An infographic of MLB first pitches, good and bad

This is a result of the god-awful attempt at a first pitch from 50 Cent the other day. As a bonus, watch it after the jump!

This may be the worst called strike ever

From last nights's Rangers/Rays game that ended on this called "strike" 3 by Marty Foster:

Phillies Power Rankings

Since I don't feel like analyzing and ranking every team in MLB, I decided instead to cull from a bunch of lists to see what the average power ranking for the Philadelphia Phillies is this year. Let's take a look:

Sports Illustrated: #16 - The rotation is still headlined by Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay and that's an encouraging start to any team, but Philadelphia's offensive production (both total runs scored and league rank) has dipped three straight seasons. On Opening Day the Phillies' four infielders and catcher will all be 33 or older, and the only player in that group who hasn't shown signs of decline -- catcher Carlos Ruiz -- is suspended the first 25 games of the season for a failed PED test. Adams and Jonathan Papelbon form a dominant back end of the bullpen, which had been missing in Philadelphia.
Newsday: #15 - Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are healthy, and Utley is entering his walk year. Michael Young doesn't have the store of good will he built in Texas and will have to perform to be appreciated. Ben Revere showed good tools with the Twins in 2012, but it was only one season. Can he do it again? The rotation is still a work of art (Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels), but Roy Halladay struggled mightily during the spring.

CBS Sports: #15 - The window of opportunity with the Howard-Utley-Rollins-Halladay-Lee nucleus is closing pretty rapidly. At least they have Cole Hamels to build around, but a pretty sizeable overhaul -- which kind of started with Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence being traded last season, obviously -- is coming soon. We'll see if they can stave it off this season.

Bleacher Report: #14 - Injuries to their core superstars hurt the Phillies badly last season. Once they finally got healthy and strung together some wins, it was already too late, as they'd dug themselves too big of a hole.
Age is certainly not on their side. But if they can avoid filling up the disabled list, the Phillies may have the horses to make one last playoff push before they start to think about rebuilding.
Cole Hamels is expected to step forward as the ace of the staff. Newcomers Michael Young, Ben Revere and Delmon Young will look to spark the lineup around stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.

ESPN: #14 - It will be an uphill battle for the Phillies to catch the Nationals and the new-and-improved Braves with an aging and injury-prone roster, but they will benefit by having one of baseball's easiest first-half schedules.

Sporting News: #14

MLB.com: #14 (experts) / #12 (fans)

Fox Sports: # 12 - A healthy Ryan Howard makes this team — which features some of the best starting pitchers — a contender, again. What happened last season? We’re still not sure.


So on average, the Phillies are ranked at exactly 14, hovering in the middle of the pack on all the lists but never being ranked below #16. The return of Ryan Howard, the decline of Roy Holladay, the aging starters, and Cole Hamels are all common threads from each site. The Phil will have some work to do, but if they stay healthy I see no reason why they can't take down the Nationals and Braves. We'll see!

Phillies do the right thing, lock up Cole Hamels

The contract? $144 million for 6 years, which would make Cole the second highest paid pitcher in MLB history (probably behind God himself). Despite the large sum of money, which the Phillies have thanks to selling out every game the last several years, I like this move because Hamels deserved it and it shows Ruben Amaro and the front office aren't ready to give up on the season just yet. They aren't sellers for now -there's still a week before the trade deadline- but they shouldn't write off this team just due to a subpar first half of the year. They can easily go on a tear at any moment. They're healthy, and know they're better than their record indicates; the Phillies will certainly try to prove that by October.

3.2

That's the % chance the Phillies have of making the MLB playoffs right now, according to one statistical analysis.  Good thing I publicly gave up on them the other week!

Via The 700 Level

Not a joke

After 8 starts, Joe Blanton has more wins for the Phillies than Roy Halladay.  If you aren't a Phillies fan, you may be asking yourself "Who is Joe Blanton?!?"  To that I say "Exactly."  Oh, and his ERA is lower too.  Think about that for a little.

