Jayson Werth: The $126 Million Man

Congratulations to Jayson Werth. To start 2008, he was in a platoon with Geoff Jenkins. By the end of 2008, he had won a World Series ring. By 2009, he was a full time starter. By the end of 2009, he had another NLCS ring. Now, Jayson Werth has decided to cash in on the only chance he'll have to be a very wealthy man. And boy has he ever cashed in. 7 years and $126 million from the Washington Nationals.

While some fans might be angry that he decided to sign with a division rival, I feel nothing but happiness for Werth. Werth has already won a championship, and has made it very clear that this off-season was about money for him, not trying to win another championship in Boston or New York. And money is what Werth got. He would have been stupid to turn down the Nationals offered as it is a pretty ridiculous overpay. To put it in perspective, the Phillies were offering Jason Bay money for Werth. If you are a Phillies thing, be very glad the Phillies did not match the Nationals offense. It may sting a bit now, but in year 6 and 7 of that deal and Werth is in his late 30s, it will be a huge burden on the Nationals. That being said, the Nationals could be scary good in a year or 2 if they make the right moves. Who knows what the future holds in terms of personnel moves, but Strasburg will return from injury at the end of the 2011 season and who knows when we will see Bryce Harper debut. I don't think 2012 is out of the question for him.

As compensation, the Philadelphia Phillies receive the Nationals 2nd round draft pick in addition to a "sandwich round pick."

And for those that ever wondered, this is exactly why baseball players hire Scott Boras to be their agent. Congratulations to Jayson Werth and I wish him nothing but the best with the Nationals. If there is not a standing ovation for him at Citizens Bank Park on May 3, 2011, I will be greatly disappointed.

Roy Halladay Is Awesome

There are several reasons why I like Roy Halladay other than the fact that he is an amazing pitcher. For starters, he is as hard a worker as any pitcher out there. Also, he is a humble guy and a class act the likes of which you do not find every day in major American professional sports. Case and point, Roy Halladay has decided to thank all of his teammates who helped make the perfect game on May 29, 2010 possible. From the Twitter account of Delaware County Times beat writer Ryan Lawrence.

That is simply awesome. I just hope he remembers to send one to Juan Castro.....

Update: Per Ryan Lawrence, Juan Castro will get a watch, as will essentially everyone was a part of the Phillies team that day, whether they physically played in the game or not (i.e. bullpen pitchers and bench players are getting watches as well). Also, per Matt Gelb, Milt Thompson is receiving one as well. For a little more about Roy's presenting of the watches, here is an article from Gelb's blog, The Phillies Zone

The righthander purchased around 60 Baume & Mercier watches to commemorate his perfect game May 29. He gave out the watches as gifts to everyone in the clubhouse — all of the players who were on the active roster then, the entire coaching staff, all clubhouse personnel (including bat boy Rob DiClementi), training and video staff as well as public relations officials.

The watches were enclosed in brown boxes with an inscription on the front: “We did it together. Thanks, Roy Halladay.”

“Unbelievable,” Raul Ibanez said as he opened his. “Wow.”

It’s not unusual for a pitcher to reward his teammates for a milestone like a perfect game. Halladay went beyond that.

Each watch was engraved on the back with the date of the game and the linescore. Every watch was personalized, the person’s name engraved on the back of their watch.

“That’s awesome,” Ryan Howard said, as he inspected the thick instruction manual that came with every watch.

[...]

A little more than an hour before first pitch, the players sat at their lockers, finagling with the watches. Halladay, from the corner of the room, watched and smiled.

Brad Lidge shook his head in disbelief. He wasn’t even in Miami the night Halladay threw the perfect game. Instead, he was pitching in a rehab game 100 miles north in Port St. Luice, Fla.

Like I said above, simply awesome.

Is Charlie Manuel Awesome For Post-Game Quotes? You Bet Your Sweet Ass!

I may criticize a lot of Charlie Manuel's decision making, but when it comes to post game quotes, Charlie is right up there with the best of them. Sure he does not rant and rave about everything like Ozzie Guillen, but he is so down to earth in his quotes that it is hilarious. Take for instance this video which features Jayson Werth quoting Charlie Manuel and what Werth said Charlie said when someone asked Charlie whether or not Jimmy Rollins can still hit.



"Bet Your Sweet Ass."

Reason #2356 why I love the Philadelphia sports blogosphere: It has only been a little more than 12 hours since the quote and the quote is already on a T-shirt.

RIP Jayson Werth's Beard

We are gathered here today to mourn the death of a legend and an icon. Jayson Werth has shaved. The beard is gone. It's over. Rest in peace Jayson Werth's Beard. We will miss you.



Today is a sad day for the Phillies. We mourn thee, JWerth's Beard and who knows, maybe on some random summer day, you shall rise up from the ashes like the phoenix and live freely, forever and for always.

