By the way, USA soccer = Chicago baseball. Discuss.

I’ve been waiting for your first baseball ruminations, and I am in complete agreement with your assessment of the NL East. WTF?

The Phillies season in particular has been strange. They have had the second-worst pitching in the National League for most of the year, so in some ways it’s a frackin’ miracle they have been camping out in first place, let alone owning the second-best record in either league prior to their recent, painful skid. Despite the pitching, and despite a mediocre team batting average, they score runs, lots of them, late in games, especially games on the road or games that are meaningful. They are a team full of guys who know how to win, as proven by last year’s World Series victory.

I suspect that they can’t duplicate that run unless something drastically changes with their pitching staff–Lidge needs to rediscover his magic from last year, Hamels needs to throw like a number one again–but the question then becomes who is actually going to win the division if not the Phils. The Metropolitans? There’s some serious baggage there, and while the Mets certainly look better than the Phils on paper once again, something is not quite working there (once again).

All in all, it feels like the NL East is this year’s NL West, where the teams are going to limp along, beat each other up, fight injuries and losing streaks, fall behind the pace of the rest of the divisions. The question will remain, though, whether the Mets can play good ball in the final two weeks of the season for a change. I’m not holding my breath, but then I’m not a Mets fan.