A few weeks back I did a snap judgements over the first nine games of the season, and now that we are well into the season, I figured Id do another one. Keep in mind, its still mid May, theres a lot of season left to play. But with 35 games under the ole belt, you can kind of make a better assesment of things. These are the facts...I think.

1. Tommy Hanson is great, but may have been born at the wrong time.-------------- Have I mentioned lately how much I love this guy? Everything about him. His fastball, his slider, his curve, his smell, the way he breathes in deep and adjusts his belt after every strikeout...I could go on, but I don't wanna get creepy. He truly is the ace of our staff, no disrespect to Huddy, who I'll touch on a little later. But looking around the league, I feel like there is a great chance he could get over shadowed really easily by the dozens of other top flight pitchers in the National League. We all know about Halladay and Big Game Timmy-Jim (best nick name in sports?) and Carpenter and Wainwright, but guys like Ubaldo Jimenez and Matt Latos are breaking out too, and it seems like ESPN and Baseball Tonight have kind of ignored our Phenom. Grant it, Jimenez earned it by no hitting us, but Hanson has been nothing but stellar since June of last year. Barring injuries, he should continue to progress and get even better and should start to get some recognition, but Id hate to think there weren't enough seats on the Awesome Sofa for him.

2. Georgia Power would make a great nick name for our team----------------This one is ridiculous I know, but for those of us who watch a lot of games, we see the commercial for them at least 7 times a game, and if we can keep hitting the long ball like we have been, it just seems like a shame not too. I can hear the voice overs now. "The Phillies head south to take on The Atlanta Braves and some of that Georgia Power!"

3. Lebron is going to leave Cleveland (Sorry...garbage in garbage out I suppose)

3. We have a new case of Spahn and Sain and Pray for rain--------------------Before we go any farther, I'm not hating on Derek Lowe, or KK, or anyone else. Just want to make that clear. But it just seems like Hanson and Huddy have kind of developed into our version of Spahn and Sain. Not that our other pitchers are incapable of winning, and the bullpen did an amazing job filling in for Jurrjens against Philly, but the past few times out its seemed like it needed to be one of those two guys. Lowe has been shockingly inconsistent, Kawakami has been unfortunate at best, and Jair has been hurt. But Hanson has been elite, and Huddy has had the sinker working to perfection so far this year. My only real problem with the situation is that their names dont lend themselves as easily to a cool slogan. The best I've been able to come up with is Hanson and Huddy and pray it gets muddy, but I feel shamefully foolish even saying that. Free milkshake to the first person who comes up with a good one.

4. Troy Glaus is turning out to be a great, cheap move, but a greater, cheaper move could have put us over the top.-------- Thats a long headline, I know. The Braves took a low risk gamble on Troy Glaus that, for the most part, has been great. He hit everything in spring training when he was trying to hit for average. Then when he tried to turn the power back on, it took him a while to get it going, not suprisingly. But now it looks like he could be everything we wanted him to be. Good Job, Frank Wren. HOWEVER...and I hate to toot my own horn because I begged for this towards the end of the offseason, a much cheaper move could have given us that added edge. What is that move? The signing of one Andruw Jones. He's practically a lock for comeback player of the year in the AL, and quite frankly, even if he produced half of what he's done so far, he'd still be worth it for us. The White Sox front office just cleaned the change out of the cars and handed it to him and said "Give us the closest thing to vintage" and he's doing just that. An outfield of Andruw, McLouth and Heyward would be fearsome. And yes, I am extremely biased cause I loved the guy growing up, but he certainly seems to be back. His 9 homers would lead our team right now. Not to mention it gives us a plethera of options as far as the batting order goes.