A Phillies Thread!!!!!!

[Jeff G]

It was a win for the Phillies but should have been much closer if the Brewers fielded their positions. Weeks drop at first and Cameron's drop in CF were the changing points of the game, if either of those plays are made they could have gotten out of the inning with no runs. Gallardo pitched admiraly considering it was only his 2nd start since what was thought to be a season ending injury in May. The Brewers gave up no earned runs the entire game and made it close in the 9th. It was a fun game to watch.

Even as a Brewer fan I must admit Hammel was amazing yesterday. He looked to be unhittable the first couple innings as he mowed down the meat of the Brewers order effortlessly on his way to eight strong innings.

[PirateLover]

We don't have tickets until the NLCS so I hope we get out of this series! Yesterday was interesting. I think there are more positives to take away from the game then negatives. Having the win is huge coming into tonight's game vs Sabathia. I think they will be less tense.

[Ian]

I agree that getting that first playoff win under your belt is huge. But I'm not sure the intimidation factor of going up against Sabathia isn't going to more than offset that.

I think the concern you have to have after last night's game is the bats. They were pretty much silent and Jeff is right ... barring a couple of Brewers' errors it would have been a different ballgame. You can't count on that every night.

From what I saw I didn't think Gallardo pitched very well. He seemed to lack control to a degree and wasn't really overpowering with any of his stuff. It kinda scares me that the Phils hit so poorly in terms of how they'll handle Sabathia tonight.

Overall, I just thought the lineup struggled ... they swung at bad pitches a lot (Howard's one strikeout in like the sixth was horrible ... the ball was in the dirt!) and didn't really work the count all that well, outside of that 3rd inning.

I may need to buy a dog ... I'm a little scared of tonight's game. But then again, you have to wonder just how long Sabathia can keep this up. Tonight could be the night his arm finally rags out and he gets yanked in the 4th.

[Jeff G]

Gallardo threw more balls than strikes and could have been beaten up had the Phillies been patient and worked more counts. I agree he didn't have his best stuff but the Philies bats helped him out. Hopefully the cold bats stick around a few more games. AS for tonights game, the Brewers need this game a lot more than the Phillies. If the Crew looses I predict they will be swept and even if they win they still have to pitch Suppan and Bush in the next two.

[PirateLover]

We are now into the 8th and so far I've been proven somewhat right
I am somewhat disappointed with our "stars" though. Utley and Howard are still currently 0-for, and I think Rollins had 1 hit. When the pitcher gets a hit and your star players can't that's slightly troubling. Victorino and Werth have been on fire though... and I must say all of our guys really worked the counts nicely and got Sabathia's pitch count up pretty fast... Myers especially. C.C. seemed to really get off his game.

[Ian]

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that outing. It was great to see "SuperSabathia" chased so early.

[Ian]

I was digging around on the 'Net looking for something and I found the 2008 MLB team payrolls, which I thought were sort of interesting.

Here's the top half of the league:

1. Yankees $209,081,579
2. Tigers $138,685,197
3. Mets $138,293,378
4. Red Sox $133,440,037
5. White Sox $121,152,667
6. Angels $119,216,333
7. Cubs $118,595,833
8. Dodgers $118,536,038
9. Mariners $117,993,982
10. Braves $102,424,018
11. Cardinals $100,624,450
12. Blue Jays $98,641,957
13. Phillies $98,269,881
14. Astros $88,930,415
15. Brewers $81,004,167

Two things jump out at me. One, I find it absolutely hilarious that the two New York teams (who I absolutely loathe) spent a combined $348,374,957 and still couldn't make the playoffs. What's even more shocking is that the Mets gave Omar Minaya a contract extension??

The other thing I noticed was that, despite the aforemention dismal failures, all the playoff teams were in the top half of the league in terms of payroll. I guess money spent does correlate to some degree to success on the field.

But it also shows you that you have to spend the money wisely to win. You can't just pull a Steinbrenner and try and buy an all star team. Chemistry is what really matters.

A shout out to Pat Gillick and Ed Wade for assembling this Phillies roster without having to break the bank.