Dilshemer on the Radio? And a Look at Jimmy Rollins, Aaron Rowand, Ryan Howard, Tom Gordon and the Red Hot Fightin' Phils..

I am tentatively (i.e., they may "better deal" me if they can find someone better!) scheduled for my first appearance of what could be a weekly occurrence on WCCP FM in Greenville, SC (Tuesday morning, around 8:15 am). Estimated 100,000 listeners. They are looking for a Man on the Street take, and have asked me to appear. You can listen live at the following link, or I will try to get a link to the broadcast afterwards if you are interested. Here is the link: http://www.wccpfm.com/. Now onto the hottest team in baseball, the Fightin’ Phils….

8 wins in a row. For the Phillies. In May. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the Phils are liable to play themselves into contention in the NL East and Wild Card races if they keep this up. The bad news is that this spurt pretty much guarantees that Jolly Chollie Manual, that man that manages his food intake better than a baseball game, will be with us all season.

The Phils are doing it by basically playing a lot better baseball than they had for the first month of the season. The hitting better, hitting for more power, hitting better ni timely situations, fielding better, and pitching better.

Jimmy Rollins is playing his usual magnificent shortstop, and even though he is not hitting as well as you would hope coming off that hitting streak, he is looking more like a leadoff guy than he ever has. In fact, he is on pace for a career low in strikeouts and a career high in walks. Look for his batting average to creep up toward .300 if hhe is able to maintain this selectivity.

Aaron Rowand for Jim Thome is a classic example of win/win trade scenario. The Phillies had to get rid of Thome to make room for Ryan Howard, but they were able to get Rowand, who in addition to playing gold glove center field, has hit the ball great, batting over .300 with some speed and some power.

In addition to The R&R duo, you have to love the heart of the lineup with Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard all legitimate threats. Utley and Howard both have superstar written all over them. Gotta love it.

Even David Bell and Lieberthal/Fasano have been serviceable at their positions.

The starting pitching seems to be getting better. I wonder if any of these starters are seeing the phenomenal stats that Cole Hamels is putting up in Triple A. Wouldn’t it be nice for him to come up and be a stud? Anyway, Lidle has pitched pretty well for him, Floyd and Lieber are doing better, and Brett Byers is almost at the point where he is a legitimate #1 (but not quite yet).

Finally, best pick-up of the offseason has to be Flash Gordon, who has given up one run all season, and is 10-for-10 in save opportunities. Again, it shows that I have no clue what I am talking about, as I bashed that move pretty strongly in the offseason.

The Philberts have a huge series coming up against the first place Metropolitans. It is in the comfy confines of CBP. They absolutely have to win two-for-three in this series to start really making it a race. This is the spot where typical Philly teams have choke written all over them. Play well when the spotlight dims, then get the faithful’s hopes up and fade badly. If we can keep Jolly Chollie in the dugout with no tough decisions to make, this just might be a different ballclub, especially when inspired by big-mouth Billy Wagner over the weekend with his comments.

We will see where we are on Friday when the Phils head to Cincinnati for a weekend series.