP. As he also doesn't strike anyone out, his numbers don't project him having a very long career. I think alot of Phillies fans are going to be greatly disappointed by Kendrick this season. Last night, he threw a decent sinking fastball that stayed in the 89-92 MPH range and hit 93 MPH on occasion but he couldn't locate either his changeup or breaking ball with any consistency. He managed to walk 6 batters (a career high by the way) in just over 2 IP. He loaded the bases in both the 1st and 2nd innings on walks and in the 3rd on hits and errors by his defense. He was pulled in favor of RP Chad Durbin after 2 1/3 innings. Luckily for the Phillies, Durbin was able to stop the bleeding and contributed 3 2/3 strong innings with no runs allowed despite pitching the day before. Durbin also lowerd his ERA to 1.13 over 8 innings in 6 appearances in the Phillies first 9 games. He has thus far shown himself to be Manager Charlie Manuel's best option out of the pen.
Overall, the Phillies bullpen has proven to be very deep early in the season, especially after the return of CP Brad Lidge. Durbin, Lidge, Romero, and Gordon have all been excellent. Gordon's only bad game so far came on Opening Day. Since then he has not given up a run in his past 4 appearances. Rudy Seanez looks to be a fine addition to the back end of the pen and RHP Ryan Madson should also contribute. So far, the 12th pitcher Clay Condrey is the only reliever to be really concerned about and I honestly doubt he'll see much meaningful action for the Phillies.
New and Notes: LF Pat Burrell continued his early season tear going 2 for 4 last night raising his average to .400 on the year with 3 HRs/9 RBI. Much maligned starter Adam Eaton looks for 2 strong performances in a row as he faces off against SP John Maine tonight at 7:10 pm. CF Shane Victorino took a step backwards last night going 0-5 with 1 K lowering his average to .162. 1B Ryan Howard continues to struggle at the plate and is batting .188 so far this year. RF Geoff Jenkins made a spectacular diving catch in the 3rd inning last night to help stop the bleeding and the RF platoon of Jenkins and Werth appears to be working out so far early this year (Combined stats: .278 AVG, .381 OBP, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Phillies Ruin Mets Home Opener
Well the Fightin' Phils managed to win again. They were able to come from behind and defeat the Mets 5-2 despite a very strong performance by Mets Lefty Oliver Perez who went 5 2/3 innings without allowing a run. It was truly a team effort as SS Jimmy Rollins, 2B Chase Utley, and CF Shane Victorino each chipped in on offense with key contributions. In particular, Victorino had his first multi-hit game of the season going 2-5 with 1 BB and raised his batting average to .188 on the year. Utley reached base 4 times with 3 HBP and an RBI double to deep right that cemented the Phillies lead in the later innings.
Most importantly, the Bullpen came up strong again in what appears to be a growing strength for the club this year. RHP Chad Durbin pitched another scoreless inning lowering his ERA to 2.08 and LHP J.C. Romero and RHP Tom Gordon pitched the 8th and 9th innings to seal the deal for the Phillies. Gordon has not allowed a run since Opening Day and he appears to have gotten stronger with each outing which is an excellent sign for the bullpen. He recorded his first save of the season as Closer Brad Lidge was unavailable for work as he had pitched the previous 2 days in a row coming off the DL. Romero has continued his excellent pitching for the Phillies this year and Chad Durbin looks well suited to the middle-relief/right handed setup role that he has been given so far early in the season.
SP Kyle Kendrick will take the mound tonight for the Phillies as they try to make it 10 in a row against the NY Mets. Gametime is 7:05 pm EST and will be broadcast nationally in HD on ESPN2.
Most importantly, the Bullpen came up strong again in what appears to be a growing strength for the club this year. RHP Chad Durbin pitched another scoreless inning lowering his ERA to 2.08 and LHP J.C. Romero and RHP Tom Gordon pitched the 8th and 9th innings to seal the deal for the Phillies. Gordon has not allowed a run since Opening Day and he appears to have gotten stronger with each outing which is an excellent sign for the bullpen. He recorded his first save of the season as Closer Brad Lidge was unavailable for work as he had pitched the previous 2 days in a row coming off the DL. Romero has continued his excellent pitching for the Phillies this year and Chad Durbin looks well suited to the middle-relief/right handed setup role that he has been given so far early in the season.
SP Kyle Kendrick will take the mound tonight for the Phillies as they try to make it 10 in a row against the NY Mets. Gametime is 7:05 pm EST and will be broadcast nationally in HD on ESPN2.
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