Philadelphia Phillies

This morning I was greeted by a hair ball, a pet puke, and an offensive odor.

Speaking of offensive, I should blog. I’ll start by singing the accolades of my favorite major league catcher.

Wait, my husband says it’s too early in the day for me to sing. Actually, he says there’s never a reason for it.

Back in December, the Phillies traded for Roy Halladay and promptly signed him to a three year, $60 million dollar contract. They were willing to make the commitment to the 32-year-old ace because of his track record as a dominant pitcher who takes pride in spending as much time on the mound as some of the greats from an earlier era.

The first eight months of Halladay’s tenure with the Phillies have only confirmed his reputation as an old-school workhorse.

Thus far, the 2010 season has been a ride of misfortune for the Philadelphia Phillies. It has been the baseball equivalent of getting out on the wrong side of bed in the morning.  

With a seemingly unending stream of injuries that have depleted the team from opening day, this season surely has not played out as the team's brain trust intended or baseball pundits projected. 

Just a few weeks ago I was reading articles on why the Phillies season was done. Now, they were very well written, but the authors seemed to be jumping the gun on the Phillies' season. The Phillies seem to be bouncing back even with their injury ridden lineup, winning eight of their last ten games.

Now only two games behind the Atlanta Braves, who appear to be in quite a slump, going four and six in there last 10 games, and not showing too many signs of improvement.

These are five reasons why the Phillies will make yet another post-season appearance.

(Philadelphia, PA) - With Ryan Howard on the 15-day disabled list and the Phillies still without a viable right handed bat off the bench general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. made a move yesterday acquiring veteran Mike Sweeney from the Seattle Mariners.

The Phillies acquired Sweeney for a player-to-be named or cash consideration, the teams have yet to agree, and Sweeney will fill in at first base until Howard returns from the DL.

Yesterday I wrote that it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Philadelphia Phillies go out and acquire a first baseman if they thought Ryan Howard would be out longer than 15 days. I thought they would go out and get a player like Mike Lowell, Adam LaRoche, or Casey Kotchman.

It seems now that the Steroid Era is almost officially behind us the game of baseball has turned into a game of attrition. Much like football and hockey, only the healthy will survive.

Two of the teams that have been hit the most by injuries—the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies—got hit even harder on Monday when both teams lost their All-Star first basemen.

While 2010 has been the year of the pitcher, it's also becoming the year of the injury. The Philadelphia Phillies placed slugging giant Ryan Howard on the DL today to the dismay of many fantasy baseball owners.

He joins the ever growing list of injured All-Stars including teammate Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Troy Tulowitzski, Ian Kinsler, Justin Morneau and Jason Bay to name a few (trust me there's plenty more).

Although scans were negative on his ankle, he will still be out for at least two weeks. So who do you pick up to pick up the slack?

It has been less than a week since J.A. Happ was dealt to the Houston Astros with Anthony Gose and Jonathan Villar for Roy Oswalt. Unlike minor league prospects Gose and Villar, however, Happ was once a key piece of the Phillies' starting roster, particularly in 2009, when he finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting to Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan.

Happ's odd career as a Phillie saw him go from organizational spare part in 2008, to rookie sensation in 2009, and then back to spare part in 2010.

His forearm injury and subsequent extended DL stint led Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr.