Fire Eric Bruntlett

A Hastily Written STFU About Cliff Lee Already Post

“I want to tell her that I love her but the point is probably moot.”

-Rick Springfield, the preeminent love scholar of our time

You need to know when to let go of something.  Many of us have had girlfriends we can’t forget, childhood toys we can’t let go of, favorite bongs long lost that we obsess over finding to the point that we’ve torn open our couch and really killed any comfort in it but damn it all I need to find that bong!

…but I digress.

Ed Wade got flat out hosed in the trade for Roy Oswalt.  Ruben Amaro Jr. took advantage of Wade’s Phillies love and loyalty and took Roy Oswalt for the low price of J.A. Happ (who will apparently be missed primarily by women for his lips) and a couple prospects.  Amaro even took $11 million worth of lunch money from Wade!  Oswalt gives the Phillies three awesome top of the rotation pitchers and leaves them in a great position to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year and go back to the World Series for the third straight year.

But that’s not good enough for you people! Noooooo, you all go “B-b-but Cliff Lee was so good to us!  Hewas badass and fun and awesome and he should be a Phillie still!”  No shit Sherlock, but Amaro stupidly traded him away.  Boohoo, it’s done.

Cliff Lee is gone people!  He’s not walking through that door and you know it!  Yet you keep TALKING about it!  The whining is incessant.  We’ve got two Roys now!  I wish that I could have Cliff Lee, you wish you could have Cliff Lee, but guess what, we don’t have Cliff Lee!  We need to shave, put on a nice suit, and show our three ace starting pitching combo just how much they mean to us.  I’ll admit I did whine a bit about it yesterday before the trade.  But hey, I’m over it, and you should be too.  We can’t control the shitty decisions of the past so we should accept the great stuff we do have.  Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels?  I’ll take that any day.

Phillies vs. Rockies Live Blog

Less impromptu than last Thursday’s! Doors open 35 minutes before gametime for extra discussion of Rube’s failure in letting Haren go to the Angels for the equivalence of a bag of balls.

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Off Topic: Moyer and Martinez

We here at Fire Eric Bruntlett might have a specific goal in mind with our blog, but that doesn’t stop us from having a little variety in our posts.

As many of you are aware, the Phillies have decided to take a risk and have demoted baseball Methuselah Jamie Moyer to the bullpen in favor of the slightly younger Mets washout Pedro Martinez. Martinez has pitched well in the World Baseball Classic and minor leagues this year and Ruben Amaro has stated previously that the Phils signed Martinez to be a starter. J.A. Happ was the logical choice to go the bullpen considering his youth and experience, but he’s been too good as a starter to make that move.

If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if I thought Jamie Moyer would end up relegated to the bullpen I would have slapped you for being stupid. It’s hard to believe it’s actually happened.

Moyer’s been wildly inconsistent this year and it’s been immensely frustrating to watch as a fan. He’ll pitch a 2 hit shutout one night and let up 7 runs the next night he pitches. He has 10 wins but he also has an ERA of 5.47. Perhaps the biggest problem with Moyer has been his inability to pitch against patient teams. Moyer’s got excellent numbers against young, inexperienced teams like the Nationals, Marlins, and Rays. The big problem is that he seems to get annihilated any time he pitches against a team that forces him to throw it over the middle.

That’s not to say that I think Pedro is going to do better. I don’t know what to expect from him. He was garbage his last couple of years with the Mets but he seems rested this year and could be a huge gain for this team for the last month and a half. He’s cheap too, $1 million for a former Cy Young winner who could help guarantee another championship run? Not too shabby.

I’m still extremely bothered by this move. Maybe it’s the fact that Pedro is a former Met. Maybe it’s that Jamie Moyer is the inspirational local boy who returned home to win it all. Pedro is a bit cocky and a media whore. He’s the opposite of Moyer. This feels like media posturing by the Phillies and I don’t like it.

No offense to Jamie Moyer, but I wish he had retired after the Phillies won the World Series. It’s been difficult to watch him struggle this year. He was a key member of last year’s World Series title and now he may not even make it to the playoffs.

P.S. If Ruben Amaro has the balls to demote Jamie Moyer then there’s clearly nothing stopping him from getting rid of Bruntlett! Get it done Ruben!