Hockey teams all have them, but hardly any baseball teams do anymore. What would that be? The team captain, as denoted by the player wearing the 'C' on their jersey.

There are a couple more players that have been designated 'team captain' by different teams but no one but Varitek wears the 'C' on his uniform. Derek Jeter is the named captain of the New York Yankees, but chooses not to wear anything to denote that. I think it's pretty cool to wear the 'C' if you are indeed the captain of the team.

Varitek is an interesting player. He is one of only two players in all of MLB history to have been in the Little League World Series, MLB World Series, and the College World Series. In fact, the Red Sox have only had three players named 'Captain' in the history of the ballclub. After last season, Varitek looked to join a different team with perhaps more money, but in the end the Sox signed him back. Incidentally, Varitek filed for divorce as well last year, so a lot of changes happened to him after the Sox got beat in Game 7 of the ALCS from last season.

Who would the captain of the Phillies be? I know who it should be, Jimmy Rollins. Jimmy has the time with the Phillies club, and has the experience in helping the team be successful. The only impediment to this might be his relationship with Charlie Manuel. At times the two have been a bit like The Odd Couple, even though they have always worked things out in the end. Have the Phillies ever had a named Captain? No, I haven't been able to find any player that has been a named 'Captain' of the team. It could be a fun thing to do for the MLB if they encouraged this naming of captains and if the captain would wear the 'C'.

Check out the newest fan's publication on the Phillies out there:

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http://www.fightinphillies.com/2009/05/chasing-250-moyer-gets-another-chance.html

Click here to play and hear the show from May 19th 2009

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We record our show via our virtual studio and the magic of the internet. We go live at 6:30 and record the show each week. Check out a new podcast in the Philly Sports blogosphere at www.ballssticksstuff.com - it's the first edition of that podcast and we'd like to welcome Tom to the scene of sports podcasting.

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Just read an interesting article on Spring Training in Clearwater for 2009. Jim Salisbury from the Philly Inquirer has an interesting article about the Phillies we may see in this year's World Classic put on by the MLB. Read this article here.


If you have reservations for March 2009, you may want to double check whether or not you'll even see the familiar stars on the Phillies this year down in Florida. That answer could be, "no". A lot of the Phils will probably be getting the call for the World Classic and their own home countries. Hamels for the USA along with Utley and Howard. There's goes two thirds of the team's stars for goodness sake. So this year, I probably won't be going down for Spring Training as the stars will be thin for all the teams probably.


Check your reservations!



Rich Baxter - Fightin Phillies Blog

Join me at my year round blog at  www.fightinphillies.com!


I am a Jamie Moyer fan. He goes to the ballpark to win, he signs autographs, he's a family man, and he singlehandedly dug up the pitchers mound and took it home after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008! How can't you like a guy like that?


Jamie Moyer had a career year last year, he almost beat Cole Hamels out for the top pitcher on the team. He had the most wins of any Phillies pitcher last year with 16. This could be the pinnacle of Jamie's career last year. Jamie was born in 1962 and made his major league debut in 1986. He is 46 years old now, and yes he had a great couple years with the Phillies. When he broke in with the Cubs he made $60,000 in 1986, last year he made $6 million pitching for the Phillies, the year before he made $6.5 million. During the years from 1998 through 2008, Jamie has made 62.8 million dollars from his pitching career according to Baseball Reference.com. Not too shabby. You can buy a co-op in Queens for that kind of money and still have a few million to play around with at the end of the day.


During the season Jamie pitched really well, he logged 196 innings for the team and amassed all those wins. In the playoffs, it was a different story. Jamie got absolutely blown off the mound against the Dodgers in a nightmarish game for him. I thought I saw Jamie's last pitching as a Phillies player that game. Not that one game tells a story, but Jamie had gotten away with that 78 mile pitch all year, but now it seemed like everyone was on to him. He couldn't buy an out if he wanted to. I was surprised that Jamie started a World Series game, I really was, the Dodgers had nearly torn him apart in the NLCS, and his 40.50 era proved it. It was perhaps the worst start by any Phillies pitcher in the playoffs in recent history. He did get that World Series start in Game 3 and he caught the young Rays off guard, he pitched 6.1 innings and scattered 5 hits with 5 strikeouts with 3 ER in a no decision for him, but the Phillies went on to win the game with a run in the bottom of the 9th inning and win 5-4.



