It's no secret that Ryan Howard is the best hitter on the Phillies right now.  Granted, the stats show that overall he isn't the best player on the squad at most times and was drastically overpaid, however you can't take away the cold-hard fact that when Ryan Howard get hot, he's one of the top players in the game.  Once a year, the switch flips and Ryan Howard literally puts the team on his back for a month or two and carries the team.  Right now, we're in the middle of one of those stretches.

So why then does Charlie Manuel have a carousel of players rotating in the third spot of the batting order?  Chase Utley is out injured and the Jayson Werth/Raul Ibanez combo is struggling.  Ryan Howard has hit fourth in every single game this season and for the large majority of his career.  The reason I ask now is because moving him up that one spot will afford Ryan Howard of more at-bats over the duration of weeks, months, a season and he's the only guy hitting the ball.  Make that, killing the ball.  Doesn't having him at-bat more help the team?

Instead of putting Polanco or Ibanez in the role and creating an addition spot ahead of him in the lineup, let him bat third and take advantage of the fact that he's an extra base hit and RBI machine right now.  How often have we scored lately without his direct contribution?  So I'll take the potentially extra guy off base once or twice to try and get the big man an extra at-bat late in the game.  Game on the line, two outs and two on in the ninth -- our three hitters coming up.   Do we want Ryan Howard hitting?  Or Placido Polanco? Obviously you can spin that fnial scenario however you'd like, but I don't like the possibility Polanco or Ibanez making the final out with Ryan Howard on deck, when we should be maximizing his at-bats within all realistic boundaries (for example, he should never bat lead-off)

Just a thinking point while you're watching the Phillies/Rockies today.  It's 3-2 Phillies in the third as of now and Joe Blanton's got some settling in to do before I can get comfortable.  You've got to love the bottom of the order stepping up and plating some runs though.  Stay tuned, five straight is on the line today and Atlanta doesn't play.  Let's gain that half game.

Justin “Tito” Dellow is the Founder/Editor of the fantasy baseball website, Fantasy 40/40. Be sure to visit his site for great fantasy insight and the ever-important music, women, and pop culture thrown in to keep you in good spirits, even if your fantasy team is garbage.

In a fantasy world, you’d wake up every morning next to Megan Fox and Emmanuelle Chirqui in a California king on Maui in a beach mansion.

In a fantasy world, public water fountains would pour Yoo-Hoo, Sunkist and Bud Light instead of rust-flavored, chlorinated city water.

In a fantasy world, Omar Minaya would learn how to play the role of General Manager and complete trades that only Brian Cashman could swing.

Mets’ fans only wish for the type of blockbuster, game changing trades the Yankee G.M. pulls off annually near the trade deadline. He manages to scout the league and acquire talented pieces for their playoff push and championship run. Big names. Kenny Williams of the White Sox also comes to mind.

Moving on, I’m sure many of you out there in the baseball blogasphere play fantasy baseball. General managers in your own right, you are currently either doing one of two things: chasing a league championship, eternal glory and bragging rights over friends and work colleagues OR you’re trading early round super star assets for unknown, sexy names and keeper potential. Sound familiar? In the fantasy world and in real life. Lee, Haren…

The Mets have always been the little brother to the cross town Yankees. Like the Clippers to the Lakers. Or the Jets to the Giants. They talk a big game, pursue possible trade targets, but in the end, they end up with names like Westbrook or Millwood instead names like Lee or Haren. With Mets ownership potentially struggling financially and reluctant to add payroll, although told otherwise, the Mets will not make any major moves before the deadline. But this lifeless team needs an injection of life, fight and desire. Big trades help. However, the Wilpon's aren’t the Steinbrenner’s. But what if they were?

Lets role-play for a minute. Fantasy baseball and baseball speaking, of course.

--

Fantasy Example #1:

You’re looking for a power bat with a decent average that can provide HR and RBI for your lineup. After some research, phone calls and emails to the bottom teams, you narrow your options down and finalize offers.

You trade prospects Matt LaPorta, Desmond Jennings and Christian Friedrich for Ryan Howard. You gave up a keeper in LaPorta and two possibles for next year - guys that haven’t been called up yet. Eventually their time will come, but they are still unproven talent on the Major League level. Fantasy Advice: when chasing a league championship, make the trade, you’ll replace your keepers later, there’s no price to winning.

