In what will hopefully become a semi-daily feature, Phillies links from around the web!
The morning after Eric Byrnes and Tony Effing Clark bent the Phillies over and drew boobies on their backs with magic marker, frustration and dissatisfaction becomes unavoidable. Two late-inning one run losses again, and it feels like we're right back at the beginning of the season, all of the gains made since then having evaporated. What's most frustrating is that the Phils got pretty good pitching performances from their resident rotation bozos, Eaton and Garcia, but it still wasn't enough. Alright, make with the links...
UTLEY TO USE PINK BAT - You'd think the joke would just write itself, but I've got a victimization hangover from last night. Umm... lessee... Burrell alway... no. Screw it. On Mothers Day, Utley and four other Phillies will use pink bats to raise awareness for breast cancer.
NEWS BULLETIN! ALFONSECA STINKS!! - Despite starting the season well, Antonio Alfonseca has turned to crap recently. The truth is he's not as good as he was to start the year, nor is he as bad as he is lately. He's just part of the league's relief pitcher flotsam, contributing little to any given team except heartburn and the 50/50 proposition that on any given night he'll be acceptable. And in this league, that makes you a millionaire.
ROWAND LEADS OFF; ROLLINS HITS THIRD - Maybe the best time to try this move would have been a couple weeks ago, when Rollins was hitting a kajillion home runs. Nonetheless, he's still getting lots of extra base hits, Rowand is off to a fine start, so I think it's definitely worth a shot.
THERE'S NO HELP ON THE WAY - Our colleague Jason over at Beerleaguer brings to our attention the fact that Baseball America has featured ZERO Phillies prospects on its Prospects Hotsheet so far this season. Not particularly surprising, but what about that fantastic yield of players that Gillick got for Abreu? Wait...
SMALLWOOD LOST ME - John Smallwood starts his column off nicely, criticizing the Phillies bullpen and the failure of the organization to address what he saw as an obvious flaw, but then loses me when he ties the Phillies' struggles to those of the other major Philadelphia professional sports franchises. Seriously, I don't care about Billy King! There's no metaphysical connection between the franchises; each has failed in its own unique and beautiful way.