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.

We have the 700level.com to thank for this picture of a pre-facial pubescent Jayson Werth. Nowadays he’s armed with a mean landing strip on his chin. I don’t know, I guess he thinks it looks good. In any event, Werth’s 34th homer of the year was of the 4-bag variety last night as he and Joe Blanton (6 scoreless innings) propelled the Phils to a 6-1 victory over the hapless embarrassment that is the Washington Nationals. The Phillies’ magic number is now 11 with 18 games to play.

We’ve all heard it before: the Phillies are an all-or-nothing team, meaning their offense is predicated on the long ball. Traditionally this is not the way that successful playoff teams win largely because their opponents in the playoffs trot-out higher quality pitching than the average seasonal opponent. Whether this holds true this postseason is anyone’s guess. In a season when the 5 teams that comprise the N.L. pennant chase (Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers, Rockies and Giants) have starting pitching better than most years’ playoffs, the home run ball may be at more of a premium this October.

What is going to matter for the Phillies is their pitching. The mid-season turmoil surrounding Cole Hamels’ sub-par season and the Moyer vs. Pedro storyline seems to have disappeared as every starting pitcher has thrown extremely well of late and it looks like J.A. Happ will be back as he’s slated to start on Friday night against Atlanta. As the bullpen’s well-documented problems go, Chan Ho Park left the game last night after a scoreless 8th with a hamstring problem though J.C. Romero’s much-needed left arm looks like it’ll be back in form for the playoffs. According to espn.com, Romero says he’ll make 5 appearances before the end of the season.

Cole Hamels will go tonight in the final sleeper against Washington. This weekend promises to see a better opponent (as least in the pitching department) as the Phils go to Atlanta for 3. Their bats will be tested by Tim Hudson, Javier Vasquez and Tommy Hanson which should provide for a few games more similar to a playoff series than the last 3 outings against the team from Chinese Taipei. The playoffs are right around the corner and assuming the Phillies win tonight against the Nationals, they will have taken 8 of their last 10. Playing well going in is key, and it looks like the Phillies should have some momentum heading into the home stretch

After a hard-earned day off yesterday, the Phillies are back in action tonight as they host (yawn) the Washington Nationals. Last night’s Marlins loss to the Cardinals means that the Phillies’ magic number to win the N.L. East is 13 games. Aside from the difficulties in the bullpen, this Phillies team is as certain a lock to win the division as there is in baseball, so the magic number watch is really there just so we don’t have to pay attention to the actual games against teams like Washington.

This season the Phillies are 12-3 against the Nats. The Nationals are coming of a series win against Florida this weekend and have won 3 of their last 4 games overall. That’s about the best thing I could find about their recent play, and then you consider the fact they’re 43-games under .500 and 32.5-games behind the Phillies and the prospect of sitting through the game becomes bearable only because of the SEPTA bus races on the big screen.

Because we live in a city where the equilibrium of the collective sports mentality is as stable as Stephon Marbury, people are panicking about the Phils’ recent slump. Sure, they are coming off a 4-game sweep at the hands of the lowly Astros. And with the notable exception of Ryan Howard, the team is in a huge offensive slump (Cliff Lee has the best batting average on the team, .316, followed by Shane Victorino’s .295). Let’s not even mention the closer spot–Bob Ford has an unusual take on it–or the worst bench in the National League (Matt Stairs is now 0-29 since the A.S. Break).

All these things considered, this is exactly what baseball is. A 162-game season. Teams ride huge winning streaks and lose games in droves too. When you consider the Phillies are a long ball team, you understand that when the big bats are cold the team is going to struggle. Hell, even the Yankees (indisputably the best team in baseball) have a 4-game losing stretch on their record. The Phillies are still projected to win 93 games, worse only than the 94 and 96 likely wins for the Cardinals and Dodgers, respectively. More importantly, they have an almost 95% chance of winning the N.L. East (stats projections from coolstandings.com).

Their performance against the Astros this past weekend was bad but they did manage to only lose 3 of the last 4 games by 1-run margins against a Houston team that is a deceptive 9-games over .500 at home.  What’s more, the promise of a turnaround is on the horizon as the next 10 games are against the Nats and Mets, two teams collectively 56 games under .500.

