Everyone Relax...

Okay, so as you can probably deduct (that also means figure out for some of the slower readers) that this story has to do with the thousands upon thousands of Phillies’ fans who are freaking out about the current stretch the our boys are on. It is true, we are playing like garbage, and the offense is sputtering, but don’t start acting like Yankees' fans when they don’t get Cliff Lee in the offseason (whiny, crying, you get the picture). 

Let’s think about this for a second, the Phillies have dominated almost every team in the league (except for the Cardinals) for the entire year and have decided to lose a couple games at the end of the year in a row. These games, also might I add, mean absolutely nothing to the Phillies who have already secured everything you can in the regular season to make their ride through the postseason as easy as possible. Oh, and also, just to throw this in, the Phillies have basically been playing their AAA team on a nightly basis. Most of the reps in the infield have been for Michael Martinez, Pete Orr, and Wilson Valdez. Those names aren’t the WORST that could be back there, but they aren’t every day starters in Major League Baseball either. Ryan “Big Piece” Howard has been out resting his heel so that he has his full power in the playoffs, and as we learned from last night’s game, it is more important to have these guys rest up and lose a couple more regular season games, than to have Pence hurt his knee, Ruiz pull a muscle, or Polanco take a foul ball off the foot and be out when we need them all most. So playing on the side of caution, resting up players, and losing meaningless regular season games isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

As all of the talk has heated up about whether or not it is good to do this or not, there was one argument that made the most sense: Does anyone care when the Phillies lose preseason games? It is essentially the exact same thing if you think about it. Everyone wants to start the season off hot, but the players don’t get that much playing time and rarely do teams care about who wins. It is more important that teams leave preseason healthy, not their final record. The other item here is that this is no rookie team. We are a veteran, well-oiled machine that has been here numerous times before (5 in a row to be exact), and they know how to turn it on. This team has shown before that it can perform in the post season and this season is no different.

Yeah, we've done this once or twice before, so back off.

In closing, everyone just relax and watch something else on TV for the next week and a half until the playoffs begin. It will help put you to ease if you don’t even watch what is going on. Find some of those old shows that you have neglected throughout the whole season (Lost is still a relevant show or something isn’t it?), and tune back into the games when they matter. Uncle Charlie doesn’t care, the Phillies don’t care, and neither should you, so sit back, relax, and get ready for the real games in October. 

This is what we are all really waiting for. Broad Street Parade... Holla