2 series in and I would vote that Ibanez is better than Burrell right now.

I’ll give the starting rotation a mulligan for their first outing, but let’s turn things around starting now.  I assume Park is under the microscope at this point as Happ is salivating out there in the bullpen.  May actually work out if Park is demoted to the pen in lieu of Happ, as he had the chance to succeed and by his own merits, was put in the pen.  He can’t be as pissed then b/c the team did what they said and let him compete for the starting role, won it, and pitched his way out of it.  That as opposed to him starting the season in the bullpen where I don’t think he gives it the ’ole Philly 110%. 

great game. I’ll  give this Park a pass for having Myer-like jitters on his first game.  better not mess up the 2nd.  Phillies are showing why I never turn off a game even in the pth inning. this team!!! just awesome.  seems Greg Dobbs has some new found respect with pitchers. they wont let him face anyone but their best lefty. he might not be getting as much hits as before. good thing Stairs is there to pick up the slack. Rollins is swinging badly now, initially it was just hitting it to the OFs unluckily, now he doesnt even seem to generate enough bat speed to catch up on inside pitches. With his track record,once he gets going,  we will make some sweet music.

ok Blanton, take us out the nation’s capital. and …… don’t leave early meen. The Nationals always play us tough, their pitching is struggling but I highly doubt we will take advantage of that. At least Tim redding is gone. we should take 2 of 3. sweep will only happen if our pitchers can show up.

LETS GO PHILLIES!

The team is showing a lot of heart in the face of these early difficulties.  The silver lining in the starters getting knocked around is that although we are falling behind, we are falling behind early.  Everyone is hanging tough, continuing to battle, and digging out of the hole together.  I don’t see us winning 100 games like this, but it’s good to see them pick each other up and win some games that probably should have been losses.  I’m taking it as a sign that once our starters straighten out (which had better be really soon) we should see some wins stacking up.

Although, after what happened last Saturday against the Rays, I was not at all optimistic about what we would get from Hamels against the Rockies, nor was I buying into all this “the extra adrenaline from it being a regular season start will get his fastball where it needs to be” stuff.

Hamels’ health is my main concern.  As long as he is healthy, which we are being assured of by everyone allowed to speak to the media, I’m sure he’ll get it together.  Although I have to say that all this downplaying is a bit disconcerting.

The other big concern remains the offense, who couldn’t do squat against Marquis.  Howard–3 GIDP, yikes!  I only caught a couple innings on the radio as I was driving in for the Sixers game, but Larry Andersen was calling the hitters out.  Granted, we were down 7-2 and not kicking up much dust against Marquis, but this was in the top of the 5th inning of the fourth game of the year, mind you.  If you listen, you can hear the air escaping from the world championship baloon already.

Something else noteworthy is that Lou Marson has been called up to replace Carlos Ruiz, who suffered an oblique strain yesterday.  Wally Pip anyone?  Ruiz is on the 15-day DL for now.  Gotta wonder what will happen if Marson really shows while he’s up, especially if Ruiz is out longer than 2 weeks, don’t you?