As I’m writing this Tim Lincecum is about to bat for himself in the bottom of the 8th inning, a fact that doesn’t translate to a likely win for the Phillies. And don’t look now but if The Freak can get three outs in the ninth, the word “Philadelphia” in the above standings will be underneath the word “Washington.” Good thing Amaro swapped one ace for another in the offseason.

UPDATE: The Phillies’ season is still alive as Giants’ management decided to remove their best player from the game and replace him with their worst. The Phillies subsequently rallied to tie the game.

We’re not going to let the lingering stench of Jerseyites puking on little girls ruin an otherwise exciting start to the 2010 season for Ruben Amaro’s trophy pitcher, Roy Halladay. After silencing the Braves’ bats for 8 innings last night in Atlanta, Halladay did what it looks like most Phils’ starters are going to have to do in order for this team to have a chance: trot back out to the mound and finish the game. Halladay scattered 5 hits and 1 walk over 9 innings last night to get the win.

In doing so he single-handedly overcame the two obstacles that had plagued the Phillies over the last 4 games. One, he prevented the bullpen from losing the game and two, he pitched so well that the sputtering offense’s measly contribution of 2 runs was good enough for a tally in the win column. Halladay is now 2 outs short of averaging a complete game for each of his 4 starts. And in that time he’s gone 4-0 with a .82 ERA, a league-leading 28 strikeouts and, get this: 3 walks.

The Phillies offense is clearly stuck in neutral as they’ve begun to face Major League pitchers following the Nationals and Astros fell-good tour that opened the season. Tonight they’ll have to deal with yet another real hurler in Derek Lowe. But some fortuitous rotation scheduling in their upcoming series against Arizona and San Francisco means they’ll miss Dan Haren and Matt Cain (though they will face Tim Lincecum on April 28). That may be just what the doctor ordered for this lineup to get themselves into midseason shape. After all, Roy Halladay can’t pitch every night.

The schedule is sure toughening-up for the Phillies. After an opening 3 games against High-A Washington, they’ll turn their attention this evening to Double-A Houston before returning to the Aruban Winter League to face the Nationals for three more next week. With competition like this it kind of makes you feel like Cliff Lee won’t be missed.

Actually, of course, there will be 4 or 5 series this season where the Phillies will have to show up. Most of those series will be against AL teams, which is good because that will give us some insight as to whether this team can win a series with a Lee-less rotation. Before we take a look at how the Phils match up without Lee, let’s just be perfectly honest about one thing: Cliff Lee’s absence will have no bearing on the outcome of the N.L. East race; the Phillies will win this division.

Where Lee’s absence will matter is in the playoffs. I see 4 potential playoff opponents whose top-3 starters are clearly superior to the Phillies (Halladay, Hamels and Blaton) and they are (in no particular order):

• Yankees with Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte
• Red Sox with Beckett, Lester and Lackey (adjust for Dice-K and Bucholtz if needed)
• San Francisco with Lincecum, Cain and Zito
• St. Louis with Carpenter, Wainwright and Lohse

Now, before you get all homer on me and argue that Kyle Lohse and Barry Zito are no better than Joe Blanton (which they may or may not be) keep in mind that Matt Cain and Adam Wainwright are demonstrably better than Cole Hamels. In the case of the Yankees, their top-3 have already proven themselves superior. And in Boston’s case, you could anchor the 3-spot with 3 different guys. But in both NL teams’ cases, it really comes down to the #2 guys making the difference. That is where Cliff Lee would have come in.

A lot can happen between Game #4 and Game #163. Cole Hamels could have a career year, Matt Cain could tear his ACL…who knows. But as it stands, let’s not worry too much any more about the obvious mistake Amaro made by trading Cliff Lee until the impact of that trade will really be felt. In the meantime, enjoy the season.

A far more interesting and telling game than yesterday’s Phillies blowout win over the Nationals will be played tomorrow night. Aside from the fanfare and excitement surrounding opening day and Roy Halladay’s debut, is there anyone out there who really thought that Doc wouldn’t get the win and that the Phils’ offense wouldn’t hammer the hapless Nats? Tomorrow will mark the first start of the season for the one guy upon whom the Phillies championship hopes rest the most: Cole Hamels.

