Poll numbers strike out

One of the funniest moments from writing about thePhillies for all those years came back in 2002 in the midst of Larry Bowa’s reign of error. It had just come out in one of those ubiquitous Sports Illustrated polls in which the players voted the then-Phillies skipper as the worst in the big leagues.

Sure, it was an ambiguous poll to say the least, but the point was players from around the league saw what was going on inside the Phillies dugout during games and wanted no parts of it. Hell, the team even asked that shots of the manager in the dugout during games be limited. No sense putting the dysfunction out there on the airwaves.

Anyway, Bowa said he didn’t care about what the Sports Illustrated poll indicated when asked before a game at the Vet during the 2003 season. In fact, he didn’t care so much that he spent a good portion of the pre-game meeting with the writers talking about how much he didn’t care and how dumb the players were for not seeing his brilliance. OK, he didn’t say it like that in so many words, but he clearly was bothered by his status in the poll.

The funny part wasn’t Bowa’s reaction to his No. 1 status, but the reaction by the players in the Phillies’ clubhouse. When asked about it, most of the players treated the question as if it were a flaming bag of dog crap on the front porch. Rather than jump on the bag to put out the fire, and thus getting soiled shoes, most of the players just let it smolder itself out. They said all the right things, peppering the writers with a steady barrage of jock-speak clichés.

That is except for Mike Lieberthal, another Bowa foil, who gave the best answer of all.

“If I played on another team I’d hate him, too,” Lieberthal said, before explaining how it must look in the Phillies’ dugout to a bystander. Gotta love Lieby… he had trouble figuring out how to use those clichés knowing that his true thoughts were much more fun.

So what’s the point? Who cares about that cantankerous era of Phillies baseball where one never knew what type of land mine rested just around any corner? How about this… maybe there’s something to those polls Sports Illustrated conducts?  After all, in a recent issue, the Sixers’ Andre Iguodala was voted to be amongst the NBA’s most overrated players and the Phillies’ Ruben Amaro Jr. was rated as a middle-of-the-pack general manager in Major League Baseball. Make that, second-division, actually. Ruben came in 19^th while ex-Phillies GM Ed Wade was 29^th out of 30.

Those ratings seem to be a bit off… at least for Wade. Taking his full body of work into account Ed Wade might be a vastly underrated as a big league general manager.

Really? How so? And why does it appear as if I’m talking to myself?

Here’s why Wade is underrated:

·         Hilarity

Don’t sleep on this factor. In a business where hubris and self-absorption are the norm (see: Amaro, R.) and a sense of humor is viewed as a determent, Wade’s unintentional comedy is nothing to sneeze at. Really, do you have to ask? Wade was the guy who parachuted out of a plane—a ballsy act in itself—only to get all tangled up in a tree in South Jersey. You can’t make that up, folks. Wade just hung there in a tree with a parachute strapped to his back. That’s hilarious on so many different levels. If comedians told jokes about big league GMs, Ed Wade would be like George W. Bush.

Plus, Wade has some sort of fetish (yes, it’s a fetish) with former Phillies players/employees. Now that he’s with the Houston Astros, Wade was signed and hired countless dudes he had in Philadelphia. For instance, not only did Wade trade/sign Randy Wolf, Tomas Perez, Jason Michaels, Geoff Geary, Michael Bourn, Matt Kata, Chris Coste, Mike Costanzo, Pedro Feliz, and, of course, Brett Myers, but also he took former Phillies PR man Gene Dias to the Astros with him.

With moves like this and a run-in with pitcher Shawn Chacon where Wade ended up getting choked, the Astros did the only thing they could… they gave Wade a two-year extension.

·         Patience

OK, we don’t know if this is masterful foresight or just dumb luck, but Wade should get a ton of credit for not trading minor leaguers Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels when he has the chance and everyone pleaded with him to do so. Remember that? Of course you don’t because you don’t want to admit how dumb you were. Still, it’s hard to believe a few folks got all lathered up because Wade refused to make deadline deals involving Howard that would have brought back guys like Jeff Suppan or Kris Benson from Pittsburgh.

