Philliesflow.com

Roy Halladay’s final spring start was neither a disaster or a resounding success. For those of us looking for signs of the old Halladay, though, it looked a little closer to a disaster. Halladay allowed two runs over 4 1/3 innings, but surrendered eight hits, walked two and got three outs on the bases as the Phils topped Toronto 7-2.

Five of the seven runs that the Phillies scored came on home runs. Utley hit a two-run shot in the sixth and Nix hit a three-run homer in the eighth.

Utley was 1-for-3 on the day with his fifth homer. Nix 1-for-4 with his second. 273/368/545 for Utley and 200/250/333 for Nix.

Revere had two more hits. 2-for-4 with his tenth stolen base. 337/382/398.

Rollins 0-for-3 to drop his average to .258. 258/395/355. Three extra-base hits, all doubles, in 31 at-bats has his isolated power under .100.

Brown 1-for-2. 376/430/671.

Kratz 1-for-3 to up his line to 273/293/550.

Galvis started at third and went 0-for-4, dropping his line to 269/288/526.

Inciarte 0-for-1 and hitting 276/364/310. Orr 0-for-2 and at 250/250/500.

Halladay got the start for the Phillies and went 4 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks. He retired the first four men he faced before Adam Lind doubled to left with one out in the second. Halladay walked the next two hitters on eight pitches, but struck Maicer Izturis and Emilio Bonifacio out back-to-back to leave them loaded. He allowed two runs in the third on four more hits, then gave up one single in a scoreless fourth. Two of the three batters he faced in the fifth singled before righty Hector Neris took over for the Phils.

Three of the 13 outs that Halladay got came on the bases. Two caught stealings and another runner was retired on a single.

6.06 ERA and a 1.84 ratio for Halladay. Opponents hit .323 against him. He walked nine in 16 1/3 innings, which is about 4.96 per nine and higher than his career walk rate of 1.86. Three home runs in 16 1/3 innings is about 1.65, which is also higher than his career rate of 0.75. Not a lot went well.

Through three starts, in the third of which he threw behind Washington’s Tyler Moore, Halladay had a 2.16 ERA and an 0.96 ratio and had pitched 8 1/3 innings. Since then he’s made three starts in which he’s thrown eight innings with a 10.12 ERA and 2.87 ratio.

Neris got the last two outs in the fifth and Cesar Jimenez struck out the side in the sixth.

Aumont threw a 1-2-3 seventh. 2.45 ERA and an 0.82 ratio in 7 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .120 against him without a home run.

Adams threw a 1-2-3 eighth. 1.13 ERA and an 0.63 ratio in eight innings. Opponents are hitting .143 against him with one walk and no home runs.

Papelbon set the Blue Jays down in order in the ninth. He’s been very good since a rocky start. Numbers are still ugly, though. 8.64 ERA with a 1.32 ratio.

The Phils play the Blue Jays tonight in Philadelphia with Lee expected to pitch. It’s the Blue Jays again on Saturday in another tuneup, then off on Sunday and the Braves for real in Atlanta Monday night.

This article from the Phillies web site has a projected Opening Day lineup against righty Tim Hudson. It has Brown in right hitting sixth and Nix in left hitting seventh. Three lefties two through four in Revere, Utley and Howard. I would guess we will not regularly see Revere, Utley and Howard hitting all in a row often during the regular season. If Domonic Brown continues to OPS 1.101 during the regular season, you won’t see him hitting sixth for very long.

This suggests the Phillies would rather play Brown in left field than right. That seems like a very good idea to me.

This suggests that when Delmon Young arrives, hopefully in early May, Young will play right with Brown in left. I’m going to be surprised if we see Young play much in right this year. If he does, I’m going to be even more surprised if he’s not terrible there.

More strong pitching for the Phillies yesterday as they topped Detroit 4-1. Hamels, Durbin and Bastardo combined to throw five scoreless innings for the Phils, who have allowed a total of two runs in their last two games.

Fantastic pitching on back-to-back days sets the stage for Roy Halladay’s final spring start, which will come this afternoon against Toronto. Halladay has had a miserable spring training coming off of a 2012 in which he threw to a 5.28 ERA over his last 20 starts.

Michael Young drove in two of the four Phillie runs, going 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI. He’s hitting 264/304/361.

Mayberry was a much-needed 1-for-3 with a walk and a double, which ups his line to 200/263/286.

Revere 2-for-4 with two singles and two stolen bases. He has nine steals on the spring. Nine stolen bases in 87 plate appearances is a lot — it would put him on pace to steal about 52 over 500 plate appearances.

