Why isn’t Ryan Howard DHing?

Okay, so Greg Dobbs has appeared in 24 career games at first base as far as I can tell, but he’s a pretty average defender at 3rd base, a position that takes much more skill than 1st base.  Ryan Howard may have a name that would be recognized by people who only watch Fox’s Saturday Game of the Week, but he is, by all accounts, a pretty poor defensive first basemen.  I have no idea why Charlie Manuel, a man paid to make decisions like this, has decided his team has a better chance of winning with Howard in the field.

Similarly, I have no idea why he continues to bat Howard and Chase Utley, two lefties, one with huge platoon issues (Howard) and the other with normal platoon issues back to back against a team that has a bullpen with a gaggle of quality lefties.  Jayson Werth utterly owns lefthanded pitching, and Pat Burrell is no slouch of a hitter – putting either one of those guys between the two lefties makes so much sense it should be default.  Are these little things?  Absolutely – but all the Phillies have to do to be the 2008 World Series champions is win three of their next six games, and in an evenly matched series, forcing Joe Maddon to make decisions like, “should I let JP Howell face Jayson Werth with 2 outs and a runner on second in the 6th inning? Or should I pull Howell, hope Balfour can get Werth, and worry later about whether I should burn David Price now, which might burn me the next time through the order” can be the difference.

Pre-Game 2 Blurb

I don’t really feel like last night’s game changes my feelings about the series at all.  I still think the Rays will win, and I still think it’ll be a relatively lengthy series.  They’ll have the better starting on the mound every time that the Phils don’t run Hamels out there.

Sheehan on the Series (EDIT)

Baseball Prospectus’s Joe Sheehan has posted his Prospectus Today article, and it’s a fine piece of journalism.  Read it here (not a subscription-only piece as of right now).

Basic premise:  The Phillies best chance in this series is to win when Cole Hamels starts and steal one or two other games.  Sheehan advocates using Hamels on short rest not just in game 4, but again in a potential game 7.  I’m with him wholeheartedly here – the Rays, as I said yesterday, are just the better baseball team, but Philly can maximize their chances of a Series win by getting Hamels on the mound as much as possible.

EDIT:  The comments over there are quite good so far, too (7 posted as of now).  BP has a quite intelligent reader base, and the discussion on their newly added comment threads is top notch.

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Canceled classes are the best.  Get well soon to my World Poly prof.

Quick Thoughts

This would be pretty awesome.  Means nothing, but would be cool nonetheless.

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Also, I’m picking Tampa Bay in 7.  Just a hunch – I think the Phils will take a couple behind Hamels and maybe win a high scoring game 4 (Blanton vs Sonnanstine in Citizen’s Bank Bandbox).  Tampa’s homefield advantage and overall higher talent level will prevail.

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Wyatt Watch.  Probably ought to be a Dauthan Watch, too.

Enjoy the series.