The results haven’t been thrilling lately but the commanding position the Phils occupy allows them to tinker where necessary, try new things in other spots and also be patient where they can be. Winning 2 consecutive World Series is a very tall order and there’s a reason no N.L. team has done it in over 30 years. If the Phillies are going to pull it off they’re going to have to play better baseball but from where they currently stand, there’s no reason to think that next week at this time folks will be singing a different tune.

While watching the gem Dan Haren threw yesterday against the Cardinals, I couldn’t help but think about the quality of the Diamondbacks’ starting pitching. The game was a pitching duel between Haren and Adam Wainwright and Haren came-out on top, throwing 8 innings of 4-hit ball. He walked 2, struck out 8 and gave up 1 run. For the season, Haren is 10-5 with an N.L.-best ERA of 1.96. He also leads the League in Innings Pitched (138), Complete Games (3) and is the owner of a ridiculous .804 WHIP.

Haren is under contract with the D-Backs until 2012 (with a 2013 club option at $15.5 million) and he does have a limited no-trade clause. Arizona just extended his contract last season and he has $33.7 million left on the deal after this season. Haren is a 3-time All Star and has a 7.61 Strike Out/Walk ratio this year. The moral of the story is that Haren isn’t going anywhere.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are 13 games below .500, 18 games out of 1st place in the N.L. West and 10.5 games behind the Giants in the Wild Card race. Like Haren, they’re going nowhere this year. But maybe some of their starting pitchers should be.

Jon Garland, for example, has won 111 games in his career and isn’t even 30 years old. He’s got a respectable career ERA of 4.47, has an All-Star Game under his belt, has won 18 games twice and hasn’t pitched fewer than 191 innings in the last 8 seasons. There’s also Doug Davis who has a 4.27 career ERA and Brandon Webb, a 3-time All Star and 2006 Cy Young winner. Webb won 16, 18 and 22 games in the past three seasons to go along with a sub-1.2 WHIP each of these years and has a career 3.27 ERA. While he’s useless this year with his shoulder injury, Webb should draw some serious interest in the off-season. Interestingly enough, among Haren, Garland, Davis and Webb there is only one career playoff loss.

The Diamondbacks are a bad team. Only San Diego, Cincinnati and Washington have worse run differentials than Arizona. It would seem they could spare some pitching as they look to the future, especially when you consier Webb’s probable return next season. A team looking to strengthen the middle of its rotation could use a pitcher like Garland, who will complete a one-year deal (club option for 2010) after this season and at $6.25 million, you’d have to think Arizona wouldn’t mind parting with him.

…Directly to the Philadelphia Inquirer daily sports poll. Today’s queston is a chip off the old stupidity block and the responses are as ugly as Medusa giving birth to the Elephant Man. Q: “Should the Phillies give up J.A. Happ as part of a trade for Roy Halladay?” A: 50.7% no, 49.3% yes.

In typical homer fashion, the majority of fans who voted “no” are affected by exposure to Happ’s productive season here in Philly. This year Happ is 6-0 with a 2.90 ERA, pitching in the 5 spot. He has beaten Washington 3 times, Toronto once, San Diego once and the Pirates once which, despite his good numbers, means he is yet to win a game against a team over .500 this season. For his career, Happ has appeared in 31 games and is 7-1 with a 3.38 ERA, a WHIP of 1.27 and a strikeout-walk ratio of 1.92 for a team that won the World Series last year. He is off to a very nice start to his career.

This season Roy Halladay is 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA, pitching in the most difficult division in baseball. He has beaten the division-leading Angels twice, the division-leading Tigers once as well as the New York Yankees (other wins include K.C., the White Sox twice (.511), the Orioles, the Twins (.506) and the Indians). For his career, Halladay is 141-61 with an ERA of 3.47, a WHIP of 1.20 and a K/BB ratio of 3.19 and has played his entire career for a team that has never been good enough to make the playoffs.

At 32 years old, Halladay has thrown 43 complete games, appeared in 6 All-Star games and won one Cy Young award. In as much as it’s possible to say this about someone who probably needs a few more seasons (and some playoff appearances, though the lack thereof certainly isn’t his fault) to be considered, Halladay is on the fast-track to the Hall of Fame.

For as nice a start as J.A. Happ has had to his career, retaining him in a scenario where he could be traded for Roy Halladay would be simply foolish. Roy Halladay has been one of the top-5 pitchers in baseball for the past 7 seasons and (as the trajectory of his career stats indicate) has at least 5 seasons left in him. There is a reason they call players like Happ prospects: because their promise is not only to their own clubs’ futures, but in their value as trade pieces as well.

