Perhaps these dissenters’ opinions are objectively unreasonable. David Schoenfield provided a detailed analysis of his reasoning in his blog. Is it reasonable? It isn’t unreasonable. Is it correct? Whether it correct or not is irrelevant. Neither you, nor anyone else, can judge the correctness this early in the season. Is there such a thing as an incorrect opinion? Perhaps that is a question for another day. The bottom line is that you were wrong in your assertion that no one counted the Phillies out and you should admit it.

On a side point, you use a five-game sample to “prove” that it would be “silly” for anyone to worry about the Phillies’ offense. I know that you know that it is “silly” to rely on such a small sample size to conclude anything about any team’s prospects. Unless, you also counted the Red Sox out after five games.

1. Ryan Howard said that “a lot of people” “counted the Phillies out” and that they have now been proven wrong. It was later clarified that he was referring to just the offense.

2. I said that, no “a lot of people” did not “count the Phillies out” and to suggest that they did was delusional. When it was noted that he meant just the offense I considered it and still believed that it was delusional to say that “a lot of people” “counted the offense out.” Rather, many have merely noted the offense as a potential weak spot, not a killer (i.e. something that should make one count the Phillies offense out as a factor).

3. People came up with two examples of someone who did count the Phillies offense out. David Schoenfield of ESPN and Jonah Keri.

4. I said in the thread that despite whatever Schoenfield said, the clear majority of ESPN experts still picked the Phillies to win the East (and how can one pick them to win the East if the offense is a true Achilles heel?). In the chat I said that, while I had not read Jonah’s take, if he indeed counted the Phillies offense out, I believe was wrong to do so.

Where this left me is thinking that (a) it is patently unreasonable to count the Phillies offense out despite whatever flaws it has; and (b) for Ryan Howard to believe that “a lot of people” counted the Phillies offense is out is delusional, either because hardly anyone truly did or, because even if a couple people did, to do so was silly, and thus Howard’s implied “this gave us motivation and we proved you wrong” thing was kind of silly.

You don’t have to agree with me. But please, do not misrepresent me.

In the the Yankees-Red Sox live chat, it was noted that Jonah Keri counted the Phillies out. Craig stated that Jonah Keri was wrong for counting the Phillies out. Which makes Craig what?

You have a very good team. Act like it. As much as I dislike Boston and New York fans, at least they don’t act like 6-year old girls whenever their team is criticized.

Can any of you Philly fans point to another article written about this game where it was clarified beforehand that Howard was speaking specifically about the offense? If not, any objection to Craig “not doing his research” is bunk.

I think this proves Mark Cuban’s point perfectly. Internet bloggers have a tendence to create drama and turn things into something there not without any hesitation for if what there talking about is what legitimately happened . That they would rather write about a juicy story then the truth.

As long as Howard keeps putting up the numbers he has so far this year, he can say all the idiotic things he wants.

Signed,

A Phils fan

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview/2011/news/story?page=11expertpicks

David Schoenfield of the SweetSpot blog at ESPN counted the Phillies out:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/8172/why-the-phillies-wont-make-the-playoffs

The headline as stated is incendiary. In today’s world filled with xanax users, PC types, grammar nazis, and the like, making a headline that states Howard is “delusional” is a pretty serious claim.

I expected some serious red meat with those potatoes after reading that. It’s not there. I expected him to have said something whacked, like: “Our team as assembled today, makes the Murderer’s Row look like a girls softball team”, or some other similar pablum.

Consider this: in professional sports, it’s a known strategy for a team to find unity via an “us against them” team collective attitude (using it to fill the hole left by the Uttley injury or the Werth free agency, for instance). Delivered behind real talent, it can drive a team over the top (and its a long, unpredictable haul to the endgame here), As a Braves fan, do you really want Howard and Co. to have any added motivation to knock your kids into the dirt every time they meet? Didn’t think so…better to let sleeping giants lie.

Besides, calling Howard delusional feeds right into that. So, if I’m right about what Howard is angling for overall, who really miscalculated here? File it under “any publicity is good publicity if it solidifies the team”…

Getting this worked up over something so benign makes you seem incredibly over-sensitive and whiny. If you thought Craig was baiting you, why did you take the bait?

Get over it, people.

If the Yanks and Phils quit giving out such ample opportunities, it wouldn’t happen so often.

But yes, cake does indeed rule.

Every couple weeks or so, Craig will put out something on here that is designed to get under the skin of a fanbase, and the two most likely to get the number of clicks and amount of ire up are the Yanker and Phils fanbases. Ergo, the fans come out with the hackles up, raising the number of comments, which in itself, boosts the number of clicks and comments even more.

It looks like it worked again this time. Unfortunately that also means that it’ll happen again, and probably sooner rather than later.

Craig, I love ya like the pasty undead booger eating cellar dwelling blogmeister whose words I read every day (just about), but you don’t really need to do this—at least as often as you do. Once in a while is okay, since it’s somewhat interesting to watch people fall all over themselves trying to say that you’re a spiteful hack who has it out for their team. But every couple weeks is kind of overkill.

That said, CAKE AND THE PHIGHTINS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he was just saying that so far this season they’ve been proving that wrong, that if the start of this season is any indication how 2011 will go the pitching will continue to be dominant but the offense itself will be a threat all by itself this year. That it is silly for someone to count out an offense capable of scoring that many runs in a single home stretch, but tbh I don’t remember them ever having a single four or five game stretch last year where as many runs were brought in so there you go.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/02/19/mark-teixeira-calls-the-yankees-underdogs/