Fundamentally Flawed

Meet the Mets! Greet the Mets!
Step right up and get beat 8 out of 9 at home by the Mets!

Tim Duncan is headed to his 6^th career NBA Finals this week, and he has been a methodical superstar since the moment he entered the league coming out of Wake Forest. People complain that the Spurs and his game are boring, but all they do is win. Duncan’s nickname is even boring; The Big Fundamental. You know what’s not boring though? Going to 6 finals in your career. Timmy and the Spurs get it done because not only are they talented, but they do the little things right that you need to win games. They are fundamentally sound. This is the opposite of the current Philadelphia Phillies.

I keep replaying several putrid baseball plays in my head from over the weekend and I just can’t get over it. I need to put the Phillies down and walk away for a few days because if you’re a fan right now it’s a combination of emotions. Disgust followed by indigestion, followed by hatred, followed by dumbfoundedness, and hopefully at some point that will all lead to apathy for me.  Just not yet. It’s a shame because the Big Piece might finally be hot and it’s going for naught.

Much to the chagrin of my fiancé, I have been consumed by the Phillies of late. The tide is starting to turn though, you can only put up with so much incompetence jammed into a weekend. I didn’t think I was going to write anything about this god-awful Mets series (that miraculously still isn’t over after 48 innings and 4 games), but after reading the quotes from the suspects today I can’t bite my tongue.

It’s just insane the amount of opportunities this bad baseball team squandered over the course of two days. The only reason the Phils haven’t lost four straight in this five game series with the Mets is because the Mets’ right fielder dropped a pop up to start the 14^th inning.  Otherwise, we’d be on Sandberg suicide watch.

Let me set the scene for you on a couple of jaw-dropping bad and or dumb plays from over the weekend.

Ben Revere had a weekend that frankly, I wouldn’t mind if he got cut for, except for the fact that he’s our second best outfielder. Revere finally hit his first career home run after 1400+ at bats this past week but the fun stopped there. He is a speedster and that’s the only thing good he is known for. As a speedster, you should be really good at bunting. Ben Revere is not. That fact is maddening. Twice in a row Saturday he failed to get a bunt down including once in the 12^th inning. Bad fundamentals.

Let’s see, what else did Ben do? With 1 out and the Phils trailing by a run in the bottom of the 8^th Revere tripled to the right center field gap. That’s a big hit in a big situation. The Mets brought in the infield and Jimmy Rollins hit a grounder to 2^nd baseman Daniel Murphy, who bobbled it and threw Rollins out at first. Revere stood there like a deer in headlights. Maybe this was on Sandberg, maybe this was on Revere, but with by far your fastest player at 3^rd base 90 feet away from tying the game you have to go on contact there. Bad decision-making.

The next scene was comical. After Rollins grounded out for the 2^nd out, Chase Utley walked on 4 pitches and he took issue with Revere.  He was pretty upset with the speedy center fielder and his lack of a secondary lead at third base following pitches. Obviously, The Man would be looking to score on a wild pitch in that situation to tie up the game but Revere was busy dicking around and staying close to the bag. Meanwhile, Utley is wildly waving his arms and motioning for Revere to take a bigger lead. You have to shake your head at this. Bad fundamentals.

Okay, the next two things are what have me really fired up.

Cole Hamels had just left the game after an effective 7 inning performance in which he struck out 8 and threw 128 pitches. He allowed just 2 runs, 1 earned. In the bottom half of the inning Dom Brown pinch-hit for Hamels with Cesar Hernandez standing on 2^nd base. I’ll be damned if Dom didn’t come through with a clutch line drive base hit to left field. That’s where things went off the rails.

Since the ball was hit hard, Hernandez held up at 3^rd as the throw went past the cutoff man and straight to the catcher. At this point, Dom was lazily running down the first baseline and just when he made his turn he could survey the action and see the throw was going through and that Hernandez was stopping at 3^rd.

Now let’s think here. The game is tied. There’s 1 out. There’s a man in front of Dom Brown on the base paths. Does it really matter if Dom makes it to 2^nd in that situation? An insurance run would be nice but the go-ahead run is imperative, so the answer to that question is no.

Nevertheless, he charged toward 2^nd base and was at the very least, 50 feet from 2^nd base when the ball arrived there. From there he made very little effort to get in a rundown and was tug out immediately. This play was incomprehensibly bad. I can’t put it into words. Mind-blowingly bad. You should have seen the stink eye Juan Samuel, the 1st base coach, was laying on Brown as he slowly walked past him on his way to the dugout. Yikes!

To add insult to injury here is the quote from Dom Brown on the play, “I think I made the right read, the only thing is I should have stayed in the rundown a little longer, see what can happen with maybe a bad throw, maybe Cesar can score on that. That was pretty much it.”

I can’t say this with enough venom, “MADE THE RIGHT READ?!?!”

What planet is Dom Brown living on that he thinks he made the right play in that situation? Where is the accountability? Where is the part where you stand up for yourself and admit that you made a bad play? I can’t get over it and I will not get over it. This quote to me means that Dom Brown has officially lost any chance to be a good baseball player. His mentality is that of an imbecile if this is what he thinks. I’ve had a bad case of loser denial once or twice myself Dom, but this takes the cake. At least Ryno singled Dom out and said this was a bad play. We’d have to check him for a pulse if Dom wasn’t getting thrown under the bus by somebody with some authority on this team. Bad fundatmentals.

On to the next one. Cole Hamels threw 128 pitches in 7 innings as mentioned earlier. John Niese, yesterday’s starter, threw 91 pitches in 8 innings. That’s bad enough at face value, but here’s another direct quote that is just staggeringly awful to me. This time from Sandy himself, he was “satisfied” with his team’s aggression early in counts according to his post-game remarks.

“He’s a strike thrower (referring to Niese). He’s a quality lefthander. He establishes the zone and doesn’t walk many guys.”

This just in, if you’re swinging early in counts it’s tough to draw walks. I’m just struggling to understand the thought process here though. Was Sandberg managing the prior two games in which both his and the Mets’ bullpens were completely decimated? Did he not have any interest in getting to somebody in the Mets’ bullpen the equivalent of Phillipe Aumont (who I won’t even get started on)? Why would the gameplan not be let’s make this starter work as much as possible and get to a bullpen that’s been run ragged the past two days? 

Does that plan make too much sense? Is there too much logic involved? I just don’t get that mentality and way of thinking. I would love for somebody to explain it to me. Bad decision-making.

The Phillies are not a good baseball team. That’s the bottom line in all of this. Sorry for the negative venting but sometimes that’s all there is.

Silver Linings Playbook:

Ryan Howard has homered 4 times in the last 11 games while knocking in 16 runs. He is now 3rd in the NL with 39 RBI and tied for 9th with 11 home runs.

The Braves swept the Marlins and they're still only 6 games up on the hapless Phillies.

The Phils go on the road to DC this week to take on the Nationals. They are 500 on the road and crap at home.  SOB.