"SILVER LINING"
A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. 
It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. - Wade Boggs

Who wudda thunk it?  This was April.  The Phillies were suppose to have another losing record. 
They lost both Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino for a significant period of time.  That 
should have made matters worse.  With the trade that sent Michael Bourn to Houston, Rollins and 
Victorino’s stay on the disabled list should have robbed the Phillies of all of their speed, 
and a whole lot of runs, and that make-shift bull pen was suppose to open the door for some 
monumental comebacks by the opposing clubs.  April was suppose to be ugly.

It looks like somebody forgot to tell Charlie and the rest of the boys.  The Phillies concluded 
a 15-11 April Campaign, their first winning April since Charlie came aboard.  They even had 
twelve wins without their National League MVP, and, so far, no one on the pitching staff got 
hurt.  Could it be?  Is this really the Phillies in April?  Even those of us who proclaimed 
that the Phillies will be just fine at the end of the month had to rethink our position when 
Rollins and Victorino went down, but the same Club who pulled the carpet out from under the 
lowly Mets last season, somehow, found a way to be right in the thick of things at the end of 
April.  In fact, going into the weekend, they were 1/2 game in first place.  Who wudda thunk 
it?

There are a number of real nice story lines that came out of April’s Phillies Club House.  That 
bull pen that was suppose to be a train wreck in the late innings could just be the teams most 
valuable player.  Brad Lidge is re-establishing himself as the dominant closer, Tom Gordon 
looks like the Tom Gordon of old after a opening day performance.  Everyone else has done their 
part and the Phillies have one of the best bull pens in all of baseball.  Chase Utley and Pat 
Burrell had MVP-like Aprils.  Who wudda thunk it?

In Victorino’s absence, the Phillies have a potential star in the making.  Former number one 
draft pick, Jayson Werth, injured most of his career, and a platoon player last year for the 
Phillies, was inserted into center field and made it look like he belonged there.  Werth has 
been clutch at the plate, and dependable in the outfield.  The Phillies may put Victorino back 
in center which would move Werth to right, but he has effectively ended any thoughts of a 
platoon with Geoff Jenkins and out of the ashes, the Phillies pulled out a plum.  Charlie still 
has the flexibility of starting different players depending on where the Phillies are playing 
and who they are facing on the mound, but Werth has clearly established himself as a starter 
leaving reserve spots to both Jenkins and So Taguchi.  At shortstop, Eric Bruntlett filled in 
for Rollins and in his first game had the entire city on their knees praying for Jimmy’s 
return.  A nervous Bruntlett committed two errors and in his first week wasn’t exactly steller 
at the plate.  Since then though, Bruntlett has come on and played a steady dependable short- 
stop and really hasn’t hurt the team with the bat.  If anything, upon Rollins return, the 
Phillies now have increased confidence in their new utility player and Bruntlett comes out of 
it with enough playing time to establish himself on the team.  He will also have seen a far 
greater number of NL pitchers, something that will be invaluable down the road.

The concern in April was the play of Ryan Howard, whose mental approach to the game, once again 
in April, has him playing no where near his capabilities.  Forget the theories about what 
Howard should and should not do.  The bottom line is the Phillies depend heavily on his cleanup 
bat. If Howard can’t do the job, he, like anyone else surrenders his spot to someone who can. 
There is no intend to insult the Express here.  Business is business and you play the player 
who is hot.  Ryan was not.  The same goes for Carlos Ruiz.  Chris Coste is simply doing a 
better job behind the plate.  The Phillies want Ruiz to be their starting catcher.  On the 
other hand, if Coste is the hotter player, it's about winning ball games.  We say play the man 
whose hot. 

So, maybe now we can put all this April garbage to rest.  There is no jinx in Philadelphia in 
April.  The past few seasons, the Phillies haven’t played well during the opening month of the 
season.  They did this year and they did without key performers.  They did it through another 
big man slump.  They did it with a pitching staff where the starting rotation has been 
inconsistent, and they did it with a bull pen, who along with Chase Utley and Pat Burrell 
carried the Phillies in April.  In the process, they found Jayson Werth, the return of Brad 
Lidge as a top notch closer, and a solid utility man.  Who wudda thunk it?  Charlie's boys 
pulled off one good lookin April.  Shane is back and Jimmy will hopefully be back soon.  If 
Rollins is healthy and ready to go the Phillies have put together an April that sets the stage 
in a fashion that we haven’t seen here in a number of years, this time, with no ground to make 
up.  Some silver lining; not bad fellas, not bad at all. 

The Phillies Fan Union
Faust Ruggiero, Director