The News Room: 11/01/08

Wow, after this week, it sort of makes us forget about the rest of the Philadelphia sports community. The boys in red definitely stole the show. However, there is still news to talk about and some of it even includes the beginning of the Fightin' Phils World Champion offseason.

Phillies decline options for So Taguchi and Tom Gordon.
The Phillies have made both Taguchi and Gordon eligible for free agency. To buy them out, it cost the Phillies $150,000 for Taguchi and $1,000,000 for Gordon. Sure, the news came at a bad time, but they both knew they had bad seasons and Gordon was hurt for most of it. Both players celebrated with the rest of their former teammates yesterday during the victory parade.

LJ Smith is out with a concussion. Reggie Brown Expected to return.
LJ is concussed and he will not be activated this week against the Seahawks. He suffered the injury after Lawyer Milloy destroyed him late. The Eagles will be getting Reggie Brown back, but Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson will continue to start. [Comcast Sportsnet]

Villanova opens as #23 in the Preseason AP poll.
The Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team has been ranked #23 in this year's preseason poll. Returning all of their players and one year removed from a sweet 16 berth, Villanova will challenge for the Big East conference title.

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So, We're Front Runners?...oh, and peace Flash.

If you haven't heard yet, Jimmy Rollins called the entire city of Philadelphia "front-runners" as fans during his appearence on The Best Damn Sports Show. Watch the video here.

He compared us to St. Louis, really? Jimmy have you seen how many rings St. Louis has won? Ten to our one. 17 NL pennants to our 5. No wonder why Jimmy? The Cardinals have fucking won and made it to the big dance A LOT. No wonder they their fans are always supportive...they're always winning. The Phillies have 10,000 LOSSES!

Sorry if you have your panties in a bunch because people boo you when you don't run at a ground ball. You Jimmy, should just about never be involved in a double play, let alone being thrown out at first by a few steps in a double play. Remember that Philadelphia is always behind the team and the players who give their best effort, but when you're clearly not, you're going to get booed. We want perfection. We know everyone is human, but we do not want to see dumb fundamentals and dumb mistakes that even 12 year old little leaguers would not make night in and night out.

We don't want to see you give up and blow away the division. We're tired of watching the team strike out constantly night in and night out.

And speaking of imperfection, Tom Gordon is done for the year. The bullpen surrendered the loss last night and it has definitely not been good as they lack a real set-up man. Too many guys pitching out of their normal roles is going to kill this team in the long run.

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Charlie, We Need to Talk

First and foremost, Tom Gordon has been placed on the 15 game disabled list for being bad recently...I mean because he has a bum shoulder and inflammation of his pitching elbow. The Phillies have recalled left-handed reliever RJ Swindle. I'd assume JC Romero will move to the set-up role, though he has not faired much better as of late. The addition of Swindle gives the Phillies another much needed left-handed arm out of the pen. Please pitch well RJ.

Secondly, before I discuss my frustration with Charlie Manuel, I'd like to make it clear that I do not directly blame him for the loss yesterday. The offense struggled again, what else is new?

Now, I must mention something that did bother me with the skipper. Why in God's name would you fucking pinch-run for Pat Burrell at first base with 2 outs and the bases loaded? Geoff Jenkins is not going to run through the batters ahead of him. Not a chance in hell. Also, the go-ahead run at the time was on second place. Burrell scoring would have been nice, but it wasn't a necessity for the Phillies to take the lead.

So now we're left with Geoff Jenkins in the outfield who is a little faster and a better fielder than Burrell, but his positives there do not overpower is ineptitude at the plate. Not by any means, which we later saw after Jayson Werth tied the game up with his home run, but Jenkins struck out and grounded out.

Charlie, stop pulling your best right-handed hitter, your most powerful right-handed hitter, your only guy in the lineup that reaches base more than 40% of the time for Geoff Jenkins, Eric Bruntlett, and So Taguchi. Just stop. You're really being an asshole with these moves. The only guy that deserves some playing time out of that entire group is Bruntlett. Taguchi and Jenkins do not even deserve roster spots. The fact that Taguchi was left on the roster over Snelling is a joke.

I know you mumble and speak with pathetic grammer, but I truly hope you're not that dumb Charlie. I truly hope that is not the case for your sake. From here on out, please, stop pulling Pat Burrell from the lineup. I've yet to ever see you pull Ryan Howard for a defensive substitution, so why does Burrell have to be pulled.

Stop being an asshole and keep your best players on the field at all times. Outside of Greg Dobbs and Bruntlett on occassion, you have no bench depth (I'm pretending Chris Coste is more of a starter).

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