I officially hate this Phillies team

[BaseballCat]

I love this team. They are my team. I lived in the Philly area in the lean Rolen years and the team stuck. I have been out of the area for almost 30 years and I still love them. Bohm just hit a home run to go ahead, but if they lose, I will still love them. Frustration does not take that love away. Just my two cents on this thread.

[Austinfan]

I may love them, but if they underachieve I'm also going to curse them!
Of course, I'm still scared from 1964.
Though the 1970s healed some of the hurt, 1981 still pisses me off.

To be honest, it's much easier for me to root for the marginal guy who's overcome the odds than the $20+M player who wants sympathy when he's struggling and suffers angst sitting by his zero gravity swimming pool.

[zambonir]

This was one of the better reverse jinxes in list history!

[Sabin]

For me, I enjoy the game of failure. Expecting success 80% of the time is for the NFL.

Not if you're a fan of the Browns.

[/steelersfansmack]

[Florida_Sunshine]

Ever since Philsmania started rooting for the Mets, they have been losing.

Wonder if we can provide him updates throughout the year on what teams to root for?

Said in jest.... hopefully we have him back with us now.

[EastFallowfield]

Phils haven’t lost since this thread started, I think?

Best record in MLB here in late May.

[zambonir]

I believe they were losing 3-1 to the Pirates when the thread started. They won that game 8-4 and every game since.

Still haven't played a good team of course but they all count, and not losing any road games is impressive too.

[Austinfan]

Beating bad teams buys time to fix issues, evaluate AAA players and not have to make panic moves.

[zambonir]

In the end there really aren't any AAA players to evaluate for this team's short-term needs. The relievers will continue to rotate and revolve in the one spot the MLB team has. And they will have some decisions to make about Painter and Abel in two months. But the line-up is the line-up, especially now that it has settled into a platoon (as has 2B). The only thing that would will make it better is an impact, non-platoon OF bat who could actually take over LF or RF.

I am not buying Crawford as an upgrade over Marsh or Rojas this year. If Kemp or Kennedy (neither of whom are even on the 40, nor is Crawford) show up someone got hurt. I could see Crawford eventually getting the call over Stevenson (much like Rojas did) if an OF got hurt.

Obviously the team is not a juggernaut (but neither are the other teams). The next five weeks will tell more of a tale for all of them.

[Austinfan]

Kemp is being tried in LF, I think they're not sold on Wilson as the RH platoon guy and want to check out alternatives.
Though Crawford doesn't have major splits, he'd be brought up to start, not to platoon.

[zambonir]

Though Crawford doesn't have major splits, he'd be brought up to start, not to platoon.

He probably wouldn't face LHP, unless they trade Rojas when they bring him up. If they really did it you'd either trade Marsh or start sitting Nick down (put Marsh back in LF and Kepler in RF).

Sure, they could DFA Wilson and give Kennedy a look but Wilson has done nothing but succeed in the role required of him, and his biggest flaw is the same as Kemp's: not an OF (and he's probably still a better fielder than Kemp). At the end of the day they would probably once again go out and get a veteran RHB OF, even though they've botched that very move multiple times (either by doing nothing or getting the wrong guys or, if you want to be generous about Hays, bad luck).