Let’s assume that the Phillies starting pitching breaks into three categories. The first is Roy Halladay’s presumed dominance in the form of a season that should bring at least 18 wins. The second group is Joe Blanton, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyer. Their collective ability to keep opposing teams’ run totals under what the mighty Phils offense puts up will determine their success. While it’s true that the last 3 spots in the rotation account for 60% of the team’s starts (give or take) and that each win by Moyer counts as much as each win by Halladay, Hamels and Halladay’s starts will begin to count for more as the season progresses. That is, as the season wears on we’ll know whether this team genuinely has the secret to playoff success: top-heavy starting pitching.

And so the third part of the equation is Cole Hamels. If Hamels has a season like 2009, his wins won’t come in droves as they did in ’08. Nor will his value in a playoff-shortened rotation bode well for the Phillies’ pitching matchups in the postseason. Sure, we’re 161 games from October but it’s not too early to start focusing on Hamels’ ability to regain his form and make the 1-2, righty-lefty combo of Halladay and Hamels the wrecking crew that Ruben Amaro banked on when he cut ties with Cliff Lee. We’ll get a first glimpse at this recipe tomorrow evening in Washington.

As I’m writing this Placido Polanco has driven-in 6 runs, capped by a grand slam. While I have to remind myself that anything that happens at Nationals Park needs to be taken with a grain of salt (because they’re the worst team I’ve ever seen), the Phillies are doing what they’ve done best for the past few years: score runs.

It didn’t even take us the full opening day to forget about Pedro Feliz. Polanco’s start is awesome and if he’s able to continue to carry wood like this throughout the season, the potential for a historic run-producing juggernaut of a team is there.

I’ve been left to man the offices here at iSportacus as JGT is at the game today. I’m sure he’ll have plenty to say about it tomorrow. But despite the fact I’m not out in the sun watching the game, news of what the Phils are doing in Washington still feels pretty good.

No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. Joe Blanton’s oblique strain will land him on the DL for 3-6 weeks. That means Kyle Kendrick will be occupying Blanton’s third spot in the Phillies rotation until the middle of April when Blanton is healthy enough to return.

Not only does this injury weaken the starting rotation for the first few weeks of the season but it leaves the bullpen without Kyle Kendrick’s services. The Phillies lineup should be strong enough to outscore any burdensome early season pitching woes (especially when you consider 6 of the first 9 games are against the Nationals and 3 are against the Astros). But the offseason subtraction of a certain left-handed ace may leave them one arm short. Well, at least the farm system will be restocked.

The Atlanta Braves are a team that could give the Phillies a lot of trouble this season. Because they’re still a work in progress (and because the Phillies have won 2 consecutive pennants), we believe it would be irresponsible to expect they’ll actually win the division this year. But the Braves have two-highly touted entities working in their favor this season: their starting rotation and all-world prospect, Jason Heyward.

Let’s start with the rotation, which Paul Hagen of the Daily News believes is the best in the division. Veteran Tim Hudson will get the ball for opening day and despite a 2009 season where he only appeared in 7 games, his career record is 148-78 with a 3.49 ERA. His has won the same number of games as Phillies ace, Roy Halladay (with only 2 more losses) and his ERA is only .06 worse than Doc’s. Directly matching-up starting pitchers doesn’t mean much in the regular season but Hudson’s career numbers (including a 20-win season) indicate that he’s capable of being very productive for Atlanta.

Following Hanson in the rotation are Tommy Hudson and Jair Jurrjens. Hanson’s strong rookie season saw him compile incredible numbers for a 22-year old: 11-4 with a sub-3 ERA (2.89) and a SO-BB ratio of almost 3-1. While a sophomore slump is possible, his promise brings quite a bit to the Braves #2 spot. As for Jair Jurrjens, the 24-year old has a 30-21 career record with a 3.21 ERA. For a guy in the #3 spot, he’ll be expected to improve upon his 13 and 14-win seasons in 2008 and ’09. The Braves’ top-3 guys’ career win/loss records are collectively 4% better than the Phillies top-3 pitchers which shows Atlanta has an excellent core.