With the core group of Howard, Utley and Hamels, Wade’s successors could be bold enough to do things like trade for Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay as well as sign Pedro Martinez, Greg Dobbs and Jayson Werth. In fact, it was Wade who swiped Shane Victorino away from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft in 2005. Sure, the Phillies eventually offered him back, but sometimes it counts to be lucky, too.

Make no mistake about it, Wade’s fingerprints are all over the Phillies’ roster. Maybe as much as Amaro’s, who has the strange honor of being one of the only GMs in the history of the game to trade and sign three Cy Young Award winners in the span of five months.

Oh yes, Amaro’s moves have been solid, considering the trades for Lee and Halladay and knowing when to cut bait on guys like Pat Burrell. However, he loses points for giving Jamie Moyer a two-year deal worth $13 million. With that money on hand, the Phillies probably would have had a rotation with both Lee and Halladay at the top and Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ filling out the other three spots.

Imagine that… Amaro got all those Cy Young Award winners, but would have had two of them in their prime at the top of his pitching rotation if he had allowed then 46-year-old Moyer to walk away.

Hindsight. It has to be a GM’s worst enemy...

Or best friend.

Good guy calls it a good career

For guys like me who are more interested in the entire person behind the baseball player, than simply the dude who plays ball, the news that Mike Lieberthal decided to retire after 14 seasons in the Majors - 13 with the Phillies - is newsworthy. Though most folks who watch the Phillies closely won't understand, Lieberthal probably personified the team from 1998 to the beginning of the Charlie Manuel regime. Trust me here - that's not all bad. First of all, Lieberthal was the Phillies' All-Star on a team that had no one. Sure, Scott Rolen won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1997, but he was hurt for much of 1999 and 2000, and was gone midway through 2002. Bobby Abreu still hadn't emerged into a perennial All-Star and Rico Brogna was an above-average player for a handful of seasons. That left Doug Glanville and guys like Mark Lewis, Desi Relaford, Marlon Anderson and Ron Gant to fill out the roster.

Pitching? Let's not go there.

The fact is that when Lieberthal was healthy he was a legit .275 hitter and 20-homers a season threat. For a catcher that's nothing to sneeze at... hell, Carlos Ruiz, Chris Coste and Rod Barajas combined to hit just 15 homers and bat .258 in 2007.

Perhaps most important in a team sport like baseball where the players sit together in a confined space as if in an overcrowded prison, Lieberthal was a guy the others followed. Again, this isn't bad. Even when Jim Thome arrived on the scene in 2003, Lieberthal was the guy veterans and up-and-coming players went to for advice and guidance. Sometimes a few players would just do whatever it was Lieberthal did figuring that it was the right thing to do. I remember one player telling me that he took up yoga during the off-season simply because it was something Lieberthal did.

"I figured if he was doing it, I should too," the player said. "After all, he is the catcher."

Lieberthal caught more games than any other player in Phillies' history - more than Bob Boone, Darren Daulton, Andy Seminick and Red Dooin. He also was plunked by more pitches than any other player in team history, too, though it shouldn't long until his good friend Chase Utley catches up.

Nevertheless, there were always those stories out there that Lieberthal didn't call a good game. You know, because the common sportswriter and fan really understands the intricacies of signaling for pitches and what needs to be called in every situation by taking into consideration the count, the hitter and the state of the pitchers' arm. It always seemed to me that the notion that Lieberthal could not call a good game was something planted by ex-manager Larry Bowa and ex-pitching coach Joe Kerrigan. That always made me curious because it seemed to me that Lieberthal nearly always looked over to the bench for the signal from Bowa or Kerrigan before flashing it to the pitcher.

Besides, when asked several pitchers tamped down the idea that Lieberthal couldn't signal a good game. Actually, I recall instances where three pitchers offered up the idea that Lieberthal called a good game without ever being asked. They just volunteered the information apropos to anything. Sure, a pitcher or two preferred throwing to Todd Pratt or Chris Coste or whomever, but why would anyone complain about Lieberthal?

Is there any better tribute to a player than to have others copying off of him? When it's so easy to write-off people as selfish or self-absorbed, the fact that Lieberthal was emulated and sought out as a mentor is a far better legacy than anything that trite and meaningless statistics can offer. That's especially true these days when baseball statistics have become more and more important to a certain segment of the fandom, yet are more trivial than ever before. Baseball was and always will be about stories and community - that's the best part about it. And that's why we keep coming back.

