Tim Redding Presented Bill Mueller Career Achievement Trophy

After his domination of the Phillies on Monday, Tim Redding was presented with the 2008 Bill Mueller Career Achievement Award. This honor, presented by Phillies Chairman Bill Giles, is given to the player who excels in defeating the Phillies. In two 2008 starts against them, Redding is 2-0 without giving up a single run.

"Any time you can help the team, it's great," said Redding in the clubhouse after Monday's start. "I didn't know there was an award for beating the Phillies, but I hope I can defend my title in 2009."

Redding, despite having a career ERA of 4.74, has always shown up against the Phillies. In 8 career starts, his ERA is just 2.34 with a 4-2 record. He actually spent 2006 in the minor leagues but found life with Washington in 2007. He's now doing better than ever.

"I attribute it to working hard to get back to the level I know I can compete in and also being in the Phillies division. In the NL East, there's a great chance I take the hill against them, and that just kind of makes you focus more."

How The East Was Won

Note: This was originally going to be released after the Flyers' game seven victory, but the mainstream media's inside sources for my content leaked it, so I'm just putting things out there for everyone to see.

Film treatment "How The East Was Won"

World-renowned baker John Stevens always had hockey aspirations in his home town of Campbellton. At the age of 30, he threw down his goofy white hat and laced up the ice skates one last time in a tryout for the Philadelphia Flyers. He was signed to a contract and named team captain of the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms. In 1999, not too long after leading the Phantoms to a Calder Cup, an eye injury caused Stevens to retire and become an assistant coach. Little did he know he would be leading a team to one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

After finishing the disastrous season in 2006-2007 that Ken Hitchcock started, John Stevens faced many problems. He had to help turn around a team that just had one of the worst seasons in hockey history. Paul Holmgren acquired several talented players to rebuild the franchise, but that did not guarantee success. Using team building activities such as locker room shuffling, Stevens got the roster to gel and play well on the ice. In the first round of the playoffs, the Flyers defeated the red hot Washington Capitals in seven games. They built up a 3-1 lead, but nothing came easy; it took a Joffrey Lupul OT goal to clinch. Against Montreal, the Flyers pulled a stunning upset, but their greatest test still stood before them: the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After going down 3 games to none, Stevens was almost out of answers. He lost his two best defensemen, and the Flyers were getting completely outplayed. With nothing to lose, he did the unthinkable and switched some lines. His team took advantage of a lazy Pittsburgh squad in game four, and took the series back to the Steel City. Facing a tough crowd and that's been unstoppable at home, Stevens watched his team come together to keep the season alive. Brayon Coburn somehow returned back to the lineup and scored a key game six goal to force a deciding game seven in Pittsburgh.

He couldn't believe what he saw. His team committed fewer turnovers, cleared the puck, and took advantage of power play opportunities. Their physical game was frustrating the Penguins, who believed they already had the series clinched. Prior to game seven, Stevens used a new tactic, maybe his greatest yet; he delivered a killer pregame speech. No man with a soul could not be inspired by this rare show of emotion, and the Flyers played like it. They were determined to skate away victorious, and they advanced to take on the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals.

To be continued.

R.J. Umburglar Arrested For Second Degree Canadien Murder

Last night's post-series victory celebration was short lived, at least for one Flyer.

Shortly after the handshakes at center ice, R.J. Umberger was escorted out of the arena by Canadian police. It turns out he was a person of interest in four murder cases, ranging from April 26th to just last night. After rounds of questioning in custody, charges were officially pressed against Umberger.

"It turns out he was in fact the guy that scored eight goals this series. One of them was even a game winner. He is a serial goal scorer, and guys as sick as him need to be locked up for a very long time."

The detective went on later to say that Carey Price is being investigated as an accomplice. Neither Umberger nor Price's lawyers had any comment on the situation.

National Valiquette League

Feeling that a change was needed to improve the league, Gary Bettman stepped down as NHL commissioner today. Before stepping down, he named his successor, Rangers' backup goalie Steve Valiquette.

"Well, we were impressed with the Islanders when they promoted (backup goalie) Garth Snow to General Manager," said the departing commissioner, "that we needed to advance the goalie to executive promotions. We decided that Steve is the right guy for the job."

Steve Valiquette has had a busy day on the job. His first step towards change has been drastic; the league has been renamed the National Valiquette League. Getting a star's name in the league name should result in an instant improvement in league image. Gone are the Eastern and Western Conferences; in are the Long Island and Manhattan Conferences, in honor of his career for both New York NHL teams. The six new divisions include Providence, Lowell, Springfield, Bridgeport, Toronto and Hartford, signifying the AHL teams he has played for in his outstanding minor league career.

He is the new Owner-GM-Coach-Player of the New York Valiquettes, who play their home games in Valiquette Square Garden. Henrik Lundqvist has been traded to Frolunda of the Swedish Elite League for the rights to Peter Forsberg. The Valiquettes are no longer restricted by the NHL's salary cap.

Asked if he has any other major changes in the works, Valiquette laughed. "Rome wasn't built in a day, you know. We'll see what happens in the offseason after we award Lord Steve's Cup."

Steve Vezinaquette

The Vezina Trophy, as voted on by the NHL's 30 General Managers, is presented to the goalie judged to be the most valuable to his team. Some of the best of all time have been presented this trophy, including Martin Brodeur, who has won three out of the last four. However, late this afternoon, I'm hearing from a league source that there will be a new name for this award: the Valiquette?

Steve Valiquette: he's 30 year old backup to Henrik Lundvqist of the New York Rangers. He's played on three NHL teams over seven seasons, previously with the crosstown Islanders and Edmonton Oilers. Although he has just 7 wins in those seasons, including his first career shutout last night, he is universally praised as one of the great goalies of this era.

