I suppose Jimmy Rollins had nowhere to go but up after one of the worst months of his career in April.

So, as his atrocious April came to a close, he dipped his toe back in the prediction business, and stated that he would hit .400 in May.

Well, not quite. Through Friday night’s 5-4 win over the Nationals, Jimmy is hitting .241 in May, and improvement over his .207 April batting average that has pulled his season average to .227.

But don’t call Rollins’ May a failure because his .400 prediction went nowhere.

Consider these other critical metrics of Jimmy’s that have helped propel the Phils to first place in the National League East:

Granted, Rollins numbers in May will need to improve even more if the Phillies have designs on successfully defending their World Series title. The RBI machine that is Raul Ibanez has helped to mask the head scratching inability of Rollins to be able to “set the table” for the Phillies’ big bashers.

I don’t think we’ve seen any predictions from J-Roll for June, yet, but just continuing to improve month over month will still put the Phillies in better shape than they were in April.

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The 2009 Bennett Award points leader is still, not surprisingly, Raul Ibanez. Raul has 16 points through last week’s Marlins series. Rounding out the top 3 are Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.

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Antonio Bastardo will take Brett Myers’ spot in the rotation, at least for one start. This is his second …

As if the starting rotation wasn’t already a mess, Brett Myers seems destined for the surgeon’s table with hip surgery similar to what laid up Chase Utley during the off season. There hasn’t been an official decision that surgery is a go, but all the signs point in that direction.

So, the Phillies’ starting rotation, which was already a liability so far this year, just got weaker. Myers wasn’t on track for a Cy Young this year, but he certainly was pitching good enough to remain in the rotation, which was a plus since Moyer, Blanton and Park all have made a case to get the hook from the starting 5. So far only Park is on the outside looking in.

Now, we get our first taste of Ruben Amaro’s ability to adjust in mid season and improve the team for another postseason run.

Will Ruben make a quick move, which Phillies Nation cautions against? Or will the Phils stand pat and see how the market develops over the next 30 days? Will the Phils add one mid level starter via trade and bring up Kyle Kendrick? Or will we say farewell to multiple prospects in order to bring in 2 starters?

Nothing less than the Phillies’ chances of a rare World Series repeat hang in the balance. Your move, Ruben.

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Charlie Manuel was joking about the fans needing to get on the Phillies more often. He’s saying that now, but something makes me think that he meant it …

We are going to blink our eyes and be on the threshold of the All-Star break and then the MLB trade deadline, which always provides fodder for plenty of rumor, conjecture and second guessing as teams try and unload soon-to-be free agents in an effort to rebuild, or give up on prized prospects in the hopes of winning NOW.

For a taste of all of the early trade rumors regarding the Phils, check out MLB Trade Rumors.

Pat Gillick had a long and successful history of picking up baseball’s version of character actors – solid veterans with so-so name recognition who could fill a void for the Phillies on the bench, the ‘pen or near the back end of the rotation.

There are plenty of good reasons for the Phillies to go hard after starting pitching prior to the trade deadline:

1. Brett Myers’ hip injury in last night’s loss to the Fish, plus his upcoming free agency after this season.
2. Jamie Moyer’s not-so-inspiring ’09 campaign.
3. Carlos Carrasco’s struggles at Lehigh Valley mean he could be a little further away from coming up than we’d like.
4. The need for a solid number 2 behind King Cole.

So the rumors regarding the Phillies looking for 1, maybe even 2, starting pitchers seems to be the right place to be focused as we steamroll toward July. Other than a reliable righthanded bat off the bench, starting pitching is all the Phillies need to zero in on. …

Good thing that Charlie Manuel doesn’t share the same level of impatience and lack of perspective that many Phillies fans have in regard to Phillies closer Brad Lidge.

“He should be placed on the DL, even if he isn’t hurt!”
“He should be dropped to the 7th inning!” (because apparently runs in the 7th inning don’t count as much as they do in the 9th inning)
“He should be dropped to the 8th inning because Madson is the man and should be the closer!”
“I can’t believe they gave him $37 million. Jesus Christ, what were they thinking?”
“Lidge sucks.”