Stories in which Lieberthal plays a role are always good ones. Like the time when he was in the cage taking batting practice, rocketed a foul ball back through the netting and was oblivious to the fact that it caught Manuel flush in the groin[i].

My favorite Lieberthal moment - aside from listening to him deconstruct games in the clubhouse afterwards when he would recall pitch sequences in fine detail - was the time the poll of current ballplayers appeared in Sports Illustrated in which Bowa was named "Most hated manager" or something along those lines. It was one of those quiet days before a game where there wasn't much going on so in lieu of anything substantial, Bowa was asked about the results of the poll. Clearly bothered, Bowa went on and on about how it didn't bother him. Then he started in (without prodding, of course) on why players wouldn't like him. He was a winner, he said. He held players accountable, he pointed out. He wasn't all nicey nice like Joe Torre or Dusty Baker, he claimed. It went on and on until it actually became a story - Bowa was bothered by the poll even though he says he wasn't.

It was kind of like a person going around and volunteering information without being asked. For instance, if I were to walk up to a complete stranger on the street and say, "I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm not insane. I'll even wager that I'm the sanest person you have ever met. Good day, sir," the only rational assumption for the stranger to make is that I am, indeed, insane.

Who goes around claiming sanity? An insane person, that's who.

Anyway, out in the clubhouse a handful of players were asked about the results of the poll and the league-wide perception of their manager by the growing number of media-types and all that was offered were the politically correct answers. There were enough baseball clichés to go around to choke a Shetland pony. That was until Lieberthal wondered onto the scene. Unlike most athletes, Lieberthal wasn't very good at the cliché-riddled jock speak. Better yet, he had the uncanny ability to actually say something when asked a question from media folks - the inability to lie is a very rare trait, indeed, and even when he was attempting some verbal misdirection, the truth was always there near the surface.

So when asked about Bowa and the poll naming him the "most hated manager" or whatever it was, Lieberthal thought for half a second and said: "Well, if I were on another team I'd probably hate him, too." Then he went on to describe how players on other teams must have viewed the manager's dugout histrionics and bench jockeying.

Yeah, you had to be there.

Regardless, good luck to Lieberthal and his pregnant wife in life as a retired baseball player. Undoubtedly, those years will be filled with good cheer and fun times.

---

[i] Why is the shot to the groin always so funny? Even mentioning the idea of hitting someone in the crotch is funny. For instance, last night I went to see the movie Juno and there was a line by the always solid J.K. Simmons where he states to his wife that the next time he sees the kid who impregnated his daughter he was going to, "punch him in the wiener." Hey, it made me laugh out loud.

Just some baseball stuff

According to some reports, Cole Hamels had 160 strikeouts in his first 25 starts (in 145 1/3 innings or 9.91 per nine innings), which is the second most by a left-hander over that span behind Fernando Valenzuela. Of course this doesn’t include his 15-strikeout performance against the Reds last week, or the six strikeouts he had last night in grinding out the win over the Braves.

Speaking of which, the win over the Braves was interesting for a couple of reasons, but mostly because of the way Hamels bounced back after the first and second innings. In those opening frames Hamels gave up seven hits to the first 11 hitters and, more importantly, three runs in the first inning. From watching on my TV (a set that is both falling apart, but artfully decorated with the post-modern crayon musings by a three-year old boy) and based on conversations from folks in the know, it was clear that Hamels had become a bit unhinged after giving up a home run to Chipper Jones in the three-run first.

Hamels also was a little beside himself during last Thursday’s loss to the Washington Nationals at the Bank when he struggled through 5 1/3 innings for his first loss of the season. Yet according to reports, Hamels was put back on track thanks to a visit to the mound by pitching coach Rich Dubee, who asked the lefty if he was on anything.

Yeah?

“He asked me if I was on anything,” Hamels told the writers. “I wasn't, I just get that way sometimes with my adrenaline.”

As far as the strikeouts go, Hamels only got his first one in the fourth inning in the win over the Braves. He finished with six to give him 43 in his six starts (40 2/3 innings). Only the Padres’ Jake Peavy has more.

