Comments on: Joe Blanton’s elbow “is still a little cranky” and “definitely not 100 percent”

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:08:42 +0000

Jeez Laweez Chris, please don’t streak and I don’t care where the Phillies phinish up the season. Eating hats and posters is one thing but your doubtless ugly ass getting nekked and running around is likely a crime against humanity.

For the first time in my life; go Phillies.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:29:45 +0000

“Chris, there are some people that feel a duty to help their fellow man, and they don’t consider paying others to help to be sufficient. Most people would admire such attributes, especially from those that could lazily throw some money at it.”

Bleh, get off your high-horse man. Do you really believe this shit applies to this situation? I gave $1,000 to the relief effort in Japan. Am I less of a person because I didn’t jump on a plane and fly over there to help out in person?? Stop it already with this self-righteous BS. I can’t believe you actually believe this nonsense applies to a professional athlete doing something NOT for an EMERGENCY mind you…just because he likes to ride his freaking bulldozer, not because of any other reason. If Halladay stayed with the team,but gave $100,000 to the effort, would he be less of a person than Oswalt? Oswalt went and didn’t pay someone because he thinks he is Bob the Builder and no other reason. baseball is 4th to him as he admitted.

If you are going to judge who is on my side by the people who comment here, then you are crazy. We’ll agree to disagree here. You think it is OK for a major league ballplayer being paid $16 million dollars to throw out his back doing clean-up work around his home town…not EMERGENCY work to help save lives, but CLEAN-UP work that he could have easily paid to have done. I think it is irresponsible to your team and to your fan base. You think it is OK to put hunting and bulldozing above baseball. I don’t.

Sure if it were me doing it it would be different. I make less than 1% of what Oswalt will make this year. I don’t have an occupation where a billion dollar business depends on me to be able to do my job.

Thanks for at least debating the subject…and remember this…the majority isn’t always on the right side of things. I don’t care who agrees with me. I feel what I feel and say what I mean. And if I get 100000 thumbs down, as long as I said what I felt, I don’t care.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:59:21 +0000

Chris, there are some people that feel a duty to help their fellow man, and they don’t consider paying others to help to be sufficient. Most people would admire such attributes, especially from those that could lazily throw some money at it.
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I’m not looking for an argument. Indeed, I am actually on the side of the majority in this case. Everybody (well, many people) have jobs, that doesn’t mean that we don’t help people on the chance that we may not be able to fully perform our jobs temporarily. It isn’t like he wrestled a tornado. He sat on a bulldozer? That’s probably less physically stressful than a cab ride.
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You are being a myopic selfish jerk on this one. I don’t recall anyone else joining in on your side of the discussion….not even one of the many Philly fans that frequent HBT.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:35:37 +0000

I still say the NL East is the second best division in baseball. Now, please don’t streak up Broad st. And yeah, the Phills very well could be up by 10 then, I think that’s accurate. Please don’t get neggit over it though if not.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:17:22 +0000

“There is something wrong (to me) with thinking that a person should not engage in public assistance during a tragedy (especially in their home town/area) because they might not be able to play a game that serves only entertainment purposes.”

Oh come on…you mean to tell me that he would have been less of a person if he spent a couple hundred thousand to have PROFESSIONALS who are PAID to clean up after a disaster? Puh-leeze. That’s just ridiculous. The guy is paid to do a job and that job is playing baseball. You call it a game…yes it is, but it is also a business. Just like Craig is paid to write this blog. If he decided to get solar electricity in his house, and that hurt the blog, do you think NBC would be pissed? But why should they…Craig was only doing something good for the environment, wasn’t he??? Ugh.

You really seem to be looking to argue for the sake of arguing. There is NO WAY anybody can disagree that Oswalt was STUPID to go down and ride a freaking Bulldozer with a back that was already hurt when he has a gazillion dollars and could EASILY have hired some contractors to do it.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:11:35 +0000

For the first time since I began posting, I find myself praying a “Phillie Losing Streak” doesn’t occur.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:11:32 +0000

For the record, I almost never give thumbs….some days I’ll dole some out, mostly when I think a joke is funny or a comment is unusually asinine (yeah, some of those have been yours), but I usually don’t bother.
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Here’s a thumbs up for ya.
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But I still disagree. There is something wrong (to me) with thinking that a person should not engage in public assistance during a tragedy (especially in their home town/area) because they might not be able to play a game that serves only entertainment purposes.
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There are some things that are more important than baseball….it’s a long list.
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It is funny. You seem to LOVE baseball, but you won’t take the time to learn anything new about it (or think you already know everything, which would make you the only one). All of those stats you say you hate….those are just news ways to understand the sport…and that kind of learning is fun to a lot of baseball fans. You might want to try it, you might like it.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:07:43 +0000

