Pockets Philled to the Max

This week for the Philadelphia Phillies was as important to their season as the second “Exile” in my new favorite reality TV show, MTV’s Real World Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat II, where Wes’ alliance took a severe advantage over Kenny’s alliance after Kenny was forced to take out a team from his own alliance during that Exile. Although both events took place very early in their respective seasons, their impact on the result of those seasons and perhaps even future seasons to come is nothing short but HUGE. The alliances within every Road Rules Challenge house always play a key role in whoever wins that season, and players’ contracts on a Major League Baseball team roster collectively need to fit together in order to bring a winning combination into the clubhouse and onto the field.

For the Phillies, many fans and local media have been speculating a major salary issue coming after the 2010-2011 season concludes. First, the front office was supposed to set their sights on locking up their rising star right fielder, Jasyon Werth, to a long-term deal. Next, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. was supposed to try and keep Centerfielder Shane Victorino in town. But Amaro Jr. set his sights on a bigger target: keeping the heavy fan favorite and RBI machine, first baseman, Ryan Howard in red pinstripes… forever! As you probably know by now, Howard signed for 5 more years with the team and $125 million more for his pocket. Let’s just say that his extension has sparked a little bit of controversy and drama in the baseball world. If Ryan Howard “deserves” $20 million a year, how much does Albert Pujols “deserve”. How much the Milwaukee Brewers pay Prince Fielder to keep him in Beer City? How much should a guy like Carlos Pena expect to receive? But forget about all of baseball for a second and focus specifically on the hometown relevance to this news story.

What does this mean for the future of the franchise? I can sit here and preach about how great a move it is and how important it is to lock up a talent such as Howard and then finish a column. But I have to talk about the negatives as well. For example, one of my main arguments of why the Eagles needed to deal Donavon McNabb this offseason was because of an ever-looming contract issue. I didn’t want to pay a top-10 talented quarterback the money a top-5 quarterback who has either won a Super Bowl, contends for a Super Bowl every year, or has won a championship and has made it back to the title game since winning (see Manning, Peyton). And the age issue completely comes into factor with Howard too. However, Ryan was a key part of a nucleus that has made back-to-back World Series appearances and has won a ring as well. Plain and simple, I love the idea of locking the big man up until most likely the end of his career, but it is absolutely ridiculous the amount of money he signed for. That being said, he has done practically everything the team has asked him to do.

Coming into the season, Howard was in the best shape of his life, and still is. Either he pulled a Lindsey Lohan and went anorexic for 2 months, or hit the gym hard for the entire offseason with the passion, drive, hunger and the bad tasted left in his mouth that all professional athletes have after getting so close to winning it all and ultimately coming home with nothing. But it wasn’t only his physical shape that has improved; his patience and poise at the plate have also been extremely impressive. During the team’s season opening series in Washington, I texted my buddy Andrew, who is the biggest Phillies fan I know besides myself, and said something along the lines of “Howard is playing with an 18-year-old rookie’s body and a 36-year-old veteran’s brain”. At the start of the season, I didn’t want to admit publicly how excited I was for the guy this year. I mean why not? He had lost 300 pounds, was hitting 137% more balls for opposite field singles than last year and grew out a nice little beard that kinda reminded me of Roy Halladay (Ok I friggen love that beast of a man). But the reality is, as much as I love him when he’s hitting 8^th inning homers to tie up ball games, he seems to always have the mid-season month-long slump with a strikeout a game and a 20-point dip in his batting average.

To get to the point, a $20 million-a-year player does it all. Alex Rodriguez, (as much as I love to hate him), Mark Texiera (immense respect for him even though he’s a Yankee), and Joe Maur all hit for a great average with power, RBI’s, OPS, you name it, AND they get the job done on defense as well. Howard’s gotten better defensively and has improved is average. I’m pulling for him, I really am. But the amount they signed him for is waaaaaaay too much if we expect to keep Werth, Victorino and even Jimmy Rollins until, let’s just say, 2013. The fact might be that as Phils fans we are flat out spoiled. The way this team is constantly winning and contending year after year, maybe I am just not ready to accept that what’s best for the organization is to stick with a nucleus of four guys for two more years and then rebuild a little. Or, Locking up Howard means the front office is confident that we can keep that core of four or five players and keep finding and substituting guys in other positions, such as Placido Polanco.

That being said, I am not a MLB front office executive. But, I am extremely connected to the team and have a pretty educated opinion. I love the idea of keeping Howard happy, but at the end of the day if that keeps us from signing Jayson Werth, Amaro might see his job go bye-bye. Just like in a Real World alliance, teammates need to stick together. That’s been a winning philosophy for the Phillies organization for the past three seasons. I hope that doesn’t change now.