One annoymous scout's take on this legend: "He (Valiquette) can do it all. Despite his tremendous size, his game is very quick and smooth. It's almost hard to assign a style of play to him. He just does so much well. His reflexes are top notch and his rebound control is phenominal."

Despite having only 7 wins at the age of 30, the NHL felt that it was best to make the trophy change now. He's just a late bloomer, and by the time he's in his late 30's and 40's, he'll be doing things guys like Roy and Hasek could only dream of.

On a side note, I think the Antero Niittymagic might be over.

Phillies Announce Retro Signing Promotion

The Phillies are wearing throwback alternate uniforms on afternoon home games, so what better way to do it than make retro acquisitions?

Yesterday, they did just that. Todd Zolecki of the Inky tells us the Phillies have reached a contract agreement with David Bell. Having him just one time wasn't enough. He deserved a second go around, despite the HGH allegations.

Okay, I'm being a bit unfair to Pedro Feliz, but I'm torn on this signing. Let's talk about the positives first. He's a great defensive player. Great might even be shortchanging him. He's one of the best in the league at the hot corner. Ever since Rolen got traded, defense at third base has been a problem. David Bell was okay for a little bit, but he got banged up and became a liability in the field. Helms has no range and a bad arm, and Dobbs doesn't have much experience at the position.

Abraham Nunez played a nice role last season. He did a good job coming in late in games and saving some runs in close games. The problem with Nunez is he couldn't hit at all. He has a career .627 OPS, and a number that was much lower than that with the Phillies. That's about .100 points below the league average. It's nice to have a bench player that plays good defense all around the infield, but his offense was so bad that he just doesn't have a spot in the majors.

Platoons could work out, and at the plate, Dobbs/Helms probably could've. However, with those two, the Phillies needed a guy to come out in the 7th, 8th innings to play defense for them because they're so bad. Eric Bruntlett might be able to do that, but at some point, it becomes ideal to have a guy that can hit and field.

Is Feliz that guy? He can definitely field, but there's a lot of questions about whether or not he can hit. Feliz has been a full-time starter for the past four seasons, and he has 84 home runs in that span. Keep in mind, this is in San Francisco, which has one of the most favorable parks for pitchers in the league. He might hit 25 or more in the friendly confines of Citizen's Bank Park, but hitting is more than home runs.

In 2004, his first full year as a starter, he slugged .485. That's good, but after that, he slugged .422, .428 and .418. That's okay. Last season, Phillies 7 hole hitters slugged .469. The bottom of the lineup was a strength last year, which is one of the reasons they led the NL in runs.

Feliz' offensive game has two problems; he doesn't make strong contact very often (career .252 hitter) and he doesn't walk (career OBP .288). That's awful. He makes an out over 71% of the time he steps to the plate. His OPS+ has been 100 or better only twice, and he was a part time player in one of those years. One other alarming things about Feliz? He only hit .257/.298/.368 against lefties last year. It's not good when a righty with the power he's supposed to have only slugs .368 against lefties.

Some of those Feliz numbers look bad, but consider this: Phillies 3B hit .255/.321/.368. Those are awful numbers that don't stack up against the rest of the NL. He should be able to do better than that, and his defense is definitely an upgrade over what the Phillies already have.

What does this mean for the rest of the team? It means Dobbs or Helms, most likely Helms, will be traded at some point. The entire bench can't be composed of guys who play 3B. Fortunately for all of them, they can all play other positions. Dobbs can play 1st and a little 2nd and corner OF. Helms can play 1B. Feliz has played just about everything in his career. Dobbs could still be a good supersub type to have on the bench, so he'll probably stay. Eric Bruntlett probably will too because he can play a lot of different positions.

The contract is kind of iffy. 4 million per isn't bad for an average player, but 2 years isn't good. Last year, Feliz was a free agent and he could only re-up with the Giants for one year. He didn't have a great 2007, so how did he parlay that into a two year contract? Hopefully over those next two years, someone like Cardenas, Donald or Mattair can develop their games and take over that spot so the hot corner can be secure like it should've been when we had Rolen.

One Liners

This really shouldn't count as a post, but every week, I'm going to change the one liner underneath the blog title. This post will serve as an archive.

7/1/08-9/2/08: Where Randy Jones has broken Lou Gehrig's 25200 day streak of being the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
6/16/08-7/1/08: Where the Phillies will finally find the key to someone's toolshed.
5/24/08-6/16/08: Where Jon Lester's no hitter is the biggest victory in the fight against cancer since Steve Downie socked Jason Blake.
5/4/08-5/20/08: Where it's okay if Carey Price "gets this out of his system" when he's 20, 21, 22, 23...
4/24/08-5/4/08: Where Alexander Ovechkin is so busy wildly celebrating he has not yet realized the Flyers won.
4/06/08-4/24/08: Where Wes Helms is the player to be named later.
3/31/08-4/06/08: Flash! A-ah... he'll save everyone of us!
3/18/08-3/31/08: Where John Stevens changed my password to fire me up.
3/11/08-3/18/08: Where Martin Brodeur has retired and the Devils didn't make the playoffs.
2/22/08-3/11/08: Where the Flyers have won a shootout.
2/14/08-2/22/08: Where Adam Eaton's contract isn't guaranteed.
2/12/08-2/14/08: Where pitchers and catchers have already reported.
2/4/08-2/12/08: Where 19-0 is attainable.
1/29/08-2/4/08: Where I'm the centerpiece of the Johan Santana deal.
1/21/08-1/29/08: Where Colin Campbell has suspended me for five entries.