Good for the Washington Nationals.

I hope they take back their park. I hope they draw more than 22,000 of their own fans. I hope, in fact, they shut up the growing amount of obnxious Phillies fans who plan to invade and take over “Citizens Bank South” this weekend. When a Phillies player does something good this week, I want to hear an overwhelmingly amount of boos over a spattering of cheers.

CrossingBroad.com’s Kyle Scott does some mildly amusing stuff. It’s mostly sophomoric, offensive, sexist uber-homer material targeted at the blind loyalist/close-minded/poorly-educated/drunk-all-day-drunk-all-night/foul-mouthed Philadelphia sports fan. And that’s fine, for what it is. Hell, he’s more successful a blogger than I will ever be, so I give him kudos for that.

He organized a bus trip to Nats Park in response to the Nationals’ campaign to stop Phillies fans from overrunning the place. Hey, I hated seeing Mets fans flood CBP from 2004-07 with that stupid “Let’s Go Mets!” chant, so, I can really appreciate why the Nats brass decided to do this and started promoting this particular series months and months in advance.

Scott berates the Nationals fans, over and over, by making fun of their low attendance figures and whatnot (Good points. Even with Harper and Strasburg, Nats fans still aren’t showing up to the park).

But Scott apparently has never seen an empty Vet Stadium or a half-full CBP. It’s as if years and years and years and years of futility never existed here.

Someday soon, the Nationals are going to take over the NL East. Someday soon, their fans — hundreds and hundreds of them — will invade Citizens Bank Park. And fans like Scott should realize this: The Nats ARE GOING TO BE VERY, VERY GOOD. It’s happening right now.

Scott tried saving face in a post earlier today, basically telling people to keep everything in perspective and don’t be assholes. Everything he had done up to that point, he says, has been in “good fun.” This, coincidentally, came after Crashburn Alley sent a call to Phillies fans telling them to knock off the bullshit. CrashburnAlley lambasted Scott, and deservedly so.  If you haven’t read the CA piece, it’s a must-read.

I pissed my pants reading this little gem from Scott’s post:

“Philly fans get a bad rap, undeservingly so.”

What Scott doesn’t see is, it’s people like him who are responsible for that bad rap. He just adds more fuel to the fire, time and time again.

Roy Halladay had his worst start as a Phillie Wednesday night, allowing eight runs (all earned) in 5 1.2 un-Doc-like innings.

Fans were quick to conclude that there is something physically wrong with the two-time Cy Young winner.

In fact, whenever Halladay allows two runs and can’t make it past the seven innings, the “What’s with Doc?” questions seem to arise.

Let’s not blow one terrible outing out of proportion.

We’ve grown accostomed to seeing hitters swing early in counts and get on base, only for Doc to wriggle out of jam after jam.  Halladay couldn’t skin the cat this time, however.

Is it concerning that arguably the best pitcher in baseball blew a 6-0 lead? Sure. In fact, Halladay was (and still is) undefeated when his team gives him a lead of four or more runs. The Phillies’ offense let him off the hook, but by all means, no one feels better that he is 107-0 with a lead of four or more runs.

Halladay left a few fastballs up, but his biggest mistake was the cutter that didn’t cut to Brian McCann, who promptly killed the offering over the left-field fence for a grand slam.

Other than that one huge mistake, he looked fine, stuff-wise. He tapped out at 93 mph and was dominant through the first four innings.

It did appear, however, that Halladay was winded in the sixth inning. It was a sticky, muggy night in Atlanta, so heat exhaustion could have been a factor. Remember the last time Halladay’s face was that red? He didn’t make it out of the fifth inning in Chicago last year. So, yeah, you can’t rule out that Halladay was, perhaps, out of energy.

But that’s just another excuse. Halladay wasn’t good, plain and simple.

It was announced today that Halladay had to leave the team to take care of a family matter. He gave the Phillies a heads up on Tuesday that he would be leaving, according to reports. Obviously, we hope everything is OK at home, and Halladay can rejoin the Phils soon.

Sometimes even the best pitchers go through struggles (See: Josh Johnson, Tim Lincecum). It happens. It’s baseball. It’s not the end of the world.

Don’t sweat Halladay’s poor performance Wednesday. He’ll bounce back.

It’s hard to say a series in May is a must-win, but this is the Phillies’ chance to show one of two things.

1) They are still the team to beat in the NL East, despite a deplorably bad lineup and a so-so bullpen. This is, truly, the first “show me” series of the season. Braves are a playoff contender.

2) The lineup is deplorably bad and the bullpen so-so; the Braves will overmatch them.

Key to the series: Phillies need seven-plus innings out of both Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels. There’s a good chance the Phillies score no more than four runs any game this series. If you’re perusing sports betting sites , Hamels v. Beachy and Halladay v. Hanson in Games 1 and 2 calls for taking the under as runs will come at a premium. But if the Phils’ starting pitching doesn’t keep ‘em in it, the Braves should quite easily win at least two out of three.

Straight from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies.com blog this morning:

“The Phillies rank 14th in the league in on-base percentage (.280), 15th in slugging percentage (.325) and 15th in runs per game average (2.85). If those averages look horrendous, they are. No National League team has finished a season with a worse on-base percentage since the 1965 Mets (.277); a worse slugging percentage since the 1968 Dodgers (.319), 1968 Astros (.317) and 1968 Mets (.315); or a worse runs per game average than the 1942 Phillies (2.61).”

The suckitude cannot worsen, right? At some point, even an anemic rehabilitates and becomes stronger… right???

Funny how things work in baseball. Just three years ago, the Phillies were widely regarded as having the best offense in the National League, behind only the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays, maybe, in the majors.

