This Kid Annoys Me Already

I sure hope his play matches up with his mouth.

Thank God That's Over

If we've learned anything this year, we have definitely seen that the Phils are totally out classed by the American League. The Phils finished up the interleague play portion of the schedule with a completely horrid 4-11 record, which was 2nd worst in all of baseball. I would like to think that the Phils have the talent to play with the AL, but it sure didn't look like it. It just didn't seem like the Phils could put it all together in any of these games. If the bats were working, the pitching wasn't. If the starting pitching gave the team a decent outing, the bats were cold.

Basically, the month of June has sucked. I'm all for turning the page and getting back to some good old National League matchups starting Tuesday against the Braves. Maybe the hitters will come back to life after seeing some familiar faces on the mound.

Plus, this team still has to figure out what to Myers. I'm all for moving him to the 'pen or even trading him if there is anyone willing to give you something for him. I love this quote from Uncle Cholly about Myers:

"Can I say his job is secure? I don't know what to say, if you want to know the truth. We'd have to find somebody to do his job first, I guess. We're trying to get him right. Myers' best year is 14-9 as a starter [in 2003]. You stop and think about it, that's not lighting it up. I mean, look, that's not what you call a huge season."

Uncle Cholly makes a great point. What made us think Myers would be so reliable? In his best year, he was nothing but an above average pitcher. Clearly, he's not cut for the role of a starting pitcher. I think it is time this team starts to focus on trading for another starter.

Yeah, I know I'm being the King of the Obvious, but this team owes it to its phan base to pick up another starter. They are that close. At this point, it seems like they just would have been better off re-signing Kyle Lohse, but that would have made too much sense for this team.

That's How You Break A Slump

I'm beat and about to go to sleep...they are heading into the bottom of the 8th and the Phils are up 4-0. Kyle Kendrick has pitched brilliantly and Chase Utley finally shook off the cob webs and went 4 for 5, falling a HR short of the cycle.

I'm heading to bed. Although, Uncle Cholly has left in Kendrick to start the 8th, not sure if I like this move.

Good night!

See Ya Later, RJ

You ask and you shall receive.

As demonstrated in the comments today, the locals are not happy with the Flyers' trade of RJ Umberger the other night. Apparently, you aren't the only ones. In fact, the guy that decided to pull the trigger on the move, wasn't crazy over it either. Flyers' GM Paul Holmgren had the following comment:

“We signed R.J. as a 20 year old, put time and effort into him, and we had to give him up for an unknown future. That sucks to put it bluntly. That’s the nature of our business because that’s the position we got into for whatever reason.”

(Christ, I wish we received more plain talking like this from the rest of the GM's in this city.)

Well Paul, if you and your predecessor didn't over pay for a couple guys, you would have been able to re-sign RJ, but that is besides the point.

As for the trade itself, I'm not all that upset about it the more I think about it. They traded a guy that will score 20 goals in his best season for a first round pick that could turn into a guy that could anchor the defense for a decade. I don't think this was a dumb move. Plus, it opens up badly needed cap space to help improve the team this offseason. Which brings us to....

The other trade the Flyers made on Friday to give away their own 1st round pick for Steve Eminger, a reclaimation project defenseman, made absolutely no sense. It seemed to me that they totally overpaid for a guy that wasn't even in the Caps' plans. Not sure what the thinking was on that move or why it was necessary to give up a 1st round pick. I'm still scratching my head.

In any event, we are in store for an interesting offseason.

Things Are Never Done Easily In Philadelphia

Just two weeks ago, everyone, including yours truly, was tripping all over themselves writing about how this could be the year for the Phils as they were coming off a three game sweep of the Braves to raise their record to 13 games over .500. Bill Conlin even called this lineup the best he's ever seen wearing the red pin stripes.

Fast forward two weeks and the Phils have gone 3-9 over their last 12 and are now clinging to a one game lead over the Marlins. Of course, the schedule has played into the recent slump, but that isn't all that's to blame.

The offense Conlin waxed poetically about has gone pretty much silent against any pitcher with a record over .500 and an ERA below 4.50. As hot as Chase Utley was to begin the season, he's just as cold now. Brett Myers has been brutal and over the last two weeks, Adam Eaton is starting to return to form.

Things are starting to get scary, folks. And we thought the Phils would make this season look easy. How dare we forget what city they play in!

Are They Becoming Full of Themselves?

The Phils have lost three straight series, yet the Phils seem to think they are legit World Series contenders. I caught this comment after yetserday's game from Shane Victorino:

"You say to yourself, in a way, hey, we lost two out of three, but you know, we might have took three out of three from them and I think that's the confidence that this team has, and where we're at. We know we can play with people. We are confident in ourselves."

