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Old 10-28-2007, 09:29 AM   #146 (permalink)
Syd Thrift
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Philadelphia Phillies 49-91 8th NL

Overview: One can make bromides about how the mighty are due for a fall but the slip of the Phillies into the cellar of the National League was a mere side effect of the scientific nature of the new ownership. This Philadelphia team will act on hypotheses and no, they will not always be correct. It is only in the end that this process will result in a step forward. Therefore, the fans ought to remain patient. Sometimes that feminine intuition practiced by the other clubs gets them quicker positive effects, but it also leads them down worn-out trails best traveled by bears.

Pitching

Jimmy Baker
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1900 Philadelphia - NL	29 74 10  8 138.2 124  51  39  3  47  20  1  0	2.53
1901 Philadelphia - AL	30 35 16 14 262.2 306 132  94 10  57  65 26  1	3.22
1902 Philadelphia - AL	31  4  2  1  28.1  29	6   4  0   5   4  3  1	1.27
1902 Philadelphia - NL	31 31  6 20 252.2 293 160 103 13  60  62 21  0	3.67
1902 Total - ABA	31 35  8 21 281.0 322 166 107 13  65  66 24  1	3.43
Welcome back, Baker, welcome back. Your dream was your ticket out. In retrospect, the old ownership's idea that Baker was nothing more than a reliever was misplaced. We offered him a spot in the rotation across town and he gladly accepted. Unfortunately, his lone weakness, a penchant for the long ball, did not mesh well with the Baker Bowl's cozy dimensions. He did lead all Phillies in innings pitched but the results were not the optimum.

Phelan McWard
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1902 Philadelphia - NL	28 32 16 13 240.2 242 146  88  2 106  34 22  2	3.29
You can always count on the Irish for cheap labor, that's what we always say. Picked to be one of the original Phillies, things never broke right for McWard before this season. Although he made 27 of his career 33 starts in the majors last season, he is a wily minor league veteran who we are sure we can count on for more decent innings in '03.

John Boyd Orr
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1901 Philadelphia - NL	19 30 11 17 241.0 287 146  98 10  69  51 22  2	3.66
1902 Philadelphia - NL	20 23  6 14 172.2 173  93  65  5  45  32 17  0	3.39
Orr had a disappointing sophomore season. He could never stay healthy or pitch particularly well when he was out there. He's still a 20 year old kid who throws 5 pitches for strikes so it's way too early to give up on him.

Horan Mulcahy
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1901 Philadelphia - NL	23  4  1  3  29.0  40  22  15  1  11  10  1  0	4.66
1902 Philadelphia - NL	24 15  4 11 130.0 131  73  38  4  36  16 14  0	2.63
With apologies to Mr. Orr, Horan Mulcahy is the new phenom of the staff. We were so impressed by what he did in the Baker Bowl last year that at the bequest of the Irishman we tried something known as "Irish coffee". We believe that it had some sort of alcoholic content in it. It tasted funny and made us say inappropriate things to members of the fairer sex.

Dave Gill
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1901 Philadelphia - NL	25  5  4  1  42.0  45  18  14  0  18   6  4  0	3.00
1902 Philadelphia - NL	26 12  1 11  88.1 120  86  64  6  53  21  5  0	6.52
Gill did not have a good season last year. We think that this has to do with the fact that he is very, very large - according to our metrics, 6 feet 3 inches and 235 pounds. Our theory is that the cork center of the baseball is insulted by its proximity to such girth and thus refuses to spin and dance about as it is wont to do with smaller, thinner pitchers. We have explained this to him but the man continues to eat "hot dogs" as though they are going out of style.

Chris Tippett
Code:
Year Team		Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
1900 Pittsburgh - NL	32 40 22 13 302.1 346 162 136 11  94  43 11  3	4.05
1901 Pittsburgh - NL	33 19  3  8  99.2 135  81  60  6  42  11  5  1	5.42
1902 Pittsburgh - NL	34  3  0  1   9.1   6	4   2  0   5   1  0  0	1.93
1902 Philadelphia - NL	34 13  2  9  86.2 112  73  54  1  51   1  6  1	5.61
1902 Total - NL		34 16  2 10  96.0 118  77  56  1  56   2  6  1	5.25
When we received Tippett from the Pirates, we believed that the thing that was keeping him from reaching the 20-win status he'd achieved just 2 years before was due to trying to strike out every batter he faced. We told him we would fine him for each batsman who did not put the ball in play or at least reach base via balls. The results of this experiment were mixed. On the plus side, he did only walk the one batter the entire time he was with us. On the downside, he didn't pitch very effectively. Sadly, he was just too far gone.

