The Monday Gush: The Phillies are better than twelve NL teams!

It's time for your weekly injection of happy news from all over the Phillies organization.

By Justin Klugh@justin_klugh May 16, 2016, 3:20pm EDT

The Phillies are the National League's third best team!

To the disgust of Baseball Tonight, the Phillies' shockingly not-poor start is rocking the baseball world!

Best records in the NL:
1. Cubs
2. Nationals
3. Phillies (Yes really)https://t.co/GOmdTW11Zm pic.twitter.com/bzO1rMCBzN
— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) May 15, 2016

That doesn't even mention their 14-3 record in one-run games, or that they lead all of baseball in wins against teams with over .500 records!

Jake Thompson's fastball is great!

The Reading prospect only struck out four hitters, but induced pathetic ground balls all afternoon to silence the Toledo Mudhens 5-0 in what was easily his best start of the season.

Ben Lively is the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week!

He's got the league's best ERA (1.53), using his breaking ball more effectively, and set a career-high with 12 strikeouts in his last start! Meanwhile, Marlon Byrd is hitting .231 for the Indians!

The Reading Fightins are in first place!

When it's a Monday, but you remember the #Fightins are in first place. pic.twitter.com/4jqLjIFJ3A
— Reading Fightins (@ReadingFightins) May 16, 2016

Ryan Howard is going to read to children!

We may be less interested in seeing what Howard has to offer on the baseball field - though he was robbed twice in his last game, once by the wind and once by a Tyler Holt catch in center - but that doesn't mean it isn't great to see Howard doing a public reading of his children's book, Little Rhino.

Little Rhino Read-Along benefiting #Phillies MLB Urban Youth Academy takes place 6/8!

Tix: https://t.co/OTGC9cdteC https://t.co/2Iiov7DjiV
— Phillies (@Phillies) May 16, 2016

Tyler Goeddel is making progress!

He's a 23-year-old rookie yanked out of the Rule 5 draft, and he was hitting .160 in April with 11 strikeouts in 25 at-bats. Now, he's hitting .241 for the month of May, and has gone 5-for-16 over the past week with a stolen base and a triple. And, obviously, he ended the Reds' night not too long ago with a help from a bullish Cameron Rupp.

Maikel Franco started hitting again!

It has yet to be sustained for very long, but it was a relief to see Franco knock three of the four runs Phillies in their 9-4 loss to the Reds. It was his second three-hit game in five days, which is close enough in proximity to count as encouraging, especially since one of his hits was a game-winning home run.