***
Also at the top of the strikeout-leaders list is Dodgers’ lefty Randy Wolf, who has 36 strikeouts in six starts and 35 2/3 innings. At 3-3 and riding a two-game losing streak, Wolf has worked into the sixth inning of all his starts, which puts him on pace for 210 innings this season. Wolf needs to pitch 180 innings to have a $9 million option for 2008 kick in.

Speaking of former Phillies, the Dodgers are considering using Mike Lieberthal at third base because of some injuries, poor play and few other options. Lieberthal, of course, has caught more games than any other Phillie in franchise history and hasn’t done anything on the diamond other than squat behind the plate since his junior year of high school.

Whether or not it comes to Lieberthal getting a new glove and standing upright on the field remains to be seen. At this point it seems that the ex-longest tenured Philadelphia athlete is struggling to get used to his new role as a backup catcher. Listen to Lieby tell the Los Angeles Times about the adjustment.

“I miss playing,” Lieberthal said. “That's the best part of the day.”

***
Brett Myers threw nine of his 11 pitches for strikes in his two-thirds of an inning last night.

In his eight relief outings covering 8 1/3 innings, Myers has thrown 154 pitches, compared to 283 pitches in three games and 15 1/3 innings as a starter. I don’t know what any of this means, though manager Charlie Manuel and Dubee believe that Myers is still easing into his new role.

“He's using up a lot of adrenaline right now because it's so new to him,” Dubee told Courier-Post raconteur, Mike Radano.

For some reason it still makes sense to me to have Myers go for a four, five or six-out save on occasion even though Manuel seems to be locked in to using his players in well-defined roles. Until it’s proven to me that Myers can’t be like old-school closers like Bruce Sutter and pitch more than one inning, I’m always going to think it should be an option from time to time.

***
Phil Sheridan of the Inquirer columnized about the death of Josh Hancock and Tony La Russa’s “agenda.” According to reports it appears that Hancock might have been impaired while driving at the time of his accident. Meanwhile, La Russa was arrested for DUI during spring training and still awaits misdemeanor charges.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, La Russa “has declined questions about his arrest since making a brief statement to media hours after being released.” Asked about whether his manager should be more aggressive when dealing with such issues since his DUI arrest, Cardinals’ GM Walt Jocketty told the paper, no.

“Personally, I don't think so. I see how he deals with things. I think he would tell a player, ‘Look, it could happen to anybody. It happened to me. You've got to be careful how you conduct yourself.’”

Either way, it seems to that this would be a good chance for Major League Baseball to do something bold or Tony La Russa to take a stand… or both.

The gift that keeps on giving

Mike Lieberthal has definitely received more than his fair share of gifts from the Phillies during his 13 seasons in the big leagues. There’s the estimated $53 million is salary, as well as all of the other perks that baseball players have come to expect.

That isn’t to say Lieberthal is greedy or selfish – at least no more or no less than any other person. He’s just a guy who is blessed with the rare talent of being able to hit a baseball reasonably well, and squat for a few hours a night while taking the routine punishment that goes with being a Major League catcher.

Through all of it – the fickle, one-sided treatment from the fans and media – Lieberthal was able to turn in two All-Star appearances, a gold glove award, and a handful of surgeries all while catching more games than any other player in the team’s 123 season history.

To be fair, all sides involved have received fair compensation. The Phillies got all those games and service, the fans got an above-average catcher for a few seasons, and the press got one of the better quotes and more interesting baseball minds to come through town in a long, long time.

But just to show Lieberthal how much they really like him, the Phillies gave one last final gift to their all-time squattiest catcher.

How about no offer of arbitration?

By not offering Lieberthal – a free agent who made $7.5 million in 2006 – salary arbitration, the 34-year old can sign to play anywhere without that team being saddled with offering a compensatory draft pick back to the Phillies. That opens the door for the Southern California native to ink the reported one-year, $1 million deal to play for his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers as the club’s backup catcher in 2007.

Had the Phillies offered Lieberthal arbitration, the reported deal from the Dodgers likely would have vanished.

How’s that for a parting gift?

The Phillies also bestowed the same kindness on free agent relief pitchers Aaron Fultz, Arthur Rhodes and Rick White; as well as infielder Jose Hernandez. Because all of those players were Type A free agents – meaning teams must give up a first- or second-round pick to sign them had the Phils offered arbitration – they become much more attractive to potential suitors.