Inciarte started in left and went 2-for-4 with an RBI. He also stole his second base. 286/375/321 in 33 plate appearances. The Phillies need to make a decision about what to do with him by the end of the weekend.

Orr started at second and was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, dropping his line to 267/267/533. He’s walked in about 3.6% of his plate appearances for his career and exactly 0% of his plate appearances this spring.

Kevin Frandsen has a sore left wrist after being hit by a Justin Verlander pitch in the third inning.

Hamels started the game for the Phillies and went three shutout innings, allowing a hit and a walk, both of which came in the bottom of the first. He threw a 1-2-3 second and a 1-2-3 third.

0.95 ERA and an 0.79 ratio for Hamels in 19 official spring innings. He hasn’t allowed a home run. He, Aumont (6 1/3 innings pitched) and Adams (7) are the Phillies who have thrown at least five official spring innings without allowing a home run.

Durbin followed Hamels, setting the Tigers down in order in the fourth.

5.56 ERA and a 1.41 ratio for Durbin. Opponents have hit .310 against him.

Miner pitched after Durbin, allowing a run over two innings to drop his ERA to 8.36.

Bastardo struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh. He has 11 strikeouts in 9 1/3 innings, a 3.86 ERA and a 1.07 ratio.

Brandon Erbe and Chris Nichols combined to keep the Tigers off the board for the last two innings.

Halladay today as the Phils face the Blue Jays.

Chase Utley sprang to life offensively this weekend, hitting three home runs in two games as the Phils went 1-1. They beat Baltimore 13-4 on Saturday and lost 7-6 to the Red Sox yesterday.

Utley and Howard hit back-to-back homers in each of the game. Howard continues his fantastic spring, but Utley’s had been far less fantastic prior to this weekend’s explosion. He’s 5-for-his-last-8 with three home runs.

Boston beat the Phillies 7-6 yesterday.

Utley hit a two-run homer off of righty Noe Ramirez in the eighth inning, his third home run in two days. 3-for-4 with four RBI in the game. His line has soared to to 291/400/545.

Howard also homered, his seventh. 1-for-4 in the game. 329/364/700 for the spring. He has also homered two days in a row.

Revere was 2-for-3 with a walk, upping his line to 324/360/394.

Rollins was 0-for-2 and walked twice. 286/464/429.

Mayberry’s average dropped to .206 with an 0-for-2 day. 206/265/286.

Brown was 0-for-4 and is at 368/429/671.

Nix 0-for-3 to drop his line to 212/241/308.

Inciarte was 0-for-1 with an error. Mitchell appeared in right but did not get an at-bat in the game. 261/370/304 for Inciarte in 23 at-bats. Mitchell is hitting 269/321/577 in 26 at-bats — he was reassigned to minor league camp on Friday.

Lee started the game for the Phillies and allowed six runs on nine hits and no walks over 5 1/3 innings. Only four of the runs were earned and he struck out seven. Jackie Bradley hit a three-run homer off of him in the second. Singles by the first three Boston batters in the third led to three more runs, two of which were unearned due to an error by Rollins.

Opponents have hit .324 against Lee for the spring. He has a 5.94 ERA with a 1.68 ratio. Twenty-four hits, including four home runs, over 16 2/3 innings.

Papelbon got the last two outs of the sixth inning on a double-play, dropping his spring ERA to 11.37. He has been good after a miserable start.

Stutes allowed a walk and a single in a scoreless seventh. He got the first batter in the eighth and was replaced by Horst.

Stutes has walked eight in ten innings, which is too many. 8.10 ERA with a 1.80 ratio.

Horst got the last two outs in the eighth. He returned to pitch the ninth in a 6-6 game. He allowed singles to the first three men he faced in the ninth with the third, by Shannon Wilkerson, scoring Xander Boegarts, to put Boston up to stay at 7-6. The run was unearned due to an Inciarte error on the second single of the inning.

5.54 ERA and a 1.38 ratio for Horst. Fifteen hits, including four home runs, allowing in ten innings.

On Saturday they beat Baltimore 13-4.

Utley hit two home runs, both two-run shots off of Bruce Chen. 2-for-4 with four RBI on the day.

Howard 1-for-2 with a walk and his sixth home run.

Brown 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, his seventh.

Betancourt was 1-for-1 with a three-run homer, his first of the spring.

Eleven of the 13 runs scored on home runs.

Cook started the game for the Phillies and allowed two runs over 4 2/3 innings on four hits and no walks. The Phils jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the game before Cook allowed a two-run double to JJ Hardy in the bottom of the fourth to get Baltimore on the board.

