Phillies Random Locker Room Postings

Lately I've read about two separate locker room postings that caught my attention.

First I heard about Mike Schmidt emailing this message to the Phillies in regards to the storm of the Phillies/Mets series:

"The Mets know you're better than they are. They remember last year."

For starters, I'm rather impressed that Mike Schmidt uses email. It's kind of cool to think of my childhood idol shooting a motivational email off to a bunch of younger guys. As of right now the email seems to be working as the Phils are closing the gap on the Mets, having won the first two games of the series.

Today I read about another locker room message that was posted between games of today's doubleheader. According to ESPN, Charlie Manuel apparently wants to keep his team focused before the second game of the day, so he posted the following directive:

"No football on any TV after 7:15."

Hmmm... I hate to break it to Charlie, but football games are basically over at 7:15, not to mention that I'm sure most or all of these guys could sneak a game on their cell phones if they really wanted to. Not to mention the other fact that the game time is 8:05 so I'm sure most of the guys will be warming up at that time anyway. All in all, it's not quite the spine-tingling "Win today and we walk together forever" message left by Fred Shero for the Flyers final game in the Stanley Cup.

Now we wait for the next exciting message to be found on the Phillies' locker room wall...

More Moyer Facts

In case you missed it, the Philly Inquirer ran an insightful interview with the Phils' 45 year old lefty Jamie Moyer today. The article pointed out that over his career, Moyer has faced a challenging group of Hall of Fame hitters and he reviewed his perspective of facing each one. Some of the names on the list include Mike Schmidt, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and some other pitchers' nightmares.

I'd like to add on to that list with a few facts and some names of players Moyer has faced over the years...

-According to Baseball Reference.com, my calculations show that Moyer has faced a total of (get this) 2,149 different batters in his career. There's no other way to say that that is an insane number of batters to face.

-Furthermore, Moyer has faced a whopping 15,102 batters in his career during the regular season

Now, here are some other results he's had against various batters throughout his career:

-He has faced Garrett Anderson the most times (107 plate appearances), and Moyer has not fared well, allowing him to hit .317 with 5 homers and 17 RBI's.

-Scott Brosius has the distinction of having the lowest batting average against Moyer out of any player who has faced him 50+ times (currently listed as 50 plate appearances), and having an average below .200. He's hit a meager .146 against Moyer throughout the years.

-Moyer has never faced Nick Punto.

-In 50 plate appearances, Juan Samuel had Moyer's number, hitting .364, compared to a .259 career average.

-Steve Jeltz faced Moyer 13 times and managed a Mendoza line against him. He hit .200 on the button against the veteran lefty.

-The highest batting average against Moyer for any player with a minimum of 10 at bats goes to Alan Ashby, who had 11 plate appearances and hit .636 against the lefty. Ouch.

-The most home runs agains Jaime Moyer by any one batter is 10 by Manny Ramirez in just 57 appearances. Wow.

-Tim Salmon struck out the most times out of anybody with 17 K's in 99 at bats. Scott Brosius is second with 16 in half as many appearances. Back to the batting cage fellas.

-In all, Moyer has faced 18 current Hall of Famers. Taking out the pitchers on this list (Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton), the 15 remaining Hall of Famers hit a total of .331 with 8 homers and 44 RBIs and 1 triple against him in a total of 284 at bats. All things considered, that's not too bad. That's 1 homer in 35 at bats and not a ton of RBIs. It appears that Moyer has managed to make his living by allowing the "big dogs" to basically scatter around some hits, but not do a ridiculous amount of damage against him. That's cool.

So there's your update on our favorite 40-something fella on the Phils. I hope he's able to continue his consistent pitching this year, and maybe in a few years we'll be able to go back and look at the numbers again to see how things have changed.

Phillies and the Hall: Not This Year, Not Even for a While...

Perhaps you remember the exciting years of 1994 and 1995 when both Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt were voted into the Hall of Fame (along with Richie Ashburn who was selected by the Veterans Committee in 1995). It's certainly a rare feat to have two players chosen to enter the Hall of Fame in such a short period of time (not counting Ashburn, for this sake of this discussion), and quite an honor at that.

But looking at the results since then, the Phillies have hardly even had anybody make the ballot, which says a lot about just how lame the Phils were in the late 80s and 90s, when the players of those years began retiring.

For instance, this year there is only one player eligible out of 25 possible nominees who ever even played for the Phightin's, and that's the one and only Dale Murphy, who pretty much ended his storied career here as a fizzled veteran from 1990-92 (and played 26 games with the Rockies the following year). Ever since Schmidt was elected, there has rarely been an appearance by an ex-Phillie on the ballot. Take a look for your self at the Hall of Fame's website, and do a search by year (even though it's annoyingly tedious and painful the way it's designed.)