Yes his gliding style can cover alot of ground in the gaps, but he also plays very deep, which should make him less wall-shy but doesn’t seem to translate that way. And I believe he is improving, particularly in the throwing department, but he still lacks the all-out take control aspect to his game, particularly on defense. Don’t get me wrong, his talent is immense, but he still needs to work on his aggressiveness and while I don’t consider him a liability in CF, and he sure isn’t going to get much help with Holliday and Berkman flanking him, calling him a + outfielder at present is a bit of a reach.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:03:14 +0000

The Marlins are like Sham…they are keeping up with the Phillies right now, but come June, they will fade into oblivion along with the Braves, while the Nationals and Mets never even get a sniff.

If the Phillies aren’t 10 games up on September 1st, I will streak down Broad Street.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:01:49 +0000

See, that’s why you should learn to READ what is written, instead of just ASSUMING things. Cause that just makes an ASS out of U and MING.

Oswalt was wrong to do manual labor down there. He could have flown his family up here and paid some construction workers to clean up the area. But he CHOSE to go down there, with a balky back, and make it worse. And now he is on the DL. The GM said “it probably didn’t help”. That’s what I had a problem with…and if you don’t see that as a problem, then I don’t know what to tell you. He also said baseball is 4th in his life. 4th!!! He is paid $16 million and it’s 4th!! I can guarantee you that if you ask Doc Halladay the priorities in his life it would be “Family, then Baseball”. Disagree?

And FYI…I would get thumbs down if I said the Earth revolved around the Sun. The idiots around here get their kicks off it. I mean, there is a dickhead who is named after a rash on my ass. Do you think he or she ever actually reads what I write?

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:55:33 +0000

Chris, if you really need an answer, you wouldn’t agree with it anyway…so there was no point. Obviously, your priorities are not aligned with those of most other people that are baseball fans (at least based on the thumbs) or players, which is fine….but means that there will be topics for which it is not possible to reach agreement.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:54:26 +0000

The NL east is the second best division in baseball. That is all.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:35:41 +0000

LOL…it’s paperbag. You never did explain why I was so wrong about what I said about Oswalt…unless you did it after I was done “work” yesterday.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:34:05 +0000

You really think the Braves are that good?

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:33:25 +0000

It has fallen off some the last week or so, his range was grading out pretty high a couple weeks ago. I know he dropped a couple early, but he really does get to a lot of balls quickly and make the catches look easy.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:32:55 +0000

By July, the division will look like the 1973 Belmont Stakes…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoFquax2F-k&w=425&h=349%5D

By: cooptroop08

cooptroop08 — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:27:55 +0000

@ fiorentino I agree with everything you said, but can we stop calling our division the NL least? the division really isn’t that bad.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:03:02 +0000

Yes I remember that too. But the + defense, not in the games I’ve watched and I’ve watched them all.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:00:22 +0000

Not true. To be honest, I am thinking about October and not the regular season. I still contend that, baring injury, there is no freaking way this team doesn’t win the NL Least. None. Zero. Zilch. So when I make a statement like “He’s the 5th starter, which means he isn’t really a major part of the team.” I’m really talking about October.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:19:24 +0000

….but, but, but, Blanton would be a “#3 starter for most teams” and would be fair value in trade for Colby Rasmus (who somewhat predictably is hitting .303/.396/.462 while playing + CF defense).

By: mikedi33

mikedi33 — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:12:10 +0000

Makes no sense. Worley and Kendrick can both start and do a better job than Joe with an injured elbow

By: philly56

philly56 — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:52:47 +0000

They were talking about getting rid of him in the off-season but for some reason – there he is. Throwing everything either way outside or into the middle of the strikezone, with that dumbstruck look on his face as he gives up hits and walks one after another.

I suppose his elbow was “a little cranky” and “definitely not 100 percent” throughout last season then, because its not like last night was an unusual night for him.

By: rebarratige

rebarratige — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:50:30 +0000

“He’s the 5th starter, which means he isn’t really a major part of the team.”

There’s no way you would have written this if anyone other than Fat Joe was your fifth starter.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:40:13 +0000

Injured is the new sucked.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:30:28 +0000

Worley is such a better option than Blanton, but I guess they are going to keep running Heavy B out there because of the money they are paying him. He’s the 5th starter, which means he isn’t really a major part of the team. But it would be nice to see Worley start the game instead of in relief.