The Phillies Complete The Sweep

The Philadelphia Phillies, who at one point were 7 games back of the New York Mets in the NL East, have now closed that to 2 games. With this sweep the Phillies lead the season series 9 to 6. A combination of a healthy Chase Utley (who had the game winning hit last night) and a healthy bullpen were the catalysts. It doesn't hurt either when Pat Burrell hits 4 home runs during the series. Of course, the question on every Phillies fans mind is, "Can we keep this up?". A good question indeed.

The rest of the way the Phillies play some tough opponents. Teams the Phillies will play that are in the playoff hunt include 6 games versus the Atlanta Braves, 4 versus Colorado Rockies, 3 versus the St. Louis Cardinals, and 3 games against the Mets. It certainly will be interesting to see how the Phillies come away from that kind of schedule but after this series Philly fans are actually talking playoffs. PLAYOFFS!

Overweight, Overpaid, and Overrated Andruw Jones

After a 5 to 0 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Friday, the Atlanta Braves ran their scoreless streak to 3 games and Andruw Jones hit a milestone. He has become a member of the Mendoza Line. The scoreless streak may have ended today in a 2 to 1 loss to the Tigers, however their star player, Andruw Jones, continued to struggle. In the 2 -1 loss Andrew Jones went hitless in 2 at-bats and is now 0 for his last 21. Not exactly the kind of production you want from a star player who is earning $14,000,000 this season. Now if you think that is bad you haven't even seen the worst of it. During the month of May, Jones batted .202, had an OBP of .286, and had a SLG% of .343. And oh wait, it gets worse. During the current month of June, Jones is batting .127, has an OBP of .169. and has a SLG% of .266. The man has only 11 multi-hit games in 73 games played while Kelly Johnson (who is getting paid $380,000 this year) has 19 in 71 games played. I mean, the guy can't even hit unless the pitch happens to be a fastball. Against curves he is hitting .198, against sliders he is hitting .221, and against change-ups he is batting.206. Now, many know Andruw Jones is best known for his glove than his bat but if you were to compare his Zone Rating (the percentage of balls fielded by a player in his typical defensive "zone," as measured by STATS, Inc.) to that of other center fielders in the last 5 years he doesn't even crack the top 5. The only reason he ends up winning so many gold gloves is because he gets plastered all over Sportscenter. Grant it, he makes some spectacular plays but his Zone Rating suggest he dogs it sometimes. Now lets get into some career numbers with Andruw Jones. He is a career .264 hitter who has only batted once over .300 (.303 in 2000), has accumulated at least 100 strikeouts in every full season he's played (currently on pace to break his SO record this season), and has a career on base percentage of .343. So what is the lure of Andruw Jones? Why is is when anyone who calls him overrated gets chastised when anyone with a brain can see he is just an okay player, not a great one? So go ahead, chastise me.