The Phillies lost a pair of weekend games to the Houston Astros and the  Pittsburgh Pirates as manager Charlie Manuel apparently stayed with his starters a wee-bit too long, a trait he’s been guilty of to the team’s detriment in the past.  Good thing that its only the exhibition season.

On Friday, apparent opening game starter Brett Myers gave up 2 runs in 5 innings as Houston shortstop Miguel Tejada solved him for a 4th inning solo homer and a game-tying RBI double in the 6th.  The Astros took a 4-3 lead in the 6th on an RBI single off of reliever Ryan Madson (the run charged to Myers).  The Astros added 2 more runs in the 8th inning and held off a late 2 run 9th inning Phillies charge, including a Matt Stairs’ pinch solo homer, for a narrow 6-5 win.

Tejeda went 3 for 3 and was joined by 2nd baseman Kazuo Matsui and outfielder Hunter Pence who also had 3 hits apiece for the Astros.  Infielder Geoff Blum had 2 hits for Houston including driving in the lead run in the 6th inning with an single off of Madson.

Houston starter Roy Oswalt gave up 3 runs on 10 hits through 6 full innings but the Phils couldn’t turn more of those hits into runs.  Oswalt struck out 6 while walking none to earn the win.   Myers was charged with 4 runs on 8 hits in his 5 1/3 innings and was charged with the loss.

Rightfielder Jayson Werth led off the 2nd inning with a solo homer as the Phils went on to score 3 in the inning off of Oswalt.

On Saturday, veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer kept the Phillies in a 3-1 game through 5 innings before Pittsburgh broke the game wide open with a 4 run outburst to take a 7-1 lead in the 6th inning.  Moyer recorded the 1st 2 outs of the 6th before lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre recorded the final out as the Pirates went on to hand the Phillies a 10-4 shellacking.

Meanwhile, the only run which scored on Pirates starter Ian Snell was a mammoth 500 foot plus 4th inning solo shot by Ryan Howard who is having a fine spring training hitting .293 with 8 homers.

The Phillies, however, rebounded on a 3 run homer by catcher Carlos Ruiz to close the gap to 7-4 in the 7th after reliever Denny Bautista walked the first 2 hitters he faced and walked 3 for the inning.  It was Ruiz’s 1st dinger of the spring.  But the Bucs rocked closer Brad Lidge in the 8th inning for 3 runs on 2 hits including a pinch homer by Garrett Jones.

The Pirate bullpen was lights out on the Phils giving up only an 8th inning single.

The hitting star for the Pirates was undoubtedly non rostered invitee centerfielder Andrew McCutchen who went 5 for 5 with a solo homer, 3 doubles 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored.

For all of Friday’s and Saturday’s results of spring training play, click here and here.

The Phils entertain the Boston Red Sox in Clearwater in the first of 3 straight home games as Joe Blanton gets the start against emerging star lefthander Jon Lester and Ryan Madson and Scott Eyre will also see mound time for the Phillies.  Ace lefthander Cole Hamels, seemingly recovered from his left elbow discomfort, was reportedly slated to start Sunday’s game against the BoSox, but has nopw been replaced by Blanton.  Could it be that Manuel still has Hamels in mind to start the opener?

In other news, the Phils swapped catcher Ronny Paulino to San Francisco  on Friday night for lefthanded reliever Jack Taschner.  Taschner was obtained to add another lefthanded reliever to the Phils bullpen to spell Scott Eyre during J.C. Romero’s upcoming regular season 50 game suspension.  The Giants quickly shuffled off Paulino on Saturday to the Florida Marlins for a minor-league righthanded pitching prospect.

For the Phillies, the catchers remain Carlos Ruiz as #1 catcher with Chris Coste in the backup role that he has occupied for his 3 MLB seasons.

For all of Sunday’s scheduled exhibition games, click here.

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Righthander Brett Myers was rocked early on 3rd baseman Mike Lowell’s 2 run 1st inning homer but settled down to pitch scoreless ball over the next 4 innings giving up only 3 more hits.  Meanwhile, the Phillies could solve neither starter Josh Beckett nor the Red Sox bullpen as Boston shut out the Phils by a 3-0 score on Monday.