Sure, this team was hot in May, but they have fallen off since the sweep of the Braves. The Phils seem to have grown very complacent from their hot month of May.

Paul Hagen phrased it correctly in his column today. The Phils haven't won anything yet and if they want to make it for the 2nd straigh season, they better get things going. Losing 2 out 3 aint going to cut going foward. They're going to need to start picking up their game....soon.

Enough Is Enough

Lord, please make it stop. I can not take anymore of Boston's dominance. It's become downright ridiculous at this point. All you Boston sports fans can go straight to hell.

I will now root for the complete collapse of all their teams. The legions of their band wagon fans are driving me nuts.

The only bright side to the Celtics winning tonight is that it stops the MJ/Kobe Bryant comparisons. I truly despise Kobe and this series showed that he can't carry MJ's jockstrap.

I need to go to sleep. I had visions of finishing a post on my picks for Philly athletes that fall into the following categories: the player I would most like to get drunk with, hang with, be friends with, have dinner with, or have watching my back. However, this Celtics game has me totally beside myself. No city should have this much good fortune.

I Never Thought I'd Say This....

But, while watching the Phils game tonight - a big 8-2 win over the Sawwwwx powered by Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels, I realized something. (It really pains me to say this....) Chris Wheeler is not all that bad as a commentator.

It must have been all those borderline retards analyzing the hockey games on Vs. during the Flyers playoff run, but suddenly I find myself more open to listening to Wheels. He no longer turns my stomach. Sometimes, I actually find him informative. In fact, until this evening, I didn't know that Tito Francona and JD Drew were both Golden Spikes award winners. I don't know about you guys, but it's little tidbits like that has me coming back game after game. I really can't explain it, but maybe the Phils' broadcast team has worn me down over the years to the point that I now find him acceptable.

Am I crazy? Has anyone else started to soften on him?

*******************************************************************

Here are some other random thoughts on tonight's game:

-What are the odds that Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell will hit triples in the same game this season? About the same odds that Andy Reid has of ever seeing his feet.

-Juan Samuel is being inducted into the Phils' Hall of Fame. Watching highlights of him, I think they should also induct his bottle of Activator because he had the best Jheri Curl in Phils' history. (Although, Steve Jeltz was a close second.)

-I love seeing the Big Man hit opposite field home runs. He's dialing it in. It's scary to watch him run though. He looked like a guy running on hot coals. Don't look now, but he has the average up to .224!

-I forgot how much I hate JD Drew.

-Nice to see J Roll show up tonight. Maybe playing these big name teams will help him focus a bit more.

-Tiger Woods is amazing...sorry, I had to add that in.

Ahhh...To Be Young, Single, and Rich

If you were wondering what the good life looks like, take a gander of Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Scottie Upshall and Joffrey Lupul. (And you thought Jeff Carter was leaving? I doubt it. He has a Boy's Club here in Philly.)

The only thing I don't understand are the boobs on Richards' chick. I don't think that shirt flatters her. She needs to do something with that rack like maybe a push up bra.

Scottie Upshall is the man. Gotta love the arm over the boob trick. He's a stud.

Joffrey Lupul looks like a douche in the green sunglasses, but I bet he's fun to hang out with.

In any event, this group of pictures leads credence to my theory as to why they get their asses kicked whenever they play a Saturday night home game. They are more eff'n concerned about where they are going after the game, then concentrating on the game at hand. (Someone please remind me of this post next year on their first Saturday night home game. I'd like to lay to down a few sheckles on the opposing team.)

What The Hell Is Going On Here?!?!

I've been reading in various places that the Eagles have a good chance of becoming the surprise team of the 2008 season. However, at this point in the offseason, I'm having a hard time seeing it.

It seems like this season has been one minor squabble after another. First, the Birds signed Asante Samuel to extravagant contract which annoyed Lito Sheppherd, one of their few Pro Bowlers. Then they basically failed to sign anyone else of consequence, despite various rumors of them trying to acquire a top notch wide receiver.

Then the draft came and the Birds once again inexplicably traded away their first round draft pick and came away with an underwhelming, undersized group of players that project to be career backups and role players at best. (My personal favorites were the 220 lb 3rd round Div IAA DE and the 6th Round Div III kid they discovered on You Tube. Christ, I wish I was kidding on both counts.)

Over the last couple weeks, all we've been faced with is Lito's hold out, Hugh Douglas publicly calling out Winston Justice as a gutless dog, whispers that B West is totally unhappy with his contract, the failed Dan Klecko fullback experiment (seriously, did anyone see this working out?), and now the news today that D Mac has a bad shoulder.

