A CITIZEN'S BLOG

With yesterday's victory the Phillies swept the San Diego Padres and completed a 9-4 homestand that wasn't as dramatic as the Phillies 12-1 blitzkrieg in June, but effective. At the moment the Phils are 52-47 and 3 games out of first in NL East and three games out of the wildcard.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the Phillies have a lot to deal with: 37 of their last 63 games are on the road, where the team has a 19-25 (.431) winning percentage (vs. a .600 home percentage). There are just 4 & 1/5 games dividing the fifth-place Marlins from the first-place Nats and Braves, so this division is going to be competitive to the extreme, so I'd expect to see the Braves, Nats, Mets and Fish do some wheeling and dealing this week. More bad news for the Phillies is that the Houston Astros are coming on strong at the end of the year, making the push to snag the wildcard again.

Misc.: Isn't Ryan Howard making things more difficult in the Phillies offices? Can't deal Thome and he's playing thirty times better than Big Jim right now. One thing I really like about Howard is the fact that he's drawn eight walks in his last nine games: he's turning into a real OBP machine.

Eagles start training camp on Friday! I'm excited beyond belief, despite this T.O. saga, because I think this team can go 13-3 again and make it to the Super Bowl again. Anything is possible with this team.

Sneak preview for the week: a little more on David Bell, an examination of Jimmy Rollins defense and a few other topics.