Geoff Jenkins, the left-handed veteran outfielder, has been let go by the Phillies. The move came Tuesday, and, due to timing and other circumstances, has been immediately tied to the Tigers' release of Gary Sheffield. Because Sheffield is still under contract with the Tigers, the Phillies would only have to sign Sheffield to the league minimum -- as the Tigers are still paying him upwards of $14 million. This would be a situation exactly like the Cubs had with Jim Edmonds last season after the Padres cut the center fielder.
In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.
Things move fast in the Internet Age. That's the nature of a 24-hour news cycle or maybe just the short attention span of Americans. Either way, before you know it we're going to be talking about CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira (And Jake Peavy and Manny Ramirez and maybe even Prince Fielder).
So let's take the chance, while we still can, to pay tribute to the 2008 champions. With a cheesesteak in one hand and a Yuengling in the other, here's to you Philadelphia.
- Here's to the Phillies fans, first and foremost. You're not always the easiest folks to understand. You've booed just about everyone including many of your own players. Even among East Coast baseball fans you can seem like a cynical, sour bunch. But your passion and loyalty is undeniable.
In frigid temperatures and pouring rain on Monday night, Citizens Bank Park was packed to the hilt. In more than 100 years of existence, you've been rewarded for your devotion with a title only twice. It hardly seems like enough.
- Here's to Cole Hamels, who at just 24 has established himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball, and just maybe its greatest changeup artist.
Until his magical October run, Hamels wasn't widely recognized by casual fans for his dominance. He wasn't even an All-Star this year. Hope you enjoyed the relative anonymity while it lasted, Cole.
After a 46-hour rain delay, the Philadelphia Phillies finally finished off the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of the World Series with a 4-3 win to clinch the 2008 World Series. They got lead off doubles from Geoff Jenkins in the sixth and Pat Burrell in the seventh and both runs came home to score, which gave them the edge after the restart in the sixth inning at 2-2.
It's their first World Championship since the 1980 World Series and Philly's first title in any sports since 1983. It's likely that Phillies' fans could care less if Peter Gammons thinks the rainout made this the worst World Series ever. Cole Hamels didn't get the win, but he did pick up the MVP award for the Series thanks to his two solid starts in Games 1 and 5.
As for the Rays, well, every key player should be back from their 97-win team that came awfully close to winning the World Series. They're incredibly young and the sky is the limit for many of their players. They're in an awfully tough division, but they're not going back to the punchline that they used to be.
As the above video proudly displays, Geoff Jenkins of the Philadelphia Phillies -- well at the time this was filmed he was a rookie in '98 with the Brewers -- looks a lot like newly retired Mr. Brett Favre. (To be honest, I'm not seeing it all that much. There is some resemblance, but it's not like I'm OMG!!-ing over here.)
In any event, Big League Stew was on hand to grab some of Jenkins' comments today about the resemblance and it looks like it's worked out in Jenkins favor more often than not:
It's certainly understandable, though, why the retirement of Favre hits close to home. Since Jenkins arrived in Milwaukee in 1998, he's cleaned up on his resemblance to the most popular man in Wisconsin. A few times he even jokingly signed Favre's signature for confused fans.
"I've had lunch, dinner, different stuff bought for me and the check'll be paid for," Jenkins said. "Right from the go, they'd just drop a note on the table, because they didn't want to bother ('Brett'). It said, 'Great games last year' but I had just gotten there."
I've had a similar experience: people used to mistake me for one of those brothers on NBC's "Wings." That's not such a nice perk anymore, though.
Milton Bradley's going to Texas, Mike Cameron's going to rehab and Brian Giles is trying to come back from microfracture surgery at 37. Throw in Termel Sledge, headed to Japan where a name like that can make you lots of yen in anime, and the four top outfielders from last season are either gone or risky bets to return with much oomph.
That's why they are hot on the trail of Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, but no one's even sure he's coming to the U.S., and it doesn't seem like they are the favorites anyway. Kicking the tires on a trade for Jason Bay needs to become making a trade or else Geoff Jenkins is going to be in your opening day lineup. All the pitching in the world isn't going to help you score runs and neither will an outfield of Jenkins, Scott Hairston and Giles. Year in and year out the Friars handcuff good pitching staffs with underwhelming lineups. It's hard to see how 2008 will be any different.
And what a sad way for him to go out. It seems all but certain that Geoff Jenkins' 10th year as a Brewer will be his last one. I can't really think of a more disappointing way for his Brewer career to end than to get so close to the playoffs after nine years of futility, only to fall just short. Too bad for Jenkins that's exactly what it looks like is going to happen in 2007.
Asked about his intentions regarding Jenkins' contract, general manager Doug Melvin said: "We're going to review everything at the end of the year with everybody. We'll take a look at all of that. The focus is on finishing up the season right now."
[...]
"To be honest, I haven't thought about it at all," he said. "It's not even on my mind. It's a completely different focus.
"The fans have the same attitude I have. This is a chance for us to make some history for the city and organization. Everybody has been caught up in it, and they should be. They want this thing as bad as we do."
Being the fan of a crappy baseball team, I always feel for guys like Jenkins. I'm sure he'll catch on with someone next year as a role player and maybe even go to the playoffs with them, but I have to think that it would've been just a little sweeter for him if the Brewers could've pulled it off this year. Such is life, I suppose.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Milwaukee Brewers (58-49) vs. New York Mets (59-47)-ESPN 8:05PM Est.