Ed, Ed and Eddie

The NBA playoffs are in full swing, the Phillies have blown their first regular season home series, and the NFL Draft is this Thursday. All this craziness makes me think of a makeover. Not a Lindsey Lohan makeover, but a makeover to improve multiple team settings. And yes, during the rest of the 2010 spring/summer many sports fans (especially Philly ones) will be praying that Barak Obama’s plan for change will take into effect immediately.

Well for 76ers fans, change has already been made in the form of a newly vacant head coach position. The Sixers fired coach Eddie Jordan on Thursday as expected.

“[This season] was unacceptable.” said 76ers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski.

Hmm, why do you think the season was a setback Ed? Was it because you made great front office decisions but players got injured? Was it the fact that Allen Iverson was the key to turning around the 76ers’ season but had to unfortunately leave due to family/gambling issues? Or was it the fact that you hired your best friend as the head coach of a run-and-gun fastbreaking team, who only knew how to coach the Princeton offense? Oh wait, maybe it was the idea that Jordan didn’t know how to coach defense at all. It might have been the fact that during timeouts this season, Jordan would stand at the elbow across from the Sixers bench while Jim Leinem tried to save a team destined for hell, and then he would nonchalantly walk back to the bench and design a play that would result in either a forced shot by Andre Iguodala, or a turnover and even points for the other team.

Let’s throw all the mathematical, logical, and realistic terminology to the side for a second. Stefanski and Jordan were members of the New Jersey Nets together for four seasons. This draws me to conclude 3 theories:

Most Realistic Unrealistic Theory

Ed Stefanski slowly reclines in is beach chair along the Bahamian beach during the 2009 NBA All-Star break. He just finishes sipping his Piña Colada out of a coconut when Eddie Jordan Calls.

Jordan: “Hey Ed. I’m in Phoenix watching the All-Star game. I originally bought the tickets for my wife to watch me coach the Eastern Conference, but apparently the league doesn’t pick losing teams’ coaches to coach the best players in the world for one game. Speaking of the Eastern Conference, I looked at their bench and saw Danny Granger, Devin Harris and Mo Williams, and couldn’t help thinking to myself ‘Wow, Andre Iguodala sure could play with any of those guys, why doesn’t he get any national attention.’”

Stefanski: “You’re telling me that? You’re the first person I know who agrees with me about his contract extension!”

Jordan: “No way, Andre definitely deserves to be the highest paid player on an NBA team. He’s freakishly athletic, shoots 70% from the line, and can win the Slam-Dunk Contest! I’d love for him to be the focus of my Princeton offense.”

Stefanski: “That’s really interesting. I’ve never thought about putting an undisciplined street-balling high flyer in a slow, relaxed and patient half-court offense like the Princeton. That’s crazy. So crazy, it just might work!”

Jordan: “Woah! Lebron just leapfrogged Allen Iverson while finishing an ally-oop from D-Wade. I bet Allen Iverson could put fans in the seats in Philly next season after his contracts ends with the Pistons.”

Stefanski: “You think?

Jordan: “It’s as definite as me winning an NBA Championship within the next three seasons, and you snagging the Exec of the Year next season.”

Stefanski: “Wow Eddie, I forgot about your amazing creativity and ideas back from New Jersey. You made some good points. I’ll tell you what, if Tony DiLeo sets the unofficial record for least amount of words said by a head coach in a NBA Playoff series I’ll bring you into Philly for next year. But if he doesn’t, you have to try to help me figure out how to make the ghost of Elton Brand gel with a young and athletic roster. Deal or no deal?”

Jordan: “Deal. Do we need to ask Howie or David Stern the banker if it’s ok with him?”

Stefanski: “No silly. Stern doesn’t have control over GM’s, I can do whatever I want!”

Ridiculously Unrealistic Theory

Eddie Jordan plops down on his coach with a twenty ounce bowl of heavily salted popcorn in one hand and a six-pack of Bud-Light in the other. Looking down at his new belly, Jordan sighs and thinks to himself; “I need to get a job.” Flicking the Tuesday night TV shows he comes across a rare appearance by the Philadelphia 76ers on national television. Of course the only reason why they are on is because of they are in Los Angeles battling the top team in the Western Conference, the Lakers. After the young and quick Philly team kept the game close through three quarters, Jordan put aside his fifth beer and dropped his empty popcorn bowl on the floor.

