Cole Hamels was real good (not great) again in the 2008 post season and the Philadelphia Phillies rode his left arm (and Chase Utley’s bat) to take an important 1-0 lead in the 2008 World Series. The first game of a 7 game series is always important, but even moreso in recent years as the team winning the first game has won the last 5 World Series titles. Three of the last four winning teams have swept their opponents.

RAYS PITCHERS NEED TO LIMIT FREE BASERUNNERS

I did a radio show this past Monday with host Kevin Williams on www.shoresportsnetwork.com My take was that the Phillies hitters were going to get their share of home runs, but if the Rays pitchers could limit the amount of free passes (walks) allowed, they would be OK and the Rays would win the series. Solo homers are much easier to stomach than two and three runs jobs. Sales of Tums brand antacid skyrockets when pitchers issue free passes. After getting behind Jayson Werth in the top of the first, Scott Kazmir fought back to a full count and then instead of throwing a pitch down the middle, Kazmir walked Werth. Utley then followed with his two run blast.

UTLEY WON THE BATTLE OF SMARTS

And Utley definitely outsmarted Kazmir in that first inning at bat. Good job by Utley with his first pitch bunt attempt against the shift. Even though the bunt went foul, Utley put that idea into the Rays minds, possibly affecting the defense later in the series. After Kazmir got ahead 0-2 to Utley, he threw two straight sliders in the dirt hoping Utley would chase. Utley then knew that Kazmir did not want to walk another batter and would probably come with a fastball. Kazmir did and Utley smacked it. Even in the on field, post game interview Utley seemed giddy when he recounted the pitch was a fastball down the middle.

RYAN HOWARD GETTING THE TREATMENT

Post season baseball is different than the regular season in that the individual matchups are more pronounced, especially the lefty relief specialist facing the lefty power hitter. Many teams will keep an extra lefty specialist on the post season roster just for this reason. With Utley and Howard back to back in the Phillies lineup, lefty specialists are sorely needed in the later innings. Just ask Joe Torre. The Dodgers kept three lefty’s in their NLCS bullpen and the Rays kept three in the ALCS (for Ortiz and JD Drew) and three for the World Series.

It is the Kent Hrbek effect. In the 1987 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals, Cards manager Whitey Herzog used LHP Ken Dayley against Hrbek FOUR times in that series. The key for the Cardinals was to keep the lefty hitting Hrbek from beating them. It mostly worked until Game 6 when Hrbek crushed a grand slam against Dayley, helping the Twins win Game 6.  

Howard can only hope history is repeated.

BJ UPTON

While BJ Upton’s performances in the ALDS and ALCS were magnificent, the negative is it boosts the expectation that he should come through all the time. And when he doesn’t (and who can really?) the media is all over him for having a bad game. All hitters have bad games, and it is not an embarrassment to have a bad game against Cole Hamels. In situations with men on base, all a hitter can manage is to have a good at bat, swing at strikes and hit the ball hard.

Much has also been made about his lack of hustle on the two double play ground balls. Tim McCarver made a great point after the first DP about when a hitter is jammed; he does not get a good jump out of the box. After a taylor made DP grounder, there is NO WAY any runner will be safe at first. So run down the line AND DON’T GET HURT.  I am huge on running hard all the time down to first because once a hitter puts the ball in play because you have nothing else to do. But, I have seen many times a runner pulling a hamstring (or in my case, a quad) when busting his butt down the line in that same situation. Upton was not going to be safe, so no reason to “bust it.”

On the second DP, Upton hit the ball extremely hard and Pedro Feliz made a great stab at third and Utley easily turned the DP. Once again, no way Upton was going to be safe.

The media mainly wants to divide people and made too much of last night of the “lack of hustle.” Situations like that demand running down the line, but not being stupid and getting hurt.

The top 6 players to hit into the most double plays are Cal Ripken (350), Henry Aaron (328), Yaz (323), Dave Winfield (319), Eddie Murray (316) and Jim Rice (315). All of those guys used to hit bullets right at fielders, who turned easy double plays. I bet most of those double play ground balls weren’t run all out by those 6 guys.

Phillies in a tough spot with Hamels

Just before the season on March 3, 2008, the Phillies renewed Cole Hamels’ contract for $500,000. It just might turn out to be the best money ever spent. The Phillies can renew his contract at will because they own Hamels’ right for a few more years before he is arbitration eligible or can test free agency. But, Hamels was not happy he wasn’t offered a multi-year contract like other young players were. Even during the year when Evan Longoria was given $17.5 million (with 3 option years) and Ryan Braun was signed for $45 million, the Phillies did not offer a bigger deal to their ace lefty.

Think Phillies management would like to turn back the clock?  To be fair, the Phillies have yet to offer Ryan Howard a multi-year deal as he is still only arbitration eligible. This off season, Howard could command the largest arbitration award ever. Even Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins were renewed or re-signed on one year deals before being offered multi-year deals. That is the Phillies way.

But, it is really different when dealing with a top of the rotation ace starter, who by the way is 4-0 this post season with a 1.55 ERA.

First round of the 2002 draft is well represented

The post season has been well represented by the 2002 major league draft with former #1 picks BJ Upton (Rays, 2nd overall), Scott Kazmir (Rays via trade with Mets, 15th overall), Cole Hamels (Phillies, 17th overall) and Joe Blanton (Phillies via trade with A’s, 24th overall) prominently featured. Even #19 pick James Loney had a few shining moments this postseason. Other members of this draft class include Zach Grienke (6th), Prince Fielder (7th), Jeff Francis (9th), Joe Saunders (12th), Nick Swisher (16th - why didn’t the A’s take Hamels?), Jeff Francoeur (23rd), and Matt Cain (24th). Many of these big time players were drafted out of high school.

We know how the Mets pick (Kazmir) turned out, but what about the Yankees first round pick? That went to the A’s for the Jason Giambi free agent signing and the A’s took Blanton, just before the San Francisco Giants took Matt Cain.

If not for a bad free agent signing, the Yankees could have Matt Cain already in their rotation and Robinson Cano at second base.

Lights Out Lidge

With all the sliders Brad Lidge throws low and inthe dirt, it would fun to see a batter not swing at any pitch from Lidge and see how many pitches it would take to earn a base on balls.

Give Game 1 to Lidge mainly because the Rays hitters have never seen him. Tough to pick up the slider (maybe the best in the game) if you have never seen the pitch before. Same thing with Hamels’ change up.

If Tampa Bay faces both guys again, watch for tiny adjustments from the Ray hitters, primarily taking more pitches.