Dont Tase Me Bro' Don't Tase Me

Placido Polanco Is Now A Philly...Again

ESPN is reporting that Polanco just signed a 3 yr/ $18 million dollar option to play with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies first acquired Polanco in 2002 for Scott Rolen and then traded him to the Tigers in 2005 for nothing significant to make salary room for Chase Utley. Polanco put up two of his three best seasons while playing for the Phillies.

With Chase Utley still around, the Phillies plan on playing Polanco at third, which will at least be an offensive upgrade over Pedro Feliz. Polanco has at worst a league average bat (with the potential for more) and a glove that ranges from above average to fantastic.

Ryan Howard Breaks World Series record

The other day I reported that Ryan Howard had 12 strikeouts in the World Series to tie the record for most strikeouts in the fall classic. He was tied with Willie Wilson of Kansas City whom in the 1980 World Series struck out 12 times. Yesterday in game 6 of the World Series he struck out again to strike out for a whopping 13 times in a 6 game World Series. This is impressive to strikeout for over half his at-bats in the World Series because he only has 23 at-bats. Ryan Howard had a terrible World Series overall batting .174 with 1 homerun, 2 doubles, 3 RBI’s, 4 hits, and 2 walks. The 13 Strikeouts is what he will be remembered for though going into the record books. He did strikeout for a 186 times during the regular season.

World Series Milestones approaching

In game 5 of the World Series Chase Utley hit two homeruns. That gives him 5 homeruns so far in this World Series. He is now tied with Reggie Jackson who hit 5 homeruns for the New York Yankees in the 1977 World Series. Utley will have at least one more game to break the record. If the Phillies can win game 6, then he may have another to help his team win the World Series and be the sole record holder of the most homeruns in the World Series which has not been broken for 30 years. He is also the second person with Kansas City's Willie Aikens as the only players who have had multi-homer games in the World Series. I was surprised that there hasn’t been more, and by bigger names.

Utley’s teammate Ryan Howard has been struggling so far in this World Series. He is hitting .158 in 19 at-bats of 5 World Series games so far. He has no homeruns, 2 doubles, three hits, and 12 strikeouts in 19 at-bats. Twelve strikeouts in 19 at-bats is pretty bad and he is also approaching a record for the World Series. Sadly, his record is not of the good type. He is approaching the record for most strikeouts in the World Series. He has tied Willie Wilson of Kansa City in 1980 with 12 strikeouts in the World Series. Howard still has the chance to break the record and be the sole holder of it.

The Shift that gave the Series away

In game 4 of the World Series on Sunday I saw something new that I have never seen happen in baseball before. In the ninth inning with the game tied at 4 Brad Lidge was pitching to Mark Teixeira with Johnny Damon on first base. Teixeira was batting from the left side so the Phillies had the shift on. Johnny Damon decided to steal second and slide in easily. Then he popped up and ran to third base. He stole two bases on the same play without an error, rundown or anything else you ordinary see happen. With the shift being on, the third basemen was nowhere near it so even though a Philly had the ball and was ready to throw it to someone, there was no one. The pitcher Lidge should have been covering because he was the only option, but he was obviously not told too and didn’t think of it in time. Charlie Manuel should have reviewed that, but I have never seen that happen before with a shift on. So Damon ended up getting a free base which was the go ahead run at the time. The Yankees ended up scoring more runs, but that opened the flood gates. Now it will be hard for them to come back being down in the series 3-1.

I have never see a player steal two bases with the shit on before. Has anyone ever seen that? I am specifically asking you “The 'Bright' One”.

Choking, Defined

This is the Phillies/Rockies Win Probability chart from game 4. Houston Street channeled his inner Brad Lidge.

Good thing Phillies players arn't actually from Philadelphia

Although the Philadelphia fans may be subhuman as outlined by our own DME, the teams and players seem to be quite pleasant. Check out the in clubhouse video of the Phillies celebrating Mark Buehrle's perfect game.

Philadephia fans ARE subhuman

Whether it be throwing batteries at opposing outfielders, cheering career-ending injuries, firing flare guns during gameplay or simply booing Santa Claus and chucking snowballs at him, fans of Philadelphia sports have been labeled by many (most recently by Nate Ravitz and Matthew Berry) as sub-human. Many, including myself, feel that they are the epitome of poor sportsmanship -- with great, persisting reason.

Take yesterday's matchup between the Cards and Phillies for example. In the 7th inning, with the Phillies up 10-2, an unidentified Phillies fan assalted both Julio Lugo and Albert Pujols with a laser pointer. Such action is not just low, but utterly despicable. Not only was Philly leading by 8 runs with only 8 outs to go, but to shine a highly focused, distracting light into the eyes of a hitter facing a pitcher with a 91+ MPH fastball with below average control is downright dangerous. Either Lugo or Pujols could have been seriously hurt. Thankfully, neither was.

MLB needs to do all in its power (reviewing security/television footage, interviewing people in the vicinity, etc.) to put the son-of-a-bitch who brought the laser pointer to the park in jail.