The Pigs lost another 1 run game tonight to Scranton by a final score of 2-3. This loss combined with a Pawtucket win closes the Pig’s lead down to .5, or half a game. Pawtucket has one less win and as many losses as the Pigs.
In their IronPig debut, both Galvis and Rivero each went 1 for 4.
Not liking this.
Is it better to win, then not make the playoffs or not to have won at all?
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Keep in mind where you’ve been for the past three years. In light of the team’s history (and the brevity of that history), I think coming close is a hopeful sign. If your team had gone, say, 103 years without a championship, I’d say every win was just delaying the inevitable.
That said, if they don’t make the playoffs, I think you should probably have a little heart-to-heart with whoever decided to turn a herd of goats loose in the outfield the other day, knowing there was a Cub in the dugout. Seems to me that somebody was tempting Providence with that little irony. ;P
I must agree, I’m not liking this. Not a good time to be skaking up the roster but I guess that’s life in the minor leagues. And considering they have been in 1st place almost the entire year, missing the playoffs would be a HUGE disappointment. Would rather see them get in as a division winner but at this point I’d take a wild card berth but the way things are going, who knows??
Hard to say better not to win than come close, but I have to lean that way. We probably have the most loaded roster (even with all the transactions) that we’ll have in some time and we have Sandberg at the helm. I have a feeling we may not have either next season.
Playoffs or bust!
Before negatively judging these moves, consider this. Jimmy Rollins is nearing the end of his current contract with the Phillies. Freddy Galvis is the player in the Phillies system considered most likely to replace Rollins in Philadelphia. Brian Bocock was a good player and he was given plenty of opportunity to play in AAA. He proved that he was a good AAA player but showed nothing that would indicate that he should be an every day Major Leaguer or even a long term big league bench player such as Wilson Valdez. The Phillies are sending Galvis here to see if he can play meaningful games at a higher level. If they are correct in their prior evaluation of Galvis, many of us will one day remember how we saw Galvis play for LV just as I remember guys like Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz play at Reading and Scranton. If on the other hand the Phillies overrated Galvis’ potential, its best to find out now. I say let’s keep the expectations high and get to the playoffs WITH the likes of Galvis, Rivero, Aumont and DeFratus. One day we may be happy to say we were watching it happen and if not, its still a lot better than what we saw here for the first three years.
It probably has happened (Yankees?), but the odds of a big-league team AND at least one team in their system going that deep in the playoffs have to be unbelievably HUGE. They’d have to have indisputable talent at every position.
The SW-B Yankees didn’t win championships the last few years by draining their roster of top players. In fact, they did just the opposite, bolstering the team with even better players. I’m willing to bet the other perennial league champions like Durham and Louisville, for example, haven’t messed up their AAA affiliate’s roster down the home stretch of a championship drive the way the Phillies have. Okay, Galvis I can definitely see. But the others? Keeping Overbeck despite the way he’s played? Taking our top pitchers, only to have most of them sit on the bench and not get much playing time? I hate to say it, but if we don’t win the championship, and especially if we don’t make it to the playoffs, I’m gonna wish they’d never gotten our hopes up in the first place.
Oh, yeah, as much as I wish Brian Bocock the best, it’s not like he was hitting .375 with 20 homers. I welcome Galvis and Rivero, and look forward to seeing them play. They will benefit from this time, and from the opportunity to play under Mr. Sandberg. After watching this team to this point this year, I have complete trust in our manager–to put guys in positions to have success and to help them get better. Part of the reason that I haven’t chimed in on the call for a more stable lineup is that it hasn’t been done that way all year. Mixing it up a bit here and there put this team in first place and hopefully we can get back to the winning over the next 8 games on this road trip. It will be interesting to see how he manages the ‘AA’ portion of the lineup: Rivero, Overbeck, Galvis. 2-11 last night but only two strikeouts. Not completely over-matched.
Now, how can we get back to the winning? FedEx a box of Philly Pretzels to Durham? Rally Caps? As I stare into the eyes of my Ryne Sandberg and Domonic Brown bobble heads, I know what I have to do: Chicago-style hot dogs. I’ll have one for dinner tonight and we’ll win. You’ll see.
Well, at least we won’t lose. There’s no game tonight. I’m ‘ALL IN’ though. 🙂
Kram, I love you. I’m not blowing my diet; I’m just taking one for the team. Chicago dog for lunch and goat tacos for dinner. Yes!
Also: Please keep in mind that the occasional losing streak is inevitable in baseball, we still have a month left, and we haven’t even slipped out of first place. As Douglas Adams says: DON’T PANIC.
I hope Galvis is a quick study. He looks promising, but he’s awfully rough around the edges, and Sandberg doesn’t have a whole lot of time to break him in.
BIG 8 GAMES—GOT TO SPLIT WITH DURHAM AND TAKE 3 OF 4 FROM NORFOLK——ANYTHING LESS, NO PLAYOFFS–ENJOY THE 2012 CREDIT ON YOUR INVOICE