Also posted at Huge Tiny Mistake

Your Philadelphia Phillies shortstop edged Colorado Rockie 353 votes to 336 in the closest vote in 16 years:

Enough so that even though Rollins' power numbers paled to runner-up Matt Holliday's, his home runs to third-place Prince Fielder's and his star power to fourth place David Wright's, 16 of the 32 voters cast ballots with his name in first place. Because Rollins had affixed his reputation to the success of his team, and that added enough value in voters' eyes to overcome any numerical differences.

Of course, it wasn't like Rollins was some slug getting by on reputation. His 139 runs and 88 extra-base hits set records for shortstops. Everyone made such a big deal of Curtis Granderson's 20-20-20-20 - doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases. Well, Rollins went 35-20-30-40 and set career highs in batting average at .296 and slugging percentage at .531. And he set a major league record with 716 at-bats.

Rollins, he of the pre-season proclamations, helped lead his team to the playoffs, same as Holliday.  He did it with both the stick and the glove.  Matt Holliday slugged his way to 2nd place with terrific overall numbers and insane numbers at home.  Rollins also benefited from cozy Citizens Bank Park. Hell, 1B Prince Fielder and 3B David Wright had great years as well...do what do the numbers (beyond the Triple Crown) say?

Click inside

OPS:

Rollins     .875

Holliday  1.012

Fielder    1.013

Wright    .963

VORP:

Rollins     66.1

Holliday   75

Fielder    69.1

Wright    81

EQA (adjusted for park and league):

Rollins     .290

Holliday  .318

Fielder    .323

Wright    .329

Runs Created:

Rollins      122

Holliday   125

Fielder     126

Wright     136

Win Shares

Rollins     28

Holliday  30

Fielder    28

Wright    34

Something surprising happened while checking these numbers out.  I found myself less and less enamored with Rollins' season.  Rollins' EQA also stood much lower than the rest of the pack.   Sure, he had good counting stats, and his team made the playoffs, but both of those had a lot to do with his teammates.  Being on the best offense in the NL certainly had a lot to do with getting to the plate so much.  Rollins DID set the all-time season at bat record with 716.  He also played great defense and was the 'spark plug' for said great offense.

But I'm not sure his great season at SS outshines the great season David Wright had at third base.  Wright led the league in Win Shares, VORP AND Runs Created, both stats that combined a lot of factors  Win Shares includes defense too.   He wasn't overally flashy, but he got things done.  He also played great in August and September, so you can't pin the Mets' collapse on him.   There's really no reason to select anyone else if you are looking at the same numbers I am.  David Wright was the NL's best player last season when you look at both the plate and the field.  Rollins was great, but Wright was even better.

Also posted at Huge Tiny Mistake

Also posted at HTM

 During yesterday's game against the San Diego Padres were all treated to multiple mentions of the size of Petco Park by our main man behind the mic Chris Wheeler. In the interest of fun and just a little bit of malice, I am going to run a guessing game. So fellow fans, how many times will Wheels mention the size of the ballpark? "This ballpark is huge' , `look at the size of this ballpark', `you don't hit many homers in this field', or some facsimile of this phrase. Also acceptable are patent-pending Wheels chuckles or guffaws at deep flyouts being caught on the warning track. However, if he does a guffaw then a phrase, that is still only one mention. Each mention must be on a different play or plate appearance.

The fan closest to the actual number, over or under, will win a HUGE (like Safeco) T-Shirt courtesy of yours truly (other fine Wheels T-Shirts are available at Chris Wheeler Glossary.com). Make sure to leave a real email address in the comments section of this post so I can contact you. And if this is a complete failure, well I'll just keep the freaking shirt!  Or email me it at pacino@backshegoes.com

    * Friday 10:05 pm

    * Saturday 10:05 pm

    * Sunday 4:05 pm

And don't forget to play BINGO!

Huge Tiny Mistake

Now it’s time to give out the award for the best pitcher. I’m going to do it the same way as I did the ROY, by naming my top 5 from each league. I also won’t rely on wins and losses. I won’t even look at them, even though I will list them. You get to a point where that means very little. If you’re a pitcher and you go 8 strong innings and your manager pulls you and the bullpen blows it…is that your fault? Should you get penalized because you didn’t get that WIN? Your team lost, not just you. You shouldn’t be penalized in the CY Young award rankings because you lost a game in the standings.

