The Phillies exhibition record stands at 4-7 after two weeks.  But don’t look at their record as indicative of regular season performance.

The Mets may be 7-4 at this juncture, but Oliver Perez has been pounded in his last two games and Johan Santana was bludgeoned in his one appearance thus far.  

John Maine was hit hard last Wednesday, although giving up only one run in 3 innings.  And most of their starting lineup, notably catcher Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran are among the seven position players who haven’t played in an exhibition game yet due to aches and pains.

The Yankees are 3-4 with a tie with the Phils. Their pitching gets mixed reviews thus far amidst their 4 game losing streak. 

The Oakland A’s are predictably 6-3 while the Tampa Bay Devil Rays look surprising at 7-1 and the Florida Marlins equally so at 9-4.  Spring exhibition records cannot be seen as projecting seasonal performance as many a top winning exhibition team has flubbed in the regular season.

Against this background, although I got a lot of ribbing about the Phillies’ 9-3 loss to the Yankees last Saturday, they came back the next day and battled to a 7-7 tie with the Bronx Bombers.

Brett Myers has looked ready for prime time with two excellent performances, including a 3 hit, 4 inning shutout masterpiece against the  Toronto Blue Jays.   Cole Hamels has struggled in his two exhibition appearances.  But then, he appeared to struggle last season in training but went 15-5 for the season.  Ryan Madson has looked solid out of the bullpen and Fabio Castro appears, according to Phillies Nation’s Tim Malcolm, to be primed to be a situational left-handed one-out reliever.  And rumor has it that closer Brad Lidge, who had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Feb. 25, may actually throw in a game as early as March 17 and may yet be ready for the season’s start — such has been the pace of his recovery from the surgery.  I may have eat my words about him not being ready until May.

Phillies Nation’s Malcolm also brings pleasant news on new acquisition Kris Benson’s first game-like action since his 2006 shoulder injury.   Malcolm reports;

He gave up a walk and three hits in the scoreless set. He also struck out one. Benson and team officials thought the outing was very good, as Benson showed no sign of injury troubles and was very effective.

Ryan Howard, who reported for sring training 10-15 lbs lighter than last season, is seeing the ball well and hitting to all fields far better than at this stage last season. 

And as one could predict, Adam Eaton is living up to his 6.29 ERA of last season, having been shelled in both of his appearances.  A recent AP story reports;

Eaton gave up four runs and five hits in two innings. He’s now allowed seven runs and 10 hits for a 15.75 ERA after a pair of starts.

Now he is complaining of back pain.  Well, at least he didn’t keep the back situation to himself as Freddy Garcia did last season with his arm ills. Look for Benson as at least the 5th starter and for the team to cut their losses on Eaton.

All told, I’m still psyched about this year’s Phillies.  A lot of people may be surprised to see them repeat atop the NL East and advance in the postseason.  But for this fan, the talent and potential are definitely there and I will be surprised; no shocked, if they don’t repeat by winning the division going away, advance in postseason play and if the Mets are not looking up at the Phils throughout the entire season.

Add to:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. | del.icio.us | digg | Furl | Reddit | YahooMyWeb |

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, Off-Season Action, Phillies and NL East, Analysis, Predictions, etc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.