wouldn't you love a day off after working for one day?

hahaha... john, your last paragraph cracked me up. it's stupid to boast about your team when they suck.

the phillies had many years of sucking. i would have looked foolish had i boasted about them. i could say, "i loathe the braves." but never... "the braves suck... the phillies are awesome!" that would have sounded really dumb. clearly, a team can't "suck" if they win the division 10+ years in a row with hardly any competition.

this year, however... the phils have a "phighting" chance... as they say. the approximate lineup:

j-roll
victorino
my boyfriend
howard
pat the fat wallet oops bat burrell
pedro the new guy feliz
werth
ruiz
the pitcher

i don't know much about pedro. but hopefully... phillies' fans will have a reason to create a "vote for pedro" shirt of their own. hahaha. i had to do it. sorry.

as for the rest of them... jimmy through ryan howard... an obvious solid heart of the lineup. [which is fitting since chase has clearly stolen mine.] can't wait to see what they'll do this year with victorino playing every day and hitting second. burrell... well, if he keeps up his pace from last year... he might be worth about half of what they're paying him. hopefully he continues to stay out of his multi-year slump. werth and ruiz proved to be of value last year... and i'm glad to see them playing every day.

dobbs, taguchi, and jenkins should be good off of the bench, as well.

the offense looks promising... as should be expected after nl-leading scoring season last year.

the pitching, however, is a different story.

here's my problem. every year... the phils dish out meager cash and pick up these old guys or not good guys to come in and pitch for a year. they just got this new 39-year old guy, rudy, to jump into the bullpen from the dodgers. his era last season was over 6.00.

please tell me how that's supposed to help our bullpen woes??!?

my suggestion: get rid of adam eaton [$$$$], ryan madson, and possibly tom gordon [or at least don't let him close]... and drop some cash for some young talent. citizen's bank park is a hitters' ballpark. they can't keep bringing mediocre pitchers and hope that maybe they'll find their golden stuff. we shouldn't have gotten rid of billy wagner. or curt schilling, for that matter. and we never should have picked up adam eaton or freddie garcia. and quite honestly, i'm not even sure they should have gone with brad lidge. we'll see what happens after he comes off the dl. i'm not convinced that he was a fantastic grab.

the starters obviously have the upper hand on the relievers. myers and hamels should hopefully shine like the stars we're hoping they continue to be. notwithstanding yesterday's outing by myers. moyers and kendrick both did well last year. moyers' record doesn't necessarily show it... but he did pitch pretty well. i had him on my fantasy team last year so followed him pretty closely. a lot of his losses came in close games with very low scores. had the offense played "normally," they would have easily bailed him out. as for eaton... well, we all know how i feel about him. he'd better get his act together... cuz he's in the dog house after last year's horrendous performance.

overall, i'm looking forward to a good season. i think it'll be rough/fun... with the mets in their prime and the braves coming back from the dead. i don't think the marlins or the nats are much to worry about... though the nats have a pretty new stadium. : )

to summarize: the phillies have a great offense. a half-stellar group of starters. and a bullpen that makes me put my head in my hands.

spend money on pitchers.

money cash... money cash hoes!!

and go phillies!! : )