Back To Opine

First: Thursday will be Tulane football preview day on “Frank Helps You Think It All Out”- kicking off the traditional Prediction Thursday exercise.

Since I was down at Bristol, watching Matt Kenseth’s business-like deconstruction of NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series, I didn’t see any Phillies’ games over the weekend. The funny thing is that the week was a perfect microcosm of the Phillies’ season: they played pretty well, yet still only finished the week with four wins in seven tries, but actually managed to gain ground on the Wild Card lead. While “officially” a game back, Philadelphia has evened things up in the loss column, which means they control their own destiny. Today, they need no “help” from other clubs; they are the pace.

The Phillies have no games left with clubs sporting winning records- although keep your eyes on those roaring Marlins- the constant darling of “Frank Helps You Think It All Out”, this blog’s pre-season & current Wild Card pick. It would behoove them to start off on the right foot with these three in DC. Washington is terrible right now (particularly away from RFK)- but, as a rule, pretty okay at home. Philadelphia has got ostensible "ace" Myers going tonight- so get this win and sort of inoculate themselves at least through the weekend against disaster.

Continuing our theme of news that is neither great nor bad, the Eagles’ trade clearly is a good one: helpful, squarely in the potentially something for nothing category. Donte' Stallworth is clearly the best receiver on paper on the Eagles’ current roster. Well before last season, Mark Simoneau had lost that step that made him a pretty decent linebacker in space. Since he never was a “tackler” and consequently gave you little against the run, he nows brings little except maybe some experienced depth.

Frankly, outside of Trotter, the Eagles were a mess at linebacker last season- and Simoneau still couldn’t get on the field. The pick is a first day one- and I hate sending those away almost as much as the Redskins’ love trading them for nominal talents- but you get a proven NFL player who doesn’t even cost $2 million against the cap with zero long term obligations. Let's put it this way: I know for a fact that Simoneau playing regularly is not a plus; perhaps Stallworth might be.

But don't kid yourselves. This trade was in no way made from a position of strength. The Eagles’ wide out situation is horrid. This trade only gets them to maybe “okay-minus”- and then only if everyone stays healthy and Stallworth can keep that fink attitude to a minimum.