Cook has a 3.38 ERA and a 1.23 ratio in official spring action. He leads team in innings pitched.

Aumont took over for Cook in the fifth, getting the final out in that frame. He came back for the sixth and allowed a run on a leadoff double and a walk, which upped his spring ERA to 3.38 as well. Opponents have hit just .158 against him in official spring action, but he has walked three in 5 1/3 innings.

Bastardo pitched a scoreless seventh to drop his ERA to 4.70.

Adams pitched the eighth and allowed a run on a single and a double, which plated the first run he’s been charged with the spring. 1.50 ERA and an 0.67 ratio in six innings.

JC Ramirez allowed three singles in the ninth, but kept the O’s off the board. 7.36 ERA with a 2.18 ratio in 3 2/3 innings. Opponents have hit .375 against him.

The Phillies released Yuniesky Betancourt, which makes it likely that Freddy Galvis and Kevin Frandsen will both make the team as bench players.

Roy Halladay was hit hard in a minor league start on Saturday, allowing 11 of 18 batters he faced to reach base.

The Phillies traded 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Julio Rodriguez to Baltimore for 25-year-old outfielder Ronnie Welty. Rodriguez made 29 appearances for Reading last year, 22 of which were starts, in which he threw to a 4.23 ERA with a 1.47 ratio, walking 76 in 134 innings. Wielty hits right-handed and has played primarily right field in the minors, posting a 284/359/468 line over 2,113 plate appearances.

Rodrigo Lopez started yesterday’s game against the Braves and probably wishes he hadn’t after surrendering eight runs over two ugly innings. Lopez came into the game having thrown seven shutout innings in official spring action, but leaves with a 7.00 ERA and a 1.89 ratio.

The Phils made three errors in the game and lost 17-10.

Brown hit a two-run homer in the contest, his fifth of the spring. 3-for-4 on the day ups his line to 400/471/683. He leads the team in home runs and runs scored. He’s scored 20 run this spring, which leads all players across both leagues by a wide margin. San Diego’s Kyle Blanks is second and he has scored 14 runs.

Betancourt was 4-for-5 with a double and two RBI. 450/455/525. If you had asked me what Yuniesky Betancourt was going to hit in spring training, I would have said under .450.

Howard was 2-for-4 with a pair of singles to up his spring average to .321.

Revere also 2-for-4 with two RBI. 328/359/410.

Ruf continues to hit after a super slow start. 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles and a pair of strikeouts. He’s up to 224/309/388. He continues to struggle in left. In the second inning, Freddie Freeman hit a ball deep to left. Ruf almost picked the ball off to take the home run away, but it went off his glove and cleared the fence. It’s been that kind of a spring for him.

Quintero, Revere and Howard made errors for the Phillies in the game.

Lopez started the game for the Phillies and allowed eight runs over two innings on eight hits, including two home runs, and two walks. Only seven of the runs were earned. Justin Upton hit a two-run homer off of him in the first and Freddie Freeman hit a two-run shot in the second.

Lopez’s ERA goes from 0.00 for the spring to 7.00 with the outing. He came into the start having allowed six hits and a walk over seven shutout innings and leaves it with a 1.89 ratio.

Stutes pitched the fourth inning for the Phils, allowing a solo home run to Juan Francisco and a single.

4.50 ERA and a 1.50 ratio for Stutes over eight innings. He had not allowed a home run coming into yesterday’s outing. He’s walked four over his eight innings.

Bastardo followed Stutes and allowed the first three men he faced to reach on a walk and two singles on his way to allowing two earned runs in the frame.

Bastardo’s ERA is up to 5.40. Three of the seven runs that he’s allowed in official spring action are unearned.

Cook followed Bastardo and threw the last three innings of the game, allowing three runs, two of which were earned, on four hits and a walk. He set the Braves down in order in the sixth. In the seventh he allowed a run on a walk, a passed ball and a single. In the eighth the Braves scored two runs on two singles and a triple.

Cook is tied for Lannan for the team lead in official spring innings pitched at 14. 3.21 ERA with a 1.36 ratio. Just four strikeouts in 14 innings.

Colt Murray also pitched for the Phils and allowed three runs in an inning.

Kyle Kendrick is expected to pitch this afternoon as the Phillies play the Yankees.

Cliff Lee was fantastic pitching in a minor league game yesterday, striking out nine in six shutout innings. He threw 80 pitches and allowed four hits and no walks.

