Disquietment

I went to bed last night with a sense of vague disquietment (ed. Is “disquietment” even a word?). Not due to Notre Dame, mind you. Oh no. True, the Irish didn’t look like national championship material- but that game had real trouble written all over it. Forget the traditional intangibles: a football team and its sell-out crowd drunk to the gills on rage, emotion and beer. We know the Yellow Jackets can play defense with anyone- last year’s upset of Miami for instance. Notre Dame plays for all intents and purposes a pro-offense right now- one that you figure, even with a veteran crew, probably would benefit from a shake down cruise at South Bend (versus someone like Tulane!?), before seeing the elephant for the first time on the road on national television.

So, Tech was a just about mortal lock to cover the seven points, so I was glad merely to see the Irish escape. I mean, Notre Dame could have been living the poor man’s version of Colorado’s shame this morning. And it was not the maudlin ode flowing from Stephen A. Smith’s hallucinatory brain this morning: Howard's homers: Are the Phillies wise to MVP candidate's worth? I hate to interrupt myself- but it includes this smashing quote:

I've changed my mind, and so should everyone else.

Let me try to help you Steve… uhm, yes. Howard will be showered with lucre beyond his most wild dreams here shortly.

No, my angst is due to the Phillies as an entity, as a collective whole.

The problem is that while the Phillies can do this- make this post-season- well, be honest: have you ever seen a team that feels like it has less control over its destiny than this one? If it takes 83-84 wins to get it done- they can do that. If it takes more, well, categorically probably not. The Phillies can't win more than 84- probably won't win less than 82. I feel I can say that almost with an utter certainty. It absolutely feels as if their season is done- they totally are what they are. Now we all are merely waiting to see if the Marlins or Padres can get to 85.

See, after a nice run of five weeks or so of solid play, the old Phillies have kinda slipped back into town. The schedule has been neutral- the Mets, Nats, Braves, maybe a little road heavy- and the Phillies have accordingly played nuetral, split the last ten dead even. They are back to the spotty starting pitching minimizing the results from the pretty decent offense. The bullpen is a mixture of some guys going okay at best mixed with some guys not going well at all.

Seriously Charlie, surely we have seen the end of the Arthur Rhodes for closer initiative? In fact, I just as soon not see him in ten more games this year. Why not give Madson a try? He doesn’t pitch scared and he belongs in the big leagues.

As a result, this second double-header today feels a little more important than usual. Another split just sort of extends into a third week this “let’s play around .500” kick Philadelphia has been on lately. And there is opportunity here… the Phillies are a big Vegas fave with Myers in the nightcap. Plus, this is an entire four game series without seeing Smoltz. If they are going to get away with stealing this Wild Card, they could take a huge step by winning some four game series, at home, against sub.-500 teams, outright.