Instead they are free and unfettered.

That’s not the case for outfielder David Dellucci, who was offered arbitration by the Phillies before Friday’s midnight deadline.

This is significant because Dellucci had reached a three-year, $11.5 million agreement with the Cleveland Indians earlier in the week. Now, the Phillies will receive the Indians’ second-round pick and a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds if the Tribe and Dellucci finalize the pact.

If the deal falls through, the Phillies will be able to negotiate with Fultz, Rhodes, White, Hernandez and Lieberthal unlike in years past. Under the new collective bargaining agreement ratified last month players can continue to negotiate with their former clubs instead of waiting until May 1.

That doesn’t appear likely, though.

Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds declined to offer arbitration to Type-A free agent David Weathers, a player whom the Phillies are reported to be interested in adding to their bullpen. Regardless, it appears as if the Phillies were taking a wait-and-see tact with Weathers with general manager Pat Gillick admitting on Thursday that the team had not offered a proposal to the pitcher.

Elsewhere, the San Francisco Giants did not offer arbitration to Barry Bonds, which lead to the controversial slugger to sign with the A’s or Padres.

Ol' man Lieby

Mike Lieberthal is in the lineup for Thursday afternoon's game against the Mets, which means he will tie Red Dooin for most games caught by a Phillie. The list: Red Dooin (1902-14) -- 1,124 Mike Lieberthal (1994-current) -- 1,124 Bob Boone (1972-81) -- 1,079 Darren Daulton (1983-95) -- 965 Jack Clements (1884-97) -- 953 Clay Dalrymple (1960-68) -- 944 Andy Seminick (1943-51; '55-57) -- 917

The Phillies sent out this little bio of Red Dooin:

Who is Red Dooin?

Charles Sebastian (Red) Dooin was behind the plate for the Phillies for 13 seasons starting in 1902. The last five years, he was the club’s player-manager (390-370 record), finishing second in 1913 (88-63, drawing 470,000). He was replaced by Pat Moran as manager in 1915, the year the Phillies won their first pennant.

In 4,004 career at-bats, Dooin (5-foot-9, 165 pounds) batted just .240, but he stole 133 bases, including double figures seven straight years. Not too many catchers these days can match his stolen base numbers.

Dooin reportedly was the first catcher to wear papier-mâché shin guards. He wore them under his stockings, according to various publications.

When his playing career was over, he performed in vaudeville as a tenor.

Dooin was born in Cincinnati, OH, in 1879 and died 73 years later in Rochester, NY.

Here's the list of games-played leaders by position:

C Mike Lieberthal (1994-current) -- 1,124 P Robin Roberts (1948-61) -- 529 1B Fred Luderus (1910-20) -- 1,298 2B Tony Taylor (1960-71; 74-76) -- 1,003 SS Larry Bowa (1970-81) -- 1,667 3B Mike Schmidt (1972-89) -- 2,212 OF Richie Ashburn (1948-59) -- 1,785 OF Del Ennis (1946-56) -- 1,610 OF Sherry Magee (1904-14) -- 1,415

So what does this list tell us? Well, because the Phillies played their first game in 1883 and have won just one World Series over that span, the names seem to indicate that the team has not been very good for 123 seasons. Just for fun, here's the what the all-time games played list should look like:

C - Bob Boone P - Ferguson Jenkins 1B - Richie Allen 2B - Ryne Sandberg SS - Bowa 3B - Schmidt/Scott Rolen OF - Ashburn OF - Bobby Abreu OF - Greg Luzinski OF - Chuck Klein

Remember, this is for amusement purposes only.

On another note, Lieberthal is also the franchise's all-time leader in times hit by a pitch.

Lieberthal update

It appears as if the Phillies are going to have to lean on minor-league lifer Carlos Ruiz and backup Sal Fasano a little more heavily than originally planned. The reason: an MRI revealed that Mike Lieberthal is pretty banged up. According to the Phillies, an MRI on Lieberthal's injured left knee, suffered when he was hit by a pitch on May 4 from the Braves' John Thomson, confirmed a significant bone bruise and stable fracture of the bone. Fortunately for Lieberthal, all muscle, tendons and ligaments are in good shape. That's especially revealing since it was the ACL tear of Lieberthal's right knee that caused him to miss almost all of the 2001 season, and struggle through 2002.

