Spring Training Blues

Alright, alright, I'm back. After a week of gallivanting, fraternizing and shivering in the abyss of America, otherwise known as Salt Lake City, Utah, I've returned to my east coast roots to find my sports world in disarray. The Eagles made a play to sign Randy Moss...The 76ers had won 4 in a row, 8 straight at home and had climbed to within a game of the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs...(Yes, this was before last night's shellacking at the hands of the east leading Celtics, but hey, it was the Sixers first sell-out of the season, so all was not lost.) It appears that no Big Five team is likely to make the NCAA tournament without a surprising title run through their respective conference tournament...And the Flyers....well, it's early March, does anyone actually care about hockey? As a side note, does anyone actually care about hockey during any month of the year? I gotta be honest, the Flyers are quickly falling beneath the Soul on my sports-radar. Danny Briere or Tony Grazziani? One looks like a 12 year old girl and is a mediocre hockey player, unless we're talking about NHL '08. The other is a gun slinger with PAC-10, NFL and Arena League experience who makes a mean bowl of rigatoni, has a hairy chest worthy of an Old Spice ad, and turned down a bit part in the Sopranos because his dad "makes Tony Soprano look like George Jetson". Editors Note: The quote, acting role and cooking abilities are all assumptions on the writer's part. But I digress...

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though was the Phillies. Now I know that spring training doesn't mean much, but hearing the expression, "Let's pull a Kendrick" work its way into local vernacular is a little unsettling. For those who don't make the connection, pulling a Kendrick means getting hammered. Maybe I was the naive one for thinking that the Phillies were going to be even stronger this year and that it would all begin in spring training. That does not appear to be the case though.

Spring training was supposed to be the time which the Phillies would hold open competitions for the 5th starters job and the last arm in the bullpen. Instead, there might as well be auditions for every spot past Brett Myers in the rotation and I've read that So Taguchi is considering a move to the bullpen. I can't help but find myself frustrated at the pure irony of having a pitcher named Outman who couldn't throw a fastball by me.

At this point, I am ending this post b/c my editor is requesting a Phillies preview by day's end and I am on the verge of getting kicked off the blog if I can't meet his expectations.