I’ll ignore your empty sarcasm. I think a few of us here are still waiting for your complete anaylsis of why YOU think the “Phillies are not a good team”. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything Lewisauce and Geoff posted, I do enjoyed reading their detailed accounts of their opinions and ideas on how to make the team better. Could you provide more than those daily one-liners you are posting? After all, you claimed to be a most knowledgeable baseball “fan”.

Fact: Bruces comment was very thoughtful and insightful

3 game losing streak? thats hardly the end of the world. 4-7 is more troubling, but still, every team is gonna have rough patches.
I’ll give that our SP situation looks bleak at the moment with Eaton and Myers vying for teams worst starter every start, but hold on.

For some reason, Redding has the Phils number. Why? i don’t know, but he consistently shuts us down everytime we face him. Last night’s problem wasn’t the runs surrendered, it was the offense. Honestly, with all the SP talk, its been our offense thats been letting us down, lately.

Last night wasn’t even the Ks, it was less than solid contact on grounders and fly outs. Howard is showing signs of finally breaking out, Vic (please don’t trade him) is starting to put the ball where they ain’t. It’s only a matter of time before Rollins and Utley start swinging the stick again.

Let’s look to Hamels to turn this ship around and take the next two before going down to Houston.

Bruce: If you were going to say nothing, you could have done it in 273 fewer words.

Go Phils

One can make comparisons to last year’s early season problems the Phillies had. Phillie’s starting rotation was in shambles; Howard’s slow start; plagued with injuries (Howard and Utley); inconsistent bullpen; underachievers(remember Nunez?), etc.

This year’s team has basically the same cast of key regulars (Utley, Rollins, Howard, Burrell, Victorino, Ruiz/Coste) and pitching (Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Kendrick, Eaton, Romero, Gordon, Madson and a most important addition in “Lights Out” Lidge) and are having a better start than last year.

I rather see the season play out until at least the All Star break which would provide a better picture of where this team is going before I evaluate objectively the team true needs. Of course, like most clubs, one can never have enough pitching (see last year’s team). We can muse on the availability of other teams’ pitchers but reality dictates those same teams may have the same priority. The more practical solution is to look to the team’s farm system (J.A. Happ?). Time will tell.

Geez, it’s May and just 46 games played into season and some here paint a picture of gloom and doom. So much pessimism by so few.

Allow me to remind you that on June 1st last year, exactly one-third of the way through the whole 162, the Phillies were two games UNDER .500, the Rockies were five games UNDER .500, why even the mighty Yankees were six games UNDER .500….. and ALL wound up in the playoffs anyway.

“The season is a marathon….not a sprint”.

remember, this team is going to win 100 games. really? ok, well when they start playing better and bring in people that can play baseball then maybe theyll win 100 games. but this roster, playing this way all year, has no chance of winning 100 games and has no chance of winning a world series. they need to improve on the depth chart AND on the field.

they need to start now. were almost two months into the season. theres no more of this slow start BS. its time to perform now, sorry. no more free passes for people that havent earned them. its time to show major league baseball that the phillies are not a fraud. right now, theyre a fraud. meaning theyre good enough to make the playoffs but have no chance of winning it all.

its time to put up or shut up for this team. they have to turn it around the next 40 days or else.

why would they ever do that!

Phillies need to start playing small ball – thats what got them to the playoffs last year.

Fact: The Phillies are in trouble.

myers didn’t have his best stuff, had only one pitch he could throw for a strike, and still gutted his way to a quality start. he’s got some obvious confidence issues and is more throwing than pitching right now, but this is May and we have to wait him out because he’s the most talented option we have.

the lack of offense is disconcerting, and i’ll admit i’d like to see coste in there more often because ruiz hasn’t been giving him much (but i’m a biased coste fan)… but this is the makeup of the team. they strike out a lot… an awful lot, and when burrell, howard and utley aren’t hitting they’re going to struggle to score runs if no one else is stepping up. utley and burrell carried the team to their best April in years and now they’re cooling off, you can’t fault either of them because they’re way below .500 without them.

i don’t know who y’all think they could get for victorino that you’re so willing to trade him especially since no one gives away starting pitching anymore, but he’s better than he’s been playing and provided he gets back in manuel’s good graces (who really seems to have it in for him right now) he’s a much better option than jenkins who is quietly, thanks to howard, having a terrible start to the season.

once again, it’s may, they’re a team that in recent history plays much better baseball the deeper into summer it gets and they’ve been given a relative pass so far because the mets and braves have stumbled out of the gate to this point. let’s not go all shitty new york media and start demanding people get traded and fired here, let’s let the season unfold.

I’m not so sure about that. It’s one thing if the guy says, “I know there’s something mechanically wrong and I’m working to fix it,” or something like that. Myers has been saying that he “feels fine” or even “great,” that he’s locating his pitches, etc. But that the other teams are “just getting a hold of a lot of pitches.”

So when the pitcher does pretty much what he intends with his pitches, and he still gets shelled, maybe he’s just not effective anymore. I hope not. I hope Myers turns it around and is a bona-fide No. 2, but we haven’t seen that this year.

As for the offense, Charlie needs to try some tweaks to see if that stirs the pot a bit. Drop Howard lower in the order already for chrissake. It should’ve happened a month ago, and maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if it had. Speaking of Howard: yes, Tim, it is OK to harp on him again — because he’s making $10 million (after publicly claiming that he deserved double that), and is hitting well below the mendoza line.

This offense had LOB issues last year as well — especially early in the year. I expect (hope?) it will turn around as the season warms up (just like last year).

Geoff’s right: pitching improvements and personnel changes need to occur immediately. (Actually, three months ago, but that’s been discussed ad infinitum.)

Im concerned about winning a championship, and I dont care about the NL. i think the phillies players better be thinking that way as well. last year they acted like they won a world series when they only won the division and werent focused on the rockies and got humiliated.

I still believe the Phillies are the best team in the NL East at this point. A few down games in May isn’t going to sound any sirens for me at least.