All in all, the Phillies have been pretty impressive during the first 55 games of the season.

Cole Hamels and the rest of the starting rotation have rebounded from the early spring doldrums, and are now pitching very well (even rookie Antonio Bastardo, called up to replace the injured Brett Myers in the rotation, is 2-0). Raul Ibanez continues to hit the cover off the ball, and as of this morning is leading NL outfielders in votes for the All-Star Game. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard are having their typically productive years, and Carlos Ruiz (!) is hitting – no, this is not a typo – .309. Not even a season-long slump from Jimmy Rollins has stopped the Phillies from leading the National League in homers and several other offensive categories.

But, if the Phillies are to repeat as world champions come October, there is one puzzling, persistent problem that must be addressed – and soon.

I speak, of course, of troubled closer Brad Lidge.

Lidge’s dominance last season has been well-documented: 41-for-41 in save opportunities during the regular season, followed by a 7-for-7 showing in the postseason, including closing out the clinching game of the World Series. But that was then, this is now. It seemed inevitable that Lidge was likely to regress somewhat from 2008, but I don’t think anyone predicted he would be this bad. After ruining two more games in Los Angeles over the weekend, Lidge’s 2009 stats look like this: an 0-3 record, 13-for-19 in save opportunities, a 7.27 ERA, 33 hits and 14 walks in just 26 innings and seven home runs allowed. This is not merely bad; this is horrible. Lidge is making the 2008 Mets’ bullpen look like the Nasty Boys.

Last season, the Phillies won the World Series because their bullpen was the best in baseball. This season, their path to the playoffs has one major obstacle currently in the way: Lidge. The Phils have the second-best record in the league and lead the Mets by three games in the East, but there’s no way they can make it to and through October with the 2009 version of Brad Lidge. Look at what happened to those aforementioned Mets of last season. Last year, the Mets had 29 blown saves as a team. 29! If they had only 25 instead of 29, they would have finished ahead of the Phillies in the division and qualified for the playoffs (the Phils finished three games up). A standout year from Johan Santana and terrific offensive performances from David Wright & Co. were all for naught thanks to Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis and the rest.

I fear the same thing happening to this year’s Phillies. Lidge has to either get it straightened out or be removed from his ninth inning role. Luckily, the Phils have a flame-throwing, dominant reliever already in their ‘pen in the form of Ryan Madson. Charlie Manuel may be reluctant to do so, but it may be time to switch Lidge and Madson in the late innings. The fate of the 2009 Phillies may depend on it.

No, seriously.  I’m not making this up.

It’s May 6th.  Through 24 games, the Phillies have led wire-to-wire (never trailing) in just three games.  Their pitchers have a 5.50 ERA, worst in the National League, and have surrendered an MLB-high 43 homers (almost two per game).  Both Brad Lidge and Cole Hamels – who is winless, by the way – sport ERAs around 7, and Clay Condrey is tied for the team lead in wins.  The lowest ERA of any Phillies starter is 5.35.  And Chase Utley has not started two of the past three games due to a foot injury.

Taking all that into account, the Phillies are, of course, in first place.

Somehow, someway, the Fightin’s will arrive at Bailout Park Citi Field tonight as a first-place club (though, with Chan Ho Park facing off against Johan Santana, that might not last very long).  This team, with arguably the worst pitching in the majors, is 14-10 and coming off a quick two-game sweep of the very formidable Cardinals in St. Louis.  Last night, they finally overtook the Marlins – 4-11 after an 11-1 start – for the top spot in the National League East.

I checked the standings online after last night’s game and, sure enough, there they were.  The Phillies.  My Phillies.  At the top of the standings.  I found myself playing that song in my head, the one that begins “You may ask yourself, ‘how did I get here?’”

How DID we get here?

Well, like we always have.  The bullpen – Lidge’s first blown save of his Phillies career notwithstanding – has been terrific.  Condrey has been a revelation in the seventh inning, Madson continues to dominate in the eighth and just about everyone this side of Scott Eyre (who’s been better lately) has gotten the job done – which is good, considering the starters have been lasting about two innings before calling it a night (Chan Ho, I’m looking at you).

