March to 77!

The Phillies made some real progress their march to 77 wins- really cementing it in-signing Ryan Franklin (12-31, ERA a shade under 5.00, over the past two years) to a 1 year, $2.6 million deal. Franklin is just the kind of guy ticketed for real success at Citizens Bank Park. A pitcher who not only allows a staggering number of walks and hits per inning pitched- but also does not have any facility for keeping people in the ballpark- is going to be real successful here in Philadelphia.

What do the Phillies get for their money? Well, they get a totally serviceable arm- Franklin definitely brings “take the ball every five days”- and they get it with no commitment. Oddly, for a team with some guys who can really eat innings- Leiber, Myers and Lidle all were at or near the magic 200- the Phillies still seem to need serviceable rotation arms. They have a real nice collection of guys who are older (Leiber, Lidle), prone to arm issues (Myers, Wolf)- all excitingly in a ballpark that is hard to pitch in (i.e. lots of pitches). If the Phillies can bear watching enough 25-pitch innings, Franklin ought to get them near 200 innings; he has gotten near that mark the last three years.

That being said- Mike's Baseball Rants has some good points about why Ryan will suck forever here. And of course- check out PhilliesNation.

Look, he’s another option on a team that is going to have a spring long audition for the last rotation spots. I just don’t think the Phillies are about next year- so this guy is a one-year stop gap.

Next, I don’t read too much into this- Canadian fans take cheap shots at U.S.A.- but it is pathetic. The people who run Canada hockey at the national level for years have been amoral jackasses- and it is coming home to roost. It is also disgusting that Gretzky- the voice of Canada hockey- is continually silent about the character and nature of just about everything of the national Canada hockey program. Hey Wayne! How about a comment like some of the ones below?

Kyle was under the mistaken impression -- one still shared by many Americans, the poor, trusting boobs -- that because our two great countries are neighbours and have co-existed peacefully for over 150 years and have vast economic and cultural ties, that he could consider Canada a home-ice-away-from-home and Vancouverites would naturally cheer for the American team rather than for a team from a country which, not 20 years ago, was chiefly known for its vicious soul-crushing despotism, and whose hockey teams were reviled by Canadian fans as products of a drab socialist machine that saw sport as nothing more than an arm of state propaganda.

But Kyle hadn't figured on the Canadian weakness for envy; I'll bet he didn't even suspect that that weakness existed, or would find expression in something as well intentioned as an international hockey tournament.

His charges are, after all, 17-to-19-year-old boys, not architects of the war against Iraq. Likely, the only thoughts they have on softwood lumber is that it makes for lousy hockey sticks. They are ambassadors of their country of a kind but they are also, effectively, children, as one writer to The Sun, a John Loch, from Nova Scotia, pointed out in an e-mail:

"Vancouver fans," he wrote, "appear to have done it again: embarrass their wonderful city with low-class actions at hockey games. In 1972, they booed Team Canada and gained an ignominious reputation that has remained. Now, they have booed a group of U.S. teens and, worse, included 'U.S.A sucks' in their invective. It's one thing to cheer for a hockey team but it's something else to be that negative towards a group of kids.

"Recalling the rude way that Montrealers treated 12-year-old U.S. hockey players after the start of the Iraq war, I guess you're just being consistent -- consistently boorish and worse."