Three years later, this is the worst lineup contructed since the Terry Francona era. Juan Pierre, John Mayberry Jr, Freddy Galvis (who will be a good player, but not this year), Placido Polanco are regulars.

Heck, does anyone in the lineup scare anyone? Or, how about this repharse: does anyone in the lineup excite or entertain anymone?

Rollins? Not anymore.
Polanco? Yeah, right…
Pierre? Don’t get me started.

Mayberry has been a disaster and looks absolutely lost at the plate. Chooch is what he is. He’s honestly the most popular Phillie right now, I’m convinced. Everybody loves the guy, but I don’t think the e-word when I think of Ruiz.

Maybe Shane Victorino, when he’s going real good. But he, like just about everyone else, has been nothing more than a singles hitter.

Honestly, the “watch” value of this club is at a low. I don’t think I’ve been this disinterested or disgusted since circa 2006, when the Abreus, Lieberthals and Liebers were clogging up roster spots.

On any given night, when I’m not working, I tend to pay more attention Nationals games or Mets games (best broadcast team in baseball), Tigers, Rays, Royals, etc. on MLB.TV than I do the Phils.

Sad.

1. Shane Victorino CF
2. Placido Polanco 3B
3. Jimmy Rollins SS
4. Hunter Pence RF
5. Ty Wigginton 1B
6. John Mayberry Jr. LF
7. Carlos Ruiz C
8. Freddy Galvis 2B
9. Roy Halladay RHP

Reaction: Have to do some digging to find out the last time Jimmy Rollins didn’t lead off a Phillies opening day…Seeing Wiggington hit behind Pence worries me. It’s pretty disturbing how mean this lineup is…

NL East prediction: 1. Nationals. 2. Braves. 3. Phillies. 4. Marlins. 5. Mets.

• Roy Halladay is the greatest pitcher in the game … except when it comes to facing the leadoff hitter. Batters feasted on Doc in those situations a year ago. It’s what eventually killed the Phillies in Game 5 of the NLDS (well, that and the fact the Phillies’ bats were nonexistent). Consequently Doc’s BAA was .239, decent by his standards (granted, so many hits off Doc were bloopers and seeing-eye stuff).
• Is it me, or is Michael Martinez exceptionally awful this spring? I don’t care the Phillies dealt Wilson Valdez to keep Martinez. What I would care about is if they decide to keep Martinez while other, more deserving guys are overlooked at the end of spring. Fact is, Martinez is no better than a Triple-A lifer. He shouldn’t have a spot on the big-league roster.
• Freddy Galvis showed some good plate discipline and had two ground ball hits, including a shot down the first-base line. Still needs to learn more about the art of hitting. I already want him over Martinez, but chances are he’ll “need to play everyday in Lehigh” (I’m predicting that will be a direct quote from Rubes or Chuck). B.S. I say let him be the super-utility guy out of spring training, and he’ll get more playing time than you think. He’ll probably end up starting 3-4 nights a week, because you sure as hell know at least three of the four infield spots are big IFs. If Galvis shows he belongs, DON’T SEND HIM DOWN FOR “MORE SEASONING”!!! I don’t want to see the Phillies brass F__k with him the way they dicked around with Utley 7-8 years ago.He’s a plus defender and a work-in-process hitter. Let him stay … if he shows this kind of  ”potential” throughout the month of March.
• Phillippe Aumont looks like the Giant Gonzalez of WWF 90s lore, and probably throws like him, too. A big mess of an arm destined for middle relief mediocrity.
• Lou Montanez is in camp?
• Juan Pierre is a fifth outfielder who should be playing no where else other than CF (and if you say he’s “the perfect leadoff hitter” and “great at stealing bases,” I will track you down and kick you in the nads). He showed some nice things, but honestly, I think I’d rather have Podsednik.

OK, there were reports (albeit, unsubstantiated reports) over the winter that Roy Halladay was fishing with some buddies in the Amazon — perfectly logical place to hunt for trout, I know — saved a man from an anaconda death grip.

Halladay is something like a superhero every fifth day … but this seemed way too, well, far-fetched and probably not true. But the blogosphere had a field day with it, even though Halladay never addressed the incident in the offseason (he, like just about 95 percent of the Phillies, are MIA in the winter; Tweetaholics Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino are the exception).

Anyways, Halladay finally dispelled this tale of self-sacrifice and bravery (and stupidity, to be honest) at his introductory spring training press conference Tuesday.

“I was not wrestling snakes. I was nowhere near snakes. We were just driving back. We had been fishing all day and we were on the boat driving back. We happened to see a guy sitting on the shoreline without clothes. We couldn’t talk to him. The guides had to talk to him – they were speaking Portuguese. He had been attacked by a snake and escaped. But it had ripped the engine off his boat and left all his stuff out in the river. So we picked up his stuff, picked him up, and drove him back to his tribe I guess you would call it.”

Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted…

God damn.

We’re back for the 2012 season and we need your help.

If you are an aspiring writer, journalist, or simply would like to blog about Phillies baseball, we want to hear from you. We’re looking for at least five contributors.

Shoot me an email at matt8421@gmail.com if you’re interested.

Roy Halladay labored through seven innings, but got the most important outs to help the Phillies take the first game of a three-game series with the Nationals.

It seems that Halladay has battled out of trouble a lot more than last year. Hitters are approaching him very aggressively, swinging at a lot ofstuff early in the count and working long at bats.

Fun fact: Roy Halladay impersonator Charlie Morton has a lower ERA (2.51) than Halladay (2.56)