Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies are last team standing on top at the trade deadline. Again.

This time last year, the Phillies added hot pitcher Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians, a grizzled lefty coming off a 2008 Cy Young Award. In the process, the Phillies dumped future prospects while bolstering an already decent rotation with 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels.

The time has come again as yet another phenom is set to introduce himself to the baseball world. Outfield super-prospect Domonic Brown will finally get his long awaited opportunity to shine in the City of Brotherly Love.

It seems as if injuries are the storyline of the season for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Chase Utley is still a few weeks from returning from the disabled list with his surgically repaired thumb, Jimmy Rollins was benched yesterday with a foot injury, and to top it all off, outfielder Shane Victorino was pulled in the seventh inning with a strained muscle in his left side.

The text message read: “Hollywood is starting to look like Compton.”

I got that text from a high school friend late on Friday night, April 23: the night Cole “Hollywood” Hamels gave up four home runs in a seven-batter span en route to a 7-4 loss in Arizona.

Apparently Cole didn’t realize the Home Run Derby wasn’t supposed to take place in Phoenix until July 2011.

The Phillies won 6-0 on Friday night over the Colorado Rockies at Citizen's Bank Park. Roy Halladay got the win as he pitched eight scoreless innings, fanning nine, and watched his offense explode for five runs in the fifth inning.

And that's it. That's all I've got. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll read again soon.

... You're still here? Oh, you wanted more? Sorry, that's truly all I've got. Here is where I would usually add some sort of analysis or my opinion on the game and the Phillies in general, but there's really nothing more left to be said.

Last November, the Philadelphia Phillies had found themselves in one of the most enviable positions in all of sports. 

They had just won a World Series Championship and followed it up with a repeat, albeit unsuccessful, trip to the Fall Classic. The organization possessed a tremendous nucleus of talent just entering their prime. 

It is quite obvious the Philadelphia Phillies are in a slump. A team riddled by injuries and inconsistency without an ignition towards change.

Despite getting an extra innings 2-0 win in St. Louis yesterday, where Cole Hamels shined, the team still showed the overwhelming stress that comes from being back-to-back National League Champions.

The Phillies have been plagued by non-existent bats that have turned consistent players like Jayson Werth searching for a way to right the ship.

Ruben Amaro must make an immediate, high-impact trade to salvage the Philadelphia Phillies' underwhelming season and his own reputation as a general manager.   The off season trade of Cliff Lee has upset many fans, and the team he has assembled is floundering, currently slightly over the .500 mark.  Furthermore, Amaro's attitude is not endearing fans.

After the announcement of Kendrick's demotion, The Philadelphia Inquirer 's Matt Gelb's posted this on his blog:

In the top of the seventh inning of the Phillies' 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night, the Phillies had runners on first and second with two outs and Carlos Ruiz at the plate.

Recognizing this, the Cardinals elected to have pitcher Jaime Garcia work around Ruiz, walk the bases loaded, and go after pitcher Joe Blanton hitting in the ninth hole.

Keep in mind that at this point the score was only 1-1.

All the clamor as of late has been for the Phillies to go out and add another starting pitcher, possibly even one with "ace" qualities. While I'm not exactly a proponent of the move , it looks like that's inevitably what's going to happen.