Snapshots: 2014 07 25 & 27 D-Backs @ Phillies

Been a strange week in what has been a forgettable season for the Philadelphia Phillies. Team Phungo ended up going to the bookends of Phils 3 game series with Diamondbacks. Fortunately these were the two games the Phillies won 9-5 on Friday Night and 4-2 on Sunday.

Turned out Ryan Howard's name came up an awful lot this weekend.

Friday night Howard was out of the lineup for the 3rd consecutive game.  Yet he had the honor of being the subject of the cover photo for our ticket. Each night a Phillies player is also the representative for their Charitable Ticket Program.  On Friday in a continuation of the unfortunate confluence of events Howard's Sluggers were the beneficiaries of the ticket program - on a night when the actual Slugger never played.

Snapshots

Marlon Byrd 

It was 25th of July and the Phillies celebrated Christmas July. As part of the festivities the player pix were outfitted with holiday attire. Marlon Byrd got a Santa Cap and an ugly sweater.


The Phanatic got into the Holiday Spirit as well, here he celebrates with a couple of Phillies ballgirls. 

 

Grady Sizemore

I was disappointed the Phillies have gotten away from the Topps sponsored game day lineup cards. They have opted to use their own design shown here. I believe this is this is the same design that is used on their postcard player sets. Grady Sizemore has only been with the club since the beginning of the month, so this is sort of like his first card as a Phil. 

Sunday

 Ryne Sandberg and Chase Utley

Sunday was Hall of Fame day, to mark the occasion all MLB players wore a special 75th anniversary of the HoF patch. Here we have HOF second baseman Ryne Sandberg with Chase Utley who may someday find his way into the Hall.

Good Guy Award

Ryan Howard 

As mentioned above Ryan Howard had a crazy week. He was in the lineup on Sunday but still found time to sign autographs almost right up to the anthem.  About 15 minutes later Howard blasted a line drive Home Run into the left-centerfield bleachers.

In addition to Howard, Darin Ruf and Chase Utley also get GGAs for taking some time to greet the fans and pen some signatures.   

Paul Goldschmidt

One of the reasons the Phillies won the series was they were able to keep D-Backs slugger Paul Goldschmidt in check.  Goldschmidt was 2-11 on the weekend.

Sunday was also Cole Hamels T-Shirsey day. Here he is being interviewed by Scott Palmer.

Vidal Nuno got the start for Arizona. The rookie was acquired by the D-Backs earlier this month in the trade that sent Brandon McCarthy to the Yankees.

Marlon Byrd has been the subject of trade rumors in recent weeks. Here it appears that he made sure to get one last good meal off of the Phillies buffet.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Philles Behind the Pinstripes

Snapshots: 2014 07 21 Giants 7 @ Phillies 4

The Return of Cliff Lee turned out to be a Meh event in a disappointing season. The Phillies lost to the Giants 7-4 in a game that had a lot of hits but few fireworks. Not much else to add on this one so right to the pix.

Snapshots

Lee's velocity was down and he had trouble finiahing hitters. He did little to enhance his trade value.

Grady Sizemore is the latest veteran the Phillies have added to the roster.

Former Phil Hunter Pence was in town and did some damage with 3 hits including a triple and a couple of RBIs.

There game featured 29 hits, but only one Home Run which was provided by rookie Adam Duvall.

Cliff Lee facing Buster Posey in the 5th inning.

Happy Independence Day! 2009 Topps A&G National Pride #NP31 Grady Sizemore

Getting the Holiday weekend off to a start by posting a card of one of the newest faces in the Phillies Organization.

2009 Topps A&G National Pride #NP31 Grady Sizemore

Last week the Phillies signed Grady Sizemore off the scrap heep and he is currently playing the outfield for the teams AAA affiliate Lehigh Valley.

Sizemore has had a decent week, picking up a couple of hits including a Home Run. The move obviously doesn't make the Phillies a contender, but it does allow the Phillies flexibility to do a couple of things. 1) Trade Marlon Byrd or Dom Brown to a contendor 2) Send Ben Revere back to AAA for some seasoning.

At this point I don't know that Ben Revere can learn much at the AAA level, A player with no pop and mediocre defensive ability just doesn't have a spot in the Major Leagues. His lack of any skill outside of hitting singles really makes it hard to find a spot for him as a ballplayer.

2009 A&G National Pride
National Pride was a commong 2009 insert of Allen & Ginter. It is a bit hard to believe that the set is now 5 years old, The checker for the subset consists of 75 cards. The Phillies featured in the set include Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz. The checker for this set has some interesting names on it, and it would be fun to do a where/now on the list 5 years removed from the originals.

Sources
Baseball-ref
Baseball Cardpedia
Teams Sets 4 U