My point is Jamie Moyer trying to be too cute? He's 46 now and if the Phillies offer a two year $15 - 16 million dollar deal, if I were him I would grab the nearest pen and start signing my name to the contract. He's not a guy who's going to command $10-12 million a year for two years let's face the facts. If fact, if the last two outings Jamie had were any indication of what is to come from him, who ever signs him could be in trouble. The Dodger game told a big story, Jamie can't hide from it. He's got a 83 mph fastball on a good day and it really seemed like it could have been all over for him in LA just a couple months ago.


Time will tell if Jamie rejoins the team, I would think he would want to end his career here, and no matter what happens to him in 2009, Phillies fans will always remember his stellar year in '08 - but that LA game still haunts me. Jamie do the right thing and sign your name, real soon!




Rich Baxter - Fightin Phillies Blog

Here is my review of the stats for 2008, join me at my website, www.fightinphillies.com all through the offseason for news, and internet broadcasts about your Phillies!

Phillies 2008 Season Review

Rich Baxter - FightinPhillies.com

 

The Phillies capped off the 2008 season with a great World Series win, 4 games to 1 over the Tampa Rays this year. They got their by beating the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 in the division series and then trouncing the LA Dodgers 4-1 in the NLCS. The Phillies goal this year was to improve upon their poor showing in 2007's division series when they got shut down 3-0 by the Colorado Rockies. They really did a great job in improving; you can't get much better than a World Series win!

Here is a recap of the regular season in 2008 for the Phillies. The team drew 3.4 million fans to the ballpark this year in 2008 and it was more than in 2007 when the Phils drew 3.1 million fans to a ballgame at Citizens Bank Park. It has been five seasons since the Citizens Bank Park Phillies stadium has opened and already the Phillies have had 15.1 million fans come through the turnstiles to see a baseball game.

The game of baseball is great for compiling stats, there are so many games, and so many stats to keep track of, it becomes a joy for anyone who likes to look at streaks, batting averages, and any other stat that you can think of.  Here are some stats of the 2008 Phillies regular season:

1.       Total team at bats: 5509 (10^th in NL)

2.       Total team hits: 1407  (10^th in NL)

3.       Total Runs Scored: 799  (2^nd in NL)

4.       Average age for the 2008 Phillies: 30.1

5.       Total Team Doubles: 291 (9^th in NL)

6.       Total Team Triples: 36 (4^th in NL)

7.       Total Team HR's: 214 (1^st in NL) - one more homerun this year than 2007

8.       Total Team Walks: 586 (5^th in NL)

9.       Team Batting Average:  .255 (10^th in NL)

10.    Team Slugging Pct.: .438 (2^nd in NL)

11.    Team Hit by Pitch:  67 (3^rd in NL ) down from 90 in 2007 (1^st in NL)

12.   Team Stolen Bases: 136 (3^rd in NL)

 

 

  The Pitching team stats are very interesting, the offense carried this team most of the regular season in combination with good pitching. I wouldn't call it a 'great' year for Phillies pitching in 2008 as told by these team pitching stats for the regular season:

 

1.       Team ERA:  3.89 (4^th in NL)      in 2007  4.73 (13^th in NL)

2.       Team Wins:  92 (2nd in NL)

3.       Team Losses:  70 (15^th in NL)

4.       Complete Games:  4 (5^th in NL)

5.       Team Hits Given Up:  1444 (9^th in NL)

6.       Team Runs Given Up: 680 (3^rd in NL)

7.       Team Home Runs Given Up:  160 (6^th in NL)        in 2007:   198 (12^th in NL)

8.       Average Pitchers Age:  30.6

9.        Srikeouts:  1081  (11^th in NL)

10.   Saves:  47  (2^nd in NL)   in  2007 42  (6^th NL)

 

