Jackie Vergerio

You know, I really wasn’t in a foul mood this morning about the Phillies 9-8 defeat in sixteen innings last night. I really wasn't. Sure they blew some leads- but mixingthe Phillies middle relief with the Mets good hitting- and it is gonna happen. Anyway, I was fine until I opened the Philadelphia Daily News and read Rich Hofmann’s moronic sour commentary on horse racing. Nice to see him turn to Jackie Vergerio- who would be a wholly forgettable human- if not for the fact he, or she I suppose, is some sort of PETA official. PETA. I felt ornery until I got an double order of meaty bacon on my sandwich this morning- thinking of Jackie Vergerio.

Therefore, for me, the Phillies’ loss last night was not distressing in and of itself. But put it with the five other losses- six total in the last seven outings- and any idea that this Phillies' team is a threat to win north of 85 games again becomes problematic.

As I have written before, the reason that this win some, lose some, team is so frustrating is that the Phillies are not rotten. They have a real nice corps of young “everyday” players. The veteran core hitters- Abreu and Burrell- are pluses more nights than not with the sticks. And Bell is up from brutal- which is going to bring me to my next point.

Again, any fool- including Jackie Vergerio- knows Jimmy Rollins is categorically failing as a lead off hitter. He’s hitting .242- and an amazing .163 versus LHP. His OBP is .308. That .163 sort of leaps out. I understand- barely- the Phillies' reluctance to move him out of there. They’ve committed dollars and lots of development time to a guy they thought would be their lead-off hitter for half-a-decade. And without the lead-off credential, the Phils are paying an awful lot of money to a guy who seemingly can’t hit .270 and thus be a productive resource in the seven hole. But why not get him out of there, at the very least, against LHP?

The corner outfield defense (Abreu’s curious gold glove aside) is not good- but I guess a lot of National League teams live with that- so I am not going to crazy. They’ve shaved eight digits off the bullpen payroll- which means they are going to both have nights (like yesterday) and players down there that are going to make you nuts more often than they did last year. And obviously, they miss Rowand in actuality more than on just paper. First, with Victorino off the bench (not that he has done anything but a good job filling in)- the Phils are down a centerfielder and a very solid role, bench player. And the bench being better than terrible, like it was last year, is one of the better stories of the season.

I was hoping Madison's return to the ‘pen would straighten out both him and about sixty innings between now and the end of the season. I hated the Phillies moving him to the rotation- the old adage about never weaken a strength (probably the most consistent pitcher in a goodly sized role last year) to paste over a weakness (honestly, what was his upside as a starter really: 10-8, 4.60 ERA at best??) . But I guess it is back to the rotation for him- sooner or later- as Hamels just doesn’t look like he can be counted on to add even eight wins to this rotation.