Think about it this way: if the Phillies face the Giants (Lincecum and Cain), the Cardinals (Carpenter and Wainwright), or the Dodgers with Billingsley and Kershaw in the playoffs, which top two Phillies pitchers more effectively oppose these tandems, Hamels and Happ (assuming Manuel is comfortable enough to put Happ in the #2 spot by then) or Hamels and Halladay? What if they make the World Series and face the Red Sox? Is there anyone out there who seriously thinks the Hamels/Happ duo would be better than Halladay/Hamels against Josh Beckett and Jon Lester?

Folks in this town need to start thinking about the prospect of a trade for Halladay for what it is: a chance to put a product on the field that is as good a contender for its second World Series ring as any other team out there. The inclusion of Roy Halladay on this team at the expense of J.A. Happ is no indictment of the latter, merely a recognition of what a more dangerous pitching staff this team would have if Halladay were a part of it.

I’ve been getting a kick out of watching an increasingly-angry John Kruk on Baseball Tonight lately. Most notably is his use of the above phrase to describe boneheaded, error-filled play that seems to happen exclusively in the N.L. East.

One such gem this week involved Austin Kearns of the Nationals (of course) sliding into nowhere, as demonstrated on withleather.com

Another beauty was any moment from last night’s Mets (of course) loss to the Dodgers. For some unkown reason, the Mets were only charged with one error in the game though just about everything they did in the field resembled a Renaissance Faire. The highlight of the game, though, was Manny Ramirez’s ejection, ostensibly for littering the field with equipment upon being called out on strikes on a pitch that was at least 3 furlongs outside.

Two things struck me about Brad Lidge last night. The first was his new Mennonite-style beard. The second was the fact that he lost the game for the Phillies (technically speaking), dropping his record to 0-4 to go along with a N.L.-leading 6 blown saves. The sprinkles on this particular turd sundae are a 2009 ERA of 7.12 and a WHIP of 1.85.

To put this in perspective, of the top (worst) 40 relief pitchers in the N.L. in blown saves, only Lidge, our old friend, Geoff Geary (1-3, 8.10), and two former Nationals pitchers, Logan Kensing (0-2, 13.14) and Joel Hanrahan (0-3, 7.97 ERA) have ERAs over 7. Again, Lidge leads the N.L. in blown saves and among his peers on the shitpile, he is among the bottom 10% in ERA.

To say Lidge is a work in progress is an understatement. He has improved slightly since returning from the DL, giving up 3 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings pitched since then, with a loss and 3 saves and an ERA lowered from 7.86 to its current 7.12. But last night’s performance tells the story that we’re still miles away from having a reliable closer (and in case you were wondering, other than Lidge there are only 5 N.L. pitchers with more blown saves than the other option in the 9th, Ryan Madson).

I suppose we should be writing something about how great the Phillies are now that they’ve won a series. For some reason, I’m bitter and angry toward them right now because of their recent hideous play and I’m unwilling to give them any credit for sweeping the Mets, who are an outright disgrace. So let me deflect that for a moment and point out that the Daily News is reporting that Pedro Martinez may be the answer to the Phils’ pitching problems.

Anytime the Phillies sweep the Mets it’s a good thing. But I’m not going to go down on Joe Blanton for blowing through the Mets’ minor league lineup. And wow, the Phillies beat Livan Hernandez and Fernando Nieve. Wow. I’m just going to come out and say it: as they are currently construed, the Mets are the worst team in the division, and I say that fully aware that the division includes the Nationals.

The Mets are 11-21 since June 1st. The Nationals are 11-20. I guess that makes them .5 worse than Washington. Hell, the fact that I’m even putting their name and record next to that of the Nationals makes my point for me.

The only glimmer of hope the Mets have right now is Johan Santana who is 9-7. With efforts like yesterday’s, Santana can expect more Andy Roddick-like frustration: he gave up 3 hits and 2 runs through 7 innings and still lost. Absent his strong perfomances, the Mets would be even more doomed than they already are. And consider these NL ranking for the entire Mets’ team: 8th in ERA and OPS, 9th in runs scored, 10th in BAA, 13th in SLG and 14th in WHIP.

I guess a life of jeans shorts and ungroomed neck hair isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.