Madson Makes Me Laugh

It's been so much fun watching Ryan Madson develop as a pitcher. From a gangly youngster who looked awkward on the mound, he has gradually evolved into one of the premier set-up men in the game.

And with the addition of a 96 mph fastball that came from out 0f nowhere last August, Madson's combination fastball-change-up can make the best hitters in baseball look silly. What he just did to Fowler was classic.

Following two 90+ mph fastballs, Madson then threw an 81-mph change-up. Fowler swung...sort of. It was more waving at the general vicinity of the plate as Fowler was just eaten alive by that change-up. It made me laugh.

Now, let's get that go-ahead run and bring in Lidge to close this puppy out!

Coste's Stance

Chris Coste is not standing up as much this season. The past two seasons Coste has stood up almost straight and then bent over forming an upside down L. This season he's crouching much more. He's getting his head to the same place, but doing so in a very different way. He's also having difficulty this season. Perhaps, it's related.

Coste Auditioning for Back-up

With Carlos Ruiz injured and Lou Marson joining the team, the announcers mentioned before the game that Coste would be given an opportunity to secure a grip on the starting catcher's position. Play well and you keep playing. What they didn't mention is the flip side.

If Marson shows he can play in the Majors and Coste struggles over the next two weeks, it just might be Coste who heads back to Allentown when Ruiz recovers.

Rockies 4-10-09

Impressions during the game.
1st Inning: It was nice of the Rockies to run themselves out of the inning. Instead of having a runner on second with one out after two batters, they wound up with no one on and two outs because of bad baserunning and a really nice play by Howard.

It's way too soon to say anything definite, but it is worth noting as something to keep an eye on that this is the second really nice play by Howard in less than four games. He has shown occasional great fielding in the past, but the play today (unlike the dive to snag a ground ball in the 8th inning of Wednesday's game against the Braves) was the result of fundamentally improved technique. When Spilborghs took off from first too early, Howard continued to move toward Hamels to receive the pickoff throw. That put him in a much better position to throw the ball down to Rollins at second. He had the inside angle to throw the ball rather than having to throw the ball over top of the runner. Frequently during the past few seasons, Howard has thrown that ball directly into the back of the runner going to second. Howard's always been a great athlete, and most of his good fielding plays have been a result of that pure athleticism, but his technique has been terrible. So, it's really nice to see the improvement in the technique.

3rd Inning: Marquis should have scored from second on the double by Spilborghs. He must have been watching the ball instead of watching the third base coach. It, unfortunately, didn't cost them anything, but it's bad baseball.

The inning Cole unraveled. No jump on his fastball. Poor control. Still in Spring training form.

4th Inning: Werth hitting a right-hander (two doubles) is a very good sign.
A bit surprised that the double switch was to bring in Bruntlett to play third instead of Dobbs. Could be a sign that Charlie wants Dobbs off the bench as a pinch hitter. Could be that he wants to get Bruntlett some game time.

7th Inning: I'm surprised Coste was brought in. No mention of any injury to Ruiz, but it's odd to pull your catcher mid-game without an injury.

Ruiz is injured. No word on how severe. Lou Marson might get a shot this year after all.

8th Inning: On the bright side, the bullpen continues to shine. Do I need to knock on some wood?

OK. I should have. Long day. And another bad outing from Durbin. Not good.

9th Inning: Really stretching the bright side, this is a remarkably fast game. 12 runs in less than three hours.

Werth having a great game. My fantasy team is happy. I think this might be the lineup for the season. Werth in the 5 hole and Ibanez batting 6th.

Great Win

I'm hopeful that today's unconventional victory will help get the Phillies bats back on track. Taking those walks in the 7th inning was a very good sign, and with a few well hit balls sprinkled in, it turned in to quite a rally.

I'm still a bit concerned about the starting pitching, but so far it's just one bad outing from three different guys. Unfortunately, all three happened in a row, but it's much nicer to leave home 1-2 than 0-3. If nothing else, it will make Cataldi shut up for a day. Well, that's not gonna happen, but we can dream.

And I loved Charlie's press conference after the game. When asked about pinch hitting Matt Stairs for Carlos Ruiz in the 7th, Charlie said "To tell you the truth, I was worried about Chooch grounding into a double play and I wanted to make sure Stairs got to hit with the bases loaded."

Stairs, of course, took the walk. But it's fascinating that even with Chooch off to a good start (3-9 after today), Charlie still trusts Stairs off the bench more when the game is on the line. Stairs is definitely a Charlie kind of guy. I hope, though that this year will see Chooch put together better offensive numbers so Charlie does trust him in those situations.

Charlie is slow to change his opinion of guys. It took Chad Durbin a long time last year to establish himself as a reliable guy out of the 'pen, and then it took a long time for Madson to replace him as the setup man. That's part of the key to Charlie's success. He trusts his gut and his guys to produce the way they have in the past. He doesn't change those opinions lightly. And guys seem to like that.

Clearly, 9 at-bats haven't turned Chooch into an offensive star in Charlie's mind. It'll be worth watching this season to see when (or if) he can do so.

On Media Coverage

From a column by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:

"The Pew Research Center says: "The American public is more likely to say the press has been too critical of President George W. Bush in his last days in office than to say the same about coverage of President-elect Barack Obama. About three-in-ten (29%) see coverage of Bush as too critical, while just 11% see coverage of Obama that way. Still, a plurality (41%) says press coverage of Bush has been fair, while a substantial majority (61%) says the same about coverage of Obama. About one-in-four find coverage of both not critical enough."

"There are clear partisan divisions: 62 percent of Republicans say the press has been too critical of Bush, compared to--yes--12 percent of Democrats. And while 37 percent of GOPers say the press hasn't been critical enough of Obama, 11 percent of Democrats feel that way."

This reminds me of all of the stories showing that the press coverage of McCain's campaign was too negative, and thus, the media must have had a liberal bias.

See, for example, this piece on Time's Mark Halperin.

This is very frustrating. Regardless of your perspective on the elections, you have to admit that John McCain ran a bad campaign and not just because of the obvious fact that he lost (good campaigns win, bad campaigns lose).

From the selection of Sarah Palin as his vice president to allegedly "suspending" his campaign to address the economic crisis to not showing up for an appearance on David Letterman, the campaign made a lot of mistakes.

It would be amazing (and truly disconcerting) if such a poorly run campaign did NOT receive negative coverage in the media.

We Did It!

Of course, I attended the parade yesterday (and then consumed a wee bit of fermented beverages). It was a blast. I wish it had been longer, but I loved it. And would love to see another one next year.

Here are my photos from the parade itself and the immediate celebration thereafter.