Tonight's Dodgers / White Sox tilt on the South Side will have a Philly Phlavor.
From 1997 to 2001, the Philadephia Phillies drafted much of the core of their 2008 World Championship team -- Pat Burrell, Ryan Madson, Brett Myers, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard. They also drafted and signed some other major leaguers, including tonight's two starting pitchers at US Cellular Field.
Randy Wolf, drafted by the Phillies in the 2nd round in 1997 (their first round pick -- #2 overall -- didn't sign; a fellow by the name of J.D. Drew), will take his major league leading 10 no-decisions to the mound against the White Sox. Wolf has allowed zero or one earned run in eight of his 15 starts this season.
Gavin Floyd, drafted by the Phillies with the fourth overall pick in 2001, has been on fire of late. In his last six starts, Floyd is 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 44.2 innings. He has allowed opposing batters to hit a feeble .169/.172/.231 over that span.
Regarding the offense, I thought I'd take a look at Predicted OPS, or prOPS for short, over at The Hardball Times. They describe prOPS as "a formula for predicting what a player's OPS is likely to be in the future based on his batted balls, strikeouts, home runs and walks." Here are the prOPS numbers for the Dodger regulars:
| Player | prBA | prOBP | prSLG | prOPS |
| Ethier | .279 | .376 | .481 | .857 |
| Blake | .280 | .350 | .483 | .833 |
| Kemp | .272 | .343 | .437 | .780 |
| Hudson | .289 | .366 | .413 | .779 |
| Loney | .291 | .353 | .418 | .771 |
| Martin | .274 | .387 | .357 | .745 |
| Pierre | .295 | .351 | .366 | .716 |
| Furcal | .263 | .336 | .363 | .699 |
Tonight's Manny Ramirez rehab game in Albuquerque starts at 6pm, and can be heard here.
Get your guesses in for "She Is Gone" here.