So that little Phillies fan confidence rating thing you see in the upper left corner? Yeah, I'm tracking it, like you have an iPhone. What?
This week's Fan Confidence rating? 78.
Seems fair. The general play of the team over the past week or so has been uninspired if not totally inept. With the departure of Jayson Werth, the Phillies have exorcised the last real member of Generation Patience from an offense that used to be among the most patient in the league. Long gone are the days of yore... Bobby Abreu, Jim Thome, Pat Burrell. Walksmiths, all of them. But the Phillies are now, for good or for ill, a free-swinging team. No one in the lineup as presently constituted can be considered expert at working a count.
On the pitching side of the ledger, we saw the first dud from superace Roy Halladay (although he was victimized by some bad luck on balls in play), a crummy bullpen performance from Kyle Kendrick, and a worrisome back injury to Roy Oswalt.
So you're 78 confident. Will a strong west coast swing boost that? Are sore Mets fans poisoning the results? Stay tuned...