The Phillies stink right now and it’s a lot of the same things again. I’m typically not an overreaction guy. We’ve got enough of that in this city. But the inability to hit with RISP and constant strike outs are something that doomed the teams from the last two years. Well it’s back:

It’s a long season and the Phillies can easily turn it around. We’ve got 146 games left, the trade deadline, potential call ups down on the farm, and a couple guys on IL that will be back in a little. But what if they are just who we thought they were? I’ve seen some people point to the fact that the Eagles were .500 through 25% of their season and went on to win the Super Bowl. I appreciate the optimism. The problem with that comparison is we didn’t see a team that was allowing the same things to happen that doomed them in 2023 – other than the run defense was abysmal. They weren’t giving up large chunk plays, Saquon Barkley was proving to be a major free agent upgrade, and they also had two brand new coordinators that took a little to get their feet wet. One thing to hold your hat if you’re in the optimist crowd is that the majority of Eagles fans didn’t believe this was a Super Bowl caliber team until Week 15 after they beat the Steelers. So you’ve got plenty of time to tell your Negadelphia family I told you so. But again, the early look at this team feels like we’re just going to run into the same problems come playoff time. I’d argue the Phillies have fallen into the same bucket of those Sixers teams under Brett Brown and later Doc Rivers. What they do in the regular season doesn’t interest fans. They want to see them perform in the playoffs. It’s the same core group of guys with the same deficiencies that rear their ugly head at the worst possible time. So even though it’s a long season it’s okay to be miserable right now because you’ve seen this movie before.

Do what you need to get by:

 

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