Four of a Kind

Well, I meant to write this when it was relatively breaking news, but since it has been out almost all day, I guess I kind of missed it. Something about final exams is messing with my blog writing. Anyway, how about Cliff Lee being a Phillie again? We now have the undisputed best rotation in baseball. With Roy squared, the Cole Train, and now General Lee, who can compete with that? Not only that, but two of them are left-handers and two of them are right-handers. With this type of rotation, the opponent will see a different side of the plate every night except for when whoever the number five starter turns up being because he will have a left-hander before or after him and a right-hander on the other side. When you couple this with one of the most prolific offenses in baseball, we have a wrecking machine being assembled. Although we lost Jayson Werth to Washington, I think our offense still has plenty of pop to support this pitching staff which I quite honestly think will not need much run support. The off-season still is not over, so let's see what other teams have in store to improve and try to fight with the Phillies!

Texas Needs to Rise

Well, all good things have to come to an end. Cliff Lee finally lost a playoff game. Amazingly, he was 7-0 in his career before during the playoffs, but I guess that everyone has to lose at some point. Unfortunately, it had to be in the World Series, but still, I feel like he will get a second shot because I do not think that the Rangers are going to simply roll over and surrender. Even though they lost last night, they scored seven runs. Obviously the offense is clicking, so now they just need to allow fewer runs. Personally, I still support Texas. I feel like it would be an excellent story when a team that had never even won a playoff game previously to go all the way through the World Series. Obviously, the Phillies should have won the World Series, but since that didn't quite happen, I guess Texas will have to be my second choice. However, I hope Texas can turn it around or else my favorite teams in the playoffs will have all choked. The Giants are not perfect, so I feel like Texas should be able to scratch their way back into this and hold that trophy at the end of the year.
Photo by little black spot on the sun today on Flickr

Fast Moving

I was very happy to see Roy Halladay look like an absolute machine against the Braves tonight. It was pretty awesome to see such efficiency on the mound. I also appreciate the fact that he does not waste any time throwing the ball. Any of you remember John Rocker? He had the longest most convoluted windup before delivering the ball because he had to adjust his hat and uniform 1,000,000 times before finally deciding that he better pitch. I realize that baseball is a long game, and the delayed action is quite honestly one of the most endearing traits because there's so much time to develop the tension and quite honestly the agony. However, enough is enough when that game has been going on for three hours already and the pitcher seems to be doubling that game time. I think that if I were a pitcher, I would want to work as quickly as possible just because I would be a nervous wreck. If I had to stand on the hill for a minute between pitches, I'll would make myself too nervous and probably end up throwing the ball into left field or some crazy location like that. I will admit that I was a little bit shocked when I saw Cliff Lee dumped after all he did for the Phillies last year. However, when it's obvious that Roy Halladay is what was coming in, I guess we can't complain too much.
Photo by furnstein