With the loss of Jon Leiber to injury, the Phillies will now have 2 inexperienced starting pitchers (AAA starter JA Happ is rumored to be the next call-up) to go along with a battered bullpen. The Phillies went 3-3 on the just-finished 6 game road trip despite giving up 6 runs a game. This will have to be how they win games unless pitching help arrives. This means that Charlie Manuel had no choice to bench Pat Burrell and his .205 avg. They can’t, and apparently won’t wait for him to come out of his "slump".
Time is now for the Sixers and Flyers
These next 2 weeks will go a long way to determining how our winter teams will stack up for next season. The Flyers have made some bold moves since the season ended, but the hardest part of their off-season comes next week with start of the free-agency period. GM Paul Homlgren has already acquired a #1 defenseman and a top 6 forward in last week’s trade with Nashville. Now he needs to find a top line center in free agency. Chris Drury and Daniel Briere of Buffalo, New York’s Michael Nylander, and New Jersey’s Scott Gomez will all be available, and The Flyers need to land one. Personally, I’d like to see Gomez in the Orange and Black next season. Gomez is an elite passer who could make a 50-goal scorer out of Simon Gagne. This move would also weaken a division rival. If the Flyers sign Gomez, the playoff drought will probably last only 1 year.
As for the Sixers, this week is also an important one for the Sixers. After the trade of Allen Iverson and the dumping of that piece of garbage Chris Webber (who probably laughs every 2 weeks when he cashes his 76ers paycheck), the young Sixers played hard and competed to the very end (unlike the handful of Oden/Durant tankers). Now it is put up or shut up time for GM Billy King. He has 3 picks in the first round on Thursday night, and at least 2 of them will have to contribute this season for the Sixers to compete next season. King no longer is shackled with having to try to build a team around Iverson. This is his first chance to really build this team his way. The Sixers will have cap room after next season (they have to pay Webber for one more season), so they need to improve this year to be attractive to free agents. King cannot afford to screw this draft up. Doing so could se the franchise back another 5 years.
With the right moves, this may not be another lost winter at the Wachovia Center.