The Sportin’ Life: Breaking It Down for Ya’s
After the jump, Tony Carpenter calls out Brett Myers, talks of tips and trades and cries foul on McNabb’s injury.
THE ACE???? Brett, Brett, Brett. How does it feel to be literally the only Phillie not contributing to what has been an impressive team performance over the past couple of weeks? With a chance to put even more distance between themselves and the 2nd place Marlins, Myers came out and promptly gave up two home runs in the first inning to drop the Phils in to a 3-run hole, effectively destroying the momentum following the sweep of Braves in Atlanta. Despite pitching well in his prior two outings, and notching two of perhaps the most meaningless of sports statistics, “Quality Starts” Myers has only one win in his past 10 games. Even more disturbing is the fact that his first inning ERA is over 12.00!!
It may be time to put Myers on the 15 day DL, if he’s not physically injured–no, being out of shape is not an “injury”–then he should sit for psychological reasons. Whatever his problem is, he needs to fix it fast because the Phillies are going to need Myers down the stretch and will have a tough time doing anything in the post season without an effective Brett Myers in the rotation. This is a very good team with a real chance to win a pennant this year, but they need a better showing out of their “Ace” to do so. Hey, maybe they can get Brett to pitch in the Home Run Derby at the All-Star game this year?
TRADES AND RUMORS OF TRADES: Phillies’ President David Montgomery kept the hopes of the Phils picking up some pitching help alive this week when he openly stated “Shame on us if we sit back and say, everything is going fine. There’s no area where we can improve”.
This is strong statement from an organization with a history of sitting on their hands at the trade-deadline. The chances of the Phillies picking up a top flight pitcher like C.C. Sabathia are pretty remote, but this statement by Montgomery shows their willingness to at least add a number two or number three starter to the rotation. As well as Moyer, Kendrick and Eaton have pitched thus far, we can hardly expect them to keep it up. Who they will target at the deadline is anybody’s guess, but adding another legitimate starting pitcher to this team will make them the odds on favorite to win the National League. I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high just yet, but with their recent success the Phillies are under tremendous pressure to take the next step. There should be talent available this year, and time will tell if the Phillies will actually do something very un-Phillie like and pull the trigger on a big deal for a pitcher, even if it means OVER PAYING for one.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb is injured again. The Eagles are downplaying the latest injury to the veteran quarterback, but he will not participate in the rest of the team activities this week. Apparently Donovan has Tendonitis in his shoulder, but will be fine. No big deal, right? I, for one, get a little uneasy when McNabb, who has been injured about 50 times in the past 5 years is hurt before Training Camp even begins. Will it be another injury riddled mediocre season out of Donovan, or is it really nothing as the Eagles are saying? According to Andy Reid, this could even be a good thing since the last time McNabb had an injury like this, it was 2004 and McNabb had a career season(that had nothing to do with having T.O. that year) and went to a Superbowl. Nice try Andy. Maybe Donovan hurt his arm taking batting practice with the Phillies and Ken Grifffey Jr.?
In any event, if the words injury and McNabb can be used in the same sentence in June, we may be in for a loooong football season this year. Man I am glad the Phils are good this year!