Real Life Answer If Wilpon's Were Steinbrenner’s: Trade for Adrian Gonzalez and David Eckstein.

NEW LINEUP

1. SS Reyes S

2. RF Pagan S

3. 3B Wright R

4. 1B Gonzalez L

5. CF Beltran S

6. LF Bay R

7. C Barajas/Thole R/L

8. 2B Eckstein R

Gonzalez and David Eckstein for Ike Davis, Luis Castillo, Fernando Martinez, Ruben Tejada and Jeurys Familia.

The Mets offense has been stagnant and non-existent on their recent road trip (2-9). They’re striking out way too much and can’t seem to buy a hit with runners in scoring position. Gonzalez, who is signed to a nice contract for another year, solidifies your lineup while batting cleanup. He has a great eye, provides protection to David Wright and Carlos Beltran and will get pitched to for the first time in his young career batting between them. He also adds Gold-Glove defense to the Mets infield.

Eckstein replaces Castillo at second base and adds the necessary hustle, grit and fire the current Mets lack (Minaya attempted to sign Eckstein back in 2007 to play second before he decided to sign with Toronto and play shortstop, subsequently signing Castillo $24/4 yrs). You give up Davis, but I hear his replacement is not too shabby. Regarding Castillo, you take on as much of that contract as you have too. Martinez, Tejada and Familia, although highly touted in the Mets system, are still unproven talent. Remember Alex Escobar, Jay Payton, Lastings Milledge, Philip Humber, and Kevin Mulvey? If that’s not enough, add some filler, Dillon Gee or Jefry Marte.

--

Fantasy Example #2:

You still need some pitching and look to acquire help in ERA, WHIP and K - wins will follow. You trade JA Happ, Brian Matusz and Jesus Montero for Adam Wainwright. All three guys you gave up, again, are nice pieces, but Wainwright adds a true ace to your staff to help balance your weaknesses. He will hopefully pitch his way to your fantasy flag.

Real Life Answer if Wilpon's Were Steinbrenner’s: Trade for Roy Oswalt.

NEW ROTATION

1. Santana LHP

2. Oswalt RHP

3. Pelfrey RHP

4. Niese LHP

5. Dickey RHP

Oswalt for Jenrry Mejia, Brad Holt and Reese Havens.

With Drayton McClane looking to shed salary and bring back “A-type” prospects, you give up two potential front-end starters with Mejia and Holt while offering middle infield depth with Havens. The Mets would take on Oswalt’s contract and the $30 some million dollars coming his way. They missed the boat on Lee and Haren, but land an excellent pitcher who can still dominate an opposing lineup on any given night. He is currently 6-12 on a poor Astros team, but has 120 K in 129 INN while posting a respectable 3.41 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. Now, he moves to spacious Citifield. And given Mike Pelfrey’s current rollercoaster season, Oswalt would ease Santana’s and Pelfrey’s burden and give the Mets a legitimate number two starter to follow Santana and compete against the likes of Halladay and Hamels, Wainwright and Carpenter, Lincecum and Cain.

It would also allow Hisanori Takahashi to fall back into the bullpen and give manager Jerry Manuel a second lefty to join over-used Pedro Feliciano. It lengthens the bullpen and would help with match-ups later in the season against guys like Utley, Howard, Ibanez, Dunn and McCann. Once again, if the players are not enough, add some filler.

--

Summing up, these trades are not likely to happen, this year or ever. The Padres are currently riding a magical carpet ride and have no intention on moving Gonzalez, at least they say publicly. Oswalt, although available, will not be donning the blue and orange anytime soon. Houston wants a ton in return as well as payroll relief. The Mets will not part with Davis or Mejia. The Wilpon's will also not take on more salary, unlike the team in the other borough. The Steinbrenner’s would to win. But what if the Wilpon’s did? For the rest of this season and next year too: Reyes, Pagan, Wright, Gonzalez, Beltran, Bay. Santana, Oswalt, Pelfrey, Niese. Mets fans, could you imagine? Yes, I can. In a fantasy world.

