Phillies Starting Line Up Cards Jeff Francoeur

I had really wanted to get to one game on each side of the Phillies Home/Home series with the Orioles this week, but Work, the Calendar and weather have conspired against me.

Despite last nights 19-3 debacle I would have liked to have been there.

Phillies Starting Lineup Jeff Francoeur (Photo 2015 04 25)

I have been to 200+ games and I am not sure I have ever seen a position player pitch. Last night the Frenchy moment may have salvaged an otherwise brutal game.

Unfortunately a glaring communication failure combined with a complete mishandling of the bullpen at the end of the game turned a laugher into a pretty sour evening.

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref

Game Report 2015 0516: DiamondBacks @ Phillies

An hour-plus rain delay could not spoil the fun for team Phungo as we got to see a 7-5 victory for the good guys who ran their win streak to four games.

This may not have been a great game for a bunch of reasons but there was a lot of offense.

 

Jeff Francoeur 2015 05 16

The Phillies had Francoeur in Right and Grady Sizemore in left. Ryne Sandberg had not paired those corners with Odubel Herrera in the outfield prior to Saturday night, The way things worked out it may happen more often in the future. Frenchy had a home run and Sizemore had his first four hit game since 2008

In the above photo that is former Reading Phillies farmhand Tuffy Gosewisch wearing the tools of ignorance.

Jerome Williams 2015 05 16

I wanted to get a decent shot of Williams and the pink glove that he wears to honor his mother and her battle with cancer. 

Archie Bradley 2015 05 16

I had been checking the probables in anticipation of a potential start by Archie Bradley. Aside from seeing a Phils W my game priorities are seeing opposition stars and buzz worthy prospects.

Saturday night was Archie Bradley's first start since being struck by a line drive on April 28th.

During the rain delay a bunch of fans wearing Bradley jerseys took shelter near my spot on the rail. I got involved in a short conversation with Archie's uncle. About a dozen family and friends had made the journey out from Bradley's native Oklahoma to see his return. They all seemed very nice and enjoyed the trip despite the young pitchers tough outing.

Yasmany Tomas 2015 0516

The Diamondback Cuban rookie Yasmany Tomas had a good game which included his first career Home Run.  However at the eye test level I felt as if he was a bit of a free-swinger. I am not sure if he is going to make it by swinging at the first pitch in every AB. He also appeared to have an issue communicating on the bases - At some point early in the game when Tomas was on 2nd base it was obvious he was having communication issues with a coach on the bench.  

2015 05 16 Maikel Franco

The D-Backs were not the only team sending out prospects on Saturday Night. Phillies Rookie Maikel Franco, who got  a look last September, made his 2nd start of 2014 and collected his first hit.

VittlesPop

Jim Cramer acknowledges crowd prior to ceremonial first pitch 2015 0516

Philadelphia native and host of Mad Money Jim Cramer threw out the first pitch for the game. Perhaps he was trying to get a card in the Topps First Pitch Insert.
 

2015 0516 Citizens Bank Park

While it is tough putting up with a rain delay, it can still be fun to watch at a stadium. Most folks don't have this type of view of rainstorm at their disposal and Saturday night's rainfall was pretty epic. It is hard to see it in a picture, but in the shot above I did try to capture the sheets of rain migrating across the field.

Observations
I never played baseball above Little League, therefore I am no authority but IMO the D-backs looked AWFUL on their cutoff formations. At least twice I thought they would have had a play at second had they had a player covering.

Jerome Williams was able to resume pitching after the rain delay which was officially listed as 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Freddy Galvis can foul off a pitch. Not sure if he will hit .340+ all year but the fact that he can battle with 2 strikes is a nice asset to have.

Apparently AZ reliever Brad Ziegler was drafted by the Phillies. This is something I either never knew or had forgotten

We have noted this before but it is worth reiterating - No matter how bad the Phils team is there will be a solid tailgate crowd. 

Source and Links
Beckett
baseball-ref
ESPN LA
MLB
Chase's Calendar of Events
 

Phungo Game Report: 2015 04 12 Nationals @ Phillies

The Northeast is emerging from a long cold winter and baseball on a beautiful Sunday is a very welcome sight. Team Phungo was very excited to make it out to an Opening Week Phillies Home Game versus the World Series Favorite Washington Nationals.

2015 0412 Washington Nationals @ Philadelphia Phillies: Max Scherzer facing Cesar Hernandez

The Nats may be the World Series pick. However it was the Phillies who took the opening two games of the series and entered the day 2 games up on the Washington Squad.

Unfortunately the Phillies were unable to complete the sweep.

