Thanks for all the good times J-Roll

Longtime Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers today. While his skills have certainly diminished over the last few seasons, there's no denying that J-Roll was a Philadelphia favorite and an excellent player through his tenure as a Phillie. I wish him all the best in LA, but this is my favorite memory from him:

Newly acquired Phillie A.J. Burnett predicts 'The Walking Dead'

What does the Philly Phanatic say?

Phillies announce Ryne Sandberg as manager

3 year deal, with a club option until 2017. Let's see how this new era goes!

Much more at Phillies.com

Chase Utley responds to Mac's letter from 'Always Sunny'

This is absolutely amazing. Chase Utley actually responds to Mac' "love" letter he wrote back in the season 5 episode "The World Series Defense". Watch it below and yes, there's stickers:

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 land Michael Young

Yes! The Philadelphia Phillies have moved closer to filling all their roster holes for next season, as they've just traded for Rangers third baseman Michael Young:



Now if they could somehow lad Josh Hamilton, I'd be a happy man and super excited for this season!

Carlos Ruiz to remain a Phillie through 2013

The Philadelphia Phillies made their first decision of the offseason thus far, and picked up the $5 million option on Carlos Ruiz's contract for 2013. This was a no-brainer obviously, as Ruiz was putting up career numbers before he was injured this season. Now if they could fill the holes in the outfield and third base, we might have a team to get excited about next year.

Phillies Fan Appreciation Night

Bonus! Trying out the new panoramic feature on the iPhone:

Location:Phillies Dr,Philadelphia,United States

.500

Who would have thought that the Phillies would only be at .500 at this point in the season? They're now 71-71, with 20 games left in the season and only 4.5 games back of the second wild card as of now. Can they make the playoffs? I'm not sure, but there's a chance now. And we all know what happens to the teams who get "hot" at the right time. Keep it going Phillies, I'm enjoying the ride!

The worst version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" ever

I'm a Phillies fan, and even I thought this was awful. Best part was the organ player being able to adjust so quickly.  Check out the awfulness by following the link, I'll look for an embeddable version soon.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame by the Phillies Alumni

Phillies home sell-out streak comes to an end

It was inevitable, with the shitty season the Phillies have been having.  The impressive run of home sell-outs ended at 257 regular season games, and 273 games including playoffs; definitely an impressive feat. Along with the poor play of the team, I'd venture a guess that the effect of all those advance ticket sales finally wore off. Not too many people are in the mood to watch a team lose after this long. However, if the team ends up winning again, we'll see another streak start up.  Here's hoping.

And now, this totally appropriate video from Reel Big Fish:

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.

Phillies vs Braves

Who knew Kyle Kendrick would be in a pitcher's duel with Tim Hudson???

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

Renouncing my faith

I am officially renouncing my faith in the 2012 Philadelphia Phillies.  If they happen to do well and somehow find their way into a playoff spot, then good for them.  I'll be watching obviously, but until then I have no faith in this team.  Phillies, please surprise me!

Phillies vs. Dodgers

Location:Pattison Ave,Philadelphia,United States

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.

Phillies game!

Location:S Darien St,Philadelphia,United States

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.