For 50 more surprises in MLB this year, check out Bleacher Report.

Congrats to Phil Humber!

He just threw a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox, the first since the Phil's Roy Halladay in 2010.  Truly an amazing accomplishment, no matter what team or what player.  Congrats!

The last out was on a check swing, so that should start a little controversy and scutinization of the replay.

Percentage of Blacks in MLB lowest since integration

I found this surprising; MLB rosters are made up of only 8.05% Black players.  I always figured it was higher, and I was right in years past.  This year marks the lowest percent since the integration era began in 1959, when it was 17.25%.  Obviously the game has changed over the years, with a recent influx of Domincan and Japanese players, among others.  Are they becoming less interested in the game (even last year it was only 8.5%) or are players of other origins becoming more prevalent? I'm sure the percent of white players has dipped in recent years, too; they won't be a minority in the league anytime soon however.

Part of the reason this comes off surprising to me is probably because I've always been a Phillies fan.  Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard have been a staple of their lineup for quite a few years now, and with John Mayberry, Jr. coming up the Phils will continue to have Black players on their roster above the 8%.

Bill Murray runs the bases?

Another instant classic from Bill Murray.  He threw out the first pitch for the Chicago Cubs season opener yesterday, but before that decided to run the bases (and slide into home) with ball in hand.

MLB announces playoff changes

The proposed changes to Major League Baseball's playoff system have been finalized.  There will now be 2 Wild Card teams in each league, who will then face each other in a one game playoff.  The winners of those games will advance to face the top-seeded division winners in the divisional series.

But wait, there's a Shayamalan twist!  Because the schedule was already agreed upon before the changes, the lower seeded teams will actually start the series with 2 home games (in order to avoid a travel day).  The higher seeded teams will finish off the 5 game series with 3 home games.  Interesting.

Jimmy Rollins is still a Phillie!

I'm sure other shortstops signing with teams this off-season had something to do with it, but Jimmy Rollins has re-signed with the Phillies for 3 years.  The contract is worth $33 million, with a vested option for a 4th year.  Good move by the Phils in my opinion, since they didn't cave in to the original 5 year offer.  Here's hoping J-Roll can produce more like his MVP season this year.

Some off-season MLB news

Roy Halladay of the Phillies was unable to win a second consecutive NL Cy Young Award, as that honor when (27-5 decision) to Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.  Halladay finished second, with Cliff Lee third and Cole Hamels fifth.  That's a ridiculous rotation.

The Houston Astros will move to the American Leage West after the 2012 season, finally creating 2 equal 15 team leagues.  Also, by the 2013 season, there will be 2 wildcard teams in each league instead of 1.  Those 2 teams will play a 1 game playoff to decide who will advance to the divisional round.  It's about time some playoff changes were made, as baseball is one of the most difficult sports in terms of making the postseason. Only 8 out of 30 teams make the playoffs currently, which is only 27%.  (via USAToday Sports)

Papelbon is now a Phillie

The Phillies have continued their recent trend of making huge signings in the off-season, this time by adding All-Star closer Jonathan Papelbon.  Pending a physical, he will receive a 4 year, $50 million contract (making it the largest contract for a closer in MLB history).  After using 4 pitchers as closers last season, there is no doubt who will take that spot for this upcoming season.  Where does this leave Ryan Madson?  Time will tell.

Jim Thome rejoins the Phillies

Fan favorite (or Phan Phavorite if you're one of those people) Jim Thome will be returning to the Philadelphia Phillies for the 2012 season.  The 41 year old recently hit his 600th career homerun, and signed a one year contract with the Phils today, pending a physical.  Perfect low-key signing if you ask me, since Thome is a marked improvement over Ross Gload as a left handed pinch hitter/first baseman with power.