Meet Jayson Werth's New Beard

Awesome does not begin to describe it.

(Photo courtesy of The Zo Zone. For a whole collection of awesome Werth beard pics and some even more awesome Werth beard pic photoshops, visit The Fightins)

Who Is This Dennis Werth Fellow That You Speak So Fondly Of, Keith Olbermann?

You would think that a self-professed baseball historian and someone who is currently writing a blog for MLB.com would be very familiar with the names of the key players for the teams in the World Series, especially if said Phillie was the key player in Game 5 of the NLCS and an all-star this year. Even if their step-father was a former major leaguer in the late 70s and early 80s, partly with the New York Yankees. Easy to tell apart, right? Not for Keith Olbermann, who somehow managed to confuse the two in a blog entry for MLB.com, not once but twice. Here's the screenshot. (click for larger)

Sheer idiocy.

And it hardly seems likely that he just accidentally typed "Dennis" instead of "Jayson" because he was identifying his father, look down at the tags. He tagged "Dennis Werth" instead of "Jayson Werth". What a moron.

It truly is amazing at how someone can fuck up something that's as basic as the name of one of the star players in the World Series, and confusing him with his father WHO ONLY PLAYED FOR 4 YEARS, THE LAST OF THOSE BEING IN THE EARLY '80S!!! But it's Keith Olbermann, the master of the on-air fuck ups, so I guess I really should not be as surprised as I am.

Although kudos to him, as I'm pretty sure he is the only person alive that remembers the playing days of Dennis Werth. Then again, there's a good chance that someone from Media Matters handed Keith that info ahead of time.....

Big Mac, big mistake (The Baseball Nerd)
Keith Olbermann thinks the key to a Phillies upset is Dennis Werth (The Fightins)

Happy Rocktober, Everybody!!!

WOW! What a roller coaster ride of a baseball game! After leading 2-1 for a good part of the game, the Colorado Rockies rallied in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 2-run lead and at that point, my heart just sunk. For if a Game 5 is forced, we lose Hamels for the start of the potential NLCS series, thus making our Game 1 starter of that series either Happ or Blanton or Pedro and Hamels would not be able to go until much later in the series. Oh, and yeah, if Colorado hangs on, they have all of the momentum coming back to Philly. And with a sinker ball pitcher in Aaron Cook on the mound, a style of pitching that the Phillies have struggled with this year, there is no way we win that game.

But then, the Phillies staged a rally that will be remembered for a long time in Philadelphia and perhaps an even longer time in Denver. With 2 outs and 2 strikes on him, Chase Utley did a masterful job of working the walk to join Shane Victorino on base. Then Howard came up, and faced with a 1-2 count, this happened.



That double evened things up! But wait, the Phillies were not done yet. Jayson Werth was at the plate and then the even more improable happened. Jayson Werth singled to score Ryan Howard from 2nd to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead

Into the bottom of the 9th, instead of relying on their closer, Manual got smart and did what the Rockies did not do and play the match-ups (if the Rockies were playing match-ups, they would have never let Huston Street pitch against Howard)), instead they brought in Scott Eyre to face the lefty-laden line-up of the Rockies that was due up. Only once they got to Tulo, did Brad Lidge come in and despite the fact that there were runners on base, Brad Lidge struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the inning, game, and NLDS series.



Simply an amazing comeback. It may just be the NLDS and the Phillies may have much higher expectations than surviving a series with the Rockies, but anytime you get a playoff win like that, it is going to excite the city and excite the town and give the Phillies all of the momentum they could ask for heading into the a re-match of the 2008 NLCS in the 2009 NLCS.

The series starts on this Thursday. I will have the full and complete LCS schedule up for you all tomorrow.

For all videos at MLB.com where they are in high quality, including the Werth single that I can't find at the moment, click here.

Jayson Werth Is Quite The Thief

It's quite safe to say that last night's performance was definitley a werthy one from the Phillies right fielder, Jayson Werth. He stole a total of 4 bases including 3 in one inning which included his epic steal of home plate, the 2nd of time someone has stolen home this season. And while this happened over 24-hours ago, my schedule and the lack of quality videos of this that were up last night prohibited me from posting on this, but seeing as the Phillies were creamed today by the Dodgers, I figured why not re-live the glorious moments of last night (and meanwhile make 49er16 a very happy person). So here is Jayson Werth's incredible performance....



Just an amazing performance that tied a club record set by Garry Maddox in 1978 and Sherry Magee in 1908. I know I said that I was planning on live blogging tomorrow's game over at Keith's Sports Journal yesterday, well, there is a slight problem with that and that's the TV that I use for this is satellite only and does not have basic cable. Which means because I have DirecTV (and not Comcast Digital) that I don't get CSN Philly in the room where my laptop is. So yeah, I sort of forgot about that. If I feel like it, I might move my laptop and plug it in elsewhere, but chances are I'll be too lazy. ;-)