A CITIZEN'S BLOG

The Phillies 3-10 post-home-stand has largely undone all of the progress they made during their 12-1 home-stand. I’m a pessimist, so I’m going to assume that they will lose tonight against the Mets and fall into fifth again. What a colossal frustration this team is.

Aaron Gleeman notes some of his 2005 All-Star picks at The Hardball Times today. While I agree with him that All-Stars shouldn’t be chosen based solely on the first half of the season, I disagree with his decision to look back upon the last several years of a player’s career. An All-Star is a guy playing well now, darn it!

Essentially, Aaron thinks the sole Phillies who should be going to the game are Bobby Abreu and Billy Wagner. Fine choices, but I think that Chase Utley and Pat Burrell ought to go as well.

The Case for Chase: Chase is leading NL 2B’s in GPA and slugging. He’s playing well on a team struggling and has stepped into Placido Polanco’s role as the Phillies starting 2B. He's hitting for power and average, and he's playing good D: he'd rank third among NL 2B's in ZR (if he had enough innings). Chase is a present and future All-Star.

As for Pat Burrell, I admit that there are a lot of great leftfielders out there, but Burrell has resurrected his career and returned to his 2002 form. Let's recognize that his last two years were flukes and send him in.

Just my thoughts....