The news of #5's bad shoulder should not be minimized. The QB's ability to throw is his lifeblood. When your QB's arm goes bad, your offense becomes entirely predictable because the deep passing game is totally eliminated from the repertoire. Ask Jets' fans what it's like to root for a team with a QB like Chad Pennington that has a bum arm. As someone who watched a fair share of Jets games with a big time Jets fans last year, I can tell you it seems incredibly frustrating.

Camp get here soon enough because I can't wait to finally get some good news about this team.

May The Force Be With Them?

Right now, your Philadelphia Phillies are certifiably hot and starting to get that "look". That "look" hasn't been seen since 1993, but I definitely remember it. You just knew the Macho Row Phils would make whatever plays were necessary to win a big game. After watching this weekend's series against the Braves, I'm starting to get the same feel about this year's team. If you didn't get that feeling after watching Friday night's thriller that featured a dropped pop up to give the Phils the tie in the top of the 9th and then a perfect strike from the Flyin' Hawaiin to barely nail the tying run at the plate to steal the victory, then you are a cold hearted snake.

It appears that Brad Lidge agrees with me, but he puts this special something the 2008 Phils are showing in different terms. Here's his description:

"If you want things in the season to go good, you need to have some of those 'Force be With You' moments. The Force was with us tonight. That was awesome, honestly. Just a weird night. The fact that we were able to tie it up was mysterious, and then we got some runs. (The last play) was so much fun to watch from my perspective. At first I thought there was no way, and then all of a sudden this absolute pea-rod comes in from Shane, on the money and everything. It just was perfect. Like I said, the Force was with us tonight.”

As a fellow Star Wars fan, I like the way this Brad Lidge fella thinks. It's a shame he'll probably be pitching elsewhere next season as the Phils rarely retain players in the final year of their contracts.

In any event, this Braves series was the perfect way to kick off a 9 game road trip. Now, let's see how they do against the 2nd place Marlins with Myers and Hamels lined up to face the Fish. We could start doing some damage if they take care of business in this series.

All they'll have to do is trust their feelings and continue to use the Force.

Welcome Back, Brett

Sure, the Phils lost tonight. It was bound to happen. The bats were cooling off after the quick start on Monday night. They went into a deep sleep this evening and didn't produce a run.

However, that wasn't the big story to come out of this evening. The main thing to come out of the game for me tonight is the arrival of the Brett Myers we expected to see this year. It's taken two months, but Brett Myers finally turned in a dominant performance. He went 7 and 1/3 and gave up only 2 earned runs. Brett carried a no hitter into the 7th, but he lost the no hitter and the shutout in the 7th when some dude named Joey Votto (with a name like that, he has to be pictured somewhere on NJguido.com) knocked in a run with a two out double. What a shame to waste such a performance.

Myers even looked slimmer tonight. Who knows, maybe the Wife Beater bought a Wii Fit over the weekend and started using it in earnest.

In any event, this is the Brett Myers this team needs to make a legit playoff run. If we can get 7 dependable innings out of him every night, then look out because I think this team could make a serious post season run.

I just hope I'm not over reacting.

Eagles Personnel Department: No Football Experience Required

Can someone please explain to me what the Eagles are doing in their front office? I'm totally at a loss trying to understand their latest move.

In case you missed it, the Eagles fired Vice President of Player Personnel, Jason Licht (although it has not yet been officially announced) and replaced him with former Vice President of Football Administration, Howie Roseman. My problem arises from the fact that Roseman appears to have no actual football knowledge. He appears to be from the Joe Banner mold, more than your typical player personnel director who has spent his entire life playing, coaching or scouting football.

It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have a guy that, while well educated, has such little football experience running such a critical part of the team. I love how Andy Reid says the following about Roseman:

"I feel we have strengthened our personnel staff today by promoting Howie Roseman. Tom's leadership and work ethic has continued to impress me over the years. Tom (Heckert) has also done a great job of nurturing and incorporating Howie's talent into the personnel side of the organization. Howie has demonstrated a sharp eye for talent evaluation along with a knack for creative draft and free agent strategies. Both Tom and I feel Howie will be an excellent addition to the Philadelphia Eagles personnel staff."

Sorry Big Red, this sounds like corporate speak to me. I'd like to see Andy cite a couple of examples before I get the warm and fuzzies over this move.

Plus, everything I read says that Roseman is Banner's protege, which is great except that I'm not sure two capologists are necessary when the league is about to go uncapped in a couple seasons.

I just have a bad feeling about the Birds having a personnel guy effing up while learning on the job.