Seller beware

By Tim McManus

Well, looks like the city's decided to make a withdrawal from the Bank.

The Eagles chants started last night; not the I'm-excited-about-the-Phils-but-we-have-no-cheer-so-I'll-use-the-one-from-the-other-Philly-team chant, but rather the This-team-bites-and-I'm-done-investing-hope-so-I'll-scream-E-A-G-L-E-S-Eagles!-to-express-my-displeasure-sarcastically chant.

And (looks at calendar) it came right on time. Moral victory that we made it into July, really.

All of the local analysts and self-diagnosed diehards agree: The Phillies need to grip the ACME detonator with knuckles white, garner their collective strength, and slam that baby down like Joe Carter was at the end of the fuse.

Too late to salvage the season; time to remake the club with young talent. Ship Abreu, Burrell, Gordon -- whatever it takes.

I feel like I'm screaming into a hailing wind here, but can we hold off the fire sale for a minute?

Believe me, I'm the last person to let the facts get in the way of a good anarchy. But there's these two numbers that I can't quite get away from: 6 and 78.

Six games removed from the wild card. Seventy-eight to play.

We've seen teams make that up in two weeks. Heck, this club already did it once this season.

It's hard, I know, to gather any optimism that the Phillies can turn it around, seeing as they've dropped 17 of their last 22 and all.

Remember, though, that their top two hurlers were missing for a bulk of that time, replaced by the likes of Adam Bernero and Scott Mathieson. Really, what team's not going to lose most of their series when Ryan Madson and Corey Lidle are fighting to be called team ace?

Lieber's back tonight, and while he's certainly not a savior he's fully capable of putting together a solid month or two. Myers will return to the mound a bit humbler and just as importantly rested (for all the wrong reasons) after the All-Star break. And have we given up on the Cole Hamels era already? Is it impossible to think that this man might go 5-1 down the stretch?

The offense will be there, even minus a component or two. So instead of dealing Abreu or Burrell for a high school prospect, let's ship one of those guys for a veteran arm in a three-way deal. Or swing David Dellucci for a solid reliever before dumping Arthur Rhodes into the Schuylkill River.
Maybe all this team needs is to get their big arms back and acquire a couple new faces to enhance their confidence and ability. Remember, this team is streaky by nature, and it's just about that time when they streak upward again.

So kill the Eagles chants, restrain your judgment and for the love of God, don't encourage this organization to make cost-cutting moves -- they'd be more than happy to appease you.

Give it another month. It's too damn hot for football, anyway.


Click here for copyright permissions!

Copyright 2006 The Phanatic