Where the Phillies Stand

Well, that was a perplexing series with the Mets. Ultimately, it certainly wasn’t a good one- losing another game to New York and having Atlanta pretty much complete its comeback. But this May schedule looked rough after May 2. Six with the Mets and two with Braves for starters- they got five of those eight. Three at Cincinnati (sweep for) and three with Boston (sweep against). The Giants and the Brewers. Seven straight series against winning teams: twelve up and and eight down, deficit cut to four games. Not bad actually- although somehow inadequate given the great start.

I also wish Philadelphia took advantage of their apparent ability to jump on the bottom end of the Met’s rotation. Boy, that was a crew the Mets ran out there this week. No wonder the Mets are lauding El Duque and his over six ERA as a plus- at least he is a "real" major league player. The Phillies had a ton of opportunity to get that second victory- as the Mets’ starting pitching allowed Philadelphia to hang a crooked number up every single game at the get-go. Instead, the Phils blew every single one of those leads.

The Mets are pretty darn good. Outside the bottom half of their rotation, they have a lot of plus players in the ‘pen and one thru six in the line up. In particular, they have some good core hitters- and they are very capable of putting up numbers and trouble against indifferent middle relief and a uncomfortable John Leiber.

And look, there are problems here. The Phillies are a team with:

- starting pitching featuring a kinda "okay-to-a-little bad" collective 5.00 ERA

- an offense with a horrid lead-off hitter that no one in the organization seemed willing to challenge until yesterday? (Not that I think Victorino is any sort of solution. First, there is no place to play him when Rowand gets back. Second- he’s the sort of player who really helps playing here and there, counted on for a saavy at bat late in every game- but probably gets exposed playing every day.)

- an offense with a line up that, outside of Howard (sort of) & Utley, has no one having a "wow!" season- particularly in an offense friendly park.

- and a bull pen that has been very good at closer- and a gutty Flash was a warrior yesterday without his best stuff- but largely "okay-to-a-little bad" otherwise

Add "okay-to-a-little bad" plus “horrid” plus “no wow! seasons” plus another “"okay-to-a-little bad" and you get, well, "okay-to-a-little bad". A little over .500. Which, I think, if you were honest about this team pre-season, is where you put them: 84 wins- over .500 largely due to the presence of the terrible Marlins and Nats