The last stat in the team pitching I feel is the most important, an increase in saves to 47 from last year's total of 42. That's an increase of 5 games more that were successfully saved for a win for the Phillies in 2008 over last year. It was by no means a dominating year for Phillies pitchers. There was no 20 game winner. Jamie Moyer had the highest amount of wins at 16 followed by Cole Hamels at 14. Hamels and Moyer pitched in 33 games each to lead the team in that category. Moyer actually had 3 fewer losses than Hamels who had 10 losses for the Phillies in the regular season.  Hamels and Moyer shadowed one another for the top pitching billing for the team. Moyer pitched about 30 less innings than Hamels and  Moyer gave up 8 fewer homeruns than Hamels did with Hamels total at 28 homeruns given up. Hamels had more strikeouts at 196 to Moyer's 123. Moyer hit 11 batters and Hamels only hit one batter during the regular season. The stats for Moyer and Hamels are really close for the regular season. Moyer is 45 years old and Hamels only 24 in 2008, so Jamie really gave the Phillies all he had this year and nearly was the best Phillies pitcher for the regular season.

 

The next group of stats I'll talk about is the individual player's stats for the Phillies regular season in 2008 in baseball it's the numbers that make you great, here's some of them:

Batting Average:  .293  Victorino   -  Chase Utley just missed  .292

On Base Percentage:  .380  -Utley

Slugging PCT:  .543  -Howard

Games :  162  -Howard

At Bats:  610  -Howard

Runs:  113  -Utley

Hits:  177  -Utley

Homeruns:  48  -Howard

Double:  41  -Utley

Triples:  9  -Rollins

Singles:  115 - Victorino

Walks:  102  - Burrell

Extra Base Hits:  78  -Howard and Utley

Hit By Pitch:  27  -Utley

Sacrifice Hits:  12  -Moyer

Intentional Walks:  17  -Howard

 

Here are some individual Phillies regular season pitching stats leaders to ponder:

ERA:  3.09  -Hamels

Wins:  16  -Moyer

Win/Loss Pct:  .696 -Moyer

Complete Games:  2  -Hamels and Myers

Shut Outs:  2  - Hamels

Saves:  41 - Lidge

Strikeouts to Walks ratio:  3.70  -Hamels

Strikeouts:  196  - Hamels

 

Final standings for the Phillies regular season in the NL East 2008-

              92-70  .568       Home  48-33   Road - 44-37    finished 3.0 games ahead of NY Mets

So, all in all a very successful year for the team, it's the second World Championship of the franchise which started in 1883. The first coming 28 years ago in 1980, I am proud to have witnessed both of them! I am looking forward to a great 2009 season.

                                            Richard Baxter   -  FightinPhillies.com

  

          Thanks to www.baseball-reference.com for the stats I quoted in this post!

                 BR is one of my favorite stops on the internet to read about baseball.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

The World Series victory is just days old, but even those short precious days can't stop the winds of change that continually blow in a professional baseball team. The Phillies declined to have Tom Gordon and So Taguchi on the club next year. Don't feel too bad for Gordon, he'll be getting a $1,000,000 buyout to not play for the team! So much for a golden parachute.


The Phillies also seem to have appointed Assistant GM, Ruben Amaro, Jr., to the post of GM according to the Philadelphia Daily News, Paul Hagen. This is being reported on Philly.com as a fact. So here comes the change that is inevitable to a team. Mike Arbuckle, who has been with the team for many years and made plenty of great player acquisitions, was in a two man race for the GM job but appearently lost out to Amaro who I remember played for the Phillies but wasn't a real stand out player. His father also played and coached for the Phillies, so the 'keep it in the family' style of baseball rolls right along.


Time will tell what a Amaro GM legacy will bring to the ballclub. I can't say anything but 'Good luck, and bring us another championship!' and please a little sooner than the 28 year drought from 1980 to 2008.


The Phils will have to wield a big check book this year, they've made millions and now they will have to spend millions with Howard, Hamels, and do you give a little extra to Jimmy for good measure here too? Look for that hotdog and soda to go up again to help pay for all of this! I want to see what happens with ticket prices, now that the Phillies have the whole area under their spell. We may have to pony up with our checkbooks too!