The Top 50 MLB Free Agents

Read the whole list here, but here's the top 10 (and the Phillies on the list):

1. Albert Pujols
2. Prince Fielder
3. Jose Reyes
4. C.J. Wilson
5. Jonathan Papelbon
6. Heath Bell
7. Carlos Beltran
8. David Ortiz
9. Aramis Ramirez
10. Jimmy Rollins

   12. Ryan Madson
   22. Roy Oswalt
   35. Raul Ibanez
   44. Brad Lidge

via The700Level

A bit of a dilemma

The Phillies cap off the long regular season tonight against the Braves.  If they win, they will set a new franchise record with 102 wins.  However, this will also allow the Cardinals to make the playoffs with a win, therefore becoming the Phillies opponent in the NLDS.  If the Cardinals don't win though (and the Phils do) then the Cards and Braves will play a one game playoff in order to decide the NL Wildcard.  (The playoff would also occur if both teams win tonight.) This would be presumably be good for the Phillies, unless the Braves win the playoff since it wouldn't affect them.  Personally, I'd rather not have the Phillies play the Cardinals in the first round, as they've been red hot lately (and beat the Phillies 3 of 4 recently).  If the Braves become the wildcard team, the Phillies would play the lowest remaining seed in the NLDS, which would be the Diamondbacks.  In my opinion, they don't pose much of a threat to the Phillies.  Yet despite this, I'd really love the Phillies to set that franchise record, just not at the cost of playing the Cardinals in the first round, unless they burn a starter during the one game playoff.

So best case scenario?  The Phillies win, the Cardinals lose, the Braves and Cardinals play a one game playoff to decide the NL Wildcard, the Braves win, and the Phillies play the Diamondbacks in the NLDS.  We'll see what happens.

The 2011 Phillies are in the top 1% of all time MLB teams

Yep, this year's Philadelphia Phillies team, barring an impossible losing streak to end the season, will be in the top 1% of all MLB teams of all time.  That's from 1993 til now, and includes over 2,200 teams; the Phillies will be the 24th "Super Team".  They are heavily favored to not only return to the World Series for the 3rd time in 4 years, but to outright win it.  In doing so, they would surely be considered for the title of top team of all time.  I cannot wait until October!

From Sports Illustrated

Cliff Lee wins second NL Pitcher of the Month Award

Cliff Lee went 5-0 this June, posting a 0.21 ERA and rightfully winning the NL Pitcher of the Month Award for that month.  His July was OK, subpar for Lee's standards.  Yet his dominance emerged again in August, as Cliff posted another 5-0 record with an ERA of 0.45.  He received another NL Pitcher of the Month Award today, and is also the only pitcher in MLB history with 2 months of 5 wins and a sub 0.50 ERA.  Unbelievable.

The next to hit 600 homeruns?

When it comes to baseball, there is certainly no lack of statistics.  There's not even a lack of statistics about statistics.  So when Bill James comes up with something he calls the "Career Assesments Formula" it really comes as no surprise.  It predicts career totals for MLB players, and in this case it's homeruns (by age 40).  So who has the best chance to become the next 600 homerun hitter (after Jim Thome accomplished the feat last night)?

Mark Teixeira - 22% chance, 33 HRs needed per year
Prince Fielder - 29% chance, 29 HRs needed per year
Ryan Howard - 33% chance, 36 HRs needed per year
Adam Dunn - 50% chance, 26 HRs needed per year
Albert Pujols - 97 % chance, 18 HRs needed per year


And damn you Adam Dunn for messing up the columns above!

Jim Thome hits #600

In the sixth inning of Minnesota's game against Detroit last night, Jim Thome blasted a 2-run opposite field homerun.  But that was only #599 of the 40 year old's career.  He'd have to wait til his next at-bat in the seventh inning to hit the 600th homerun of his career, becoming the 8th player in MLB history to do so.  He became the second fastest player to accomplish the rare feat, but also the oldest.  Any way you slice it, Thome deserves praise for this milestone.

Congrats to the former Phillie!!!

Video and more at USAToday Sports