What is YPA? (and why should I care?)

While listening to 610 today, the story that is dominating the airwaves is about the Eagles.  I wouldn’t be surprised about this even though the season has not yet started, but the Phillies are in 1st place and WON last night, putting some distance between themselves and the Marlins (2nd place).

#23 gets 5 years

Louis Williams has earned himself an average of $5 million/year over the next 5 years in a new contract.  With this deal done, Ed Stanfanski will be focusing on getting Iguodala’s deal done before the new season.

Phils steal one from Mets

The Phillies put on an impressive and unpredictable 9th-inning comeback last night against the rolling Mets.  Johan Santana kept their bats in check through 8 innings, leaving with a comfortable 5-2 lead.  Romero pitched a perfect 8th, giving the bottom of the Phillies’ order a chance to steal one with closer Billy Wagner not available to go for the save.  They came through, and batted around, scoring 6 to take an 8-5 lead that Brad Lidge would keep safe for his 22nd straight save of the season.

Hopefully this is indicative of the rest of the season, and maybe the Mets will repeat their collapse of a year ago.  We’ll see how Brett Myers does coming back tonight against Maine for his first start after being sent down to the minors.  If he can shut them down, it will give the Phillies a lot to be confident about as they stay in the lead in the N.L. East.

Mr. Sixer?

Either way, we welcome you with open arms.  Now if we could just get a shooter…

Cheesesteak of Suffering

If you have a Mac, why not add this widget? You get 4 styles to choose from, and now you can literally know, up to the second, how long it has been since we’ve had a championship in this town.

This is where we are as of this post

* Download here.

I got blogged —>

Check out my blogged.com page where you can rate and review this blog!  It’s pretty awesome, I think.  I claimed ownership and put this cool link on my navigation bar to the right.  They don’t make you put anything up on your site, but after I checked it out and liked it, I figured it was good promotion.  I don’t care where you read my posts as long as you can get them!  Anyway, now that there is only 1 team to root for during the next few months, I’ll be posting less until the Eagles start their preseason.  I don’t want to blog just for the sake of creating content; I want it to be good and have a purpose.  So as often as I can, I’ll write about how the Phillies are doing.

Man, Chase Utley is a beast.

Phillies pound out a dozen in win

Ryan Howard has been creeping back into his old self in the past week, and perhaps now has finally broken out of his early slump altogether.  If so, it’s just in time.  Both Burrell and Utley are cooling and falling below the .300 mark.  Thankfully, the return of Rollins has coincided with Howard’s spark to keep this team afloat.  This division is turning out to be a tough one, with the Marlins and Braves slightly ahead of the Phillies and the Mets in the rear view mirror.

Howard hit 2 bombs (he KILLED the second one in the upper deck, about 430 feet) to go along with another hit that knocked in the first run on the game in the top of the first.  After that the Phils never looked back and went most of the game without allowing a run.  Eventually, that Nats managed to put together a few hits and get 2 but it was too little too late.

Just imagine how scary this team would look if Myers could get it together.  Lidge is an impressive 11/11 in save opportunities, and Hamels hasn’t given up a run in 19.1 innings.  This team is consistently giving Jamie Moyer run support, even though tonight he didn’t need it.  The rest of the starters and bullpen are pretty much carrying their weight.  Inevitably, someone will get hurt – but hopefully it will be just in time for Kris Benson to get back from his injury and the team won’t skip a beat.  They key for any team is just to stay healthy, and that’s all we can hope for.  If their pitching stays consistent, we can expect another run for the division title in a few months.  Of course, it’s way too early to tell right now…

Can they come back?

The Flyers are down 0-2 to the Penguins. Can they win at home and tie it up?  Seems like Biron needs to step it up if they are going to have a chance.  Oh yeah, and stop getting hit in the face with pucks.