NL East

Last week I wrote about Jair Jurrjens, the home warrior. I thought it would be fitting to write this week about a guy who has truly been a road warrior this season.

On July 31st, Brad Lidge blew yet another save for the Philadelphia Phillies.

The three-run bomb by Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was Lidge's fourth blown save of the season, and for many fans, it was the last straw.

Yet again, talk radio and the blogosphere was flooded with fans screaming that Lidge should be moved out of the closer's role, possibly in favor of set-up man Ryan Madson.

Just when you think they're done, they pop back into the race. Well, sort of.

Sitting 7.5 games back in the NL wild card race, the New York Mets still have an outside chance of making the playoffs. 

I know. It seems crazy to consider this. The Mets have been horrible this summer. They were just 1.5 games back exactly two months ago, but went on a downward spiral that left many of us assuming they were done.

They've collapsed in years past, so why not again?

The Phillies' offense continued to struggle Friday night as they were only able to muster one run off a Raul Ibanez double in the third inning. But, fortunately for them, it was Roy Halladay's turn to take the mound, so it didn't matter.

Halladay scattered eight hits, walked three, and struck out five in seven scoreless innings to earn his sixth consecutive win. And during that six-game stretch, Halladay has allowed one earned run or less in five of them.

As I mentioned in the post earlier, I got home pretty late on Wednesday night. I got home rather late because I made the rare weekday visit to Queens, NY to hang out with some friends.

The reason for the pilgrimage into Queens was to revisit our childhood by seeing "The Expendables," but to also eat at Darryl Strawberry’s new restaurant, conveniently called Strawberry’s.

According to a report by The Miami Herald's Clark Spencer, Marlins starting catcher Ronny Paulino has been suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

The suspension would put the Marlins catcher out for the rest of the regular season with 40 games left to go for the Marlins, as it will be effective immediately. 

Uh, one problem, Geovany—you forgot the ball...

When things are going well, this is the kind of stuff that happens.

Obviously things are going really well for the Phillies right now: good defense, timely hitting, and absolutely incredible pitching.

But that’s not all. Anyone who’s followed this team for the last four weeks knows the Phillies have repeatedly capitalized on their opponents’ tendencies to commit numerous fielding or throwing errors that have directly led to big innings by the Phils’ offense.

On Wednesday, the Atlanta Braves completed a four-player deal with the Chicago Cubs to bring first baseman Derrek Lee to Atlanta.

Atlanta gave up three pitchers in the deal to a pitching-deficient club; two were righties, and one was a lefty.

The trade beckoned a question within the minds of the Atlanta faithful: What about Troy Glaus?

Over the next week or two I will be taking a division-by-division look at every team’s closer situation.  Who is closing now?  Who is next in line?  Who could get a look down the line?  Let’s kick things off with the NL East: