So, 3-3 to start the season, and could easily be 4-2 or even 5-1. This Phillies team has gone from <shrug> to interesting. It reminds me of my high school team, scrappers who can't really be counted out. The similarities about... can't be counted out, never give up, do the little and fundamental things to win a game. They also don't have much power just like my teams; besides me we had very few people who could leave the yard but it wasn't over til it's over. We were solid in fundamentals and created opportunities on offense and defense. For the uninitiated,
my high school teams were back to back State Champs and had a 37-10 record during that time. One thing this Phillies team will never see is 37-10 though.
While it's early, the prognosis from spring training hasn't changed much. .500 seems like a lofty goal for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng season. My reasons are listed below:
Revere: last year was a freak, if he hits .280 he'll be lucky. Can't lay off outside and high or the inside and low RH slider. Shocked the hell outa me throwing out that runner from 2B like he did.
Utley: meh, he usually starts fast and fades a bit. If he fades from here just add him to the coaching staff.
Galvis: one plus. if he can come close to hitting .275 the whole year he's a plus over JRoll, minus Jimmy's power. *BONUS* he won't pop out 34% of the time.
Howard: meh-, in mid season form. He just may break 200k's this year. Why he opened his stance back up astounds me. I no longer think I can help him, he's counting his days and guaranteed dollars already, paying off the $7MIL new house.
Chooch: still 100% effort but no longer the arm or hitting ability he once had. If Rupp is our best option at backup C we're up shit's creek. Is Choo Choo Coleman available?
Odubel: a plus, great Rule 5 pickup. How did he get stuck in the Ranger's farm system so long, especially last year when they played a JV team?
Ruf, Hernandez, Francouer: not major leaguers, by June they will be stuck in Lehigh with Franco for eternity.
Brown: should have added him above. Outright him.
Asche: love him, your 3B for the foreseeable future. Should play every day, Blanco can go back to TOR where he belongs.
Sizemore and Danks: someone has to be on the bench I guess.
Starters - Cole: while he hasn't been awful at his present rate will give up close to 70 HR's. C'mon man.
- Buchanan: wake up young man, you know you can do better than this.
- Williams: since last year has been very serviceable and I have no problems with him.
- Harang: could be the pickup of the year if he doesn't get hurt like he normally does
- O'Sullivan: if he's #5 we're in deep shit. Decent today but there's 23 weeks left in the season
Bullpen - plus for the most part. Don't care much for Gomez, love Garcia, Defratus I'd like to see stretched out into a starter maybe, Diekman dude quit dropping your back shoulder when you push off it makes you throw high and outside to righties, Giles quit tightening into a ball before your release it's costing you 3-5mph off your fastball but your slider is still killer, and Papelbum you're still an asshole but getting the job done.
Sandberg: seems to be back in his element with a team that isn't power laden and has to make things happen otherwise. What he was used to as a AAA manager.
All in all things could be worse. This team went from ugh to interesting in one week. The last 2 games I had great streams to watch that I Chromecasted to my 52" tv and it looked great... the things you have to do when you live 2500 miles away. I guess we'll see how successful grinding games out are, and how long it lasts. We have no choice Bunters, do we? Wish I could stay home tomorrow, game is on MLBN. Too bad my escape local team is the Dbacks... only team in MLB predicted to be anywhere near as bad as us. was nice seeing them beat Kershaw yesterday though.
And there you have it sports fans, til next time. I hope they can inspire me again soon.
Bill S aka/netfather
Whoever had the under is a winner! It only took Netfather 3 sentences to mention that he used to play baseball.
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