Beckett, who was credited with the win, spread 4 hits over his 5 innings and Boston’s bullpen held the Phils to 2 hits over the final 4 innings while the Red Sox added an 8th inning insurance run on leftfielder Chris Carter’s solo homer off of reliever Ryan Madson.  Myers was charged with the loss.

The Phils could manage only 6 hits for the game as their offense, once again for the 3rd straight game, couldn’t get untracked despite doubles by catcher Carlos Ruiz and leftfielder Raul Ibanez.   The time is ticking down to the beginning of the regular season so the Phils offense better find their hitting shoes quickly.

For all of the results of spring training play on Sunday, as well as World Baseball classic results, click here.

Ageless veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer gets the starting nod on Monday as the Phils entertain the Yankees at Clearwater and try to wipe away the 12-0 rout which occured when the teams last met.  The Yankees starting nod goes to non-rostered invitee Brett Tomko who hopes to latch-on with the Yanks.

For all of Monday’s scheduled exhibition games and the World Baseball Classic game as well, click here.

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Pat Burrell, formerly leftfielder and #5 hitter in the Phillies lineup behind slugging 1st baseman Ryan Howard, went on to the Tampa Bay Rays in free agency, but the mutual bond between Burrell and Phillies Fans lingers on.

Maybe it was Burrell’s white-hot April and May, 2008, maybe it was his winning hit in game 5 of the 2008 World Series against the Rays, maybe it was 251 career homers, many of them in the clutch or maybe it was his ability to protect clean-up hitting Howard (despite many detractors of his ability in the media), or maybe it was all of the above and more which endeared him to the Phillies fandom.

Burrell seemed soo taken by a standing-O given him in Clearwater during spring training, as well as by his treatment by Phillies fans over the years, that he “thanked the fans for sharing a championship parade with him” in ads he bought in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News.

It may well be that Raul Ibanez replaces Burrell capably with the bat, from the left-side, and in leftfield and the Phils thus may not skip a beat in a march to repeat in the NL East, the NL and in the World Series.  But it seems that it may take him longer to fill Pat “the Bat’s” shoes with the fans.

Here’s wishing Pat Burrell great success with the Rays (except against the Phillies) — Pat “the Bat”: a class act!

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You know old saying; “the third time is the charm!”  It apparently turned out that way for slugger Manny Ramirez and the L.A. Dodgers who failed in two previous attempts to reach contractual agreements.

AP Sports Writer Beth Harris outlines background and the terms of the deal for Yahoo sports:

Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers officially agreed Wednesday on a $45 million, two-year contract that keeps him with the NL West champions. The slugger can void the second season of the deal and again become a free agent.

“We got a great meeting,” Ramirez told KCAL-TV as he emerged from a mandatory physical in suburban Inglewood. “I’m happy to be here. We got some unfinished business, and that’s why I’m here.”

The Dodgers confirmed the deal shortly after Ramirez passed the physical. He is set to meet with the media Thursday morning in Phoenix.

Ramirez gets $10 million this year, and $15 million in deferred money with no interest, payable in $5 million installments each Jan. 15 from 2010 through 2012. If it winds up as a two-year deal, he gets $10 million each season, with three payments of $8,333,333 each Jan. 15 from 2011-13.

Ramirez has until November to decide whether to void the second season.

Los Angeles’ original offer was for $45 million in guaranteed money, including a $4 million buyout of a 2011 option, and gave the Dodgers the ability to maintain control of Ramirez over three years. It also did not include the no-trade provision.

Ramirez will make a $1 million commitment to the Dodgers Dream Foundation as part of the deal.

Ramirez helped Los Angeles win the division by hitting .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he batted .520 with four homers, 10 RBIs, nine runs and 11 walks in eight games.

“We all wanted the same thing and that’s what was apparent to me,” said Torre, who left spring training in Arizona with Colletti to travel to Malibu.

“After last year and the time he spent with us, we knew we wanted him back. It was just a matter of finding that common ground,” Torre said.

Los Angeles announced last week that Ramirez declined its latest offer, a $25 million, one-year contract with a $20 million player option for 2010. That deal would have included deferred payments of $10 million each in 2011 and 2012 and $5 million in 2013.

Boras countered with a proposal that included no deferred money, leaving the sides about $3 million apart in present-day value.

