If you go, I need the name of the brand of diet cream soda (the one in the bottles) that they serve there. I was trying to get the local specialty grocer to order a case for me and forgot the goddamned name. Be sure to write it down!

The Nats played like their 2008-9 ancestors last night, while Cliff Lee pitched like, well, Cliff Lee. The Phillies are well-positioned to be spoilers with their starting pitching. And that means spoiling the Braves as well as the Nats.

But the A’s non-activity will certainly contribute to their inevitable swoon. As will any continuation of back-to-back rotation starts by Griffin and Milone against the same opponent. Those two are simply too much alike. By the third time through the lineup Monday the Rays were locking in on Griffin. That’s normal for league average pitchers. But the Rays were on Milone the second time through the order, having seen that same velocity and pitch assortment the previous night, although from a righty instead of a lefty. With Shields being so ultra effective, the game was over early, and any tv’s not already tuned to the Olympics in the Bay Area quickly switched channels, and hopefully spared the viewers listening to co-owner and GP Lew Wolff and then AGM David Forst spinning furiously about how everyone was asking for Parker AND Straily even for some lousy player who wouldn’t really be an upgrade. “Trust me on this. No I mean it. Trust me. This is how it was.”

Aside from the problem that NOBODY believes this nonsense, the Angels added Greinke and the fast falling Rangers added Dempster. And Lew wants to keep making his profit off revenue sharing, so no help for the A’s. Forst did spend a lot of time explaining how the A’s would be energetic in pursuing waiver claims while quickly glossing over the flip side of that equation, how are the A’s going to behave as sellers, since there is interest in some of their veterans. All in all, disappointing deadline day, disappointing game, and disappointing spin by the team.

Kevin Long needs to be fired and maybe Girardi shouldn’t be that far behind him.

The Yankees have the third best record in baseball. They have a 97% chance of making the playoffs. Why would you fire, or even consider firing a manager in August over that? That’s just goofy. Don’t overreact to small sample size theatre.

Why am I defending the Yankees??

@number42is1- if they keep playing like this, September’s not even going to matter.

Also, I was so mad after the first, I had to shut the TV off and missed the 7 run explosion in the top of the second. Shame on me.

Maybe its me just bleeding red… wait, everyone bleeds red… well a “metaphoric red”. But, the two most criticized Phillies were arguably Victorino and Pence. Victorino has not been Victorino at the plate and really, was not a good table setter as a #2 guy. Pierre has been an on base machine. We are going to for sure miss Shane’s defense, though. And Pence, yea… I’m going to miss this guy’s heart and the way he plays, but, I think putting a smarter hitter 5th or 6th will manufacture just as many runs as Pence would (taking into account the runs he gives up in the field).

Watching the Phillies last night they really didn’t have a “frustrating at bat”… where once a guy got up I wasn’t immediately thinking, let’s see (insert name) screw up. Because most of the “(insert name)’s” was usually Victorino or Pence.

I think the pressure/focus is off the Phillies now b/c they aren’t expected to win. But, give me a rotation of Hamels/Halladay/Lee/Blanton and I’m going to believe until they are mathematically eliminated!