Well, here we are. Can you feel it?  The beginning of another season, where hope springs eternal.  Yeah, right!  Gary Sheffield?  Are you kidding me? More on this later…

Let’s look at our team shall we?

 

Infield…as we’ve discussed, all four familiar faces.  We need David Wright to get some clutch hits so that he can quiet some of his doubters here in New York.  David had a good statistical season last year, but really, can you come up with one clutch hit last year?  Can’t say I’m thrilled to see Luis Castillo back at second. Bring the earplugs if you’re not hitting .350, Luis.

 

Outfield..Carlos Beltran in center of course. Truly can’t appreciate this guy unless you see him every day. Murphy everyday in left. Manuel has some Man-crush on Dan Murphy, can do no wrong. Forgive me for being cautious, we’ll see how this develops because as we have seen it is going to be a circus in left field.  Up until two days ago I figured Ryan Church would be in right. I think, Church did too. But now we have the specter of Gary Sheffield hanging over us. I just don’t like good old Gar’. He’s a cancer. Doesn’t anybody realize this?? I know, I know right-handed bat. I ‘m tired of hearing it. Not worth the risk.  The only reason this even makes sense at this point is that he isn’t on the Phillies-because with the Mets he’ll just kill the chemistry, have some outrageous quotes for Joel Sherman and basically just pull the Mets down with him.  But, you know if he was in a Philly uniform he would single handedly beat the Mets every time they faced ‘em.  I was puzzled about why they would do this until my husband (who is the most brilliant guy EVER) pointed out that Church’s great first few months last year were when Randolph was manager. What did Manuel get out of Church? Nuttin’ honey.

 

Catcher. same old, same old. Ramon Castro, Brian Schneider.

 

Bench..Jeremy Reed looks good. Fernando Tatis will play all over. Hope he’s still rockin’ that good karma from building that church. Yay God! How long does that last anyway? Alex Cora..how much is he gonna play? And don’t get me started about Marlon Anderson still bein’ here. Geezer.

 

Starters..Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Livian Hernandez. Two sure things and three question marks. Uh..the sure things are NOT Santana and Pelfrey smart guy but Santana and Hernandez. Livian will pitch and pitch and pitch. As a fifth starter he’s gold as an innings eater and on a “good” club will win 10-12. The question marks are Pelfrey, Maine and Ollie. Pelfrey because we need to see it consistantly. Maine because he’s coming off the surgery. Haven’t heard anything more about that curveball, John. Shortlived wasn’t it? And Ollie because, well he’s Ollie and you never know which Ollie is showing up.

Bullpen..K-Rod in the ninth.  JJ Putz in the eighth.  Brandon Stokes in long relief. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell and Darren O’Day (wasn’t he in Animal House?) are the situational pitchers.

 

So where does that leave us?

 

Winning the East 90-72. I don’t believe the Phillie bullpen can possibly be perfect again. They ALL had the year of their lives last season.  Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part-but did I say when I opened this blog that hope springs eternal?