Not A Bad Start...

All things considered, I don't have much to complain about today. My fantasy team sits in a manageable third place, my Phillies are scoring runs at will, and I've already had my first picture of the year posted up on "Who Does He Play For?"

You might say... "But Pat, it's only Week 1. Your fantasy team will fall apart."
Except it won't. As a matter of fact, a few of my more consistent/predictable players haven't even begun to perform yet. Mark Teixeira will continue to mash through April and while it might take him a few months before the batting average peaks, his 4 HRs and 10 RBI are already 2 more than he had in each category through the end of the month last season. Shin-Soo Choo is a lock for .300 BA, 20/20 and about 90 RBI and he is off to a horrible start. The Red Sox will eventually win baseball games (I'm predicting a weekend sweep of the Yankees, by the way!) and when they do, Jonathan Papelbon will get his saves. Partner those guys with my big pickups in Jordan Walden and Jhoulys Chacin and my fantasy team is solid as a rock right now.

And you might say... "Calm down, buddy. The Phillies played against the Astros and Mets. Not exactly powerhouses."
That's exactly right... but no other team in the NL is a powerhouse. Not enough people are saying it, but the NL isn't very good this year. For all the concerns about a lack of offense, the Phillies still have one of the most formidable ones in the league. Look around, there isn't a single team out there with a solid lineup from top to bottom. The best teams out there have two stars, and a cast of "other guys." In my opinion, our "other guys" are just better than everyone else. Ryan Howard is locked in right now and knows he has to carry the team. Jimmy Rollins is hitting well out of the 3 hole, everything Ben Francisco hits is hit hard, and Wilson Valdez hasn't crippled the team with excessive GIDPs. Cole Hamels had his obligatory early season blow up and everyone else has performed to expectations. Currently sitting atop the leader board in just about every offensive category, get used to the Phillies scoring runs in many different ways. 92 wins left before I look like a genius.

Posting was a bit slow this week, but that's primarily because I was trying to upgrade a few things and improve traffic. I've also made a pact with myself to make sure that this doesn't turn into a "Game Recap" type site every night. If you want to know how many hits Carlos Ruiz had, read a box score. I'm here for my own baseball musings... not as an amateur beat reporter.