Yo! Welcome to Philly where we love our teams until they inevitably lose every year. Then we pelt them with profanity.... Okay, I don't know this to actually be the truth. I've never been to Philly, I don't even know anybody from Philly, but I'm doing this preview anyway. Another guy not from Philly who doesn't appear to understand the plight of their fans is Jimmy Rollins. He must have not watched any Philly sports for the past twenty years or so because he claimed during the offseason that the Phillies are the "team to beat". Bold statement. It takes a man who has not been pelted with batteries to say something like that. Somehow a man with absolutely zero post-season at-bats in his career thinks it would be a good idea to run his mouth. The confidence is nice, but he needs back it up. Let's just say they better win the World Series before Rollins makes any Campbells Soup commercials with his mom.Elsewhere, the questions (stop me if you've heard this) are basically the holes in the lineup and the starting pitching. More specifically, the problem with the Phillies lineup is the Phillies outfield. After they got rid of Abreu they're looking at Aaron Rowand, Pat Burrell and Shane Victorino. Nobody expects Rowand to hit and Victorino had a pitiful .760 OPS last year in his first real season in the bigs. Pat Burrell has the honorable distinction of being one of my "sleeper" late round picks in our fantasy draft last week. Of course
ever since then all I've read is how he's complete shit. The Harball Times preview today asserted without question that he only only has "40 good swings a season". Ummm, is that possible? I feel like I need a Bull Durham speech right now. Ugh.And, don't let me forget to mention Freddy Garcia. That's right, the big fella came over from the Chi Sox after what really was a reasonably good season. 17 wins? How do they let that go? Hopefully it wasn't for the money. For the record, Garcia will make $10 million this year while Eric Milton is making $9 million. Big sigh. Beyond that, I kind of like the Cole Hamels/Brett Myers combo and Jamie Moyer might need a walker to get out to the mound, but he will probably still give you innings (over six per start last year). Plus, I hope he gets on base occasionally. I love the idea of watching a 44 year old pitcher who spent 10 years in the AL run the bases.
Well, there you have it. Another flawed team in the National League. But, they have some young talent and some vets holding it together. Will they hit? Yeah some. Will they get pitching? Yeah, enough. So, I'm taking them to win the division. I just think they've got the tools to sustain winning throughout the season. Maybe Jimmy Rollins won't have to eat his words after all.
5 comments:
No mention of Chase Utley in your Phillies writeup? Instead you put a picture of Pat Burrell? Just admit you have a man-crush on him.
Freddy Garcia was on his walk year, and he had trouble--lots of trouble--cracking 90 on the gun last year. Basically, he was throwing junk up to the plate all year and got the benefit of some good run support. 17 wins is not representative of how he struggled last year. And now he's already got arm problems for the Phils. Not good. I'll take flyers on Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez any day over an aging and increasingly shitty Freddy Garcia.
And, really, how did you omit any mention of the Phils' franchise player(s)? Utley just signed a 7-year, $85 million contract in the off-season and Ryan Howard was the freaking MVP. They'll do a hell of a lot more than just a little hitting with Howard, Utley, Rollins, and Burrell. Rollins' bravado notwithstanding, I think the East is the Phils' for the taking this year. As good as the Mets lineup is, their rotation is relying on El Duque, Glavine, and a midseason return from Pedro. Yuck.
Let me tell you, in my searching for Pat Burrell pictures there were a few that involved him seeming to make love to the camera. Just be glad that I didn't pick one of those.
Ryan Howard is fat and Chase Utley is by far the best offensive 2B in baseball. Happy?
Freddy strained something this week in spring training and may start the season on the DL. They've also been reporting that he hasn't topped 85 MPH yet on the gun since putting on the Phillies uni.
Perhaps Kenny knew something we didnt when he made that trade. Remember Sirotka? Although I think that was actually the guy before Kenny but whatever.
It actually was Kenny Williams that did the Sirotka trade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Sirotka.
Of course, that trade brought over David Wells who promptly laid a big turd all over the organization, criticizing anyone and everyone associated with the ChiSox while sandbagging the whole season out on the mound.
I don't feel bad for the Phils, though. Any moron who watched Freddy pitch last season could see that he'd lost it. And by "it" I mean roughly 7 MPH on his fastball and any semblance of decent pitching.
And yes, thank you, gage. I'm happy as a clam. You certainly rectified your error and did Howard and Utley justice.
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