I don't know how many of you guys play fantasy baseball, but I myself love fantasy sports and was hoping there would be interest in a 'Good Phight' league this season on MLB.com ? It's free to play, and failry low maintanace compared to other fantasy baseball competitions. I've created a league on MLB.com, and the details are below for anyone who's interested:

League: The Good Phight '08 (ID 29151)
Password: phillies
Draft date and time: Monday 25th February, 17.00 E.T

Leave a comment if you're interested, and hopefully we can get a decent league going !

Ok, the season is just a matter of hours away, and over in England there's just not enough NFL talk. Before I list my predictions for the upcoming season, i'd just like to thank everyone who contributes to this site for saving me from suicidal levels of boredom ! Also, I thought you might be interested in that I've got tickets for the Giants-Dolphins game at Wembley in October, and i'll be there decked out in my finest Eagles attire. Also, I'm playing in the Junior Great Britain American football finals this sunday for under 17's, which nicely fits in with the start of the nfl season. Anyhow, enough waffling, here are my picks for the 2007 season:

NFC

East: Eagles
North: Bears
West: Seahawks
South: Saints
Wild-card's: Cowgirls, Packers

AFC

East: Patriots
North: Bengals
West: Chargers
South: Colts
Wild-card's: Broncos, Jaguars

NFC Champions: Eagles

AFC Champions: Chargers

SuperBowl Winners: Eagles

Thoughts ? What do you think will happen ?

Thanks, Fred

Having just recovered from todays unbelivable victory, i thought to myself that the series just witnessed could've been the one of the best in recent memory. One walk off 10th inning bomb by the M.V.P, a game ending interference call in a one run game, and the most enthralling, heart stopping victory i for one have ever seen, 10-11 having surrendered a five run lead, blown an 8th inning 3 run lead, only to come back and win on a single by the team leader who's playing in his come-back series. And all against our main rivals, the hated Mets, and against one of Philadelphia's most hated pro-athletes, Billy 'Blown Save' Wagner. Just seeing Pat the Bat jumping for joy when Iguchi slid home at the end sent shivers down my spine. Thoughts ?

Poll

From here on in the Phillies...

• Tank completely and end up 3rd in the division and well out of both the division and wild-card races
• Go from strength to strength, and win the division over the Mets
• Perform well and clinch the wild-card, but don't catch New York, who also finish with a surge
• Battle bravely but come up short and miss the post season

  31 votes | Results

Who should it be ? The obvious heir apparent is Jimmy Williams, but i'm really not sure about him after he got canned in Houston a few years ago. Ken Machas' out there, as is Dusty Baker, but the common theme with all these guys tends to be that they failed miserably in their last job, with the exception of Macha. Say that the Phillies did get rid of Charlie, who would YOU hire to take his place ?

Poll

Who would you hire ?

• Other
• Williams
• Macha
• Baker

  23 votes | Results

Just a couple more days till the season gets underway, pretty simple, who's gonna do what ? I'll start things off:

NL

East

Phillies 93(wins)
Mets 92(wild-card)
Marlins 80
Braves 80
Nationals 71

Central

Cubs 88
Cardinals 85
Brewers 82
Astros 81
Pirates 78
Reds 75

West

Dodgers 90
Diamondbacks 88
Rockies 84
Giants 79
Padres 78

M.V.P: Chase Utley

Cy Young: Ben Sheets

R.O.Y: Hunter Pence

Comeback P.O.Y: Derrick Lee

AL

East

Red Sox 95
Yankees 88
Blue Jays 83
Devil Rays 74
Orioles 72

Central

Tigers 98
Twins 97(wild-card)
Indians 92
White Sox 87
Royals 70

West

Athletics 93
Angels 89
Rangers 81
Mariners 77

M.V.P: David Ortiz

Cy Young: Dan Haren

R.O.Y: Delmon Young

Comeback P.O.Y: Josh Beckett

What do you guys think of those predictions ? Post your own if you diagree !

For anyone who's interested, i've created a fantasy baseball league on mlb.com for all us phillies phans. I know the idea was discussed in a previous diary, so i gathered that there was a high level of intrest in fantasy baseball here. The leagues name is The Good Phight, and the password is philliesphans (all one word). The draft is live, and is on the 21st of March, at 5:00 E.T, and the maximum number of teams is 12, with the teams being split randomly into 3 divisions. At the end of the 'regular season' the 3 division winners and 1 wild-card team compete in the play-offs. If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Ok, so the teams pretty much ready to go in the way that not many changes are expected to be made before the season starts from now. Maybe we'll aquire a bullpen arm for Rowand and get outfield help for Leiber, but the rotations set, as are 7 out of 8 lineup positions and the closers role and likely set-up gig. And it looks good, no wait, GREAT.

