Alive & Well Division

The venerable Reverse Curse is alive and well.  (See Burnett in post below).

Meanwhile, in the Not So Alive Nor Well Division, I give you Domonic Brown.  From Phenom-in-waiting to Mediocrity-instead, Dom Brown has been a bust. Apart from the first half of last year, Brown has been invisible.  His outfield mate Ben Revere came to Philadelphia with a reputation as a slap hitting base stealer who could play some defense (minus throwing).  Revere will cost the Phillies as many runs with his glove as he might produce with his bat and feet.  He's been a complete bust, too.

I am all for giving Cody Asche a chance to prove he can hit in the big leagues.  I'm just not going to hold my breath.

Add high fastballs to the stuff with which to get Ryan Howard out.

Chase Utley has come back to earth.

Jimmy Rollins is again hurting.  The injuries aren't major but they keep on coming.  Age will do that.

The Phils probably aren't close to giving up on Antonio Bastardo, but that's only because they don't have someone to take his place.  Bastardo has been given plenty of chances to nail down a variety of roles.  In the end, he's flubbed them all.

The pitchers didn't like Rich Dubey but they pitched well despite him.