In a trade that should do little to improve either team, Philadelphia have sent the enigmatic (ie. sucky) Marlon Byrd (above) to Washington in exchange for the underachieving Endy Chavez (most recently seen around these parts patrolling CF for the New Orleans Zephyrs during their visit to Round Rock).
Brutal pitching line of the day : Philly’s Ryan Madson, 1/3 of an inning pitched, 6 earned runs, 5 hits, 2 HR’s allowed, a blown save and the loss, throwing batting practice to the Reds during a fatal 7th inning this afternoon at Citizen’s Bank Park.
I was at CBP tonight. I dont like to drag out that goofy “baseball gods” line, but I cant think of any way else to explain why the usually very good Ryan Madson got rocked other than blaming the looking like on a verge of a mental breakdown Charlie Manuel for lifting Randy Wolf (6 IP, 2 ER, 6H, 8K 98 pitchcount)for a PH in the 6th inning with 2 outs, no men on base and a 2 run lead and sending Madson out to start the 7th instead of Wolf. Shit is getting *seriously ugly* as far as baseball in Philly.
In my opinion, Byrd is a decent enough player who has been stunted by the Phillies “organization”. I dont know what Frank Robinson has in mind, but I think Byrd has a good chance at flourishing as a .375 OBA 2-hole pest either in DC or elsewhere and, yep, Jim effing Bowden picked Special Ed Wades pocket for him.