Next, Andre Iguodala catches the ball at the top of the key with Kobe Bryant in his face, and stares gaping at the shot clock watching the time tick from 24 seconds all the way down to 5. Jordan now draws himself closer to the screen, surely Iguodala, or Iggy as he likes to refer to him, can’t beat the Lakers by getting past or shooting over one of the greatest players in the history of their franchise. Iggy puts the ball on the floor, crosses over and steps back, Jordan’s heart skips a beat. The ball finds its way through the bottom of the next.

“Wow I must be really wasted if that just happened” Jordan mumbles to himself.

After watching the highlights replayed fifteen times back again, Jordan finally comes to the conclusion that he was in fact wasted, but could still comprehend the outcome of the game. He then proceeds to write a strongly worded e-mail to his old pal Ed Stefanski, the General Manager of the 76ers that went something along the lines of this:

Dear Ed,

Just saw the game wit Iggy’s shot bro, congratu-frickin-lations man! This team is def on the way up and im so proud of you. But watching this game coudent stop me from thinkin how amazin it wood be for us to chill in Philly for the next few years together. I mean u, ed snider and me. Dat’s like the old fave tv show Ed, Edd n Eddy except only it would be Ed, Ed, ad Eddie haha! Woudent dat be sooooooo sweet dude???? Just think bout it cuz im like sooooo siked for next year man n (like the the tv show n instead of and get???) I really want to be in Philly with u and my boy Iggy. Aight dog its been real but I gotta bounce. Need to knock down my sixth beer in an hour so I can just pass out on my couch so I dont have to go clean the toilets at walmart tomoro. Catcha l8ter alligater!

Lots of love,

EJ (or Eddie Jordan if it didn come up in that inbox thing)

Evil Genius Unrealistic Theory

A few weeks after the Philadelphia 76ers blew its 2-1 series lead during their opening round matchup against the Orlando Magic. Ed Stefanski sits in his General Manager’s office somewhere in the Wachovia Center. While stroking his cat, who just so happened to be perched in his lap, Stefanski gazes out his office window that has a few of the team’s home court thinking to himself; “How can I get Tony DiLeo out of his head coaching spot for this upcoming 2009-2010 season after I have already fired Mo Cheeks?” Suddenly it hit him: force DiLeo to “withdraw his name from consideration” of the head coaching vacancy. Perfect.

Followed by an evil laugh, Stefanski then begins to plot who his next coach will be. Should he chose a quiet and soft-spoken man whom he can utterly dominate like a DiLeo, or should he select another evil mastermind that he can collaborate with in order to hatch yet another purely genius plan? Immediately after that thought, Stefanski’s secretary Frau Farbissina forwards him an e-mail with the list of the top head coaches available for the upcoming season and their asking prices. Scanning the list of names one in particularly jumps out at him: Eddie Jordan. Stefanski rapidly begins massaging his temples and the rest of his bald, shiny head brainstorming and pumping out evil schemes in order to leave himself and a potential partner the ones with the last laugh. Then, a second epiphany hits him: Could Jordan and himself singlehandedly lower the 76ers to the depths of the Atlantic Division, ultimately leading to their firing and earning of millions of dollars while sitting on their asses for two years?

Soon, the plan would become reality. Jordan was hired to a 3 year multi-million dollar deal and Stefanski had his pawn in place to lead Jordan and himself to ultimate prosperity while relishing in the Sixers stink bomb. After Lou Williams showed promise in the early goings of the season, Stefanski ordered Jordan to run drills that would purposefully injure him. The plan worked to success. Following that maneuver, Stefanski gained word that Allen Iverson was looking to play again, but all GM’s should beware of his emotional damage and heavy gambling issues. Upon hearing this news Stefanski could only think of one thing: the last missing piece to the puzzle. Adding Iverson would look like a plan to raise ticket-sales when in reality, Iverson’s awful off-court issues and lack of heart in the game infected the entire locker room. Slowly but surely all signs pointed to an Eddie Jordan firing, leaving him unemployed but set to make $6 million over the next two seasons. Stefanski would then plan to either engaging in adultery alongside Tiger Woods, or performing some kind of illegal insider trading within the 76ers (Don’t worry a mastermind such as Stefanski could find a way to make it happen).

Thus in the end, Stefanski and Jordan would be “forced” to spend the next two years on a beach somewhere drinking tequila, while earning nearly $10 million dollars between them, and plotting their next evil scheme.