So in my estimation, we'll have to wait quite a while to have another one-time Phillie even make the Hall of Fame ballot. I'd suppose Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, and Benito Santiago (another fizzled veteran) are our best shots for the near future. Other than that, I'm guessing it'll be a long dry spell until we get a Phillie HOFer in there.

Unless, perhaps, Midre Cummings or Calvin Maduro get a surprise call.

On the bright side, however, well down the road we should hopefully be well-represented by Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley. Scott Rolen, the begrudging Phil, will certainly make the ballot, as will Bobby Abreu and Mike Lieberthal and perhaps a few others whom I can't think of at this point in time. But that's still a while yet until any of them make it.

But hey, we're Phils fans. We're as patient as they come.

*sigh*

Phillies' Alumni Checklist

So the Phils tanked another game tonight and pretty much initiated the process of letting the wheels fall off in their annual playoff collapse. So I thought I'd reminisce a moment and think about some of the great alumni of Phils' years past.

It just so happens that at the last Phils game I attended, I, along with every other fan, received a free pack of cards to celebrate the Phils' alumni that would be honored before the game. The first card is the "Phillies Alumni Checklist" and has a list of these players, in this order:

• Robin Roberts: Hall of Famer; great start to the list
  
• Tony Taylor: played 19 years in the Majors, had a respectable career
• Dick Allen: had a great career for the Phils and with several other teams; borderline Hall of Fame potential
• Dallas Green: coached the Phils to the 1980 World Series championship; classic "baseball guy"
• Mike Schmidt: Hall of Famer, say no more
• Steve Carlton: Hall of Famer, a little wacky, but unbelievable career
• Garry Maddox: enjoyed a successful 11 years in a Phils uniform, good all around guy
• Greg Luzinski: "The Bull" was a memorable character who could hit the ball to China
• Dave Hollins: umm, okay, he had his moments, but isn't there any other alumni they could drag out to this event?
• Rico Brogna: Rico Brogna? Rico Brogna! The Phils have been around for 125+ years and he was the best they could do for an alumni ceremony? He seems like a nice guy and put together a few decent at-bats and has a great name and all, but... wow.

OK, so much for reminiscing. How much longer till Eagles' season starts??

1988 Phillies: Bottom of the Barrel

There is a certain ebb and flow in the success of sports teams that always intrigues me. The Phillies of the 1980s epitomize the extremes of good and bad. The 1980 squad, led by Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton, and a range of other high quality athletes, reeled in a World Series trophy and gave much reason for optimism that the team would continue its winning ways through many years.

Well, that didn't quite happen.

Though 1983 brought another push for the pennant as the team reached the World Series again but lost to Cal Ripken's Baltimore Orioles, the end of the decade didn't go as planned for the Phightin's.

Indeed, 1988 was the low point of the Phils' decade-long roller coaster ride at Veterans Stadium.

Here are some ugly details from that year of drudgery:

• Final record of 65-96, led by Lee Elia and later John Vukovich
  
• Finished last place in East Division, and the only team that was worse was Atlanta at 54-106 (okay, that's a really bad record, but at least they made a comeback and were on fire in the '90s and '00s)
• 35.5 games behind the Mets in the East Division
• Highest batting average for any of the regular starters was earned by Milt Thompson at .288
• Kevin Gross laid claim to the team's "ace" with a 12-14 record, 3.69 ERA and 162 K's
• As a team, the only categories where the Phils were ranked in the top 3 in the NL were for offensive strikeouts (3rd), and pitching losses (2nd). That's a powerhouse team right there, alright. On the bright side, they did finish 4th in doubles. (Crowd goes wild.)
  
• Some of the vintage "Obscure Philly" names on the team were: Luis Aguayo, Al Pardo, Don Carman, Bob Sebra, Jeff Calhoun, Todd Frowirth, Steve Jeltz, and Salome Barojas. If those names don't bring goodsebumps to a Philly sports fan's skin, then you aren't a true Philly sports fan! (If the names Salome Barojas or Todd Frowirth don't get you pumped up for Phillies baseball, then surely you must be dead.) I grew up hearing those names and have fond memories of watching their ineptitude night in and night out. If you didn't suffer through this miserable year like many of us, you sure missed out!
  

So there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about those Phightless Phils of 1988. Hope you enjoyed this first post, please leave your comments below about memories, other facts, or other fodder. If you'd like to post in the future, please let me know by emailing me at ffats166(at)hotmail.com. See you next time Philly fans!