Everyone Else
Code:
Name			Age G  W  L    IP   H   R  ER HR  BB  SO CG Sh   ERA
Johnny Epps		22  3  0  0  14.0  14	    7  1   3   2	4.50
Ben Henstock		22  9  1  0  21.1  21      17  1  17   6	7.17
Riordan Kitson		25  2  0  2  15.2  21	    9  1  12   1	5.17
Federico Martinez	27 10  0  1  22.2  27	    8  1  13   5	3.18
Jim McNeiledge		34  4  2  2  31.0  34	   13  1   7   9	3.77
David Pininferino	35 19 11  8 169.2 150	   58  0  56  76	3.08
Catcher and First Base

Stephen Getchell C(94)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 New York - NL	24   4	13   4	0  0  0	  1   1	  0   0	  1 .308
1901 Philadelphia - NL	25  22	73  16	3  1  0	  9   9	  5   8	  0 .219
1902 Philadelphia - NL	26  96 345  93 16  3  4	 45  47	 19  20	  1 .270
Usually when a team finishes a season with 90 losses and 41 games in back of the leader, it is because they have bad pitching and hitting. This was not the case with the Phillies. They actually had middle-of-the-pack hitting, as evidenced by their 5th place .256 average. It was just that their pitching was terrible. Don't blame that on Stephen Getchell, who did a fine job in his first season as a starter. Well, we suppose you can blame the fact that he threw out just 30% of baserunners he saw on him. But other than that, no. All right, the 37 errors too.

Lou Mawhinney C(40), RF(3)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1902 Philadelphia - NL	31  47 136  44	7  0  1	 22  12	 11   5	  0 .324
Mawhinney was part of another Phillies experiment: how important are good fielding catchers, really? Mawhinney had been held back prior to last year due to a complete inability to call a game or throw runners out. Last year he proved to us that he could hit well.

George Darbyshire 1B(115)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1901 Philadelphia - NL	27  23	91  33	1  0  1	 13  16	  8   4	  0 .363
1902 Philadelphia - NL	28 116 424 123 18  1  8	 56  64	 60  39	  0 .290
After we exposed Tom Cruse's scientological approach to hitting as mere quackery, we noticed that we had this excellent gentleman locked up in the minor leagues. Darbyshire doesn't have a philosophy to hitting. He just hits. That is fine with us... for now.

Daniel LaCour 1B(25), C(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1901 Philadelphia - NL	26   5	12   4	0  0  3	  6   3	  2   1	  0 .333
1902 Philadelphia - NL	27  36 109  36	3  0  3	 20  21	  3  12	  0 .330
We regret to say that we just could not find a spot for Mister LaCour last year. We don't know where he'll be in '03 either but when you hit .330 you've got to go somewhere.

Everybody Else
Code:
Player			Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
Gallagher Tarrant	26  11	35   7	2  0  0	  2   1	  4   2   0 .200
Infield

Dale Huntington 2B(84)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1901 Philadelphia - NL	22  23 101  30	3  2  0	 10  16	  2  12	  1 .297
1902 Philadelphia - NL	23  88 315  88 12  6  0	 49  39	 12  28	  6 .279
Huntington was a hard man to figure out last year as well as a source of some frustration. He started the season as the team's #1 second baseman and actually hit pretty well for the month and a half or so that he held the job. He also fielded the spot adequately. However, he failed one standardized test after another and finally we were forced to choose a man with a higher I.Q. Huntington might be fit in somewhere in the future if all the proper-brained Phillies go down.

Irving Langmuir 2B(56), SS(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1902 Philadelphia - NL	19  58 239  71	4  2  3	 20  33	 15  20	  1 .297
The difference between idiot and mastermind was striking last year. Where Huntington kept the ball in his hand so often when turning the double play as if he did not understand that his mission was to throw the orb to first, Langmuir understood exactly what to do. He also walked more and struck out less than his stupider counterpart, and as a result we think hit for a higher average as well. The sky is the limit for this young brainchild.

Jose Quenones 3B(126)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 Cleveland - AA	34  81 317  92	9  4  0	 28  35	 26  23	  6 .290
1900 Philadelphia - NL	34  24	52  10	0  1  0	  3   6	  3   4	  2 .192
1900 Total - ABA	34 105 369 102	9  5  0	 31  41	 29  27	  8 .276
1901 Philadelphia - NL	35 134 557 157 16 10  0	 50  80	 40  45	 15 .282
1902 Philadelphia - NL	36 126 519 143 12  8  1	 51  66	 23  40	 14 .276
Quenones just keeps on going and going. He was never what you would call a great player but he's a guy the Phillies can just stick in the 3rd base slot and concentrate on other things. How to create dihydrogen oxygenate, for example.