This suggests that Galvis, Betancourt and Frandsen are still battling for two spots on the bench. All three of them have hit very well this spring — between the three they are 47-for-142 (.331) with five walks, 13 doubles, two triples and four home runs. Betancourt has clearly been the best of the three with the bat after a huge day yesterday. Galvis is on-basing .298 and Frandsen .327. Not sure it’s going to matter.

It’s not clear when Halladay will pitch in a game again. Could be Friday or Saturday. Could be a lot of days, actually, but Friday or Saturday are some of them.

Rollins is back with the team after hitting .321 in the World Baseball Classic, but may not be in the lineup until Friday.

Lopez has been reassigned to minor league camp.

Three games since the last post, highlighted by a mysterious exit from Halladay in Sunday’s game.

Yesterday the Phillies beat Baltimore 5-3. Galvis hit a two-run homer and Brown had two more hits, but the big news was that Halladay left the game after one long inning with a stomach virus.

Galvis hit his homer in the fifth off of righty Jason Hammel. 1-for-4 on the game with two strikeouts. He’s hitting 278/304/537 on the spring with a team-high 17 strikeouts in 57 plate appearances. Galvis just doesn’t strike out that much. Or at least he hasn’t over his career to this point. 29.8% of PA this spring, abut 14.5% of his PA in the majors and about 14.1% of his minor league PA. Of course, he doesn’t usually slug .537 either.

Michael Young was 2-for-3 with a double, upping his line to 294/333/412. .294 is .294, but that’s kind of a soft .294. Galvis’s isolated power of .259 is more than twice Young’s .118, for example.

Brown 2-for-4 with two singles. 375/453/625.

Utley 1-for-4. He’s hitting 200/347/325, which puts his isolated power of .125 in Young’s range.

Howard 1-for-4. 308/333/615. 13 strikeouts in 57 plate appearances is 22.8%. 27.8% for his career and 33.9% in 2012.

Inciarte appeared in the game without getting an at-bat. He’s hitting 263/391/316 in 19 at-bats. Mitchell was 0-for-1 and is at 438/500/938 in 16 at-bats.

Halladay was the big story of the game. He allowed a walk and a two-out single in the top of the first before getting Taylor Teagarden to fly to left to leave the runners stranded. It took him 25 pitches to get through the inning. He then left with a stomach virus and is still sick this morning.

The scoreless frame drops his spring ERA to 6.75 after five starts and 12 innings. He has a 1.67 ratio — opponents have hit .277 against him and he’s walked seven in 12 innings. Roy Halladay doesn’t walk seven in 12 innings when he’s pitching well. You can look it up.

Miner took over for Halladay after Halladay left and allowed a run on four hits and a walk over two innings. Miner has a 9.00 ERA and a 2.00 ratio in ten innings this spring. Opponents have hit .348 against him.

Horst threw two scoreless frames in the game in which he allowed one singles and struck out two. ERA drops to 6.97 and ratio to 1.35. Four home runs in 10 1/3 innings is the big problem, but the home run pace against him has slowed considerably.

Aumont pitched the sixth. He walked the first two batters he faced, then struck out the next two and got a ground ball to short to keep Baltimore off the board. Drops his ERA to 2.25 and his ratio to 1.00 in four official innings. Walks are the problem, though, and you want to avoid walking the first two guys you face in the inning whenever possible.

Jordan Whatcott, Colby Shreve and Ryan O’ Sullivan all pitched an inning for the Phils in the game as well.

Saturday the Phils beat the Yankees 7-0 behind great pitching and a monster day by Brown.

Valdes started the game and went three innings. Durbin also tossed three scoreless frames in the game. Adams, Stutes and Diekman all pitched a scoreless inning.

Brown made two diving catches in left field and hit a three-run homer off of Hiroki Kuroda. Betancourt was 3-for-4 with a double. Jermaine Mitchell was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Revere and Michael Young both went 0-for-4.

On Friday the Phillies lost 3-1 to the Rays.

Lannan started the game for the Phillies and was fantastic, throwing five scoreless frames to drop his spring ERA to 3.21. Horst and Bastardo both threw scoreless innings in the game and De Fratus allowed a run in two innings. Stephen Vogt hit a two-run walkoff homer off of Jay Johnson with two outs in the bottom of the tenth to get the Rays the win.

The Phillies had four hits in the game, singles by Revere, Ruiz, Brown and Frandsen.

The Phils sent Diekman and De Fratus to Triple-A and reassigned Josh Fields and Cesar Jimenez to minor league camp. That makes it less likely De Fratus will start the year in the pen.

Aaron Cook is expected to start this afternoon’s game against Atlanta.

