Jonathan Papelbon

The Philadelphia Phillies have not had a losing season since 2002, when they finished 80-81. The last ten seasons have provided the faithful fan base in Philadelphia with more things to cheer about than to jeer about. Unfortunately though, the end is near. 

It wasn't the farcical Mayan Apocalypse that dashed the hopes of Phillies fans everywhere. No. It was the mismanagement of a roster and farm system that will cause the destruction of arguably the best decade of baseball in this franchise's history. 

It is Jonathan Papelbon, not Cliff Lee, whom the Phillies should be trying to move via waiver trade this month.

At the quarter pole of the 2012 season, the Philadelphia Phillies find themselves in unfamiliar territory—staring up at the rest of the National League East.  And while the Phightins are off to their slowest start in the last five years, there's still reason to believe Philadelphia can claim its sixth consecutive division crown.  

Here are five good reasons to believe.

After starting out 2012 sluggishly, the Philadelphia Phillies have put the pedal to the medal over the last week, winning six straight games and seven out of eight against San Diego, Houston, Chicago, and now Boston.

As we head into the dog days of August, Jays fans are just now starting to get excited over the prospects of this team.

Usually around this time of year, it's the lull in the schedule where teams usually just try and play out the string until September, but for the Jays, things look completely different.

The Jays are fighting game in and game out, and are 57-55 in 102 games this season. The team was expected to maybe win at most 75 games this season, so they are definitely ahead of expectations.

As the MLB season creeps toward the end of April, all 30 teams have now played approximately 20 games each, and while there were certainly some surprises at the start, the expected cream is starting to rise to the top, while the expected bottom feeders, with some exceptions, are trending toward the bottom of the pack.

The "Texas Red Sox Massacre" of this past weekend was not the opening series that Red Sox fans had dreamed about since December. Buchholz surrendered almost half as many home runs as he did all of last season, Lester made it clear that he knows which month this is and Lackey's ERA is now sitting just north of 22. The bullpen wasn't much better, as every reliever pitched and only Reyes, Albers, and Jenks failed to surrender a run. Still, serious concerns at this point are unnecessary- the team is bound to win at least a game before the season is out.

It's time to call a spade a spade with the state of Jonathan Papelbon: He either soon finds a way to get the "giddy-up" back on his fastball or his struggles on the mound will likely cost him his job during the 2011 season. With setup relievers Daniel Bard and Bobby Jenks available, the team is unlikely to let Papelbon keep imploding like he did last year.

Jonathan Papelbon was having a decent spring—that is, until his fourth outing, where he allowed three earned runs on a hit, three walks and a hit batter in just one third of an inning of work.

However, he followed up that performance with a clean inning of work against the New York Yankees. All is perfect in paradise? Not quite.

Terry Francona has been given a Ferrari and is expected to drive it into the winner's circle. But to maximize the potential, he will need to take good care of it throughout the rigors of a 162-game schedule.

It would be hard to really screw up this lineup, as stacked as it is, but there are some changes that need to be made to make sure the team runs like a well-oiled machine. He's got the pieces, now its time to put them in the right places.