The Phillies, why bother?

The Phillies. They make me wanna cry. Earlier this week they dropped two out of three to the Nationals. The old Expos. These weren't close losses.

These were horrendous. These were losses when your starting pitcher leaves the game in the second inning after giving up 7 runs and only getting 3 outs. He was the most consistent pitcher for the team coming into the game.

Last night the Florida Marlins were in town. The past few years when the Phils had been futily fighting for the wild card the Marlins were a huge nemisis. Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo more or less could do whatever they wanted against the Phils. They are gone now and the Marlins resemble a Double A team. A Double A team with potential, but still Double A. The Phils wheeled out all 2 metric tons of their "Ace" Lieber to the mound last night and you had to think the Phils had a chance. Nope. 4-3 loss. In front of 20,000 masochistic patrons. The loss was puncuated by a double steal in which the worse catcher in Major League Baseball (Sal "The Farce" Fasano, for those keeping score) failed to even get the runner at second. He also failed to look back the runner at third. But the real highlight was his throw to second was so off line that the runner from third could have crab walked home and beat the return throw. These are Your 2006 Philadelphia Phillies!!!!!!

What's more? "Ace" Lieber refuses to pitch to Liebrethal, leaving The Farce behind the plate for all his games. At 0-4 with an ERA nearly triple current gas prices do you get to pick your own personal catcher? Under the careful guidance of Charlie Manuel, yes you do. What a disgrace.

Oh and the the offense? Hitting a ROBUST .181 with runners in scoring position.

It's less barely 1/10th into the season, and the season already feels lost. Firing Charlie Manuel won't change things. We have no means to trade for pitching help. It's pretty awesome.

Spring has sprung. Hope springs eternal. Eternal, like the Phillies playoff drought.