How Low Can You Go?

Any Doubts on the Phillies' Ability to Contend Have Been Erased ... They Can't

WE SHOULD be grateful for the abysmal level of baseball the Phillies have been subjecting us to. As painful as it has been to experience as a fan, the team's abject futility is providing startling evidence of its inability to contend. Picking up a reserve outfielder or a middle reliever at the trade deadline will make no difference, just as it made no difference in years past. All decisions -- all -- made by the Phils' front office for the rest of this season must be made with an eye toward next season and the seasons after. Two thousand six is a lost cause, and if you don't believe that, just watch how the players are sleepwalking through their duties. (Their well-compensated duties, it bears noting.) And as horrific and unacceptable as the Brett Myers debacle has been, it, too, has a grim upside, revealing the Phillies' rampant unprofessionalism and ineptness as a franchise. Our eyes have been opened, my brothers and sisters. We may not like what we see, but at least we're seeing clearly for once.

Comments

[John Salmon]

The formula is: If a player isn't both under 30 and under $1 million, move him. That way you keep Utley, Howard, and Hamels; gain payroll flexibility; and most pleasing of all, move Jimmy Rollins.

[Mom]

Too bad they have won a couple of games recently - it delays the firing of Charlie Manual!

[Dad]

Sleepwalking now? They were sleepwalking when we saw them in Clearwater in March!