Your personal response encouraged me to actually go back and read some of what you say (again, I am starting a new semester so it is busy). You DO make some valid points, I only wish you were a Phillies Phan LOL. Thank you though for taking the time to care and write.

I say that because he hasn’t pitched well period. Whether you’re in the rotation or bullpen, the quality of your pitching is usually not distant. What I question more in Park though is where his head is at. He wants to be a starter and still think of himself as one. In 2007, when he was in Spring Training with the Mets, he optionally chose to go to AAA, rather than be given the spot in the bullpen on their opening day roster. He did this in anticipation of getting a chance to start, which he did, and was horrible. Maybe he could prove me wrong though. You never know.

The chances of Blanton having a better second half are better because he’s not as far off as where he was last season. Moyer’s ERA is more than double what it was last season. Normally, Blanton’s a 4-type starter who’s ERA is in the mid-4′s. Plus, Blanton’s got more to work for in arbitration and he’s a lot younger than Moyer. When you look at Moyer, it’s very possibly he could have just lost it, the same way Randy Johnson has. Finding someone to replace Blanton’s normal production wouldn’t be overwhelmingly challenging. His production down the stretch last season was unprecedented. It’s replacing the Moyer of last season that could be more challenging, especially if they have to trade for someone to replace Blanton and/or Happ too.

Yes, that’s true. Everyone will have their own interpretation. But, with the way the Yankees are playing, I doubt Lidge will get away with throwing an excessive amount of balls this weekend.

” I am not saying this to bash JRoll I love the guy, and he will make that play 90-95% of the time.”

You’re right that it the score keepers are lenient to the hitter’s, but the assumption is whether or not the play would have resulted in an out. It could have gone either way, but the odds of it on a not-so-routine play weren’t high enough to justify an error. Also, a side note here, I’m not a Phillies fan, so I don’t know how it felt. If my shortstop directly called me a front-runner and gave an inadequate dance-around-the-bush apology, I’d take it insultingly. I wouldn’t forget it either. And if I did, I’d lose respect for myself. Hypothetically, if the Phillies don’t improve, and he particularly doesn’t, when it hits the fan, don’t be surprised if it’s his head.

Shag – Well, you’re assuming they’ll be a deep October there, which may getting ahead of yourself. One thing Phillies fans shouldn’t take for granted is winning. Too many people are forgetting the lose losing history. They act as if this has a team that’s won for a while. I’m not saying they aren’t capable of improving and getting back there, but it’s not going to be easy. I don’t think the question is whether the fight is there or not. The question is, mainly with the pitching, is the talent there? Over the next couple months, they’ll learn more about the reliability of Happ, Moyer, Blanton and Lidge. Also, while the Phillies will likely improve from a mediocre start, the Mets may very well too. The two team’s will continue to butt heads all year long and the Wild Card as a consolation is not a given to neither.

Everyone (most people) on here like reading good thoughts, but in this wireless, blog, whatever-age.. we’re looking for some quick points.. and then you kinda go from there..

I opened this page earlier, saw crazy-long posts from you and just skipped over them..

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone respond to each comment individually though, nice touch.

Mike – I agree. That’s the whole purpose of this type of blog. Even if I didn’t use much brevity, I was relevant and not disrespectful. I’ll trim down posts I make in the future though. When I posted than, I didn’t anticipate responding to other’s, although some were up that late. So, I said all of what I needed to say than.

Phils Phan SC – I could understand that. It’s a shame most of the other’s can’t take off your respectful response.

”It’s just the fact that he doesn’t separate anything at all, or use punctuation, so it’s a strain on the eyes.”

King – If I write on here again, I’ll do a better job. I did use punctuation though. I admit I wasn’t perfect. It’s not a college term paper. You can’t honestly tell me other’s on here have exactly written with great punctuation either though.

”phillies fan pf.i dont catre if you were posting on here in a convorsation, because you posted it on a blog A$$hole. Where anyone can come one and comment,so get over that. And as far as your dumb, You can post everyday on here and still be a retard.”

King – Read baseballfan’s quote. This is the pretty much what I just summarized. Has like twenty people taken exception to an unintelligent vulgar post that lacks even the simplest grammatical skills? No. You know why? Because people don’t respect that post. You know there’s nothing worth reading about, there’s nothing worth responding about it. It’s sad that people get more critical about the guy who actually talks about baseball and the Phillies, rather than a clueless moron who takes jabs at others.