Admit it, your'e excited that we've got the divisions strongest rotation and the reigning M.V.P. We've got an all-star closer, a sub-3 era set-up man, not to mention Utley, Rollins and Burrell to help mash whilst Howard gets the Bonds treatment. Now for once, can we please get behind the team for 162 games ? Not the opening week until we jump to the conclusion that we stink, or the last month when we make a late post-season push. I live in England, and I'd quite literally kill to see all 81 home games in person. And it's painful seeing all those empty seats when times are tough. Back the team, let them know the city cares, and that the city knows they're gonna make the playoffs THIS YEAR.

Imagine how much better Burrell could hit if the fans got of his back for once ? Boo the pitcher who struck him out for being an ass hole, not the other way round. If super Cole Hamels is struggling, cheer him on, let him know he's the boss who's gonna win the Cy Young within the next 3 years. I'm not having a crack at Philly fans at all, but look how much of a difference it makes to a team when the fans show up. Remeber the empty seats at Reds games when they were first last year ? You can't measure it, but it was obvious that it affected the team and basically made them think 'Hey, if the fans don't even believe in us, maybe it is too good to be true'. The Reds sucked the rest of the year.

We've got the talent, we've got the mental edge heading into the year (everyone knows the Mets have been looking over their shoulder all winter), now if we all give the team 100% backing,  anything can happen...

Poll

Simple: Where do the Phillies finish this year ?

• Fourth
• Fifth (God help us)
• First
• Second
• Third

  20 votes | Results

Here's my plan for the 2007 Phillies, and i'll start with the players who WILL be in Philly next year:

1B Howard
2B Utley
SS Rollins

OF Victorino

SP Myers
SP Hamels
SP Lieber

CL Gordon
SU Madson
MR Geary

That's it, those are the only players 100% certain of coming back. Certain meaning their contract is secure, they're of alot of value to the club and they're not wanted out by fans. The above list dosn't include Abe Nunez because his status is uncertain, he probably won't start and if he could possibly be moved he will be. For instance, if we sign Aramis Ramirez Abe Nunez could well be traded, demoted or released.

Back to the certainties, I listed 10 players which leaves 15 spaces available on the 25 man roster. Of those 15 spaces, 1 will be a starting catcher, 1 will definatley be a starting 3B, 2 will be starting OF's and 2 will be SP's. That adds up to 6, leaving 9 places on the roster. Of those 9, 1 will be backup catcher, 2 will be reserve IF and 1 will be reserve OF. That leaves 7 more bullpen spaces. So basically, the Phillies have to address the following positions;

C
C(R)
3B
IF(R)
IF(R)
OF
OF
OF(R)
SP
SP
BP
BP
BP
BP
BP

Now you're the GM, you're Pat Gillick, and you can make those 15 decisions. Think about the salary cap, and how much space the Phils have, and think about how realistic certain trades would be. I mean, at one point during the season on offical site in the mailbag section one chump tried to trade David Bell for David Wright ! I know no one's that idiotic, but try and keep it as real as possible and at the end of this thread we could mix and match ideas and come up with a grand master plan that we can all pray unfolds during the off-season.

Thanks for reading,
Fred.

As i write this, Moyer is pitching a no hitter midway through the 5th inn... oh, he just gave up one. No worries though, hes still doing an excellent job, and im glad i've stayed up till half 2 in the morning to watch this now. It's a real shame about the Astros rolling over for the Reds however, and even if the Phillies hold on to win, Moyers fantastic effort (so far) will be totally wasted. Hes pitching pretty accuratley, but i'd like to see a bit more accuracy when he faces some of the better teams down the strech.

I'm sure most of you agree, and i'm bored right now, it's 10 o'clock at night here in England, and I love my Phillies and it seems like a good idea to write up about them ! I'll give 5 reasons why Pat Gillick is a shit GM:

1. He has the same bloody fetish for 85 year old middle relievers as Ed 'I'm a dickhead' Wade. I mean, who da hell is Rick fucking White ? His jersey number is 00, and thats exactly how many more times he should pitch for the Phils.
   
2. He made the worst trade I can remember, dealing our best hitter and our most consistent pitcher, who by our standards was basically an ace. And what did he get back ? A MIDDLE RELIEVER ! Along with some shit that won't ever make it to the bigs, unless the Royals aqquire them.
   
3. He made that horrific trade when the Phils were in the playoff mix, only 5.5 games back. I know we were below .500, but if we'd been 10 games over .500 and 5.5 games back, do you still think he'd have made that trade ?
   
4. Of all the trades he made, the one he got the least for and the one he least had to make was the David Bell one. As much as you hate him, he was still one of out best players in terms of hitting with RISP and hitting in general.
   
5. He signed Abe Nunez for 7 million over 2 years. Enough said.
   

Thanks for reading, this helped me get alot of stuff of my chest as theres no one over here to talk about baseball with !