And then, of course, there has been the offense, and the come-from-behind wins.  The Phils’ first nine wins, and 11 of their 14 wins thus far have been comebacks.  Now, I’m not the Elias Sports Bureau, but I would imagine that has got to be either some kind of record or pretty freakin’ close to one.  Of course, coming from behind has got to be somewhat easier when you have Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley tearing the cover off the ball (they each have eight home runs and 21 RBI), Shane Victorino riding a 14-game hitting streak, Ryan Howard with two grand slams already and even Pedro Feliz (!) contributing – to the tune of a .325 batting average.  Now, if only J-Roll could get going (and he’s got 10 hits in his last seven games), and things could really start to get interesting.

So, despite everything that has gone wrong – and there has been a ton of it – the Phillies have continued to do some things very well.  To be four games over .500 and in first place after a month and change seems like some kind of hilarious joke, but the standings insist it’s true.  If the starters can start pitching like a major league staff, this team could really start to take off, which should scare the bejeezus out of Mr. Santana and the boys from Flushing.  Because if a team can be 16th in the league in ERA, first in home runs allowed, last in starters’ ERA and STILL be in first place, that team is a force to be reckoned with.  Now, I’m not going to start making any noise about repeating as champions of this or that, but the Phils have proven that they are a tough, tough team to take out – even when they’re giving up over five runs a game.  Lower that ERA to the 3’s or 4’s and, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t rule out adding another pennant of some kind to that fast-growing collection at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies family lost its voice – and its biggest fan – today, with the passing of Harry Kalas at the age of 73.

Harry was more than just a broadcaster.  Oh, sure, just about everyone has heard his voice, as he also recorded many commercials and countless NFL Films throughout his career.  But he was more than just a voice (and a great voice that was); he was an institution, and the city of Philadelphia and its baseball team will never be the same without him.

If you grew up a Phillies fan, you grew up a Harry Kalas fan.  I, for one, grew up in the 1990s, and until their successes in the 2000s, the Phils had just one winning season in my lifetime, 1993.  Needless to say, there wasn’t usually a whole lot to cheer about, at least baseball-wise, during the long and hot Philadelphia summers.  But, win or lose, there was always Harry – that voice, that passion, that congenial, grandfatherly figure to usher you through a game.

Whether it was “Outta here!” or “Swing and a miss, struck him out!” or “Watch this baby!” or any of his signature calls – Mike Schmidt’s 500th homer, the Phils’ NLCS clincher in ‘93 or the World Series championship just last year – Harry’s narration in the booth was unmistakably married to the Phils’ actions on the field.  Players came and went, seasons started and began, and the team ebbed and flowed – but Harry always, always remained.  It wasn’t really baseball season, wasn’t really the Phillies, unless it was Harry leading the way.

The news today is devastating for those of us who, like me, have spent a lifetime passionately following the Phillies.  To think of the Phillies without Harry is like peanut butter without jelly, or Christmas without the tree.  But Phillies fans can take some much-needed solace in the fact that Harry lived to see – and call – the Phillies win the World Series one more time, and that his life fittingly ended in the place from which he radiated so much love and joy, the broadcast booth.

But for me, like so many millions of Phillies fans, today is a tough, tough day.  It’s really hard to believe that Harry is “outta here.”

You know, I kinda knew this would happen.

Now that the Phillies have won the World Series, I think they feel as if they have gotten all their “winning” out of their system, and can now revert back to being, well, the Phillies.

Raising ticket prices was the first example.  Signing Chan Ho Park was the second.  And the mere flirtation with the idea of signing Gary Sheffield is the third.

Gary Sheffield is an oft-injured, oft-grumpy, can’t-play-defense “outfielder” who is a shell of what he used to be.  He belongs as a DH on an American League team, if at all.  He certainly does not belong in the Phillies clubhouse, which is almost renowned for its laid-back vibe and great chemistry.  Plus, it’s not like Sheffield would be likely to contribute much – if anything – on the field; he would be the occasional pinch-hitter but would be absolutely useless as a defensive replacement.

I am all for bringing in a right-handed bat off the bench.  The Phils are way too left-handed heavy, and the addition of Raul Ibanez – while overall a smart signing – only alleviated those problems.  Had Geoff Jenkins not been left-handed, he would not have been released by the Phillies yesterday.  So, yeah, let’s get a right-handed hitter… but not someone who’s 40 years old, can’t play defense, is always hurt and has had a crappy attitude for the past 20 years (literally).  If that’s the direction the Phils plan to go… well, it’s gonna be a long 28 more years until the next world championship.

Uh-oh. MAYBE, but can this really be happening?