Since Tom Glavine isn't pitching tonight, we can return the focus to what this series is really about. Two teams atop their division who are spending a lot more time looking over their shoulder lately. The Brewers were able to cap a comeback win last night with Geoff Jenkins 2-run homer in the 13th inning, and today they look to win two straight games for the first time in two weeks. The Mets meanwhile are dealing with the pressure of a shrinking lead in the NL East as the Phillies and Braves keep adding players and getting closer to the top of the division. Claudio Vargas starts for Milwaukee, and there's nobody who likes pitching at Miller Park better than Vargas. He's made 10 starts there this season, and the Brewers are 10-0 in those starts. Hell, the Brewers are 15-3 in any start Vargas has made this season, and haven't lost a game in which he started since May 26th. Oliver Perez goes for the Mets, and he can't get any help from his team lately. Perez lost his last start despite the fact he didn't surrender an single earned run. Since the All-Star break Perez is 2-1 with a 1.40 ERA, but he should be 3-0.
The All-Star break is over and there are about two weeks left until the trading deadline. You know what that means; it's time for some wild and unsubstantiated rumors about everything. Apparently, Brewers GM Ned Yost Doug Melvin has already heard some rumors and is denying them.
"I was talking to (Reds general manager) Wayne Krivsky today and then this afternoon I came to the office and went on the Internet and there was something about us getting Ken Griffey," Melvin said. "I just got off the phone a half-hour ago with the Reds' GM and (Griffey's) name was never even mentioned."
You know what the rule is in these situations; where there's smoke, there's usually fire, especially when a GM goes out of his way to deny a rumor that hasn't even hit the mainstream yet. Unless it's just some crazy rumor started up by one of those evil bloggers. Not that the Brewers really need Ken GriffeyJr., assuming Bill Hall comes back quickly (and it seems like he's going to). Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench have been a good platoon in left and Corey Hart is breaking through in right. The Brewers definitely don't need to sell the farm to get Griffey into an already solid outfield, it's kind of the antithesis of their plan so far.
You've heard plenty of "Hey, the Brewers have the best record in baseball" by now. You've heard it because it's true, they're 21-10 after yesterday's 6-4 win over the Pirates. But how good are they? Are they this year's Tigers? Or are they going to fall off the face of the planet by the All-Star break? Somewhere in between? Let's look at some early season performances and decide.
JJ Hardy- Hardy was previously known as an all-field, no-hit guy in the mold of Adam Everett and Jack Wilson. All of a sudden, he's hitting .339/.396/.606 with eight homers (one shy of his career high) on May 7th. Hardy's highest full-season OPS in the minors was only .796. It seems realistic that he can put up something like an .800 or maybe even .850 OPS this year, but I don't see any way he can tear it up like he is now and practically match Prince Fielder homer for homer.
Prince Fielder- Prince is on pace for something like 47 homers. That seems a bit unlikely, but not quite impossible. Remember that Ryan Howard hit 58 in his second full year in the bigs last year. Howard's minor league record was a bit better than Fielder's, but not THAT much better. It doesn't seem impossible for Prince to have a huge year this year, though he'll probably end up closer to 35 homers than 45
Ben Sheets- In his past three major league seasons (counting partial and full seasons) his WHIPs have been 0.98, 1.07, and 1.09. This year it's 1.21. That's not awful, but for a guy like Sheets it's not great. He's also got an un-Sheets like 21 strikeouts in 42 and 1/3 innings (last year he K'd 116 in 106). Sheets can do better than he has early this season and I think he will.
The Houston Astros have been having trouble scoring runs lately. That's no secret. They're so desperate to do something about it that they called up top prospect Hunter Pence to try and add some pop to the lineup. Even with Pence in the lineup today, they turned in one of the most pathetic performances in recent memory when they loaded the bases against the Brewers' Claudio Vargas in the third, fourth, and fifth innings and emerged with no runs. That's not a typo, they loaded the bases three innings in a row and didn't score once. In fact, they loaded the bases with only one out in both the fourth and fifth innings and didn't score. I don't even know what the odds on that happening have to be, but it's gotta be astronomical.
Needless to say, the Brewers won today 3-1 and at least some credit should certainly go to the man that stranded all the runners, Claudio Vargas. From the wire report:
"Sometimes, you focus a little bit more when we get into that situation," Vargas said. "That's the place where you have to make the pitches and get out of it for the club."
Someone needs to give Claudio a little bit of incentive to concentrate before the bases are loaded, I think. He only made it five innings today because those five innings took him 98 pitches, which is what happens when you load the bases that much. The Brewers' pen shut down the Astros over the last four, though, only allowing a Mike Lamb solo homer (which is fitting). The Brew Crew offense came from a Geoff Jenkins solo homer and RBI hits by Tony Graffanino and JJ Hardy. Those all off of Woody Williams, who continues to be old and not worth the $6 million the Astros are paying him. He falls to 0-4, though he did lower his ERA to 5.66.
Geoff Jenkins, the left-handed veteran outfielder, has been let go by the Phillies. The move came Tuesday, and, due to timing and other circumstances, has been immediately tied to the Tigers' release of Gary Sheffield. Because Sheffield is still under contract with the Tigers, the Phillies would only have to sign Sheffield to the league minimum -- as the Tigers are still paying him upwards of $14 million. This would be a situation exactly like the Cubs had with Jim Edmonds last season after the Padres cut the center fielder. 
In the 
The Padres 
And what a sad way for him to go out. It seems all but certain that 
The All-Star break is over and there are about two weeks left until the trading deadline. You know what that means; it's time for some wild and unsubstantiated rumors about everything. Apparently, Brewers GM 
The Houston Astros have been having trouble scoring runs lately. 
