Thursday, July 03, 2014

When Do They Get The Message?

It's no fun watching the Phillies play.  As a matter of fact, it hasn't been fun to watch them for two seasons and counting.

They are an incomplete team on good days and an spent team on bad ones.  In between they get either good starting pitching, good relief pitching or the occasional offensive burst...but never all three and certainly not all three on the same day.

How much fun is it to watch Ryan Howard step to the plate with his .235 batting average?  How many more times will be treated to Dom Brown taking a route around his elbow to get to his thumb?

Chase Utley started off well.  Indeed, on the strength of his early season performance he will be elected to the All Star team, probably as the starter.  But Chase has slowed down considerably over the last five or six weeks.  His average has plummeted to a still respectable .288 but hardly the robust .333 of earlier days.  He's tired of playing his usual all out game and he's probably tired of losing.  The other night he dropped two balls.  Never a great fielder, he nonetheless was never prone to mental mistakes.

Cole Hamels pitches up and down...literally.  He gave up three home runs the other night.  Last night he walked four batters in five innings.  He has a losing record...again.  He has pitched well enough to have a winning record, but that would require he pitched for a team that had not been shut out 11 times before the All Star break.

The Phillies cannot pitch consistently.  They definitely cannot hit period.  And they do not field well.

They need to begin rebuilding without delay.

They won't

No comments: