Thursday, March 30, 2006

News from Phillies land!

So, the big news in the past couple days, if you're a Phillies fan, is that Gavin Floyd has made the team as the 5th starter and Ryan Madson has made the starting rotation as the 4th. This has the unexpected bonus of moving Ryan Franklin, a mediocre starter, to the bullpen as the 7th inning guy, where he did a good job several years ago. Now the complaints I had with the bullpen a few days ago have been addressed, though possibly not sufficiently, but addressed nonetheless. Plus it's good to see good things happening for Gavin Floyd, because I've been rooting for him for almost three years now. (That's right, I was rooting for him over a year before he ever appeared in the majors, because I'm that much of a baseball dork that I'm following Phillies prospects. Wanna know who I'm rooting for now who won't appear in a major league game until 2008? Cole Hamels, Mike Costanzo, and Gio Gonzalez.)

Anyway, long story short, the pitching staff suddenly looks a lot better to me, and that was everybody's biggest worry with this team. This could be the year... assuming no catastrophic injury pileups, no Tim Worrell-style meltdowns, and Mike Lieberthal and whoever is at third base not sucking, and consistancy and blah blah blah and a million other things.

Still... it's good news.

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