Call me crazy, but this is one of the images I get in my head when I think of Brett Myers this year...

This was the epic battle performed while he was in the minors.  Good versus evil (though, in Myer's case, it may be evil vs slightly more evil).  Either way, it looks like mild mannered Brett Myers has fought off his demons and returned to us.  Sure, he ain't this good, but you know, I spent a lot of time saying he wasn't that bad earlier, so, I guess it evens out.

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We can debate what is a good sample and what is not, but I think everyone in the world can agree that 1 AB is not  (unless it is a Derek Jeter post season AB).  So often in my life does the small sample size end up biting me in the ass.  The odds are usually against it working out if you need a very successful play since very successful plays happen so rarely, but we had one, and it might be what ends up being the catalyst to putting the Phils in the playoffs.

What was this AB you may be wondering (or not)?

Friday, August 22nd, Bottom of the 4th inning, 1 on and 2 outs.

R Howard homered to left, P Burrell scored.

The homerun that may have saved the season.

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While driving this evening, I was having my ears bled out by listening to WIP who always caters to the lowest common demoninator fan and justifying it by calling it passion.  The host, whom I won't bother mentioning, was taking calls and defending the town for booing Jimmy Rollins.  One guy called up and said that he booed Burrell relentlessly for the past 2 years (really?) but voted for him as an All-Star cause he finally is playing like he should, also booed Jimmy during all 4 At Bats and will continue to do so until Jimmy apologizes to [him] via the media.

Are you freakin kidding me?

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While responding to dajafi's Kendrick post, I decided to look at the DIPS ERAs for all the Phillies pitchers.  For those unaware, DIPS stands for defense independent pitching stats and was coined by Voros McCracken at the tail end of last century...so get read up.  While not the perfect of all stats, it certainly gives an idea what a pitcher would be doing if luck had no role whatsoever.

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They will kill you.  We certainly have developed a feeling of deservedness.  What is good can always be better.  The old version is always better than the new one.  How quickly we forget what it was like when we had the old version.  If only I could break the space-time continuum and have people taste test last year's Phillies with this year's and really see what they'd prefer.  2 less wins and in third place or 2 more wins and in first place?  It seems obvious, but, you'd not think that listening to a lot of grumbling around town.  It took the Atlanta Braves like 6 or 7 years to get sick of making the playoffs.  We aren't even through half of the second season...

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I was skimming through the last 30 years of stats and then got bored, so, I figured I'd ask if anyone else out there knows:

Has there been a year where the top 3 homerun guys are all from the same team? 

The answer is yes, but with an *.

Home Runs

While they did lead the league, times were a different back then and I really don't put much credence into this when the top guy hits 42 more homeruns than the 3rd guy.  Maybe I should rephrase the question to modern days.

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Most of the top OPS+ players have been to multiple All-Star games.  I believe that in the top 20 only Bobby Abreu and Brian Giles have gone twice and that is the fewest of that group.

The best OPS+ player to never make an all-star game is JD Drew.  Might have to do with injuries or maybe just a bad stigma.  His OPS+ is 130, tied with Adam Dunn for 22nd among active players.  The next on that list...you got it, Pat Burrell.  Tied for 34th with Derek Jeter with an OPS of 121.  Of course, Jeter is attending his 9th all-star game.  Go figure.  Just makes you realize how unsupportive we are as fans.

Phils extend Lidge for 3 more years at over 12 mil per year.  Hmmm...what to think about that.  That is a lot of money for a closer, but it does allow them to not obsess over a closer as so many teams do.  It is also for 3 years and not 4, which is fairly significant.  Of course, the Phils put almost 40 million into him and do not get the 2 first round draft picks they would have gotten if he left.

Are we sold on Lidge?  Dominant closer who then got knocked out of his closer role in his prime for 2 years before coming here and getting back on track.  I love Lidge as a low cost (in terms of years) back of the bullpen, but now he is expected to be a top tier closer for 3 more years.  I think we may have bought high on this as we did with Romero.  Not that I am complaining per se as it is within a range I might have gone.  The smart move would have been to extend him before the season for maybe 2/3rds of the cost, but the Phils don't look at history when they make decisions, they look at what is happening right now.

Jimmy's MVP award was definitely a debatable topic.  He had great counting numbers, but his rates were good, but not great.  I am not going to deny him what was a truely great year for him.  However, that was last year and this is this year.  I think we can all grasp that concept.  Yeah, Jimmy was hurt, but does that excuse his average play so far this year? 

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It's true, we suck.  Yesterday, I was listening to Chase talk about his first AB after he had his grand slam homerun as his first hit.  The Phils were up big, he struck out and people booed him.  Now, I have no idea if that is what happened or if he just remembered that as happening, but does it matter?  It just matters what he thinks. 

Taking this sa step further, BaseballProspectus.com tallied up the home winning percentages of all teams in MLB since 2004.  Here is the chart:

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