The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY will have a nice display of the Phillies Championship 2008 season ready by November 14, 2008 and remember any of us that have a ticket to the induction day of 2008 for the Hall of Fame gets free admission to the Hall just by bringing your ticket stub! Cole Hamels Game 5 jersey will be there, and some other cool items. Read more about this here.



Join me at my Phillies Blog Website, you can listen to my podcast about the Phillies as well there

Rich Baxter - Fightin Phillies Blog

Down here in Tampa all the rage is about 'Cowbell Time', it's something a lot of fans bring to the games down here in Tampa Rays country. Every news story on tv mentions it, and the ringing of the cowbell is loud and under the dome stadium, it rings even louder. A lot of people don't like the constant ringing of these things, including sportscasters and visitors to the ballpark from the opposing team.

The Tampa fans have barely been able to celebrate their ALCS victory and suddenly find themselves in Game 1 of the World Series tonight with their first ever appearance in such a game. The Rays team has got to be wanting a rest, and two days isn't long enough. The team does have youth but I don't think youth carries the day in this World Series. I don't understand why the Rays are even the favorite in the World Series in the first place other than the fact that nobody is giving the proper respect to the Phillies who are stocked with All Star caliber talent.


Tonight will tell if the Phillies did have too much rest from last week's quick win over the LA Dodgers, I am glad they did win it so fast though, we could be playing Boston just as easily in the World Series Game 1 and I am happy the team is the Rays instead. The Rays aren't superhuman, they do lose and I think they lose Game 1 tonight in front of their hometown crowd.


Beating the Tampa Rays:

In late September, the Rays lost 3 of 4 to the Detroit Tigers. Detroit was terrible all year, but they handled the Rays just fine. Of course the Rays rested a few regulars but this shows that the Rays can be hit and scored on.

The Rays also have produced average home run stats or below average for a team all year long. The Phillies have won a few postseason games just based on the home run. So look for the Phillies having the edge when they can go deep with home runs.

Game 1 starter James Shields is 1-2 in the postseason, he is young and the postseason jitters will turn into the World Series jitters as he takes the mound tonight. I think this is big for the Phillies. Your game 1 starter is 1-2 for the Rays and he is supposed to be the best on the team.


The Phillies are stocked with All Star caliber players, Rollins and Howard have yet to show that they are the players that are trully 'All Star'. Look for them to have super stats in the World Series. Rollins did have a few key hits in the Dodgers series but look for him to have more in the W.S. and maybe become "Mr. October".


Oh yes, I am so glad I am down here in Tampa, I am reading all the talk about Billy Penn's curse back in the Philly media, and I think all that is just a bunch of bull! Leave it to certain media to bring up the negatives. I don't believe in any of this, if anything the Phillies have played better than they ever have in the last month, let's celebrate that not the myths carried on by certain media outlets.



Rich Baxter - Fightin Phillies Blog

www.fightinphillies.com

I wore my Phillies jersey down here in Tampa today. I expected to talk baseball with people and my expectations weren't disappointed. The desk clerk was first as when we started talking baseball he told me the Rays barely attracted 20,000 people a night up to the All Star break and now everyone is a Rays fan. That is so true, both Florida teams seem to be that way. The whole season the hometown fans don't seem to support them, look at the Florida Marlins for instance, but if they make the playoffs and World Series the fans come crawling out of the wood work.

Everywhere I went down here, I encountered people who were finally happy to see a guy with a Phillies shirt on! I heard that many times during the day, and most people were very polite when they didn't think much of my Phillies shirt or choice of team. I even went down to St.Petersburg to the stadium in a vain attempt to get tickets to Game 1 at the ticket window at the stadium. I was told there will be a sale of seats, and any remaining seats would go onsale at the Rays site if there were any left. The actual sale of the tickets will be on Tuesday with the game on Wednesday. I encountered some real die hard Rays fans waiting for the players to arrive, they treated myself and my Mrs. like one of their own, they knew we had come to get a glimpse of our heros from Philadelphia, just as they were waiting for their local Tampa heros.


I also went to the Clearwater Bright House Network Phillies stadium where they have a gift shop that is open all year round, I looked at some nice branded hats with the World Series logo on them, and some nice shirts among other things. If you're coming down to the games, go there for your merchandise. It's all in a nice gift shop right at the stadium.