Quick Hit: What Happened in the NL East

Written by Mike Mariano | 20 July 2010

(here's a snippet from my interview over at TCB the other day.  The rest of it will follow in segments, because I know that none of you went over there to read it)

TCB: The Phillies were expected to run away with the NL again this season, instead they've struggled. What happened?

WTTTB: What I think a lot of people don't remember from last season is that the Phillies didn't play great regular season baseball. With a struggling division in 2009, they really didn't have to. In all honesty, they haven't played fantastic baseball the last few seasons short of the playoff runs. Granted, I'm talking down a team that won (nearly) 90 games each of the past three seasons, but the point remains that they were hardly a juggernaut from April to September.

Fast forward to now and I'm getting flashbacks to the sad Phillies of ol', which certainly hasn't been fun. It all comes down to pitching. Put aside the huge hitting drought of June and just looking at the staff it's obvious that there are holes. Only Roy Halladay is consistent and otherwise it's a crapshoot. Shaky relief pitching and unreliable starting pitching are not part of the recipe for sustained success. In the past, they've figured it out long enough to accomplish great things, but this might be the year that it all catches up with the team.