Now it is obviously clear that I was never a fan of the Eddie Jordan hiring and have never drank the Ed Stefanski cool-aide. I met Stefanksi in a Wachovia Center suite three weeks after he was hired and we talked for a little while about the upcoming off-season. I really appreciated his openness and honesty. However, what he was open and honest about were complete and total red flags. He didn’t tell me straight up, but I had no doubt in my mind Stefanski was sold on bringing Elton Brand to Philly. The worst part about this wasn’t his closed-mindedness or the fact that Brand was aging and damaged (torn Achilles) goods, but the fact that it was clear his main reason to add Brand was to get the fans excited and to put people in the seats. When you make a free agent signing in the NBA and you are a legitimate playoff team, you are supposed to be signing that player for on-court results, which will later translate into box-office numbers. He also was sold on the fact that Andre Iguodala was a future NBA MVP and we all know how that story goes.

Now back to Eddie Jordan. The Princeton offense is complicated and very precise. I’m surprised Eddie Jordan could even comprehend how to coach it. During his five year tenure with the Wizards, I rarely ever saw his team run the Princeton offense their either. And, even though he made the playoffs during every full-year he coached their (his record in 2009 was 1-10 before being fired) he only got out of the first round once, and failed to manage games, and even his players, during crunch time. So was I surprised that integrating Jordan’s Princeton offense into a running-scheme was a failure? Not a chance. Did I think his firing should have come around the All-Star break while Stefanski was sipping a Colada in the Bahamas? Absolutely. Eddie Jordan is not an NBA coach. In fact, I think he could be a very effective college coach and that he deserves a shot at the Rutgers job. Overall, this team needs to sign a younger guy, and not for $3 million a year like Jordan, or seriously attempt to bring Larry Brown back. Otherwise, a team without any real veteran leadership and that lacks a solid go-to-guy, will continue to fail to reach pre-season expectations and see drafting in the lottery year after year. Philadelphia, it’s time for a 76ers makeover.

(* Stay tuned for an Eagles post-draft column, I would have liked to have written a pre-draft post but this column took a little longer than expected to write, my apologies.)

Colelossal Impact

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Cole Hamels’ pitching struggles are a lot more complicated than simply perfecting the off-speed pitches in his repertoire and even adding pitches as well. What’s holding Hamels back from returning to his dominant 2008 post-season form is hidden within the 6 inches between his ears and underneath the majestically groomed hair that is seemingly plopped on top of his head. Cole Hamels needs to actually emulate his co-cute-boy-athlete star Troy Bolton from High School Musical; he needs to get his, get his, get his, get his head in the game. It’s not like hes completely out of the game. I highly doubt Cole is thinking about his devastatingly good-looking wife. So his minds in the game… but not really.

When the Phillies made the offseason deal to land Roy Halladay, the only thing fans and “experts” would discuss is how his dominant AL (and even AL East) pitching will translate into NL pitching delivered straight from the baseball gods. One of the first things I thought about the trade? How amazing will Carlos Ruiz and Roy Halladay be together?

Whether you are coming out of the bullpen, an end-of-the-rotation starter or a Cy Young candidate, every Philadelphia Phillies pitcher shares something in common. They all have the immense privilege to be caught by the loveable guy we all know as CHOOOOOCH. Carlos Ruiz has been credited for his all-star caliber defense (some can make the argument for gold-glove caliber) and his clutch hitting. The one characteristic that he is never applauded for or even brought up about nationally, and sometimes even locally, is his ridiculous ability to call an effective game for his pitchers. The man guided Brad Lidge to a perfect season for crying out loud! Now back to Cole Hamels.

During Cole’s first two starts (and I apologize for the lateness of this post) he has shown his vast improvement on his curveball change-up and other pitches. There is no doubt in my mind Hamels has the stuff to be the ace of an MLB team. The problem is that he seems to not have mentally prepared himself for improving after the World Series. During those playoffs, Hamels would stare opposing batters in the face with his cold and sometimes harsh blue eyes the way Rafael Palmeiro glared in court while pointing his finger at honorable congressman. Now, it seems as if Cole is creating some mind game between himself and the opposing batter that doesn’t exist. Almost as if he was thinking too hard about a math problem that wasn’t really that complicated. Cole needs to relax and let his boy chooch call the game for him. He needs to force hitters to be afraid of him like they were in the 2008 postseason.

I have all the confidence in the world in Hamels. He was my pre-season pick for NL Comeback player of the year before the season began and I’m still sticking by him. I even thought, and still do, that Cole Hamels was the missing piece to last season’s potential World Series victory. This season, with even more pressure off of him, the Phils could easily go with a 3-man rotation in the starting pitchers department. Harry Leroy Halladay (I had to mention it once) is an absolute horse. ESPN’s Albert Pujols “machine” commercials are about the wrong baseball player. I’m still not completely sure that Halladay was created in some evil baseball genius’s basement to completely overpower every National League hitter he sees. If Hamels provides a very solid second starter contribution, that gives the Phils a 2-0 lead in the series with either a promising J.A. Happ or a potential above-average start from Joe Blanton (I’d much rather have Happ). I like those chances at a NL 3-peat and another World Series crown.

