Opening Night

After months of waiting, Opening Night finally came. Luckily, the Phillies lost. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm sure with how much I was preoccupied with going undefeated this season, the players must have been feeling it even more. Now that the pressure is off for being the first 162-0 team in history, we can get down to focusing on just playing the games.

Losing 4-1 to the Braves is upsetting, but it's only the first game and I'm not too worried about it. There were good things and bad things to come out of the game. As much as Brett Myers sucked, he limited his sucking to about 6 pitches all in the first 3 innings of the game. Three of those pitches were home runs in the first 2 innings, and there is really no reason that the Phillies would not score 4 runs in a game. With our lineup, the Phillies scoring less than 4 runs would be like any other team scoring less than 0 runs. It just shouldn't happen. The rest of the pitching staff looked solid, so I'm expected big things from our bullpen again this season.

Last season, the Phillies offense ate bullpens for every meal of the day. Every single game we were struggling in last season, I would assure myself and anyone around me that everything would be OK once we got to the opposing bullpen. And I was usually right. Is the scouting report on Derek Lowe really "Swing at the first pitch every time no matter what"? I doubt it. He was killing us, yet we thought it would be fun to keep him in the game by keeping his pitch count low. Once he finally came out (for no reason at all), we suddenly remembered how to hit somewhat. Ibanez had the chance to win the heart of every Philadelphian despite replacing Pat the Bat, but he blew it by striking out to end the game rather than tying the game with a homer.

I don't really know what to think at this point, nor should I considering it is the first game of a 162 game season. Some first impressions:

- What's with the lineup? I understand that batting Werth 2nd Victorino 6th worked for us last season, but that's when we had Pat's righthanded bat in the 5th spot. Now we have 3 lefties in a row. I'm thinking put Victorino 2nd, Werth 5th, and Ibanez 6th. That way we can split up the lefties a little. This is probably just an opening day thing, but it's something to think about.

- I don't like our outfield situation. Only 4 outfielders, one of whom is Matt Stairs. I realize that he hit one of the more important home runs in Phillies history probably, but has anyone actually seen him run? I'm not saying he can't run well. It's an honest question because I haven't seen him run. I just want to know if he can. Why not keep Jenkins around? He was a true team player all of last season, and is a much more complete player than Stairs, who actually admitted that he tries to hit a home run with every swing. I have nothing against Matt Stairs, I would love him on the team, but I don't know about him as our only reserve in the outfield. Yes, we could use Greg Dobbs I suppose, but the more we can keep a glove off of Dobbs' hand the better off we'll be defensively.

- Chan Ho Park. We told him that when he came here he could compete for a starting position. With the way he pitched in the Spring, it would be a straight up lie to say that he was ever competing and didn't earn the job. He won the job fair and square, but I just wish it we never even picked him up. I'm not saying I don't think he'll do well for us. I am saying that I would rather have JA Happ get some experience as a starter. He's a stud who has shown that he can compete in the majors and he was about 5 strikeouts or walks away from beating out Park for the job. For his future and for the team's future, Happ should be our 5th starter. I think the 26-year-old Happ has a little more potential than the 35-year-old Park, and who is going to benefit the Phillies more in years to come?

- I hate ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. As much as I can't really stand Sarge and T-Mac, at least I feel like they know who the Phillies are. Jon Miller talked about Ryan Howard like he's the only good player we have. The less we get nationally televised games, the better. And please, no Fox. I can't listen to Joe Buck ever. My favorite part of witnessing the World Series clincher in person was not having to listen to Joe Buck.

I think that's good for now. There's a lot to say but I'll try to keep these as short as I can. I obviously didn't do a very good job of that, but in the future if you actually feel like reading this I won't discourage you with a novel every time. Thanks for reading and check back daily for updates.