Bullpen scares me

April 24, 2009 was the last time they were under .500 at any point in a season.

On a stool?

I feel pretty confident that at some point during the season Rube is going to blame it all on Arbuckle's post 2002 drafts.

where's the positivity thread?

Just now on Jeopardy:

"In 2010, Roy Halladay of this team threw 2 no-hitters -- one in the regular season & one in the postseason"

Asian guy named Bing: "Who are the Tigers??"

*facepalm*

The other two didn't attempt to answer. FFS

When do the Ichiro rumors start?

Fun fact: Last year Ichiro's OPS was 12 points lower than Juan Pierre's. I guess that means he's destined to be a Phillies.

On the bright side, maybe we've already suffered Fangraphs' 1.5-game difference between Howard and Plebe Platoon.

We have like 3, maybe 4 above average players on offense, total. And it's not like they're above average enough to offset the the steaming pile of shit at the bottom of the barrel. Variance, we need more variance.

That's pretty much what I was going to say. We have 3-4 black holes in the offense and the others are good, but not one of them is elite. Doesn't matter what juggling Charlie does, the lineup is a POS.

Part of me still can't believe we didn't even try to find a cost-effective guy for third like Betemit. Polanco has been cooked for two years.

But, but . . . Polanco was 2.8 WAR last year!

JFLNYC wrote:That's pretty much what I was going to say. We have 3-4 black holes in the offense and the others are good, but not one of them is elite. Doesn't matter what juggling Charlie does, the lineup is a POS.

While the latter part is true, it would still help if he didn't put Pierre and Polanco 1-2 guaranteeing two of the black holes get the most plate appearances.

The problem, as MattS said on Twitter, is that the Phillies don't have power in the lineup.

Polanco is going to end up hitting around .290, but it'll be mostly singles, and his outs will be of the frustrating lazy fly ball type

I mean, the only difference from last April is Howard, and I expect Pence/Mayberry instead of Ibanez/Francisco to mitigate some of that. Hopefully Nix and Wigginton, in advantageous matchups, can start contributing some pop soon.

The bullpen thinness and first base defense seem like real concerns, but the latter may just have been flukey so far.

I think the word you were looking for was fiasco

flame if you will but I wish Dom was on the roster

Youseff wrote:flame if you will but I wish Dom was on the roster

Me too. And starting against every RHP.

Youseff wrote:flame if you will but I wish Dom was on the roster

Don't think anyone here will flame you for that. I understand why he's not, but disagree.