At the time the Dodgers acquired him from Boston, Ramirez’s contract was amended to eliminate the $20 million team options it included for 2009 and 2010. The new agreement leaves him with a small increase but likely fell short of what Ramirez hoped to gain on the free-agent market.

Colletti initially tried to re-sign Ramirez, offering a two-year, $45 million deal with a buyout or a club option that was ignored by Boras and later withdrawn by the team.

Colletti initially tried to re-sign Ramirez, offering a two-year, $45 million deal with a buyout or a club option that was ignored by Boras and later withdrawn by the team.
 
The Dodgers’ second attempt involved salary arbitration in December, but Ramirez said no to that, too.

Ramirez was MVP of the 2004 World Series—Boston’s first championship since 1918—and helped the Red Sox to another title in 2007. But he often failed to run hard to first base on grounders and repeatedly said he didn’t want to play for Boston, which lured him from Cleveland after the 2000 season with a $160 million, eight-year contract.

Ramirez, despite his career 527 homers, nearly 2,400 hits, 1,725 RBIs, career .314 BA, and despite what he brought the Dodgers in their 2008 drive for the NL West Division title, has been known in recent years, during his 7 1/2 years with Boston, for a lack of hustle both running the bases and patrolling leftfield.

Yahoo sports’ Jeff Passan adds these thoughts on Ramirez;

No matter what Ramirez did in the season’s final two months – and, mercy, was it ever brilliant… – nothing diminishes his fundamental truth. Ramirez could care less about the team for which he plays so long as it dumps the most money into his bank account.

To so blithely reward a mercenary is irresponsible of the Dodgers and sends the wrong message. Namely, success has a two-pronged price: the $45 million the Dodgers agreed Wednesday to pay Ramirez over two years and the knowledge that they ultimately will kowtow if prodded the right way.

…The question becomes whether Ramirez will quit on the Dodgers the same way he did Boston last season. And before Ramirez loyalists quibble over the word “quit” by pointing to his numbers, may we remember: Ramirez could hit .300 blindfolded and slug home runs with a 2×4. The surer sign of Ramirez’s effort came when he started mimicking a tortoise on his way to first base, or swinging through three Mariano Rivera pitches like he was late for a dinner date, or claiming his knee was injured, then forgetting at the medical examination which one, exactly, hurt.

Yes, that is the man on whom the Dodgers are staking their season.

In short, the Dodgers can have him, the Ramirez diamond and the Ramirez curse; its a Blessing that he’s not with my Phillies!

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A few days ago, Yahoo’s Big League Stew blogged about the financial bind in which Phillies reliever Scott Eyre finds himself.

Veteran lefthander Eyre came to the Phillies at the beginning of August and was nearly perfect in spelling JC Romero, the other lefthanded set-up man, and giving up only 3 runs on 3 hits, including 1 homer in 14 1/3 innings while going 3-0 during the Phils’ great stretch run to the division championship, the NL pennant and World Series Championship.  Eyre logged 3 innings of work in 5 post-season appearances, only giving up 1 run on 3 hits against the Milwaukee Brewers in the Phillies’ only division series loss.

But this spring, Eyre arrived in training camp carrying an extra external unwanted burden not of his own making or responsibility.
Eyre’s assets, as are those of several other MLB players and athletes from other sports, currently remain frozen due to the ongoing investigation into an alleged $8 billion Stanford Financial fraud case.

At one point, Eyre confided that, although having signed a 1 year, $2 million deal with the Phillies in the off-season, he had but $13 to his name and his family’s bills were going unpaid due to seizure of assets.

Fortunately, Eyre had a little money in another bank account and has been able to feed his family during the trying period.  Also, fortunately, Eyre is a member of a team with a heart.  Yahoo sports reports that  the Phillies have agreed to advance him and undisclosed amount on his $2 million pay for the season in order to see him and his family through this difficult ordeal.

The Yahoo report on the Phillies’ efforts to help notes Eyre’s comments;

“If we paid our bills, we wouldn’t have any money,” Eyre said. “I’ll pay (the Phillies) back whenever I can I invested in (Stanford) three years ago (and) thought it was too good to be true - and it was.”

Eyre isn’t alone. Johnny Damon and Xavier Nady of the New York Yankees and Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays also have been affected by the Stanford scandal.

