The Right Side of the Future

Tonight is an off night for the Phillies. A chance to regroup, figure things out, watch Roger Clemens pitch (or the college world series like me). I'll take the night off to inform you, my wonderful reader, about the 3 players that I think are the only bright spots on the Phillies right now.
My two favorite players on the Phillies right now are Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, the right side of the infield for the Phillies for many years to come. Each of their salaries are $500,000 and $355,000 respectively.

Ryan Howard was a 5th round draft choice of the Phillies in 2001. Everyone knows how he make it to majors and forced the Phillies to get rid of Jim Thome in the offseason. After a stellar rookie season, he has blossomed into a great hitter. Just this week he hit the first home run into the upper deck of Citizens Bank Park. It was actually not the farthest home run he's hit this year. His deep blast into Asburn Alley on 4/23 went 491 feet. The farthest home run distance this year according to hittrackeronline.com.
Let me just leave you with this stat from ESPN.com: his projected stats for the complete season are as follows: 57 home runs, .293 batting average, 151 RBI. I'm happy to give up Jim Thome to let this guy play. O yea and he is only costing us $355,000.







Now the other guy. Chase Utley does not have the best stats in the world this year, but still he is having a great year for the Phillies. He is the exact type of player they need more of on this ballclub. He's an honorable mention on Jayson Stark's "All-Run-Through-A-Wall team." Chase had his first day off this season on Saturday, June 17th. Yes, first day off of the season. He is a homegrown star of the Phillies system. He was the 15th overall pick of the 2000 draft. His projected season stats on ESPN.com are 27 HR, 93RBI, .290 Batting Average. Not too shabby for a young 2nd baseman. His best contributions though are not those stats, but his work ethic and hardworking old-school style of ball playing. His defense has gotten much better to the point where he is a very dependable player. He's always running, wherever he is on the field. This New York Times article sums him up best though. It's an article about how hard Utley works in the offseason and how he has pledged to never take any performance enhancing drugs. Since you might not be a New York Times online member (even though it is free) I have provided a copy of the article here.


The final player I would like to highlight is Brett Myers. Myers was the 12th overall pick of the 1999 draft. He has finally come into his own this year. He's a very solid starting pitcher this year. He has only given up more than 3 earned runs in game twice this year (6/9 vs. Nationals and 6/14 vs. Mets), but he has since rebounded (2 ER in 6.2 innings vs. Yankees on 6/19). He has a 3.77 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 77 K's, 2.33 K/BB ratio, and .267 opponent AVG.

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A few other notes. A few people might say where is Tom Gordon and Aaron Rowand on this list. It's true Tom Gordon is playing great, but I feel like he has been a huge difference maker this year. Also, he's not a really a pitcher of the future. He's too old to be here more than one more year. Myers, Utley, and Howard will be here for awhile. Rowand did make The Catch, but besides that he hasn't done that much to make himself stick out. That can really be said for most of the players besides Howard. Just because I did not include him here, don't let that make you think I don't like him.

Comcast shows the show "Phillies Clubhouse" on the nights the Phillies aren't playing. One segment of the show was to take Ryan Howard up to the upper deck where he hit his massive home run the other day and to see the seat, now marked by an "H" where the ball hit. I just found a few quotes from the segment to be rather humorous. Just remember there are talking about the upper deck, the cheap seats, where I sit when I go to the games. I love the seats up there - $12 and a great atmosphere.
"I don't think that bird is higher than us right now."
"It looks a lot farther from up here."
"You can't even tell who the people are down there."






Update: Withholding oppinion on him until the criminal investigation has concluded.