Rockne's Roundtable

Uhhh... no optimism here. Went to the game Wednesday night vs. L.A. and the infield at the end of the game was Wiggington 3b, Rollins SS, Fontenot 2B, and Mayberry 1b. A long cry from 2 years ago. They are playing terrible baseball in all phases of the game. Poor AB's, poor defense and pathetic hitting with men in scoring position.The pitchers walked 7 including 2 with the bases loaded. On top of that with all of the injuries it doesn't look good for this year. I don't expect anything from Utley or Howard for this year and even if they do contribute it may be too late to matter. I can;'t blame Cole Hamels if he leaves for L.A. and a fat contract...who would want to have this lineup and poor offensive production. The Phillies have scored 16 runs in Cliff Lee's 9 starts. They need to make some changes, Ruben Amaro is going to earn his money. Go Irish !

Being a Pirates fan i despise the phillies,lol. I live two hours from philly and hate every one of their teams,lol.

Went to high school with Mayberry. One of the nicest guys you will ever meet

Let's face it: The injuries have been devastating. You cannot lose Howard and Utley for the entire season to this point and beyond and expect to be close to last year's team. On top of that: Lee spent time on the DL and now Halladay as well as Worley. The only chance they had to be near the top of the division at this point was if the the great starting staff had been able to stay healthy since the beginning. That would have kept the team above water.

Phillies phan here too. Injuries are definitely the biggest problem and poor play has been an issue. What really sucks is that our season of misery is corresponding with a season where everyone else in the division is playing lights out. This Nationals team is good. The Marlins spent money this offseason, the Braves are a consistently good team, even the Mets are winning this year. Maybe we get healthy late in the summer and make a run at the new second wild card, but it might just be one of those years. (The Phils had a great five year run. I would happily trade a bad MLB season by them this year for ND making a legit run in the fall.)

Brave fan. Only thing worse than the Phillies is the Mets.

You lose a great leader in Chase Utley and one of the best power hitters in Ryan Howard in left side of the infield,Cliff Lee just got back and then Roy Halladay goes down for the next 2 months,anything is possible with the extra wild card this year.