Anyway, let’s check out the previous years: Bartolo Colon (AL 2005), Chris Carpenter (NL 2005), Johan Santana (AL 2004), Roger Clemens (NL 2004) And that Colon CY Young? Johan Santana had more innings, more Ks, a better ERA, better WHIP, and gave up less homers. But he had two less wins!!!! TWO LESS WINS?!?! Well I never!

Oh, and you won’t be seeing any relievers on these lists. They just don’t pitch enough for my liking. And most of those who read this site know my feelings about the save stat, so…there we are.

Let’s check out 2006:

Huge Tiny Mistake

He’s the guy that threw for 354 yards and 2 TDs in yesterday’s 38-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys. He also ran for a touchdown. Well, he kinda fell forward for it. He’s now averaged 320 yards passing over the first 5 Eagles games and has crossed the goal line 14 times. He has the 3rd best QB rating in the NFL, the most passing yards, most passing TDs, and he doesn’t turn it over (not like he ever did).

It may be time to put him with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Frankly, I’d take him over Brady, and for all the gyrations and playcalling that Manning does out there, McNabb is a force on the field this season. And he’s doing it all without his #1 wide reciever (Donte Stallworth) and without knowing whether his best weapon, Westbrook, is even going to play from week to week. McNabb’s making 100 yard recievers out of guys like Hank Baskett. He’s making LJ Smith a probable pro-bowler at tight end. And he’s just winning ball games, which is always the bottom line. The Eagles sit 4-1 with probably the best offense in the league, and this is with inconsistent playing time from 2 of their top 3 offensive weapons.

Give props to McNabb, this year’s frontrunner for the MVP award.

Huge Tiny Mistake
While watching the Phillies defeat the Nationals in 14 innings last night, I heard several people say that the Phillies ‘looked tight’ and were playing ‘with pressure’. So tight and so much pressure that they actually won the game, right? But anyway, this idea that if the Phillies lose they ‘choke’ is simply crap. Sometimes baseball teams lose baseball games. Actually, they all lose at least 60 of them every year. Even the best teams do that! And if you’re going to have a ton of close one-run games, you’re going to lose several of those. That’s only natural…even a great reliever like Trevor Hoffman has lost games this year. Reliever have no room to work in one run games, so anything they give up looks that much worse. Losing close games doesn’t mean a team has played tight or has choked, it means they’re a baseball team that falls into the law of averages.

And if you don’t believe me, let’s see what Jon Lieber says about all of this:

“I just wanted to stay aggressive and keep the ball low,” he said. “Right now, we’re a team that doesn’t feel any pressure. We’re feeding off one another.”

In reference to his previous start, he was ‘aggressive’ and neither he nor the rest of the team feel any pressure. Boy, you must be lying through your teeth there Jonny!!!! To hear the fans weave the tale, the Phillies were up by 10 games in the Wild Card and are now blowing it to the Dodgers every single night! But the reality is that the Phils have been playing about as good as they are capable of, which is slightly better than average baseball. They have a really good offense, and while it won’t surface every night, it gives them a few nice blowouts every so often. Their pitching is about the epitome of average, and their key cog (Hamels) has pitched a whopping 120 innings above the minors, and 300 innings in professional baseball. To expect the World Series out of this bunch is overshooting a bit.

So if/when the Phillies don’t make the playoffs, let’s not say they ‘blew it’ or they were playing ‘tight’. Sometimes teams just play to the level they are capable of…and for the Phils that level isn’t a playoff one. Even in the crappy NL Wildcard race.
And BTW, for all his veterannes and playoff-readiness, Jeff Conine sure ‘came up big’ last night. 0-7 This just proves that he’s playing up to his level. He had been playing over his head for a bit with the Phils with an OPS near 850, which he hasn’t sniffed since 2001 with Baltimore. It’s now at a much lower 765, and nearing his season mark of 733.