And on. And on. And on.

Charlie Manuel is dead on accurate regarding demoting Lidge:

“Right now, I’m not even going to talk about that,” Manuel said of the Lidge situation before last night’s 5-3 loss to the Florida Marlins. “I want Lidge to feel we have all the confidence in the world in him, because we do.

“He’s my guy. Of course, people are going to want to voice their opinion, say sit him down.

“What is sitting going to do for him? He’s still got to simulate. He’s got to pitch and get somebody out. I think what’s going to right [Lidge] is to go out there and have a good inning. He does that a couple of games in a row, and you’ll see a big difference. Once he gets command, he’ll be off to the races.”

Perhaps the best argument against these knee jerk reactions comes from the usually negative …

And they thought Citizens Bank Park was a launching pad.

The new Yankees Stadium played host the our heroes last night and the Phillies were rude guests, blasting 4 homers and giving Brett Myers plenty of offense en route to a 7-3 win over the Bronx Bombers that ended their 9 game winning streak.

Don’t look now, but things are beginning to really come together for the Phils.

The offense was the constant that kept the Phils in games and hovering around .500 while the pitching staff tried to learn how to miss a bat or two once in a while. Well, the offense hasn’t lost any of its gun powder (leading NL in Slugging and OPS) and the arms are beginning to come around. Chan Ho has found his rightful place in the bullpen. Cole Hamels looks like Cole Hamels again. Brett Myers is still giving up the longball, but he was dealing last night before the 8th inning. Joe Blanton looked good in his last start in Cincinnati before Brandon Phillips hit a 3 run shot in the 5th inning.

The Phillies are also giving the staff the opportunity to work through their problems without too much tinkering, as evidenced by the below league average 14 total pitchers used by the Phillies so far this year (league average is 16, the Mets have used 17 and Washington leads the way with 20).

Not coincidentally, this marriage of decent pitching (imagine that) and continued offensive force has resulted in the Phillies having a …

I’m going to go to France more often if it means the Phils will run off a string of 5 wins at a time. In a related note, no one ever told me how difficult it is to get information in Europe ab out what is happening in the US. My hotel room had CNN World, and there was no ESPN. Not even ESPN Desportes. Thank God for free wi-fi connections at the hotel and my trusty iPod Touch.

Ok, so four of them were courtesy of the hopelessly inept Washington Nationals, but when it gets the Phils back to first place in the suddenly pedestrian National League East, no complaints, right?

Before the Phillies met the Nationals for their 4 game weekend series, the Phils met with President Obama at the White House for the obligatory meet and greet with the champs. Which prompted Andy Martino of the Inquirer to swing and miss with this article comparing Obama to the Phillies. Yo, Andy! This isn’t the first time that you’ve injected politics into your writing. My suggestion would be to make it the last, as well. It struck the wrong chord, and it just doesn’t belong in the sports section.

Obama did deliver a great address to the Phillies, which he probably had some help from his campaign manager David Plouffe and Joe Biden, both of whom root for the right team.

On to the baseball, the Phils took all four games from the Nationals, despite getting …

“It wouldn’t really make sense to keep me in a position down in the lineup where my game is speed when I’m on.”

-Jimmy Rollins, May 12, 2009.

I guess Charlie is supposed to just wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more for Jimmy Rollins to start getting on base consistently and set the table for the Phillies’ lefthanded run producers.

Jimmy stated that he would bat .400 in May, but so far that prediction has been not nearly as prescient as some of his other prognostications in the past. He is batting a less than robust .171 in May with a .209 OBP.

According to Jimmy, though, he’s a leadoff hitter and that’s where he belongs.

Kudos to Charlie for not giving a shit what Jimmy thinks and putting out a lineup that he thinks will work vs. a lineup that will keep his slumping shortstop happy.

