Friday, March 30, 2012

The Party's Over

The Phils break camp this weekend as the reigning NL East champs five years running.

The run is likely over.

They have the starting pitching and a very good closer,  but they don't have the offense.  They don't have such a stellar defense either.  While the Phils aged and fell into decrepitude, some of their division rivals got younger and more hungry.  All the teams in their division have issues, but the Phils have big ones in too many areas.  When the manager extols the virtues of a Juan Pierre the outlook for success just isn't great.

It's hard to imagine a team with Halladay, Hamels and Lee cannot make a run deep into the post-season, but try as I might, I can imagine them failing to do so.

The Phils don't win the division.  They may not even make the playoffs.