Huge Tiny Mistake

Likely on purpose, ESPN.com’s front page highlighted the race for MVP, and delcared it a two man race:

• Howard blasts Nos. 50, 51, 52 | Pujols hits 3, too

The juxtaposition does not go unnoticed here. I also see it as a two man race at first glance, with Pujols having the lead in the rate stats(AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS) and Howard having the edge in the counting stats(hits, HR, RBI). Though RBI is fairly team-dependent, it still makes baseball writers’ heart go a-fluttering.

Now, who’s better? Who’s more valuable? Here’s their standards lines:

Huge Tiny Mistake

It was the top of the 8th inning. The Phillies were cruising by the Nationals behind the left arm of King Cole Hamels, winning 4-0. There were 2 outs and Jeff Conine was standing at second base. Up strolled Abraham Nunez to the plate with an 0-3 collar around his neck. His 198 batting average and 522 OPS has become a sort of odd wonder, such that Sportszilla has chronicled his assault on the 500 OPS mark. His designation as starting third baseman defies any sort of logic, and yet the words Scott Graham, Phillies broadcaster, was about to utter would shake the ground that I stood upon:

“Well, with two outs and the pitcher behind him, the Nationals are going to intentionally walk Abraham Nunez to get to Cole Hamels.”

Yes. That’s right. Abraham Nunez was intentionally walked as though he were the Ryan Howard of 8 hole hitters. With 2 outs and the worst starting major leaguer in the past 6 seasons up at the plate, Frank Robinson had the stellar idea of letting that guy get on base to, as the illustrious Chris Wheeler would say, ‘turn the lineup over’. Instead of the pitcher’s spot leading off the top of the 9th, Jimmy Rollins led off the 9th.

Now, it ‘worked’ in that Cole Hamels struck out to end the inning. But three straight hits were given up in the 9th inning, and the Phillies were able to score a run on a sacrifice fly that might not have been set up if a pinch hitter came in to lead off the inning. The simple fact that the worst starting player in the Majors was GIVEN a base is simply mindboggling. To give Abe Nunez ANYTHING is just…wow.

Huge Tiny Mistake

Now,a quick disclaimer here: I’m going to vote for Bob Casey Jr. for the US Senate, I’ve stated why I think he’s the best option (because he can win, he can get rid of Senator Rick Santorum, and he is much more representative of a fairly moderate state like Pennsylvania than either Chuck Pennacchio or Santorum) but the dude is just bland. Bob is just bland, and his new commercial, set to run statewide, are as well. I’ll vote for the magic eyebrows of justice, but it’s hard to ignore the lack of any sort of charisma. But politicans don’t become better legislators when they have more charisma, they simply become better politicans. I do like that he highlights his economic approach, which is vastly different from Santorum’s. It’s the only spot where he can successfully get Democrats out to vote for him, and also some moderate Republicans who don’t like some of the political wrangling of Santorum reflecting poorly on their state. Many Republicans in the Philadelphia suburbs, for example.

Here it is: LINKING IT

Huge Tiny Mistake

That’s right Pittsburgh, Kidd Chris, Thomas, Reverand Bob Levy, and more are coming to your city. K-ROCK 93.7 is going to be simulcasting the 3-7 drive-time show, which has become quite popular among Philadelphians, especially men. Opie and Anthony are already on K-ROCK in the morning, so the show is going to have some great company. It’s a great show, and let’s hope that they expand to several other markets, including ones which the show used to be in such as San Antonio and Sacremento. The Kidd Chris Show currently airs on 94.1 WYSP in Philadelphia, for the unenlightened. Give ‘em the heater Ricky!!!

Huge Tiny Mistake

About 5 weeks ago I looked at the Phillies walk rates as individuals and as a team. I concluded that the team was fairly hackish, and that the players who weren't hackish were mostly from outside the organization (Abreu, for example). The bench was littered with hackers, and 'young' hitters Utley and Howard were OK, but nothing exciting. This basically meant that some guys had good eyes, some had decent eyes, but many players were swinging at balls. How has one month affected these rates and what does this say about the offense? Let's look at them and how they've changed:

Huge Tiny Mistake

Here's the story:

The plan calls for a wrought-iron fence about 130 feet behind the building, the original home of the Liberty Bell. The Park Service, which operates the site, says the fence is among $2 million in security precautions that the Department of Homeland Security has mandated at the Independence National Historical Park. It is not unlike antiterrorism steps being taken at other major landmarks around the country, parks officials say.