All four major leaguers have had some of their assets frozen by federal regulators. The players said they’ve been told by federal officials that their money is safe, but access to it is being blocked temporarily while the investigation proceeds.

“It’s not just the big people - not that I consider myself big - but there are people out there without a voice,” Eyre said. “I didn’t want this to be the ‘Woe is Scott Eyre Story.’

“Thousands and thousands of people who invested their money in Stanford can’t use their money right now. (They) can’t pay their bills the only reason I said anything at all is because of the people that don’t have access to media, so the government can realize (this is happening).”

Eyre, who during spring training stays with his family at his offseason home in nearby Bradenton, Fla., said several teammates also volunteered to cut him a check to help out.

Even though the team stepped up to help him, Eyre questions why the government took an action that has made life difficult for so many honest investors.

“I don’t think they needed to freeze everything - that’s just stupid,” Eyre said.

Sports writer Todd Zolecki reports the Phillies view of the situation for MLB.com:

“We understand the circumstances,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said before Wednesday’s Grapefruit League opener… “Typically, our policy is not to advance dollars. That’s just not what we do, but this certainly is a different type of circumstance that several players are having to deal with.”

One can only hope that the other MLB clubs whose players find themselves in this situation, as well as teams in other sports with members in this bind, act as thoughtfully, responsively and from the heart as have the Phillies.

As for lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre, I’m looking forward to seeing him and the team not miss a beat in the lefthanded set-up role while Romero is on the shelf during his 50 game suspension.

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On Sunday afternoon, the Phillies and their slugging 1st baseman Ryan Howard finally found common ground outside the arbitration hearing room as Howard signed a 3 year deal worth $54 million.  With this deal, both sides saved themselves from the possible destructiveness and ill will of a potentially contentious arbitration hearing.

Howard, the 2006 NL MVP and MLB homer and RBI leader in 2006 and 2008, will earn $15 million this season, $19 million next year and $20 million in 2011.

AP sports writer Rob Maaddi reports the reactions of both the Phillies and Ryan Howard to the 3 year deal:

“The things that have happened prior with Ryan, it was really nothing adversarial, although I know with some people it was depicted that way,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “We just agreed to disagree. It didn’t make us love Ryan any less, and it didn’t make Ryan love us any less.”

“I’m happy to have this done and to know that I’ll be in Philadelphia for at least another three years,” Howard said in a statement.

“We’re very pleased to have avoided the arbitration process, not just for this year, but also for the next two,” Amaro said. “Ryan is clearly one of the top power hitters and run producers in the major leagues and is a very important part of our championship club.”

Maaddi also traces back Howard’s ascendancy on the club:

A fifth-round draft pick in 2001, Howard quickly established himself as one of the premier sluggers in the majors once he finally reached the big leagues. His path to Philadelphia initially was blocked by Jim Thome, who signed an $85 million, six-year contract in December 2002.

An injury to Thome during the 2005 season paved the way for Howard, who had 22 homers and 63 RBIs in just 88 games to win the NL Rookie of the Year award.

He followed that up with one of the best sophomore seasons in history. Howard had 58 homers, 149 RBIs and a .313 average in ’06, nearly lifting the Phillies into the playoffs. He batted .268 with 47 homers and 136 RBIs in ’07 in what was considered a down year for him.

Since moving into the starting lineup for good on July 1, 2005, Howard leads the majors in home runs (174) and RBIs (493).

Most impressive, he’s done it with raw, natural power and a sweet left-handed stroke… The 6-foot-4, 252-pound Howard comes from a big family and has two brothers bigger than him.

In 2008, Howard hit .269 in the post-season, although hitting .285 with 3 homers and 6 RBIs in the World Series and blasting 2 of the 3 homers and driving in 5 of those runs in the big 10-2 game 4 win over Tampa Bay.  The Phils took the 2008 World Series by a 4-1 margin in games over the Rays.

With a 3 year deal in hand, a clear mind and good health, hopefully the big slugger can now start working on performance priorities;  i.e. upping his production over last April’s 5 homer, .172 BA production and his lifetime April BA of .230 as well as drastically reducing his strikeouts from last season’s 199.  He’s struck out a total of 692 times in his 4 year career.

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