Is It A Waste Of Time To Get Excited?

So if I go back to the beginning of the baseball season, I began to have visions of the Phillies' playoffs run starting in 2007. Though 2007 had its embarrassing moment when on July 15 they lost their 10,000 games. However, they rallied at the end of the season in the closing days of the season to win the NL East title. Only to be swept in the opening rounds to the Colorado Rockies.

Then from 2008 through 2011, I thought this team had such a fearful lineup. I thought an opposing picture must have been terrified when they had to face this lineup. Flashing forward to this past year when they signed Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos. With those two signings along with Harper, Hoskins, and Bohm (hoping for a return to his rookie year performance).

As we all know the season started pretty flat and listening to Joe Giraldi gave me little hope as we moved into June. When it was announced on June 3rd that Giraldi had been fired I thought maybe this would be a wake-up call for the team. It was with great joy, that they actually began to play better. I was feeling good about having subscribed to MLB Extra Innings. It was a lot of fun being able to watch and listen to Krukers comments during the game.

The only problem was...ok there was more than one problem...First, let's start with the bullpen. How many games was it that it would be late innings and they'd need to go to the bullpen to close out? It felt like every night! By mid-July I was yelling at the tv anytime Familia came into a game. I was hoping that they would dump him and was happy when they designated him for assignment on August 2nd. However, as I mentioned in a previous blog, it has been drama any time the bullpen was called up. This was especially true in the 9th inning when it seemed as if there could never be a 1, 2, 3 inning. 

The other problem has been "literally" the hit or miss with the lineup. There are games when they score in bunches and then turn around and can barely get a hit. There are games when they score early in the game and nothing but zeros for the latter innings. There are series that they go into with inferior teams and either being swept or lose 2 out of 3 games.

This brings me to the playoffs. Currently, the Phils' magic number is 7. So let's say they clinch a playoff spot, given all that we have seen this year, what would you expect of them? Some people may get excited to finally get to the playoffs after going this long without an appearance.  My feeling has always been, what's the point. Ok, it would be fun to see them in the playoffs. But really, what's the point if the bats continue to go silent and the bullpen can't close out games?

This is true with any Philly team. I've never can get excited when a team crawls into the playoff and you know that they don't stand a chance. What's the point? I feel like I've been tortured enough, it's time to move on. I just don't see the Phillies getting beyond the first round if they even make it. Will I watch it? Of course, I've had years of experience torturing myself, why stop now?