Huge Tiny Mistake

Exciting, isn’t it? The Philly Metro, paper for those who need their news in 5 minute spurts, highlighted the man behind the A Citizen’s Blog website, Micke Berquist. If you haven’t been checking out his daily updates on Phillies baseball, you’ve been missing out. His analysis tends to take a statistical slant, and sometimes the stats are very high-end and tough to decipher, but he brings you along for the ride quite well and explains things to us dumber phans. It’s a great site with some great ideas (Bobby good, Rowand should be dealt, Hamels already the best starter on the team). Here’s an excerpt from the writeup where the Philly fan in him comes out and he explains some of his ideas:

“I catch the games they play against Pittsburgh, which they usually find a way to lose,” he said. “But I’m always reading the stats. … Something I really talk about in my blog are savvy players. Someone like Rollins, who strikes out too much, him and Rowand have really kind of become my whipping boys over the last couple weeks.”

Rowand? He had the greatest catch of the year?

“It was a great catch but his performance the rest of the year has been atrocious,” Berquist said. “He doesn’t have a good eye. He’s having a terrible defensive year.”

Declaring the Phillies dead yesterday in his latest post, Berquist lists all but five players — Cole Hamels, Jon Lieber, Chase Utley, Bobby Abreu and Ryan Howard — untouchable.

Then he settled into his theme of the day: The Phillies are done-zo.

“So that’s it, Phillies fans,” he concluded. “Get ready for the fire sale. Wait ‘til next year.”

Wait ’til next year is a bit optimistic, though. Wait ’til 2008.

I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake

Who doesn’t love City Hall? The only slight drawbacks are lame Dilworth Plaza, but that’s not even the building itself, and John Street is housed in it. Anyway, the New York Times recently had an article about the tower, which described how it is the quintessential Philadelphia story. It was delayed for years, was thought to have derived from corruption and graft, and people even called for its destruction…they only backed off when no one could figure out how to get rid of all the materials left over.

And now it is one of the best municipial buildings in the nation, if not the world. Massive in size, intricate in detail, it sports over 250 different sculptures, which display messages of government, law, war, history and whatever one wants to decipher. And now the exterior is being brightened day by day, as pigeon feces and other grime is being lifted from its white, somewhat milky, facade. It’s one of the gems of Philadelphia, something that sets the city apart from most every other city in ‘the new world’, and even most other cities around the world: we have an architectural masterpiece which is used every single day. It is a working piece of art, and the heart of the city. Treasure it. Treat it right. And, most of all, go there. Visit it. Don’t be that guy that never visits his own city’s great buildings, because you’ll be missing out.

I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake

…when Bobby Abreu is dealt. For all the ire that is thrown at this man by many fans and journalists, it says something when the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Tigers, Angels, and perhaps Cardinals are all interested in trading for him. The Phillies may actually get some good value back for him because of all this interest, but the end result will be to have traded one of the best hitters this franchise has ever had simply because he costs a lot of money for a team that has made a lot of bad moves. If/when he wins a World Series with one of these teams, Huge Tiny Mistake hopes he is happy and understands that he had many fans in Philadelphia who loved his play, even if the boos and taunts about his defense or ‘walking too much’ were louder than the cheers.

We’re not going to list the stats that show how much of a rock he has been at the plate, and we’re not going to show where he lists all-time on the Phillies’ offensive lists. It’s been re-hashed several times before, and it won’t stop anyone from believing that he’s ‘lazy’ or that somehow fumbling a ball in the outfield once in a while should be an afterthought because of how much he brings with his bat. People blame Bobby unfairly for this team losing throughout his career, as though his entire game is ‘hollow’ or he is some kind of ‘fraud’. For christ’s sake, Luis Sojo has won multiple World Series rings, that is not the way one judges a player.

It almost seems like a forgone conclusion now that Bobby will be dealt. And we will be worse off for it.

I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake

Why is Barbaro still alive? He just underwent a three-hour surgery in Kennett Square. He is on his sixth cast for his leg. He's got 27 screws in his leg now. And he's not feeling well. What kind of life is that? Why is the horse being forced to live in pain? Here's why: