PhoulBallz.com

Every now and again, here on the site, we feature guests tackling a topic related to the Phillies.  This time around, I surveyed some impassioned baseball minds on the subject of which of the Phils' four key players with expiring contracts at the end of this upcoming season are most likely and least likely to return to Philadelphia.  Those four individuals are manager Charlie Manuel , ace pitcher Roy Halladay , catcher Carlos Ruiz and second baseman Chase Utley . The participants in this roundtable are my Podcast cohost Tug Haines , WFAN radio host and writer Joe Giglio , the biggest female baseball fan I know Casey Landman , PhilliesNation.com writer Kieran Carobine as well as yours truly.  Here's what the group had to say on this subject. Tug Haines- I  think a lot of this depends on how the season looks around the trade deadline. But I’ll answer real quick, ranking them from least to most likely, while assuming the Phillies will be in the thick of thi...

The following is a guest post written by friend of this site, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. A pro baseball broadcaster, Jesse is a life-long sports fan, who calls it like he sees it. The problem with baseball is not that the games go on for over three hours, or that Tony La Russa and Ron Washington used their entire bullpens in each World Series contest, or that the umpires' strike zones are inconsistent. It's much more simple than that. Baseball is my favorite sport. Basketball isn't. Yet this page of the NBA's greatest shots is better than anything baseball can ever produce online. Why? Because it has video links. Baseball's media department, run by Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) prohibits the sharing of any MLB video away from the official Major League website. It's asinine and counterproductive, and promotion of the game suffers because of it. If I wanted to show someone why Barry Sanders was so good, I type 'Barry Sanders' in...

Phillies minor league third baseman Moose Mattair checked in, once again, to give readers an inside look at his journey back to baseball, after taking a year off to try his hand at Division I college basketball. Moose and his cousin Eric drove together from Washington state and stopped in central Florida to move Moose into his temporary Winter/Spring residence before wrapping up their bonding with a few days in Miami. Moose is now back in the Clearwater area and phoned in with a report on his past week, or so, in Florida. To read Moose's previous diary entries click here and here . Miami is an awesome place...just a fabulous place. The weather was beautiful. I got a nice sunburn, which prevented me from getting the tattoo that I originally planned to get on the trip. I wanted to add on to the cross that I have on my back, but I was just too sunburned that I couldn't get it. We went around the city and took in the beach and went to a couple different spots. It was a load of fun...

The following is a post from ballpark aficionado Kurt Smith. Kurt, a New Jersey resident, is the creator of Ballpark E-Guides , a series of baseball venue reviews that provide extremely detailed rundowns of various MLB facilities. From time to time, Kurt expects to join PhoulBallz.com to talk about professional baseball, its cathedrals and whatever else might be on his mind. Right now, though, check out information from Kurt about his excellent downloadable booklet of everything there is to know about Citizens Bank Park. Currently I live in Turnersville, NJ, just a 20-minute drive from the sports complex in South Philadelphia. I saw plenty of Phillies games, Flyers games, and concerts at the Vet and at the Spectrum. And I had no truck with any of it then. But I will say it looks a heck of a lot nicer now. Especially Citizens Bank Park. The idea for writing a guide to the Major League ballparks came to me while lying in bed one night. I thought about my frequent trips to Camden Yards (I...

This week, Phillies minor league third baseman and Lakewood BlueClaws fan favorite Travis "Moose" Mattair will be checking in to log diaries from the road, as he starts his cross country journey back to baseball, after taking a year off to dabble in Division I college basketball . Moose's trip began with terrible news, but with the blessing of his family to not delay his expedition, he trucked on. In this entry, Moose talks about his family, traveling from Washington state, rooming in Florida with an old BlueClaws teammate and the NFL Playoffs. Check back for more from Moose in the coming days. 18 hours on the road yesterday. We began at 4:15 yesterday morning and it started off as a really rough morning for us. I am with my cousin, Eric, and we found out our uncle actually passed away yesterday morning. He's been dealing with and fighting cancer everywhere in his body. We found out last January that he had it. It's just very unfortunate that he ended up passing a...

The following is a PhoulBallz.com exclusive guest post by Phillies pitching prospect Jake Borup. From time to time, Jake, who was selected in the 23rd round of the 2010 amateur draft by the Phillies out of Arizona State University, will join us to share his thoughts on his life as minor leaguer. To check out my previous interview with Jake, click here . It’s January 10th, and spring training is less than 2 months away. It feels like yesterday I was in Williamsport with guys like Eric Pettis, Garret Claypool, Cameron Rupp, and now as the season approaches I’m excited to get back to Clearwater and be around baseball again. It’s been almost four months since I was last around a clubhouse, a field, or any sort of baseball. My life for the past few months has consisted of working part-time at a nearby golf course, golfing, hanging out with family, and enjoying college football and the NBA (Go Suns). And with a great deal of anticipation, I can say that I’m ready for baseball season to start...

Special to PhoulBallz.com...written by Kelly Bloor and Johnny Bloor Benjamin Franklin once said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Had Mr. Franklin lived in his beloved Philadelphia today, he might add one more thing to the list: The national media's neverending stream of negative coverage about Philadelphia sports fans. Philadelphia fans are all too familiar with the Mad Libs-type paragraph that is tacked on to each and every article discussing an incident that took place within a mile radius of Broad and Pattison: "Once again, Philadelphia [Phillies/Eagles/Flyers] fans proved they are among the most [classless/rude/obnoxious] in [MLB/NFL/NHL] as [drunk/unruly/disorderly] fans [fought with/cursed at/spit on] opposing [players/coaches/fans]. Such [reprehensible/boorish/juvenile] behavior is [expected/common/customary] from the league's most [vulgar/uncivil/ill-behaved] fans. After all, these are the same people that [booed San...

This is an entry by guest blogger Allen Schatz. Allen may be familiar to some of you as "raschatz" on twitter and Facebook. Allen is a fiction writer and is currently shopping a murder mystery set on a baseball canvas. Those in the business may wish to click here , to find out more about Allen's work. Much has been said and written about how the Phillies have turned a corner in recent years, how they finally seem to "get it." I was reminded of that after another day of Eagles football came and went with a hauntingly familiar result. The Birds have taken over as Philadelphia's -- hell, maybe ALL of professional sport's -- Groundhog Day Team. You know, they do the same thing over and over and expect something different to result. Phil Sheridan of the Philly Inquirer hit on it in his assessment of their latest loss... "The veteran head coach has to take some of the heat for the way some very good drives fizzled..." "The Eagles' inabilit...