Opening Halladay

This past Sunday and Monday may have been my two favorite consecutive sports days in Philadelphia since the chaotic aftermath of the Phillies' kismet 2008 World Series Championship. Donavon McNabb was dealt (I'll get to the issue of his new team soon) and the Phillies opened up a serious can of whoop-ass on the miserable Washington Nationals behind future 23-game winner and already Cy Young candidate Roy "Doc" Halladay. However the best part about the Phils fantastic opener was the fact that Halladay was not the only new Phillie that I'm extremely excited about and intrigued by. But overall, the best part of the 2010 (2-day) opening day was the fact that the our good old pal Chan Ho Park helped play an enormous role in the Yankees opening collapse against the Red Sox. Damn I love this time of year!

In order to end this entry on an extremely positive note, aka a recap of the Phils' opening day, again I feel obligated to talk about the Donavon McNabb trade. Before the deal actually went down I was all in favor of this trade for three reasons. First, McNabb has never led us to a Super Bowl victory and unless an absolutely terrific draft-day trade was made, I really couldn't see him doing it this up-coming season either. Our secondary is still week, and our Offensive Line is still very depleted by injuries and had many cases of big-300-pound mental collapses last season. Second, after this season would have ultimately ended in a playoff loss, McNabb's contract would have ended. In an uncapped season where Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady all will earn around $15 million dollars annually, McNabb would have expected at least a 3 year deal and probably even a 5 year deal that would pay him a similar annual salary as well. This means that he was expecting us to pay him in the last year of his contract, at the age of 39, around $15 million dollars! Do you really want to pay quarterback that much money for 3 more trips to the NFC Championship game and 3 more losses? Finally, Now that McNabb is definitely gone, Kevin Kolb will have an entire year of starting in the NFL under his belt before McNabb's contract ends. For those who don't feel that the team has a legitimate playoff chances this year (by the way you're wrong), how can you argue that with a year of experience and getting to know Andy Reid's tendencies, and god-awful clock management decisions, during game situations and gelling with so many outstanding young receivers, I feel very confident in the team's playoff capabilities in 2011. After all, this transaction is definitely a move towards the future. But, How do you trade him within the division! This is either a complete failure by Reid, or the Redskins additional 2011 pick was the best offer and the Eagles front office knows something about McNabb's health that we don't know. Regardless, its a very questionable team to make a deal with and I could rant about it for 3 columns worth of words.

Now moving on to the good news. The Philadelphia Phillies are back and with a vengeance! Watching every second of that opening game I couldn't help but envision a few amazing end of season stat lines:

Roy Hallady- 23 wins, 225 IP, 214 K, 50 BB, and a 2.87 era

Placido Polanco- .307 BA, 22 HR, 89 RBI, 15 SB

Danys Baez- 73 appearances, 8-3 record, 102 K, 3.04 era, 7 Sv

Halladay's dominance yesterday was exciting because his pin-point command of his fast ball, the bite on his curve, and the devastatingly sick-nasty movement on his other two off-speed pitches. Halladay's arsenal is as impressive as how much weight C.C. Sabathia gained over this offseason. The Doc's ability to strand runner's on base and force double play's was also intoxicating. Does anyone else not remember a guy who's name I think was Cliff Lee? Placido Polanco is back in Philly and couldn't have come at a better time. Pedro Feliz's fielding cannot be matched, but his bat had a hole in it the size of Charlie Manuel's drooling mouth last season. Polanco brings another .300 average to compliment a lineup loaded with power, and allows Victorino to shift back to the 7th spot in order to keep our end of the lineup dangerous as well. Realistically, Placido won't knock in six runs every game, but a 90 RBI season is definitely in his range, coming from the 2 spot. Moving onto the intriguing bull-pen, even though Danys Baez only recorded one out, he continued to impress and build off his strong spring yesterday. To have the ability to come into the game in the 8th and record an inning-ending out with a runner in scoring position is huge during the playoffs and arguably cost the Phils a World Series game last year. Antonio Bastardo was not overly impressive but still did not allow a run as well. With Howard's proven power, J-Roll's excellent day, and the other solid position players (I haven't even mention Utley, Werth and Ibanez) I'm ecstatic about this year's season.