Stephen A. Smith Sets the Record Straight

Yesterday I said the Phillies still had a shot in the NL East despite playing half of the season like baseball's version of the New Jersey Nets. Do you find solace in the Phils' star power, Stephen A.?

Howard's a stud, not a one-year wonder. Rollins is playing some exceptional baseball. And Utley is fully worthy of his $85 million deal and fully capable of feeding a city's baseball aspirations (with Howard and Rollins) for years to come.

Those guys are great baseball players. Certainly can't blame them for the team's lack of success.

Any team would want these players. Any team would be respectable with these players. Any team would put quality players around these players and, dare we say, win with these players - even if it meant having to pull off a deal for some quality pitching before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline expires.

Ok, so without those three guys, the Phillies are basically the National League's answer to the Kansas City Royals. I can see the similarities.

Any team but the Phillies, it seems.

You know, I don't think the Phils aren't that much different from the Mets, either. Both have potent offenses (Philly's is slightly better). Both have one young top-of-the-rotation stud (Hamels/Maine). Both have roughly two reliable starters behind that stud and have been scrambling all year to find warm carcasses to put on the mound for those fourth and fifth days. Both have 2-3 reliable arms in the bullpen. The only difference at the moment, as I see it, is that the Mets have a closer, and the Phillies don't.

Damn you, Billy Wagner.

And I know Pedro is due to come back sometime in August, but he's pushing 36 and hasn't pitched since last September. He's at a point where even the greatest arms usually level off, even when pitching regularly in real games. Should he still be enough to scare the Phillies into dealing for one more starter for the stretch run? Perhaps. But I predict you'll see Freddy Garcia on Celebrity Fit Club before that happens.

Perhaps there is a plausible explanation for losing 12 of 17 one-run games. For still being mediocre at 44-44 despite leading the NL in runs scored (456), possessing one of the most potent offenses in the game with a three-headed nucleus to guide this franchise.

I just can't find one.

He's got me there. Besides multiple injuries to front-line pitching, a highly competitive division, AL-dominated interleague play, the unbalanced schedule (only five games against Washington so far), and just being the goddamned Philadelphia Phillies, there's absolutely nothing to explain their misfortune.

"Don't sleep," an enthusiastic Rollins kept saying. "We're still hanging around, and Flash [Tom Gordon] and Brett [Myers] are coming. We're still here."

True. But so is Adam Eaton and whatever no-names called up from the minors.

So go ahead and enjoy the second half of the season. Be my guest.

That's it everybody. Go home. There's no reason to watch the rest of the games. Stephen A. Smith, the epitome of infallibility, has spoken. There is no hope.

Quite frankly, that's BS.

Phillies Are Still Believers, But Why? [The Guy Who's Always Yelling]