Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies

Yes, it’s finally July, and the Marlins are off to a 2-1 start to the month! Hopefully they can keep it going, but they will have to do it versus the toughest team in the National League this season in the Philadelphia Phillies. I know, I hate them too.

Philadelphia Phillies (53-32) @ Florida Marlins, July 4-6, Games 85-87

NL East Standings

Stadium: Sun Life Stadium
Five-year Run PF*: 1.01
Five-year HR PF*: 0.97
Stadium Dimensions:
Left Field: 330 ft.
Left-Center: 361
Center Field: 404
Right-Center: 361
Right Field: 345

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

Projected Pitching Matchups

July 4: Ricky Nolasco vs. Vance Worley
July 5: Chris Volstad vs. Cole Hamels
July 6: Anibal Sanchez vs. Kyle Kendrick

ZiPS In-Season Projections

Projected Lineup

Quick Hits

Back by popular demand, it’s FanSided’s own Justin Klugh of That Balls Outta Here, giving us a six-pack of questions that should be of interest to everyone involved. This time around, Justin was a bit heavy on the cough medicine, so you’ll have to forgive him.

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"1. So Cliff Lee dominated June. Were you at all concerned that he wasn’t worth $120M, or was that money well spent for rich bastards such as yourselves?"

No, I was never concerned. I rarely am. That’s the benefit of being emotionally vacant. And don’t get all high and mighty because we’ve got some money to play with. Especially since we don’t, at the moment. And personally, my chief form of income is change from the sidewalk, so add to that a cough medicine habit I picked up from hanging out with some neighborhood toughs. Yeah. Not a lot of money left.

"2. Addendum: how does it feel to know you’ll be paying this guy $125M over the next five years? Fun fact: he’s hitting worse than Sanchez this season (.253/.351/.478 vs. .296/.369/.478)!"

It feels great. You’d be amazed how being in first place the whole year blinds you to the obvious miscalculations of the front office. And every other source of pain, really. I caught my hand in a car door this morning and instead of trying to punch a hole in the window to “get back” at the car, I just stood there, laughing hysterically, for 20 minutes. But that was also, you know, the cough medicine.

"3. Do you think Shane Victorino deserves to be the last NL All-Star voted in, or should someone else among the Last Vote candidates get in?"

Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I buy a lot of my cough medicine from Shane. So I think he deserves whatever honor people want to bestow upon him. The truth is, he’s been offensively beautiful thus far. And I’m sure there are stats to back that claim up, but I don’t know what they are. Just picture some fairly respectable numbers here.

"4. How can a fan base watching a team projected at a 95.6 percent chance to make the playoffs still be uspet with the team? I mean, can Roy Oswalt and Domonic Brown really upset fans that badly?"

Perspective, Michael. You look at your team and you say, “Okay, what are our biggest problems? ‘Losing constantly.’ Okay, let’s talk about how the Marlins can fix that.” We look at ours in the same way, it just seems more ridiculous because we’ve been blessed with this awesome team. There are plenty of problems to complain about–I mean, you just reminded me about Howard’s deal–so, yeah, we complain about them. It’ll be the same way with every team. We’ll win three in a row and then Kyle Kendrick will balk in a run and we’ll all go “Here we go again,” as if its some sort nightly suffering routine. Its baseball. You’re not doing it right unless you’re constantly uncomfortable.

"5. Do the Phillies have any more effective relievers that can fill in at closer? Can they start sharing them with other teams please? This question also goes to the San Diego Padres, so if you can forward that to them, that would be great."

Apparently all of our relievers are effective as closers. And I’m not allowed to email the Padres anymore. Not since I got caught selling cough medicine to Heath Bell‘s kids.

"6. Can you have Cole Hamels not shut us out? I heard he’s really good. Thanks."

Yeah, you’d be surprised at how many baseball players I’m legally prohibited from communicating with. Its basically all of them. Definitely all of the Phillies. You’d think getting tasered in front of all those people would have calmed me down, but I think it actually made me more like a supervillain.

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Thanks to Justin for answering those questions. Feel free to check out his questions to me and my answers as well. They involve the new stadium and how old Jack McKeon is. Or something. Just click the link.

Bold Predicition: Marlins win two of three games.