Today’s news that Phillies ace Cole Hamels is headed back to Philadelphia for an MRI on his left elbow is disconcerting, to say the least. Hamels, who was both NLCS and World Series MVP last season, is the undisputed ace of the Phils’ rotation. At the tender age of 24, he’s also one of the best – and most fragile – young lefties in the game.

Yes, Jamie Moyer can still win games at the age of 70. Yes, Brett Myers reported to camp this season noticeably slimmed down. Yes, Joe Blanton went undefeated for the Phils since arriving midway through last season (6-0 including the playoffs). But a Phillies rotation with Hamels is like Seinfeld without Jerry.

Could the Phillies contend without Hamels? Probably, but it’s totally contingent on these things:

1. Moyer staying healthy – and productive – again at age 46 (that’s his real age, not 70)
2. Myers pitching like last season’s second-half Brett Myers (7-4, 3.06 ERA) instead of first-half Brett Myers (3-9, 5.84 ERA)
3. Blanton holding down his spot at at least the same level as last season
4. Chan Ho Park (the assumed fifth starter) pitching like he has this spring, which is actually well (1.54 ERA in 11.2 innings)

I could see all those things happening. I could just as easily see none of them happening, or kinda happening. Moyer (2.45 ERA in 11 innings so far this spring) seems not to have missed a beat, but Myers has only pitched three innings thus far and Park – or whomever is the fifth starter – can’t be assumed to be reliable, at least not initially.

It’s conceivable that Moyer does have another year left in him, that Myers is finally ready to be the star the Phils thought he would be, that Blanton takes off in his first full year in the NL and that Park enjoys a shocking resurgence in one of baseball’s best hitters’ parks. But, man, that seems like an awful lot to ask for.

By all means, be cautious, but the Phillies really, really need Hamels to be healthy. It’d be significantly tougher – if not borderline-impossible – to seriously compete without him.

Keep ‘em crossed!

Well, it’s been over four months since Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske on a wicked 0-2 slider, and the Philadelphia Phillies are – believe it or not – still the reigning World Series champions. So the question now, of course is:

Can they win another?

I know it seems like a silly question. The reigning World Series champion almost never goes back-to-back, especially not lately and especially not if that team is in the National League. In the past 32 years, only the Yankees (’98-’00) and Blue Jays (’92-’93) have repeated as World Series champs. You have to go all the way back to the 1975-1976 Cincinnati Reds (the Big Red Machine) to find an NL team that won two titles in a row.

So the sensible answer to the question is, of course, no. And there’s good reason behind that. Pat Gillick – the baseball genius behind the 2008 championship – is gone, replaced by rookie GM Ruben Amaro. Jamie Moyer is yet another year older (I think he’s now qualifying for Social Security) and, with Raul Ibanez taking over for Pat Burrell in left field, the team is almost absurdly lefthanded. For Pete’s sake, the Phillies signed Chan Ho Park – Chan Ho Park!!! – to their pitching staff. And, now that they’ve reached the mountaintop, it will be enormously difficult to rev up the engine for a second go-round. It’s always tougher to repeat; the magic just isn’t there anymore.

All that being said, the Phils do have one tremendous advantage this season: the pressure’s off. This is a team that, for years, was expected to break out but, alas, never seemed to be able to. It started after a surprise second-place finish in 2001. It continued with the arrival of Jim Thome in 2003, and then Billy Wagner in 2004. The pressure built some more after Larry Bowa and former GM Ed Wade were fired, and the wizardly Gillick was brought in instead. After finally breaking through and making the playoffs with a miracle comeback over the Mets in 2007, the Phillies went three-and-out to, of all teams, the Colorado Rockies. Disappointment after disappointment, heartache after heartache – and all because the bar seemed to be set just a little bit too high.

There is no bar anymore. There is no pressure. The Phillies have finally accomplished what had long been expected of them, what a generation of Philadelphians had grown up without: a championship. They no longer have any pressure to reach the top. They’ve been there, and they know the way back.

The Phils are terrific when the pressure is off and they’ve been counted out (witness their astonishing come-from-behind division titles the last two seasons). Over the last decade, they have been sloppy when the pressure is applied, particularly early in the season (Phillies + April = AAAGGGHHHH!!!). But now nothing more is expected of them. Sure, there’s “win another one!” but, honestly, does anyone really expect that? I don’t think anyone in Philadelphia – a.k.a. Pessimism Land – really does. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they come out strong in April, have another good season and make a run at another title. For the first time in years, they can really let loose and just play baseball – something they’ve proven they’re awfully good at.