Rowan Caird 3B(15), SS(10), 2B(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 Philadelphia - NL	28  88 174  52	7  2  0	 23  13	  3  14	  0 .299
1901 Philadelphia - NL	29  24	67  13	1  0  0	  6   7	  1  11	  0 .194
1902 Philadelphia - ABA	30  30	99  24	3  0  0	  7   7	  1   8	  0 .242
Caird's career is like the answer to a story problem in math class. If a player hits .299 in Year One and .194 in Year Two, what should he hit in Year Three? .242, of course! Caird's year was so predictable, we would call him "The Hypothesis" if it wasn't for the fact that he'll probably be out of the league soon.

Bill Snow SS(131), 3B(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 Cincinnati - AA	32 131 541 169 30 18  0	 88  78	 32  38	 14 .312
1901 Cincinnati - NL	33  75 300  73 15  5  0	 37  39	 19  28	  6 .243
1901 Philadelphia - NL	33  40 165  46	6  5  0	 15  28	 13  16	  3 .279
1901 Total - NL		33 115 465 119 21 10  0	 52  67	 32  44	  9 .256
1902 Philadelphia - NL	34 131 539 150 33 11  0	 42  75	 28  43	 26 .278
Who says you can't teach an old hound some new tricks? Much like Pavlov's dog that has been trained to salivate at the ring of a bell, Snow was trained to handle shortstop at the crack of a bat. He will never be confused with a Gold Glove candidate at the position, but it was good enough for Philadelphia.

Everybody Else
Code:
Player			Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
(none)
Outfield

Nathan Ketcham LF(45), CF(22), RF(10), SS(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1901 Philadelphia - NL	21   2	 7   4	0  0  0	  1   0	  1   0	  0 .571
1902 Philadelphia - NL	22  82 306  82	7  1  0	 29  32   9  33	 11 .268
Ketcham... well, Nathan Ketcham filled a hole. He's a solid 4th outfielder who probably shouldn't have gotten as many appearances as he did but it's not like he cost the team a pennant or anything.

Ken McKichan LF(40)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 Washington - AA	33  78 275  57	7  0  0	 26  19	 10  20	 22 .207
1901 Philadelphia - AL	34 106 442 138 12  9  2	 65  60	 19  37	 32 .312
1902 Philadelphia - AL	35  41 153  32	1  4  0	 13  22	  4  10	 13 .209
1902 Philadelphia - NL	35  40 158  39	7  3  0	 15  16	  7   9	 14 .247
1902 Total - ABA	35  81 311  71	8  7  0	 28  38	 11  19	 27 .228
Ken McKichan just might - we are not saying he was, just entertaining the possibility - have been signed off of waivers last year because his name is similar to that of long-time Philly star Kevin MacKeochan. On the field, he didn't resemble MacKeochan at all. This aging speedster is a solid enough left fielder who may or may not have enough left with the stick to be a good contribution.

Kenyon Ingham CF(114)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1901 Philadelphia - NL	24  48 216  57	9  3  0	 14  29	  9  20	  9 .264
1902 Philadelphia - NL	25 114 479 122 14  6  1	 50  44	 13  40	 32 .255
It is our opinion that players like Kenyon Ingham, who appear to contribute so little in the plate and in the field, actually add countless wins to their team through their use of their "tools", natural gifts they possess such as running, jumping, hollering, and carrying on. We shudder to think of how bad this club would have been without Ingham manning center field.

Sean McGilvray RF(94), LF(1)
Code:
Year Team/League	Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
1900 Saint Louis - AA	32 104 396 114	7  7  1	 52  41	 27  33	  0 .288
1901 Saint Louis - NL	33  29	88  20	1  0  0	  5  10	  8  14	  1 .227
1902 Philadelphia - NL	34  98 374  99 13  7  1	 44  44	 18  22	  4 .265
We are not positive what happened to McGilvray in 190`, but it probably had something to do with bees. He kept getting hurt in '02 but otherwise did a fine job manning the right corner.

Everybody Else
Code:
Player			Age  G	AB   H 2B 3B HR	RBI   R	 BB   K	 SB  AVG
Tom Cruse		27  38 107  14	2  0  1	  8  12	  4   7   0 .131
Bill MacAlduie		24   1	 2   0	0  0  0	  0   0   0   0   0 .000
Bob Mathie		35  30 127  25	1  2  1	 11  16	  9   7  16 .197	
Floyd Pickleheimer	29  39 129  26	5  0  2	 11  18	 11  11   4 .202
Franklin Sluggett	28  11  24   3	1  1  0	  2   2	  0   0   1 .125
Grady Stafford		32  15	39   6	0  1  0	  2   6	  6   3   4 .154
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