Still Sinking

Chase Utley homered in his first at-bat of the season, Carlos Ruiz hit a homer immediately after, and there was a glimmer of hope. Hope that the Phillies were back, Chase Utley’s return would bring that old grit and winning attitude back to the Philadelphia clubhouse. Then Raul Valdes gave up a three run homer, then the rest of the mess that has accumulated in the Phillies’ bullpen blew the game wide open, and the Phillies lost, again.

The Phillies have yet to win a game since Utley has returned to the lineup. Their season is in a nose dive and it wasn’t a long fall to the basement of the NL East, it only took a three game sweep by the Miami Marlins to get them there. The Phillies dealt Jim Thome, a pinch-hitting luxury at this point, for two low-level prospects.

Splashed across the headlines and the ESPN ticker is news of GM Ruben Amaro openly shopping Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino. Amaro would go on to denounce the rumors; he even reached out to reporters in order to quiet the rumblings.

“"These aren't things we discuss or talk about in front of other people," Amaro said, "but our goals are always the same. Our goal is to try to continue to contend this year, to try to win the National League East. If we can't do that, we want to be a playoff club. Our other goal, frankly, is to keep Hamels in our uniform, short term and long term." Amaro would go on to say that he believes keeping Hamels is a “realistic” option.

While most of the Philly faithful is calling for an overhaul and dubbing the season over, Amaro seems to have a very different opinion, one that may still hold credibility, but is quickly fading.

The Phillies have lost five straight games taking them to 9 games under .500, and sit 11 games behind the division-leading Washington Nationals.

They open a six game run against the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets which should be very telling of how the rest of the season goes. If the Phils continue to tank I don’t see how they could hold off a fire sale, if they start to shine then maybe we can still hold out hope, but decisions will need to be made soon.