The Nats triumphed 4-3 n extra innings. Game Highlights included Yunel Escobar scoring on a Justing DeFratus wild pitch to take the lead in the Top of the 10th, Home Runs by Bryce Harper and Darin Ruf, and fine starts by Nats New Free Agent Acquisition Max Scherzer and Phillies Spot Starter Seaon O'Sullivan.

Snapshots

2015 MLB Opening Day Logo

It has been almost a week since Opening Day but the logo was still visible, albeit a tad faded.

2015 0412 Sean O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan was called up to make the spot start for the Phillies and will likely stay in the rotation until the Phils off-season acquisition Chad Billingsley is ready to pitch again.

2015 0412 Max Scherzer

The Nats big Free Agent signing this winter was Max Scherzer, So far he has pitched very well in both his starts but due to poor offensive support he has not been credited with a W in either start.

Scherzer appeared very upset throughout most of his pre-game bullpen session. Not sure if he was really unhappy with himself or if this is some sort of technique he uses to get himself fired up.

 

2014 0412 Bryce Harper

The biggest blemish on Sean O'Sullivan's start was giving up a first inning Home Run to Bryce Harper. 

2015 0412 Bryce Harper and Bob Davidson

We happened to capture this strange moment between Bryce Harper and Umpire Bob Davidson. Not sure what was going on here. As far as I know there was not a controversial play or other craziness that the two would be discussing.  It just seemed very odd for Bryce Harper to be putting both his hands on Bob Davidson's shoulders.  

 

 2015 0422 Darin Ruf

The sole offensive outburst for the Phillies was a Pinch Hit Homer by Darin Ruf.

 

Line Up Cards

This years Line Up cards are the same in-hous design the Phillies went with in 2014. Here we have two of the new cards for 2015, Jeff Francoeur, Odbuel Herrera, along with Cesar Hernandez. 

2015 0412 Nationals @ Phillies Game Ticket

Sources and Links
MLB Boxes
MLB Umpires

Spot The Sig! - Solved - Jeff Francouer

I have to confess, this weeks STS was a bit loaded. I put it up and pretty much expected Dayf to get it. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to send out a Thanks to Dayf who back in July added Phungo to his blog roll and for the first time I was getting outside readers. It may only be a couple readers a day, but it is always appreciated. So Dayf, thank you, and congratulations, and for correctly guessing the sig the Cardboard Junkie team hits a laser down the right field line good for a triple.

Now on to the autograph.

In September of 2005 Jeff Francoeur was a highly touted prospect in his rookie year for the Atlanta Braves. I was shocked when Francouer came over to sign for a small group of autograph seekers prior to the game. As I remember he was pretty affable and made small talk with fans while signing programs, cards, and balls for maybe two dozen people.

2008 Topps #381 Jeff Francoeur

Francouer’s Spot The Sig! auto is somewhat similar to his facsimile signature, at least the first name is. After what I think is the end of the Fs in JEFF he sort of scribbled through his last name. On his card you can see he basically prints the F in his last name – there is definitely no sign of that on the ticket he signed for me.

Oh and speaking of the ticket, which now is unblemished, you can clearly see

Section 111, Row 19, Seat 10

The closest guesses for section and seat number were both by Dayf with 113 and 8 respectively. Night Owl came up with 14 for the closest row number. Each team will be awarded stolen bases and walks accordingly.

2004 Bowman #221 Anthony Lerew

The odd thing is the real reason I was near the Braves dugout that day was to get an autograph from much lesser Braves Prospect, Anthony Lerew. Lerew had recently made his major league debut. This made him the first person from the small Central PA high school I attended to make it into the Majors or play any professional sport.

Anthony Lerew’s career is yet to take off. He was a top 10 prospect for Atlanta back 04 or 05 but has not had any real success at the Major league level. He had Tommy John Surgery in 2007 and put up unspectacular numbers for a couple of Braves affiliates this past season while recovering. Anthony Lerew is currently on the Braves 40 man roster – I hope he gets another crack at the majors.

Okay back to the STS standings. Currently we have completed 2 rounds and Cardboard Junkie is on the scoreboard!

Following the triple they got two bonus questions - the runner on 3rd scores on a wild pitch for the first answer and a walk is awarded for the 2nd answer.

The Night Owl team also gets their first runner on via a walk for getting a bonus question.

At the end of 2 rounds of Spot the Sig! here is the game situation

Cardboard Junkie representing the Braves has a Run across and a Chipper on first.

Stats on the Back and the Stinkin Mets and a man on second.

Cardboard Addiction and the Fenway Faithful has a man on first.

Night Owl Cards representing the Dodgers has young phenom Matt Kemp on first.

If you want to get involved in the Spot the Sig! game click here for background on the contest and some ground rules. The next sig will likely go up Sunday night. I see a trip to card show on Sunday but will try and get a posting up around 10pm.