Yesterday morning I joined Rich over at FightinPhillies in his podcast about the Phillies going into the Trade Dealine.  I have yet to hear it, but I'm hoping I came out of it sounded fairly intelligent.  The host and Jen, from Phillies Phollowers, had experience on their side and did a nice job on their end.  Check it out if you've got some time.  Follow the link to Rich's site above to hear the Podcast.  Enjoy (I hope).

Despite rain, rain, and more rain, the Phillies perservered to steal a win yesterday. Last night's game was not one that the Phillies would've won earlier this month.  The bullpen would've collapsed or the offense wouldn't have been able to scratch the winning runs across.  Instead they got it done and managed to win their fourth straight.  Even better the Braves and Mets both lost bringing the Phils to within five of the division's top spot and two and a half above the Mets who're only a half game out of fourth.

J.A. Happ made his first start since April.  Trade suitors from all over the league were at the game to judge his recovery.  The young starter didn't disappoint going five innings and looking strong in his work.  He did allow three runs and walk four, but he only let up four hits in his five innings.  From there Durbin, Contreras, Romero & Lidge combined to close out the game with shut-out effort out of the bullpen.  In typical Lidge fashion it wasn't easy - he loaded the bases with two walks a hit - but in the end he got K's for all three outs and the save.

It took a nice break for the Phillies to come out on top.  After Jimmy Rollins plated Wilson Valdez with a single to left (and taking second base on an misplay by Carlos Gonzalez), he stole third, then scored on a wild pitch with Jayson Werth at the bat.  You've got to take the luck where you can get it.  The other offense came from a Ben Francisco bomb early in the second inning.

If the Phillies are truly back, we shall see with Joe Blanton on the mound.  He's in the middle of easily his worst season to date and the Phillies will continue to struggle if guys like him can't turn it around.  The team has momentum and should be riding high after four straight, the pieces are all in place for Joe to get it back in gear.

Today will be J.A. Happ's third start of the year and his first one since April.  More importantly than the outcome of the game, Happ will be on showcase to all trade suitors.  Happ has been rumored to be part of a few different deals and is a valuable piece as a young, MLB ready pitcher.

If Happ comes out and deals today, it could go a long way towards the Phillies upgrading for a top of the line starter.

Also be on the look out, I recorded a podcast today with Rich from FightinPhillies and as soon as he finalizes it I'll send over the link so you can listen in on my oracle-genius-messiah-like conversational input.

Apparently we live in a world where Kyle Kendrick can get the win against Ubaldo Jimenez.  Anything can happen on a baseball field and yesterday's reverse jinx worked like a charm as Kendrick and the Phillies soundly beat the Rockies 10-2.  Not only that, the Phillies chased Ubaldo after only two innings of work.  Ubaldo allowed six earned on only three hits, but six walks.  From there, Rockies pitchers in general couldn't seem to get anyone out.

Only two of the ten runs came via the long ball, more specifically the bat of Raul Ibanez.  The Cuban Clubber might just be finding his stroke at exactly the right time.  In other news, Ryan Howard continues to pulverize baseballs, yesterday to the tune of 1-4 with a three-run, bases clearing triple in the third inning that sparked the day's run outburst.  Rollins, Polanco, and Werth all added multi-hit games to the effort and it was over nearly right after it started when the Phillies put together a seven run third inning.

Johan Santana put together another brilliant outing for the Mets last night... and this time, he came away with the win.  Santana went 7 innings, allowing just one run on 5 hits.  He was helped by the outfield defense, as Bay, Pagan, and Beltran each made at least one phenomenal catch (including Bay's face-first smash into the bullpen fence, a la Aaron Rowand a few years ago).  The offense showed some signs of  life for the first time since the All Star Break, and that includes Jason Bay who came through with a 3-run double in the eighth inning.

It's amazing to me how the Mets continue to play like two different ball clubs.  Last night, everything clicked:  fantastic starting effort, great defense, and the offense woke up to drive in 6 runs.  These are the Mets we've been seeing at Citi Field for most of the season (I'm glad they took the show on the road, even if it's just one game at this point).  But then, there are the Mets who have been just awful playing away from Flushing.  Those Mets are the ones that dug themselves into a 7.5 game deficit prior to yesterday.