Bruce – I don’t get it either. It’s probably a mix of a lack of patience and their attention span bugging out. It can’t be a lack of time, otherwise they wouldn’t have been on this blog to make such comments period. But, the fact they choose to criticize me, rather than Rube or Tim Rich, who made long posts, shows that their a bunch of cowards who wouldn’t want to ”insult” people who regularly right on here. I guess it’s easier to act against those you don’t know, especially if you’re hearing what you don’t like. It’s typical herd mentality. I do appreciate Rube and Tim Rich’s responses though, as they made many valid points about the Phillies and the division too, especially in providing detailed analysis.

”Maybe Tim is shy about talking while the rest of us are here.”

Georgie – I’m sorry you don’t have common sense. You and your ”blogger” buddies criticize the time I choose to write my post, yet you don’t have enough common sense to know I’d be sleeping at 11 AM? I commend your wittiness (sarcasm, sorry I had to say it, because I didn’t know if you’d get it).

”I cant read when people never use punctuation, or never make any breaks in a sentence/paragraph.”

Actually, I did use punctuation. Unlike some of the other writers too, I’ve used proper capitalization. Also, while I could have broken it into more paragraphs, I did break off some parts. If I broke it into too many paragraphs though, it would have given the babies an extreme reason to complain about the length.

Sawaob12 – So that’s what you get up at 9 in the morning to talk about?

”I’m not one to usually make comments about the other contributors, but Tim (not our illustrious blogger, Tim Malcolm), you need to get a life. ”

Dougd – I could see why you’re not one to usually make those comments. Who exactly are you ? Like I said to the other guy, if I were making some typical pampering simpleton comment, you’d probably like it a lot more. It’s okay though. I’m sorry I couldn’t please the ”illustrious” population of random bloggers in the morning.

”It is better to keep your mouth shut and leave them wondering about your intelligence than to open it and remove all doubt.”

Dougd – You know what’s funny about your post? Unlike the other guys, who took a shot, they actually talked about baseball. Could you tell me anything about your post that involves the game, the Phillies or even a sport period? Was the purpose of your entire post to attempt to insult someone you’ve never seen before? It must suck, because you couldn’t even do that successfully. You posted at 9:21 AM. Shouldn’t you be working on a Wednesday morning? If you’re not going to work or do something useful, get more sleep, so you don’t wake up a cranky malcontent the next time.

The problem with Lidge, is walks. I’m not discrediting Willie Taveras, but he helped him get through it. A lead-off hitter is supposed to take pitches. I watched the game too. After taking ball one, he swung at strikes two and three. A lead-off hitter’s job is to take strike. It should be anyone’s after he just walked a batter and has struggled lately. The play with Rollins was not an error. He may have not thrown him out. But, if he fielded it cleanly, he would have had a decent shot to get him. The middle reliever’s haven’t been horrible, but could be better. Condrey’s been very good, but Durbin has. He gave up those two runs to LA last week. His 4+ ERA, up over a run from last season, speaks for itself. Taschner’s been alright, but when Romero replaces him, that’ll help. Taking J.A. Happ out of the pen won’t help there, but putting Chan Ho Park there may be a lot worse. Although he’s been better lately, Eyre’s struggled too and typically does when he’s used too frequently. Basically, their middle reliever’s, Condrey aside, have been mediocre, which is a big downgrade from last season.

Mikemike – The Mets and Phillies both don’t have enough to get Peavy. Even if they did though, Peavy’s paid such a high salary, nearly averaging 16 million through 2013. It’s not that Peavy’s not worth that price, but that Phillies ownership may not be willing to add that payroll to the roster. If the Phillies don’t win another World Series or pennant this year, or even the division or a wild card, their revenue will drop dramatically, especially being in a recession, so I doubt they’d want Peavy’s salary on the payroll. Plus, it’d take all their best prospects, if that would even do it. Not just that though, but there’s a lot of competition with the Cubs and Brewers. Plus, Peavy has no-trade rights and may void a trade to either New York or Philadelphia. The same can probably be said to Roy Halladay, who probably won’t go anywhere, with the way the Blue Jays are playing. Cliff Lee’s price tag could also be overly bloated, coming off winning the Cy Young award. I believe Oswalt also has no trade rights. But, there are still other front-lines that could be available, like Bedard. Also, they probably won’t put Mayberry on the bench, until September, because if he’s not regularly playing, he won’t develop.

Somebody said that the one guy’s posts were 4,000 words..

People are aloud to whatever, but I think a bunch of us at the same time thought 4,000 words or whatever was too long, and has little chance of getting any response, since it has little chance of getting read

We should be A) talking about the Phillies or something related (like the Mets, Braves, etc.) and B) responding to others posts in a relevant and appropriate manner.

I don’t care about post length or grammar (although i appreciate it). I just want to talk about the WFCs.