History shows us that Jimmy does well when it’s him vs. the world. Rollins was batting .266 before calling Phillies fans “frontrunners” in August of last year. His batting average after he came home from the west cost trip that included his controversial TV appearance was .307 for the rest of the season.

So maybe tweaking Jimmy a bit isn’t such a bad idea. Either way, Charlie has a responsibility to find ways to increase production if it’s lacking. His job is not to photocopy the previous day’s lineup card just because someone thinks they are a leadoff hitter, or the cleanup hitter, or the …

The whole photo gallery is here, but here are some choice ones:

Beautiful on the outside:

Lame on the inside, including behind home plate, which can only be seen by the deep pocket types. The concourse is completely closed off in this area.

If you want to watch the game from the outfield, make sure you like your baseball letterboxed:

There are video screens everywhere:

The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is a nice touch:

Are there pipes like this at Citizens Bank Park? I don’t recall nearly tripping over pipes like this in Philly:

An underwhelming ballpark overall, proving as always, that there’s no place like home:

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The Phillies are looking up at the Mets in the standings right now after a little winning streak by our division rivals as well as losses in 4 of the Phils last 5 games, including 2 at Citi Field. Charlie is probably not too far away from needing to make some decisions regarding both the rotation and the bullpen. JC Romero is about 20 games away from returning to his post, and here’s hoping that his return marks the end of Jack Taschner’s time in red pinstripes. With J.A. Happ headed for the rotation at some point, Scott Eyre should remain as the other lefthanded option out of the ‘pen.

Brad Lidge continues to look awful, but if you go based solely on …

After spending an evening at the Mets new ballpark for the Phillies first game there, I’ve got some early thoughts about the game, the park, and the Phillies fans who showed up.

1. I plan on writing a more detailed post regarding Citi Field, complete with pics of some specific isses from my perspective, but here is the Cliff’s Notes version.

It isn’t nearly as well designed as Citizens Bank Park, on so many levels. This is not homerism. There are other ballparks that are superior to Citizens Bank Park, including PNC Park in Pittsburgh. This is simply the comparing of one park to another.

Citi Field is a bloated, disorganized, overly modern mess that caters to New York elites who wouldn’t know a bunt from a balk. There were scores of empty seats, most notably the more expensive ones. The average hard core fan has been marginalized in this park. Mets ownership should be embarrassed at the inability to sell this park out despite the reduced capacity vs. Shea Stadium. There were several thousand Phillies fans in attendance as well. Weak.

The out of town scoreboard is above the highest seats in left field, and you need a telescope to see it. The bullpen is covered by tarps. You cannot see the game from behind home plate unless you have grossly overpaid for a seat, or are enjoying the game from The Ebbets Club for $150 a pop. The concourse is completely closed off to the field from behind home plate, and …

During the offseason, I watched the Derek Lowe sweepstakes with great interest.

After all, Lowe was being courted by the majority of NL East teams, and where he landed would have a material impact on one of baseball’s hottest divisions.

The Mets were clearly interested, but they wanted Lowe on their terms, not his, and in the end Lowe was able to get exactly what he wanted financially from the needy Atlanta Braves. With the Braves losing John Smoltz to the Boston Red Sox on Jan. 9, the Braves moves swiftly to give Lowe the 4 year, $60 million deal he wanted.

The Mets turned their attention to an incumbent member of their starting rotation, and inked the up and down Oliver Perez to a 3 year, $36 million deal.

Big win for the Braves. And a big win for the Phillies as well.

The Braves have enough issues with their team that the addition of Derek Lowe could not alone solve. The Mets, on the other hand, would have been emboldened by the addition of Lowe to serve as the 1a starter for their squad behind Johan Santana.

So, who can we thank for the good fortune of seeing Derek Lowe a good 900 miles away from Flushing, NY?

More than likely, disgraced investor Bernie Madoff. Thanks, Bernie. You’re the best.

The Mets owners, the Wilpons, insisted that their association with Bernie Madoff and the subsequent losses resulting from that relationship had no bearing on the Mets finances, but you have to wonder …