The Phuture Is Now

Cole Hamels is 25 years old. JA Happ is 26 years old. Even Joe Blanton is just 28 years old. And the latest addition: Antonio Bastardo is just 23 years old.

Along with these 4 pitchers currently in our starting rotation, we have seen Andrew Carpenter (24) and Sergio Escalona (24) pitch this season. We've even had position players such as Lou Marson (22) and John Mayberry Jr (25) contribute in some way.

As someone who is as into the minor leagues as I am, I doubt anything could be more exciting than what this season has been so far for the Phillies. And we have players that are just as young putting up numbers in the minors at least as good as some of these players. Guys like Vance Worley, Matt German, Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor, and Dominic Brown have me extremely pumped about not just the future anymore, but the present.

Last season when the trade deadline came around and we talked about trading away our farm system to get a guy like CC Sabathia or Manny Ramirez, I was the first to say that this was a huge mistake. Like an idiot, I kept saying that last year wasn't worth making a real trade because we wouldn't win the World Series anyway. I said that because I truly believed that 2009 would be our year. And part of my logic last year is exactly what is occurring this year. We have home-grown players making major contributions to this team. Some of these guys are players that may not still be around had we made a major deal at the deadline last year.

Although last year I was wrong about last year, I think I still made a good prediction for this season. We are currently playing some of the best baseball I've seen in a while (with the exception of the playoffs). I realize it is early, but the pitchers seem to have hit their stride for the most part, and the offense seems to be unstoppable. We have 5 players hitting above .290. The 3 regulars not hitting over .290 are Jimmy, J Dub, and Howard. Jimmy got off to a very slow start and has begun to turn things around, Jayson I just don't know about right now, and if Howard can hit around .265 the whole year we're in great shape because he will get his homers and RBIs. Things are definitely looking up for the Phillies this season. As impressive as last year's team was, it is scary to think that this year's may be even better. Winning this series was very big, completing the sweep would be huge, and going to LA and winning that series would be gigantic. I believe I mentioned before that Bean announced at the beginning of May that it would be the month where we took first place and didn't look back. With the way we are playing right now and the way the Mets are playing right now (losing 2 straight to the Pirates), it is not at all far-fetched to believe this will be true. We were a half game up at the end of May, and we've already bumped that up to 2.5 games.



Some other notes:
- Congrats to Raul on his 200th career home run tonight. Howard will be getting his soon as well. He currently has 192.
- We now have 23 hits in 2 games in Petco - the park where hitters go to die
- It said after the game that this is the 4th time in the last 17 season that we've won 30 of our first 50 games or something like that. I guess that's pretty cool.
- Could they show a less flattering picture of Tony Gwynn when showing his career stats? I doubt there are many flattering ones, but seriously, you could do better than that. I think this is what they are using:


- That umpire was awful. Bruce Dreckman. Let's remember that name
- ESPN.com's box score had this explanation for Peavy leaving the game:
PADRES STARTER JAKE PEAVY LEFT THE GAME AFTER ONE INNING WITH A CASE OF THE FLU.
Does anyone else find this hilarious? Like he went out to the mound and caught the flu or something?
- Jeremiah can vouch for me on this one. I texted him today with my prediction of Bastardo's line for tonight:
6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
His actual line:
6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
I feel awesome