The 4th and 5th starters for the Braves are Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami. The 36-year old Lowe has a solid winning percentage of .547 and has a World Series title under his belt (’04 Red Sox) as well as a no-hitter to his name. While he can be wildly inconsistent (as he was for the Dodgers in ’05 and ’07), few teams would be put-out by having a guy like him in the 4th spot. As for Kawakami, the 34-year old pitched poorly for the Braves last year, going 7-12 with a 3.86 ERA. A 2-1 SO-BB ratio looks good but he’s still a question mark in the final rotation spot.

And then there’s Jason Heyward. To listen to Baseball America or Baseball Today, you’d think he was the 2nd coming of Willie Mays (hence his nickname, the “J-Hey Kid”). Heyward is a five-tooler projected to be a consistent 30 HR guy. Coming into 2009 Baseball America had him rated as the #5 overall prospect. At 6′-4” and 245 lbs., he’s got the frame to go deep and a .318 minor league average to go along with his power potential. Heyward is only 20 and he’s already been named to the Braves opening day roster. The Braves’ expectations are high (as are Keith Law’s and Jonathan Mayo of mlb.com; both have him as the #1 prospect in baseball this season). While Heyward probably won’t be single-handedly winning a division title for Atlanta this year, his exceptional talent will most likely translate to an increase in production over last season from his spot in the lineup.

As for the rest of the Braves team, Paul Hagen has their bullpen ranked 2nd in the division behind the Mets, their infield ranked 3rd behind the Phillies and Marlins and their outfield ranked 4th, one spot above the Nationals. Their bench is ranked 4th by the Daily News writer and they come in 2nd behind the Phillies in intangibles. Will this be the Braves’ year? Probably not, but their upside means a lot more to be concerned about for the Phillies.

The gentlemen over at thefightins.com have posted some pictures of various idiots wearing Phils jerseys with misspelled names on them, like the one above featuring the French Canadian version of Cole Hamels’ name. Other bargain-basement, orthographically-challenged jerseys include Shane “Victornio” and Ryan “Howadr.” You can check out even more idiotic replica jersey choices at straightcashhomey.net. Two excellent examples are the guy who actually purchased a Paul Lo Duca Nationals jersey and two Sabres fans standing next to each other wearing Darren Puppa and Christain Ruutu sweaters.

The good news for Phillies fans is that Roy Halladay looked strong in his spring training debut against the Yankees. He pitched 2 innings, gave up no hits and struck out 3. As I’m writing this, Jayson WoolWerth just went down on strikes in the 6th inning. Clearly today’s performances are indicative of the fact that Halladay is going to win 32 games and that Jayson Werth is done.

Also to the amusement of Phillies fans and non-rednecks everywhere, Brett Myers pitched 2 innings and gave up a hit, 2 earned runs and walked 3 in his debut with the Astros. Against the Nationals.

The Phillies made what, by all accounts, is a terrific move today by signing veteran catcher, Brian Schneider, to a two-year deal. Schneider has played in the N.L. East for 10 seasons (with Montreal, Washington and the Mets) so his in-house experience should prove valuable. He has a lifetime average of .251 which is the kind of number that the Phillies can feel very comfortable with having behind Carlos Ruiz.

Though Schneider had a sub-par season in 2009 (he only had 194 plate appearances and hit just .218) his experience should prove valuable, especially in the event of an injury that sidelines Ruiz for any extended period. The other thing he brings is a bat off the bench in late inning situations, allowing Manuel to play around with the lineup in the 8th or 9th innings knowing he can substitute at the most crucial defensive position. And at just under $3 million, Schneider’s contract does little to inhibit the Phillies off-season shopping and at such a relatively low number there doesn’t seem to be much of a downside to this move.