Another thing - I was relieved to see some fight in the team last night.  Maybe Santana affects the mentality of the guys playing behind him more than we realize.  It seemed like last night was the first game in the second half where the Mets actually came to play baseball, and it showed in all aspects of the game.  It was important to get things moving in the right direction, but now they have to continue to play like that.  Tonight would be an excellent time for Mike Pelfrey to rediscover his ace form of the first half.  After starting out 2010 looking like a completely different pitcher, we've seen Pelfrey regress back to some of his bad habits from 2009.  He doesn't work at a quick, efficient pace anymore, and you can see in his body language that he's just not in the groove he was in to start the season.  I like Big Pelf, and he was so easy to root for when he was dominating line ups... but now he's getting frustrating again.  A win tonight would go a long way in helping Pelfrey - and the Mets as a whole - get back on track.

Tonight the Phillies pulled to within six games back in divisional race due to a fabled occurrence: for the first time in months (or so it seems) the Phillies won a game and the Braves lost a game -- on the same day.  They said it couldn't be done, but somehow someway we did it men.  It took:

Roy Halladay throwing 8 scoreless, allowing 5 hits and k'ing 9.

3 hits, 3 RBIs from Raul Ibanez who has aged ten years in the last one.

a 5 run inning to ignite the offense.

Stealing signs from the outfield with binoculars.

Just kidding about the last one (hey the scandal did start against the Rockies last time), but it was a sweet win.  A decisive, earned victory for the first time post-break.  Roy Halladay was superb, unhittable the majority of the night.  Also, very happy for Raul.  It's been a long season for him and it'd be nice to see him silence some critics (me included) and put up a strong second half.  One more note on why this is a sweet win, the Rockies are ahead of us in the wild card -- which is something to start taking seriously if you haven't been yet.

Tomorrow, Ubaldo Jimenez v. Kyle Kendrick.  I'm going to chalk that one up as a loss and not because I'm trying to reverse jinx it (yes I am), but because well there's no good reason not to.  Wish Kendrick the best, but it's going to be a tough one for the kid.

There's always a fall guy, it's the law of sports.  To date the Phillies have been so surprisingly bad offensively that it cost Milt Thompson his job.  I'm categorically against firings of this nature and here's why.  Unless said coach evidently lacks the skills necessary to be an assistant coach or causes problems/issues on the side, how is it his fault that Raul Ibanez can't hit his weight this season?  On a team full of veterans how much does an assistant coach even matter?  Does Greg Gross (his replacement) bring new knowledge on the game of baseball to the table?  What was Milt doing this year that was so wrong, compared to the last six seasons?

I understand that the point of coaching is to get the very best out of your players and that for underachieving you, as coach, should assume some of the blame.  However mid-season firings of bench/assistant coaches are media moves.  Making a change to make it appear as if a problem is being solved and frankly it's unfair to Milt.  If the hitting coach is this important and has this much affect, why are we running the guy out of town who nurtured Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino & Jimmy Rollins into stardom?

It was bound to happen sooner or later.  The Phillies managed not to get swept by the NL Central first-place Cardinals, but it wasn't easy.  Cole Hamels was superb and the Phillies needed every ounce of him to survive.  King Cole only allowed one hit over his eight innings and the bullpen combined for three scoreless, hitless innings of their own, including Brad Lidge coming on for the save.  Sadly for Cole he didn't even get the win in such a dominant performance - Hamels has gone seven innings or more in his last five starts with a 1.72 ERA, only to be 1-1 over that series of outings.  Regardless of the W/L record, this is the kind of pitcher that Cole Hamels needs to be and making it happen more regularly like this is a great start.

It took 11 innings to scratch across some runs, but Placido Polanco connected on a two-run shot in the top of the 11th to win the game.  Lost in the refreshing feeling of victory is the fact that we could/should be 0-8 after the All-Star break as of now.  Things are as bad as they've been in the last three years and something has to change.  Whether it be via trade or the farm or the clubhouse, this team starves for a spark to get it going.

Oh yeah, and Ryan Howard had another three hits to boot.