Of course Lieberthal's age (he's 34, which, of course, is ancient) doesn't help him much either. Injury or not, Lieberthal's future as a catcher in the big leagues is definitely limited. Sure, he's incredibly fit thanks to a stringent workout plan and plenty of yoga, but the numbers don't lie. As catchers age and continue to squat behind the plate where they are prone to everyday dings, aches and pains, their production falls off. It's just an undeniable fact.

So while Lieberthal rejoins the team to continue his rehab plan with the hope of returning to the lineup in two more weeks, the fact is that the Phillies have a catching problem. Though the fans and certain elements of the local media are much less enamored of the two-time All-Star than his teammates, Lieberthal has always received high marks as a guy who always straps it on and plays through a lot of injuries. After his potentially career-ending injury suffered in Arizona in May of 2001, Lieberthal had never been on the disabled list until now.

Dependable, every day catchers do not grow on trees.

Neither do popular, dependable teammates. Lieberthal has always been a favorite of his teammates as well as a go-to guy for the writers, providing lots of straightforward answers and insight to the story behind the story. Plus, his teammates greatly admired the way Lieberthal took all of the slings and arrows -- fairly or unfairly -- sometimes secretly cast his way by former manager Larry Bowa and his pitching coach Joe Kerrigan in a not-so secret attempt to undermine and make a scapegoat out of the veteran.

Still, Lieberthal's skills have waned even though not as dramatically as some have advertised. In a perfect world, Lieberthal would be a perfect part-time catcher who primarily faced lefties and a few tough righties... that is if the Phillies had options other than Fasano or Ruiz.

Though popular with a little bit of power, Fasano's defensive skills aren't that great -- base runners have an easy time when he's behind the plate. Nor can he hit inside pitches. Ruiz, 27, was slow to develop but has been a decent hitter since his breakout season in 2004 for Double-A Reading. Plus, unlike Fasano, Ruiz is good defensively with a really strong arm. At the very least, Ruiz could be a capable backup Major League catcher for a few years.

Now all the Phillies need for 2006 and beyond is a solid catcher who can play at least 120 games, hit a little bit, and not carry a $7.5 million per season price tag. Then again, doesn't every team?

Oh my!

A few of us scribes have a bet regarding the Phillies' top prospect Cole Hamels. If Hamels makes it to the big leagues during any part of the month of June, I win. If Hamels makes it here in July, Steve Miller of the Allentown Morning Call is the big winner. Any time after August 1 -- give the pool to the Courier Post's Mike Radano. Of course we all laughed when Ken Mandel from Phillies.com went with May. That's just the way we are with Ken. But after Hamels' Triple-A debut, it looks like Mandel might have the last laugh.

Hamels pitched seven innings in his debut for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He allowed just three hits and he did not walk any one. Pretty good, right. Wait... he struck out 14 hitters. That's 14.

Let's look at it this way:

7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 K

Needless to say, Scranton won the game, 5-0, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to win the bet.

Don't blame Lieby It's popular in some circles to heap some of the blame for a poor pitching performance onto the catcher. After all, goes the reasoning, the catcher calls the pitches (not always) and it's his job to know the hitters' tendencies, how well the pitcher is throwing, and all of the other nuances of a particular moment of a game.

Most of that is true to a degree.

What often is overlooked is that the pitcher throws the pitch. Ultimately, it's the pitcher's decision and not the catcher's.

At least that's what Ryan Madson says.

Still, Phillies' veteran catcher Mike Lieberthal has taken a lot of criticism for what many people say is his inability to call a good game.

"It's not Lieby," Madson said. "I throw the pitch."

Madson says that, yes, it's nice when he and his catcher are in synch. It helps with his rhythm to be ready to throw a pitch and see that the catcher is thinking the same exact thing, Madson says.

But more importantly, Madson says, it's not the pitch calling, relationship or rhythm that's important. It's the pitcher's confidence.

"I'm only going to be as good as I am mentally," Madson said. "It's the uncertainty that kills you."

Not Lieby, he says.