Phillies Magic, MLB Awards, Eagles (Ugh!)

First, some housekeeping: I have a long 25+ minute segment on the Gasoline Radio show today with some good Eagles and Phillies stuff among other things. If you are interested in listening to me, you have two options:

• You can listen at 12:00 Noon Eastern time at: www.wolt-fm.com OR
• You can listen at 4:00 pm Eastern time at: www.talk103.com

I should be on right at the top of the hour……..

Wow! Quite a weekend. There is almost too much to talk about but I will try to get to most of the important stuff.

To start, Greg Biffle had a great day in Kansas and won Nascar's.....just kidding. I am not really going to talk about Nascar with all that is going on!

Well, the Phillies did it. They completed the biggest September comeback in major league history yesterday, overcoming a 7 game deficit with 17 to play to win the NL East. As is well documented, this is the Philberts first trip to the beyond in 14 years. Many Phillies fans (GROSSY!) would love it if I used this space to taunt the Met fans, but that will not happen here (except maybe in the comment section). I offer my condolences to the Mets fans (even you Flummer). As Philadelphia sports fans, we have been in similarly painful situations many times in the past couple of decades, and it sucks. Plus, let's face it, Philadelphia still has not won a championship in anything since 1983.

But today is a day to enjoy and relish for Phillies fans. This team showed tremendous heart and "bouncebackability" by leading the league in both key injuries and come from behind wins. They have spirit, and heart, and they never ever gave up this season. This is the most likable team that has worm the pinstripes since that '93 team that captured our fancies while advancing all the way to the World Series before Joe Carter broke their hearts. They did it behind the incredible leadership of Jimmy Rollins. Ryan Howard, despite some thinking he is a vastly overrated media creation who will be out of the game in 3 to 5 years, stepped up big time when it mattered most with 7 home runs and 16 RBI in the last 10 games.

The Phillies still do not know who they will be playing in the divisional series because of two things: 1) The Colorado Rockies tremendous finish, losing once in the last two weeks, and 2) the biggest bonehead decision in recent memory by a manager. Bud Black, SD manager, bypassed Jake Peavy, the NL Cy Young award winner to be, on three days' rest to go with a fully rested Brett Tomko. When it is the last day of the season, and you need a win to clinch a playoff spot, and you are playing on the road against a team who is 20 games over .500 at home, you do not throw Brett Tomko. Tomko was 4-12 this year with an ERA over 5.50. No way you ever allow him to take the mound when you have Jake Peavy available. Period.

My end of the year awards are as follows:

• AL Comeback Player of the Year: Mike Lowell
• NL Comebcak Player of the Year: Rick Ankiel
• AL Rookie of the Year: Dustin Pedroia
• NL Rookie of the Year: Many people will probably pick Ryan Braun for his 34-97-.326 campaign. But to me, Troy Tulowitzky had an even better year. He hit almost .290, had 24 home runs and 98 RBI. He also plays much superior defense to Braun (11 errors as a shortstop versus 26 as a 3rd baseman), and came up huge for the Rockies down the stretch. I would make Kyle Kendrick of the Phillies my 3rd place choice.
• AL Cy Young Award: I give the nod to C.C. Sabathia over John Lackey and Josh Beckett (barely) with Carmona, Bedard and Wang all pretty close behind. This should be a very close vote, but ultimately I think Sabthia has been a horse (241 IP) and the most consistent throughout the season
• NL Cy Young Award: Jake Peavy in a landslide. Brandon Webb a distant second.
• AL MVP: A-Rod in a landslide. Magglio Ordonez second. His season would be good for MVP most times (but who else besides me will be glued to A-Rod in the postseason to see if he comes through?).
• NL MVP: Jimmy Rollins. I know there are some people out there who think Matt Holiday (my second choice) should win, but I think it will be a landslide vote for J-Roll and rightfully so. First, he is the unquestioned leader of this team. He made bold predictions in March then carried the team on his back to make it come true. I promise you this team finishes a distant third without J-Roll. He was one of 2 players in the National League to start every single game (at the most important position). He played gold glove caliber defense at shortstop. He was the 4th player in MLB history to have 20 home runs, doubles, triples and stolen bases in a season. He was the 18th player in the past 10 years in MLB to have a 30-30 season. He led the NL with 139 runs. He has 212 hits and 41 steals. As a leadoff man, he had 30 home runs and 94 RBI and a .531 slugging percentage. His season was simply sensation from every angle. Matt Holliday had a great year and I would vote him second, followed by Prince Fielder 3rd.

Back tomorrow with more baseball. In the meantime, let's discuss the Birds for a moment. Either the Gods decided that the Phillies had provided the city with more than enough joy for one day, or the Eagles truly suck. I say it is unfortunately the latter. Let's look at some evidence:

• They have been awful, horrible and putrid in three of their four games this year. They were completely unprepared to play winning football against Green Bay, Washington, and New York.
• The game last night was the single worst performance by an Eagle team this decade, including the debacle at Seattle a couple years ago.
• The Giants offensive line completely dominated us in the trenches. The Eagles got ZERO pressure on Eli Manning.
• The Giants defense, which has reminded many of rotten swiss cheese for most of this season, held a team that scored 56 last week to 3.
• Oh, and I guess, in a nutshell, Winston Justice is the worst offensive lineman in the NFL today. Who knew I would appreciate Tre (I will not call him William) Thomas so much after he missed a game? The Giants defense got pressure on McNabb more or less every single play.
• And once it became evident after about two plays that Justice was completely over matched by Umenyoura, how about giving him a little help and putting a tight end over there to help block?
• Kevin Curtis evidently had a one week aberration last week, and once again, no receivers on this team have any ability to get open against NFL caliber defensive backs.

For the first time since his regime began, I am questioning whether Andy Reid is the right person to lead this team back towards a Super Bowl Championship. His teams have been woefully unprepared and he shows no ability to get them there before or during games. It was a telling sign at the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday when Phillies merchandise outnumbered Birds merchandise by a factor of about 15. That is a first!

Back tomorrow with college football, more NFL, and some baseball playoff analysis and predictions....