Just about any scenario that envisions a return to glory for the Phillies in 2013 requires us to imagine Roy Halladay returning to his dominant self. That hasn’t happened this spring and it sure didn’t happen yesterday. Throwing in the mid-80s, Halladay was rocked by the Tigers, allowing seven runs over 2 2/3 innings as the Phils fell 10-6.

Halladay says he’s okay, but none of the quotes anyone’s come up with since the outing inspire a lot of confidence.

Lost in the Halladay hammering yesterday was that Horst and Valdes both pitched great for the Phillies. Horst struck out one in 1 1/3 scoreless frames in which he did not allow a hit or a walk. Valdes was even better, striking out four in three scoreless innings.

Revere was 3-for-3 with two doubles and scored three runs, upping his spring line to an impressive 372/400/465. Even an isolated power of .093, which is where he is now, would be a fantastic development for Revere. I think we should assume he’s not going to keep hitting .372. It probably is safe to assume he might walk in about 4.3% of his plate appearances, though.

Betancourt also had two hits, going 2-for-4. He’s hitting .379. Not sure what the Phillies are going to do with Betancourt, but also not sure why they would have brought him in if they were just going to let him go if he lit things up in spring training.

Utley hit his first home run of the spring, a two-run shot off of righty Luis Marte. 179/343/321 in 28 at-bats for the spring.

Howard was 1-for-3 with a double. 333/356/714. Leads the team in home runs (4), RBI (12) and strikeouts (12).

Inciarte 1-for-2 with a single. He’s 4-for-13 with three walks and four singles. Mitchell 1-for-1 with a double. 5-for-10 with a walk, a double and two triples. The Phillies should let him play as long as it take for him to stop leading the team in OPS.

Michael Young 0-for-4 to drop his average to .333. He’s second on the team in RBI behind Howard with nine. Nine RBI over 41 plate appearances would have him on a pace to drive in about 132 runs over 600 plate appearances. That might not even happen.

Kratz and Brown both 0-for-3. Kratz is hitting .190. Brown’s line drops to 400/489/675.

Halladay started the game for the Phillies and was terrible, allowing seven runs in 2 2/3 innings. He walked the first batter of the game, Quentin Berry, in the top of the first. Berry stole second and scored on a one-out single. Don Kelly hit a two-run homer off of Halladay in the second. Three of the first four men that Halladay faced in the fourth reached on a walk, a double and a hit by pitch (Kelly) before Ramon Santiago hit a grand slam. Halladay got the next batter after the slam and was replaced by Horst. Horst retired Berry to end the third.

Overall, Halladay went 2 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on six hits and four walks and hit one batter. He’s now made four starts, throwing to a 7.36 ERA and a 1.64 ratio while striking out nine in 11 innings. After four walks yesterday he’s walked six in 11 innings and opponents are hitting .279 against him. In 2010 for the Phillies, Halladay pitched 250 2/3 innings in which he walked 30. So his walk rate in yesterday’s start wasn’t as good as it had been during the 2010 season.

Horst pitched well in the game. After getting the final out of the third, he came back to throw a scoreless fourth in which he hit one batter but didn’t allow a hit or a walk. He drops his ERA to 9.82 and his ratio to 1.77 with the outing.

Diekman struck out two in the fifth, but also allowed a single and a two-run homer. He came back to pitch the sixth and allowed another run on a pair of doubles.

Overall, Diekman went two innings on the day, allowing three runs on four hits, three of which went for extra-bases, and no walks. He has now struck out 13 in eight innings for the spring, but thrown to a 5.63 ERA while opponents hit .290 against him.

Valdes followed Diekman and was fantastic, throwing three shutout innings in which he struck out four. He allowed one runner on one hit, a leadoff single to start the seventh.

Valdes has thrown 10 1/3 innings this spring and leads the team with 15 strikeouts. 5.23 ERA with an 0.97 ratio. He was hammered in his early starts, giving up four early home runs that have hurt his numbers, but I think the Phillies would be making a mistake not to start the year with him on the team. Even if it means three lefties with Bastardo, Horst and Valdes. His ratio in 31 innings with the Phillies last year was 0.74. If you throw to a ratio under one for long enough, it’s the kind of thing that can help a team.

The Phillies play the Yankees tonight in their first night game of the spring with Lee expected to pitch.

Rollins went 2-for-5 as the Phils topped Puerto Rico 7-1 in the World Baseball Classic. USA plays the Dominican Republic on Thursday night. Insert your own Cole Hamels joke here.

Canada has been eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, which means Phillippe Aumont has rejoined the Phillies. Aumont offers some criticism of Sebastian Valle’s conduct during the brawl between Mexico and Canada in the linked article.