While we await a final word on the Phillies NLCS roster, we are getting some snippets, including Todd Zolecki writing that Brett Myers will not be on the NLCS roster. Somewhere, Sam Carchidi is smiling. This is no big surprise, except perhaps to Brett. He has not been sharp since coming back from injury in September, and I was less than impressed with his Game 2 work last Thursday at the Bank. He pitched 2/3 of an inning, walked 2, and threw just 8 strikes out of 17 pitches.

Assuming Chan Ho Park is healthy, I like this move. Park hasn’t pitched much, but he is roughly 1/1000th the head case that Myers is, and he just feels like a more steady choice than Myers at this point.

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The only former Phillies on the Dodger’s roster that I give a rat’s ass about is Jim Thome. Sure, Randy Wolf won 69 games for the Phils, but he was a decent pitcher on a bunch of mediocre teams. When he had opportunities to rejoin the Phillies, he declined and opted to pitch out West in order to be closer to his home in Cali. Plus, he had that episode where he was trying to track down some poor girl he saw on a subway. Creepy.

Perhaps time has poured water all over great Randy Wolf memories that are escaping me, but recent Phillies success with this current nucleus of Phillies who actually want to be here makes me not give much of a shit about what Randy did here in the first half of the decade.

Vicente Padilla may have a live arm, but he is a certifiable numbskull who never cared as much about winning as the other 24 guys in the locker room or the thousands watching him fuck up more starts than he dominated. I will never forget seeing him laughing and having a great time at Dave and Busters mere hours after being shellacked by the Boston Red Sox back in 2005. He’s a loser, no matter how many baseball games he wins. I hope the Phillies knock him off the mound before he’s thrown 40 pitches.

Jim Thome, on the other hand, is still waiting to get a World Series win, and while I hope he doesn’t get it this year, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the big guy. Thome had 85 million reasons to sign with the Phillies back in late 2002. But he brought legitimacy to a team that sorely needed it. He led the franchise into the new ballpark, and made it ok for free agents to sign here – “If Jim Thome thinks it’s good over there, then maybe I should listen to their offer”. By the time Thome left, the Phillies had gone 34 games over .500 during his tenure, the Bank was filled nicely on a daily basis, and the Phils were on their way to building a champion.

Thome may be the first opposing player ever to get cheered in Philly during a playoff game if and when he digs into the batter’s box during the NLCS.

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The word on the blogs and in the papers is that J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton will be available out of the bullpen for the Phils in Games 1 and 2. That makes a Game 2 start for Pedro Martinez a distinct possibility.

Todd Zolecki reports that Rich Dubee and Charlie Manuel were more impressed than Pedro was with the 2 simulated innings that he threw yesterday:

But is Martinez ready? He threw two innings in a simulated game yesterday, but has not pitched since Sept. 30 and has thrown just four innings since Sept. 19. Rich Dubee said Martinez looked “dandy” yesterday. He said between the simulated game and bullpen sessions, Martinez could be sharp enough to get out hitters.

Manuel agreed.

“I think he’s done enough work that I’m very confident sending him out,” Manuel said. “I think he’s capable of throwing anywhere from like 75 to 90 pitches, maybe 95, maybe even 100. But I think that gets you into the sixth inning or seventh, and I think where we’re at with our pitching and everything, I think that would work. …

Yeah, I have confidence in him because I know him. I know the experience that he has. I liked his stuff (yesterday). Dubee and I stood there, and we were talking while he was throwing, and his stuff is there.”

But interestingly, while Manuel and Dubee liked what they saw yesterday, Martinez didn’t.

“I threw on the sides and in the bullpen but that’s not enough,” he said. “I threw two innings of BP yesterday, but that’s pretty much it. I’m going to let Dubee and Charlie make the decision. My two innings of BP were a little bit erratic, wild a little bit.”

I’m calling bullshit on Pedro. There is some gamesmanship going on here. He wants the Dodgers to have no clue what sort of shape he will be in when he takes the bump for Game 2.

At least that’s what I hope he’s doing.

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I am not much for being on different blogs or message boards during the playoffs games. What I do like is check9ing out Twitter in game, as you get a nice mixture of mainstream beat writers and baseball talking heads interspersed with Phillies bloggers and more and they offer their in game thoughts. Reading Jayson Stark’s or Todd Zolecki’s thoughts from the press box is a unique perspective you can’t get anywhere except on Twitter.