you also know it's bad when...

your team moves its starting ace to the bullpen... in hopes of bullpen stability.

i understand why they did this... and don't think it's a bad idea. act of desperation though? obviously.

here are my solutions:

- get rid of burrell.
- get rid of manuel.
- trade for some relief pitching.
- shake up the line-up.
- bring back chris coste from the minors.
- if you can't trade burrell... permanently make bourn his pinch runner. if burrell gets a hit, he's done his job. take him out... let bourn run for him... and let his day be over.
- SPEND SOME MONEY... before no one comes to the games anymore and there isn't any money to spend.
- bring back the organist. the phillies had the best organist in baseball... until he died. the problem is that they've done nothing to replace him. every once and awhile they'll play some sort of little bitty thing... but it's not enough to bring energy to the crowd. no energy from the crowd... no hype... no sense of the fans being in it with the players. fans can cheer on their own, of course... but it's much more fun when the organist is helping to build up the emotion. now, they'll play the little trumpet charge thing one time. it does nothing. they used to play it three times... with a greater swell of emotion each time until it burst open on the 3rd. it was glorious. that felt like baseball. one stupid fake trumpet thing does not.

and now... howard's hurt, too. we'll see what happens with that... if it's dl-worthy or not. either way... it doesn't make too much of a difference since he's not hitting the ball... and has been making some big defensive errors. maybe a bit o' time on the dl would be good for him. get his mind back in the game and not focused on the tragedy that has been his spring thus far.

ps... apparently the pitching coach, dubee, was pleased with garcia's first outing... where he pitched 4 and something innings... giving up 3 runs. the phils went on to lose that one 8-1.

AND... rosario... the guy who gillick was willing to take a bet on... blew his first game by losing last night in the 11th to the NATIONALS... giving up a single and a double... and then a sacrifice that ended the game. so much for power pitching being the way to go. and now gillick is wishing he hadn't taken that chance on mr. inconsistent and instead spent some real cash to bring in someone with proven talent.

oh.... my poor phillies. yet i will be loyal still...