The Phillies made very sad moves yesterday.  And by sad, I mean AWESOME moves.  

The first was to put David Herndon on waivers where he was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays.  Herndon was a 2010 Rule V draft pick.

Since he was a Rule V pick, he had to stay with the Phillies the entire 2010.  Yeah, he wasn’t very good.  In all fairness, in 2011 he was sent to the minors and when he came back he quietly dominated and was a pretty reliable bullpen piece.

He spent most of 2012 on the DL and only made an appearance in 5 games.  He wasn’t good with in those.

Strangely, in order for the Jays to claim Herndon, they released Tyson Brummett, whom was claimed off of the Phillies waivers last week.

The Phillies also took the biggest waste of roster space off of their 40-man roster.  (No, not Kyle Kendrick.  Someone else had actually moved ahead of him on the waste of roster space list.)

Michael Martinez was outrighted to Triple-A.

I really hope this means that he will NEVER put on Phillies Red EVER again.  Why you may ask?  Well, Roy Halladay had a higher batting average than him.   ROY HALLADAY!  Doc is not known for his bat, but he ended up with a high BA and OBP.  Yeah.  That’s just wrong.

There has been a lot of news on the injury front, and well, I wish it was better.

Boo!

Laynce Nix:

He suffered a setback with his strained left calf.  There is no timetable for his return

Mike Stutes:

He is headed for exploratory surgery on his shoulder on Tuesday.  It has not been healing the way the Phillies have hoped.

David Herndon:

He went to see Dr. James Andrew and it has been confirmed  that he will have Tommy John.

» Continue reading “Phillies Injury Updates: Some Bad News, Some Good”

Cliff Lee - Photo courtesy of: MyPHL17.com

It has been awhile since we have checked in on the Phillies roster and the Phillies front office have been busy.

Cliff Lee is back!  He has missed 3 starts because of a strain oblique, but he will pitch tonight at Citizen’s Bank Park against the New York Mets.

Of course, with Cliff Lee’s return, a player has to go spend some time in Lehigh Valley.  Michael Schwimer has been sent down.  That’s not a bad thing.  His ERA this year is an atrocious 8.53.

Jim Thome is still down in Clearwater doing some rehab or another.  Not quite sure what.

Chase Utley is back in Philadelphia working out with the team.  According to Charlie Manuel on MLB on XM Radio, Utley will head down to Clearwater when the team leaves after this homestead.

Ryan Howard is also in Clearwater.  He tweeted yesterday that he started taking BP and doing some light fielding.  Moving in the right direction.

David Herndon is on the DL.

Mike Stutes is enjoying time there too.  There is no time-table for their return.

Catcher Erik Kratz (Everybody Kratz your hands!) is enjoying time in Philadelphia as a bench player.  Pretty sure he has done about zero for the big club so far.

Brain Saches is also up.  So far, he has done nothing beneficial.

Hopefully the next episode will have more than just Cliff Lee returning.

Karilee Jeantet is Lead Contributor for A View From Section 116.  Follow her on Twitter @kjeantet and @viewfromsec116 and e-mail her AViewFromSection116@gmail.com.

Last night, I attended my first Phillies game of the season.  I was looking forward to going and excited that Roy Halladay would be on the mound. The stats were definitely on my side.  The Phillies hadn’t lost back to back games, they hadn’t lost a series, Halladay had been killing it, and well, they were playing the Brewers with Randy Wolf pitching. The once rainy skies even cleared up as we were crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge into Philadelphia. The evening was set to be perfect.

I asked myself, what could possibly go wrong?  Talk about a loaded question.

I’ve decided to skip doing the stats, no pitch counts, no ERA’s and definitely not revealing the Phillies’ tanking batting averages.  This is just my take as a Phillies fan who witnessed it live and ended up being disappointed by her favorite team. However, proud to say I did NOT boo.  That of course didn’t stop the other 45,000 + from doing it.

DAVID HERNDON Photo credit: Steve Trapani*

In one particular moment, when after Phillies reliever David Herndon gave up 3 earned runs, there was a guy sitting by the dugout who proceeded to let Herndon know exactly how he felt about him…2 middle fingers up.  My 11 year old, in by no means naive or sheltered, pointed the guy out and I’ll be honest, for a brief second, I laughed.  But not sure if I was laughing at the act itself or at the fact the Phillies just looked plain old awful.  And even the rain that had kept its distance, decided to rear its ugly head as the Phillies lackluster play continued.  Which was probably only fitting.

Halladay clearly didn’t have his stuff and proved that he was in fact human.  He’s not the invincible superhero that we all believed him to be.  But between Monday night’s loss and last night’s, we also found out that the Phillies middle relief is a hot mess.  If the starter can’t get a shutout or make it through until at least the 8th inning, when Ryan Madson would come in, the Phillies might be in trouble.

And here’s a great concept for an anemic batting line up…HIT!!!  Imagine what could happen if they scored a few runs. I am convinced the team was confused in thinking that Cole Hamels was on the mound instead of Halladay.  Which might explain the lack of hitting, because its usually when Hamels is pitching that causes the offense to suddenly freeze up. The Phillies had a measly two hits, against Randy Wolf no less.  Not dissing the former Phil but seriously, he was hittable and yet the Phillies managed to make him look so much better than he actually was.

But as a baseball fan in general, I have to tip my hat to Milawaukee outfielders Ryan Braun and Carlos Gomez, who both made ESPN web gem caliber catches.

Complete Box Score Phillies/Brewers – 4/19/11 Game

The end result…Brewers won 9-0.  And took both games so far in the 3 game series.  This is happens to be a Brewers team that was recently swept by the Washington Nationals.  In no way am I in panic mode, as there is a LONG season ahead.  In the words of fellow Aerys Writer  of The Green Room Kristine Reese:

“I guess this is a good time to remember that there are so many games. Makes it easier to let it go?“

She’s 100% correct.  Time to let it go and move on!

Phillies New HD Scoreboard

One bright note about last night.  I finally got to see the Phillies brand spanking new scoreboard, which is the largest in the National League, measuring 76 feet high and 97 feet wide.  With 7,372 of digital space, you can actually see it from the Walt Whitman Bridge.  Honestly for its whopping 10 million dollar price tag, one should be able to see it from space.

Today the Phillies are hosting an afternoon Business Person Special game.  Hopefully for Cliff Lee, the Phillies’ bats heat up and walk away from at least one win in this series.

Here is today’s game preview:

» Continue reading “If You Don’t Hit…You Don’t WIN!”