Streaking Again

The Phillies have just finished off the Florida Marlins to take 3 out of 4 games from the fish. This marks their second straight series win after taking 2 out of 3 from the Washington Nationals or 5-2 the last 2 series. This after a going 7-15 since June 14.

The Phillies are a streaky team.
For better, or worse, this is how the team is constructed. With the pleathora of home runs that the Bank allows, the Phillies tend to swing for the fences more than most, resulting in a large number of team strike outs. Add to this a starting staff that can be great at times, but mediocre at others...mix in a lack of patience at the plate from Rollins, and you have a formula for a streaky team. Luckily it has been reported that Rollins is becoming more patient on mlb.com. We shall see, as he goes, generally so does the Phillies offensive attack.

Is a prolonged winning streak on the horizon?
Probably, the triple-A Dodgers are coming to town and look like easy pickings. After that it's San Diego at home and Houston on the road. The Phillies have eaten up the NL West (7-2), and the Astros have lost their last 3, so some the Phillies should win their share. After that the Phillies play a 4 game set against the also triple-A Rockies. It would be surprising if the Phillies don't end up at least 7-5 after this stretch, making an overall 17-7 streak possible. Couple this with the 7-15 streak from June 14 - July 7 and the team would be a combined 24-22 and 5 games over .500. Still not a wonderful record overall, but good enough to maintain a solid spot in the wildcard race as well as the division.

Random Thoughts
The Phillies are in second place in the wildcard race, 4 games behind the Braves, quite amazing when you think about how bad they played the month prior to the All-Star break...Are the Braves really going to win the division again? It certainly is set in their favor with Chipper, Hampton and Hudson all back to active duty. Maybe Smoltz and Andrew Jones need to go down for the NL East to hold down the Braves...If the Braves win the division, can the Nationals take the wildcard? Less likely, this team has been way too lucky, see the previous posts, more than likely the Nationals end up in 4th place by the end of the season...Ryan Howard is looking impressive filling in for Thome, hitting 3 homers and knocking in 11 since Jim went down. With the way Tome had been hitting, maybe he should take the time to make sure he is fully healthy before coming back. Howard can hold the fort until then...Speaking of Howard, he is doing a great job of raising his trade value, which could be important for the Phillies landing a top line starter. However, why not keep Howard on the bench, spelling Thome when needed, to provide that all important bench power? That would require a solution for the 5th starter...Rumor has it that Cole Hamels is lighting up the minors and could be on the fast track to the big club, maybe even this year. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to bring him up and see what he can do. And, why not bring up Gavin Floyd again to see if he can get back the magic?...Kudos to Vincente Padilla for answering the call. Apparently he was 1 start away from loosing his spot in the rotation prior to the All-Star Break. Since then, 2-0 with 13 scoreless innings pitched. Hopefully he has figured things out, the club really needs him...Kudos also go to Milt Thompson for teaching Jimmy Rollins the afor mentioned patience at the plate. A .545 on-base percentage and 4 walks this past week is a good start.