Inside the Phillies: Signposts on their roads to results

MILWAUKEE - Sports is a results-oriented business and has become increasingly so. When the subtle human pleasures of games are lost in superficially condensed television highlights and blips on a fantasy page, many achievements and failures vanish amid the noise.

But process and character are infinitely more fascinating than wins or losses. This is particularly true in baseball, where the long season provides a slow-motion look at the athletes as humans who struggle and succeed. This is the most compelling drama in sports, which ambiguously defined awards such as Most Valuable Player and Cy Young fail to capture.

You will not find a team MVP named here, where our focus is not on where the players ended up, but on how they arrived there.

Sitting So Close to the Screen Will Hurt Your Eyes Award: Chase Utley.

The Phillies do not have a rah-rah type leader, a guy who calls players-only meetings and delivers fiery speeches. But Utley, because of his obsessive preparation routine, presents an example that many others clearly respect and follow.

Any visitor to the Phillies' clubhouse before or after a game will see the second baseman, eyes inches from a laptop and hair slicked back, glaring at video without seeming to blink.

Utley is one of the first to arrive at the ballpark every day, and when others chat while enjoying their postgame beer or meal, he silently scrutinizes his at-bats.

Jayson Werth, who has also acquired the video habit, marvels that Utley is the only player he knows who prepares as thoroughly as a manager. There is a direct connection between Utley's work ethic and his consistent play.

Channeling Your Disappointment Award: J.A. Happ.

When the Phils told Happ in March that he would not be in the rotation, the 26-year-old feared that his opportunity to become a starter had passed. Though angry and deeply disappointed, Happ converted those feelings into a still deeper motivation to pitch well and prove his ability to an organization that always seemed to doubt it.

He pitched well enough to be promoted into the rotation, then insisted on remaining. On Aug. 5, when Pedro Martinez's arrival appeared to signal a return to the bullpen for Happ, the pitcher again turned his frustration into useful resentment. He threw a complete-game shutout that forced the Phils to keep him in the rotation.

Midyear Mental Adjustment Award: Joe Blanton.

On May 21, Blanton's earned run average was 7.11, a number inflated by one or two bad innings during otherwise effective starts. Though Blanton's demeanor rarely changed, pitching coach Rich Dubee believed that the 28-year-old was allowing frustration to affect his performances. He and Blanton discussed the importance of remaining calm mid-inning, and the pitcher proceeded to dominate for most of the summer, ending the year as the Phils' most reliable pitcher.

Struggle for Personal Maturity Award: Cole Hamels.

It is difficult to overstate the effect of last year's World Series on Hamels. His triumph became a partial burden, imprisoning the pitcher in his own expectations.

After savoring the championship and celebrity, the 25-year-old was slapped this season by the humbling reality of baseball. It took Hamels several months to realize that he was still developing, and even then he experienced setbacks. He expected in every start to pitch like a World Series MVP.

But it has been at least a month since Hamels has allowed self-defeating frustration to destroy a decent performance. He finally appears to have relaxed and found the consistency that eluded him for much of the spring and summer.

Accountability Award: Brad Lidge.

Opposite of Accountability Award: J.C. Romero.

We have already dealt at length with Lidge's willingness to explain his problems and work to correct them. That behavior continues: After Lidge suffered his 11th blown save in Florida last week, a media relations staffer offered him the chance to duck questions. Lidge declined.

The point is not to judge a man on whether he speaks to reporters; plenty of good people are not media-friendly, and some questionable characters are great with reporters. The point with Lidge is his willingness to take full responsibility for his mistakes.

As evidence of that point, we present the Opposite of Accountability Award to a player who regularly engages the media, J.C. Romero. The reliever never displayed even a sliver of self-awareness after drawing a 50-game suspension this spring for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Romero has always claimed that he unknowingly took androstenedione contained in an over-the-counter supplement. Major League Baseball officials said that they had no reason to doubt that, but that the explanation was irrelevant.

It ignores that fact that, as an athlete playing under a collectively bargained drug policy, Romero is responsible for what he puts in his body and for thoroughly researching all supplements. He checked with a GNC clerk and a team trainer but not with the MLB hotline specifically designed to prevent such misunderstandings. The phone number, by the way, is posted prominently in every clubhouse.

Why are we still talking about this? Because the Phillies' unstable bullpen has turned into the primary story line of their season, and Romero's suspension was the first major setback.

He complained, he sued people, but Romero never said, "I'm sorry. It was an accident, but I should have been more careful, and my actions hurt the team."

He Quietly Figured it Out Award: Carlos Ruiz.

Two main factors led Carlos Ruiz to bat .217 last season: a sensitive disposition that allowed his confidence to plummet and an inconsistent approach. Ruiz is best as a gap-to-gap hitter who can drive the ball to all fields. He has been much better at remembering that this year, which has boosted his confidence back to healthy levels. The progress led to a season better than any other in his suddenly promising career.

Working to be Well-Rounded Even After the Big Contract Award: Ryan Howard.

Howard is not a video junkie like Utley or a batting-cage rat like Raul Ibanez, but he did identify before this season an area in need of improvement: defense. Credit Howard with losing about 20 pounds in an effort to improve his speed and range and working with new infield coach Sam Perlozzo on footwork and technique.

Advanced fielding metrics showed that Howard was never as terrible a first baseman as many believed. But this year, through setting a goal and working to realize it, he went from a slightly below-average defender to a slightly above-average one.

Read Andy Martino's Phillies blog, The Phillies Zone, at http://go.philly.com/sports.

RE: Bullpen changes coming?

Posted by mjb 12:02 a.m. 09/25/2009

We're going to need 3-5 complete games in the postseason, I think. And Hamels and Lee are capable of delivering that. But still, it always seems that the problems that plague you in the regular season are always the ones that bump you from the playoffs.EndText