NL East

Gold Notes

The top of the third inning of the Phillies vs. Brewers Wednesday matinee was a wild, mistake-filled affair.

As Rickie Weeks, the Brewers second baseman and leadoff hitter, stepped into the box to start the second inning against Phils starter Cliff Lee, CSN's play-by-play man Tom McCarthy took note of a stat that he tossed to his longtime broadcast partner Chris Wheeler.

It seemingly is a paradox, but upon closer examination, it makes sense. Today's top players are among the best in baseball history, but today's teams are among the worst ever.

Albert Pujols, Evan Longoria, Alex Rodriguez, Joey Hamilton, Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulotwitski, Joey Votto, Ichiro Suzuki and Ryan Howard, in no particular order, can hold their own with the greatest hitters of all time.

The Phillies' starting pitching rotation has drawn many comparisons to the 1996 pitching staff of the Atlanta Braves. The Braves pitchers had a very strong season from their pitchers, but they lost in the World Series to the New York Yankees, four games to two. 

So how will the Phillies finish this season? 

The New York Mets do not have the best farm system in the world. It's not the best in the National League, or even the best in the NL East, but there is talent there if you dig deep enough.

Despite his status as a Rule-5 pick and J.P. Ricciardi's voice trumpeting his name, Brad Emaus' stay with the New York Mets was short and uneventful.

Today, the Mets designated Emaus for assignment and called up Justin Turner from Triple-A Buffalo.

Emaus hit just .162 with one RBI in 14 games this season. Initially, the Mets loved his power and his ability to get on base. But he showed none of those skills during his time in the majors.

This article was originally posted on TheSheaFaithful.com.

The New York Mets are facing the dreaded "R-word" that's practically a forbidden phrase in New York: rebuilding.

Let's all face reality here: Not all athletes are the best role models. Heck, even some of them are the most negative people to mold your life after, but there are luckily some great ballplayers out there that are here to change that.

In this past week in Phillies baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies won three of their five games, bringing their NL East-leading record to 9-4.

The week (defined for our purposes as Monday through Sunday) concluded with a hard-earned 3-2 win over the visiting Florida Marlins, who would have tied the Phils for first place with a win.

In part three of this 13-part series of the greatest Mets of all time, we move on to position players, beginning with catchers.

The Philadelphia Phillies are just over two weeks into the 2011 baseball season, and their super star second baseman has yet to take the infield.  Unfortunately, at this point there is no guarantee that Utley will take the field this season.

So far the Phillies have done fine without Utley, going 9-4 without him and sitting atop the NL East division. The pitching staff has, at times, looked as though they might be able to carry this team without anyone at all playing second base.