Kendrick and Rollins, Oh My
June 13th, 2009 by MattI texted my buddy right after the game.
“F’ing Kyle Kendrick”.
He correctly sprinkled more blame to another Phillie.
“F’ing Jimmy Rollins”.
12 hours later, I am still not sure who was more worthless last night – the guy who should never have been called up in the first place, or the lead-off hitter in name only.
Jimmy Rollins loves to say that he’s “a lead-off hitter”. Although I don’t recall him ever providing any evidence in print or on the field, at least not in 2009, and pretty much only inconsistently last year.
One of the things I like about Charlie Manuel is that he isn’t afraid to drop a player like Rollins in the batting order. One of the things I don’t like about Charlie is how quick he is to reinstate the player to their “natural” spot in the order.
Rollins needs to be out of the leadoff spot until he fixes whatever is going on in his swing or his head.
As for Kendrick, Beerleaguer correctly opined that Kyle Kendrick’s inability to miss bats makes him a bad fit for the bullpen. I’ll raise the ante and say that Kendrick’s inability to strike anyone out or develop a second pitch means he’ll never be a serviceable major league starter. How long will the Phillies keep at this? If Kendrick can’t pitch in relief, then he is a starter. Exactly who is he going to displace from this rotation in the near future?
There are far too many live arms with potential and real “stuff” for the Phillies to waste innings on Kyle Kendrick.
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I don’t care how sure the ump is that a ball was fair or foul. You review the stinking play. Even if it’s the 18th inning. I thought the managers were allowed to request this? Who knew that an ump could override that if he was sure? Yeah, that makes sense. Because no ump was ever “sure” about a call that was clearly blown when watched on replay.
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I was listening to WIP last night on the way home from the game and someone called in and said 30-40% of the crowd was Red Sox fans. Ummm, no. Not even close. 15%, tops. And they were vocal. But not nearly the subhuman breed of Mets fans.
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We know now that the Phillies struck out an unbelievable 20 times in this game, remarkable even with it being a 13 inning game. The Phillies struck out swinging on 17 of those 20 Ks, but damn if they didn’t watch a million other called strikes in the game. The Phils were fooled all night long.
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Lastly, also seen on Beerleaguer, was a post about Ryan Howard not looking as excited as you would expect after Raul Ibanez’s homer on Thursday night against the Mets.
I actually saw his reaction at the time and it did strike me as less than thrilled considering the circumstances of Ibanez’s homer.
That said, I cannot imagine that other Phillies are jealous or annoyed by all of the love that Raul is getting. Not only are his stats incredible, but when he delivers those stats is endearing him to fans. He is flat out clutch and he has won games for the Phillies.
Also, Howard has benefited from the protection he gets in the lineup from hitting in front of Ibanez. How could he not love that?
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Personally, I think they should move Rollins down to 9th with the pitcher 8th, so when we get to the bottom of the order, its like another lead off hitter
We know now that the Phillies struck out an unbelievable 20 times in this game, remarkable even with it being a 13 inning game.
One of my biggest problems with that game was Tom McCarthy’s insistence on reminding everyone how many strikeouts there were in the game. Every time there was a K, McCarthy would spout, “And that’s the 28th strikeout, etc.”, his voice barely containing his excitement. But the vast majority of the Ks were by the Phillies, so I was getting annoyed at the constant reminder how futile the offense was. Is that the job of the hometown broadcaster? To sound excited when their team is hacking away?
To me, he and Chris Wheeler were so desperate to be a part of a statistically historic game that they failed to realize that most Phillies fans wouldn’t want constant updates on how many times the Phillies struck out.
And McCarthy has brought out the worst in Wheeler. I thought Wheels talked too much when he and Harry called the games together; Now, it’s much worse, because McCarthy lobs so many softball topics at Wheeler througout the broadcast, there’s no reining him in now. Why use 10 or 20 words to describe that routine double play when 500 will do?
I bought an AM/FM radio over the weekend just so I can avoid listening to Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler. Who the fuck buys transistor radios anymore? No one does.
But I did.
McCarthy and Wheeler are that bad.
Good stuff from the Shibe Times.
Brian – someone commented on Beerleaguer that you can’t tell any difference between Tom McCarthy’s calls for the Phillies vs. the opposition. So true. He doesn’t sound like he could give a shit either way. That’s why I like the radio guys. LA is clearly rooting for the Phillies, but he isn’t a homer. Not an easy line to walk, but he does it well.