Back on the Bandwagon

Well, we had the fire sale (Bell, Abreu, Lidle, Fasano, Cormier) and the Phillies brass has run up the white flag. We're retooling for ... wait, wait ... 2008?

Nobody, apparently told some of the players. Cole Hamels has two 12 strikeout games out of his last three, Ryan Howard is still crushing the ball, Chris Coste is bucking for a remake of "The Rookie"... let me see, anything else?

Oh, right, the (shhhh!!!) hitting streak.

I just want to go on record as saying I loved Chase Utley BEFORE this started. And so what if he doesn't want to talk about it to the press? If the press doesn't understand why he is reluctant to talk about it, then they don't really get it, do they?

I can take pleasure in the successes of the young guys - the aforementioned Howard, Hamels, and Utley, and guys like Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino, and David Delucci, as well as Coste, who are hungry for success. Jimmy Rollins is still a great shortstop and a good force in the club house. Brett Myers has been pitching well and let's just let him and his family deal with the other thing, shall we? Don't know about Abraham Nunez, but he's been doing okay at third. As for Pat Burrell - I'm not ready to write him off, as so many others are. When he's hot, he's on fire. If he could healthy and be a less slow (notice I didn't say FASTER) he could be a factor. I think Mike Lieberthal has had a nice run, but he's done, as is Jon Lieber. The bullpen has shown flashes of greatness but also some apocalyptic moments.

But now we are actually kind of still in the hunt for the wild card. Jeez, can I really do this again? Talk about a roller coaster.

I love baseball - watching it, talking about it, thinking about it. I don't understand people who find it boring.