Holy Crying Fanbase, Batman!

So...the Phils really suck lately. Have you noticed? 50 days ago, which has a nice, round feel to it, if you ask me, I wrote a rather lengthy, somewhat tongue in cheek post about the pathos of the Metsies, as Keith Hernandez nauseatingly refers to them on an inningly basis, and lo and behold the very same Be Careful What You Wish For department which brought me a cat named Sharpie and a heartbreaking night in Jacksonville has delivered the very race with the Mets I longed for. Unfortunately, it's brought a bit of a panic attack to Philsville.

At that time, the Phils were 40-28, a day away from their season's current high point at 13 games over. As it stands now, following this week's incredibly lopsided on the field, but very minimally damaging in the standings 1-2 series for the Phils at Shea, the Mets are 55-47 and the Phils stand a game behind them at 54-48. One game back with another nice, round, number of games (60) left in the season. That's 60/162. It doesn't take a degree in applied mathematics from MIT to notice a few things going on here. First of all, the Phils have been a pretty putrid 13-20 since being 13 games over .500. Take out the 6-game losing streak which almost immediately followed that mark and they're only a game under .500 over the rest of that span. Hardly setting the world on fire, but hardly enough to sink a season...just ask Mets fans, they played shittier for longer earlier this year.

Which brings me to my next point...Over the same period of time, the Mets are incredibly hot. On June 12, they were 31-34. They were an organization in such disarray, taking 2/3 from Texas at Shea that weekend still got Willie Randolph fired...by e-mail...after the first game of a West Coast road trip...which he won. Since then, the Mets are 25-14. So, I'd be a fool to say there isn't any cause for concern. Clearly, if things continue on as they have for the past 7 weeks, the Phils have absolutely no chance of making the postseason again. Of course, they also probably won't finish over .500. If they continue at their post-June 12 .4117 winning percentage, they'll win 24.7 of their final 60 games. Since we're Phils fans here, we'll be generous and call that a 25-35 home stretch. Meanwhile, if the Mets continue playing .641 ball over their final 60 they'll win 38.46. In the interest of objectivity, I'll follow standard conventions with regards to rounding decimals and call that 38 wins. So when the Phils finish 79-83 and the Mets finish 103-59, I doubt anyone will be too worried about the postseason.


Thankfully for me, the Phils and Mets still have over a third of their seasons left to play, and if the first 102 games taught us anything about these teams, it's that they're both vastly flawed but capable of being the best team in the National League over an extended period of time. The chances of either of these teams, as presently constituted, playing in the same manner as they have since June 12 are miniscule. Neither of them has ever shown anything resembling that type of consistency and baseball teams simply don't win 64% of their games. I wouldn't pretend the phils can't be as bad as a .412 team, but I'm gonna go out boldly on that limb and say that if J-Roll can manage the simple fucking task of following the two easiest rules on earth, the Phils will play better down the stretch. It's with that, that I get to the true reason for my post...my brethren in Phillies land need a hug. Badly. And perhaps after the hug, someone slapping them across the face and screaming man the fuck up, there's 60 games left to play. As always, the best-written and most heartfelt take on the subject goes to Jason Weitzel at Beerleaguer, who, in quintessentially Philadelphian fashion, has gone off the deep end. I'll end this beast with a snippet from Beerleaguer. Jason, if you ever need cheering up, remember you have readers who generate hundreds of interesting, passionate comments over the course of even the most mundane Phils game...I'm pretty sure 3 people know I'm here thus far.

"This team has problems, brother. Do they ever. Chief among them: the New York Mets, who were better than the Phillies in approximately 26 out of 27 innings this series. Perez becomes the latest pitcher to set a season high against the vaunted Phillies offense. A close second: the vaunted Phillies offense, past the point where dysfunction can be blamed on "pressing." Third, the Marlins. Or the pitching. Take your pick.

So is it inappropriate to use the word "collapse" in July? Because this one is starting to mix in all the wonderful ingredients (comfortable lead followed by controversy, dysfunction, underachieving) that sunk the Mets in '07.

Or do we skip all that and say the Phillies just aren't good enough?"