Staff Blog
The Sports Page, May 9th
Morning Roundup: Break a Leg
Today is a bad day for Philly Sports. We’ll tell you why after the jump.
We’ll start with the only game played last night, but if you want the real news, skip down a section.
PHILLIES
The Phillies dropped the Arizona getaway game last night, losing 8-3 to Brandon Webb and the DBacks.
Opening-day starter Brett Myers was the goat. He got lit up (again), allowing seven runs and nine hits over five innings as he dropped to 2-3 with a 5.33 ERA. Against the now 8-0 Webb, that just isn’t going to get it done. Of course, when the 3 through 7 guys in our lineup combine for just one hit, that probably isn’t going to get it done, either, so blame for everyone who wants some with one.
The Good Phight and The Level both live-blogged it, so if you want to relive a 8-3 loss, be sure to check that out.
Other notes:
- Jimmy is back with the team, that’s good because upgrading from Eric Bruntlett to Jimmy Rollins is like trading in your rickshaw for a jet.
- Following the drubbing, Greg Dobbs had one of the more confusing quotes of the year: "I can’t speak for everyone else," he said. "I’m just trying to go up there and put good at-bats together. You have to respect everybody at this level, no matter if it’s Brandon Webb or Chien-Ming Wang or whoever you’re facing." Really? We have to respect those two? Two perenial Cy Young canidates? Those were you examples of guys we have to respect? Think we should respect Johan and Peavy too? Really?
- Pat Burrell got the night off yesterday, as So Taguchi started in his place. No need for concern, though — it was The Walk’s first off game of the season.
Who said what:
Paul Hagen breaks out a ‘hindsight is 20-20′ column on the Phils’ trade of Gavin Floyd for Freddy Garcia. It’s a shame that I spent the time to go over his past columns. Like this one from Dec. 8, 2006, when Hagen himself called Freddy a "a dogged gamer" and called the one "one the Phillies had to make."Or this one, where he wrote that Garcia could push them over the top. That said, I’m probably just picking on Hagen for the sake of it, and in truth it is a pretty fair article. Worth a READ.
Meanwhile, Bill Conlin wrote about the IronPigs (the Phils’ AAA affiliate) who apparently stink. Epically bad teams are always worth a READ, so check it out.
Jason Grey of ESPN broke down Ryan Howard’s slump and offers some decent analysis of why it is going to continue (he’s trying to pull everything) and why it is going to end (he has an awful BABIP, which is sure to go up). If you’re an insider, give it a READ.
As did the Good Phight, which you can probably SKIP.
FLYERS
The big story is the start of the Eastern Conference NHL finals, and the big story there is a bad one for the home team. Timmomen is done — his blood refuses to flow right, which apparently is as big of a deal as it sounds. SKIP, just because that is depressing.
Phil Sheridan wrote a Flyers catch-up article for all the bandwagon fans. Even I knew the stuff though, so probably a SKIP.
Deadspin previewed the series, as did ESPN, SI, and pretty much every news outlet out there. ESPN’s is better than SI’s, but one can pretty much pick their favorite outlet for these things. Seems like the type of thing I should have done.
The Level put together a nice set of links for the series.
SIXERS
Somehow I missed Phil Jasner’s article on Iguodala from yesterday. I’m not too upset, though — SKIP. I’ll have something on the topic next week.
