The Phightin' Phils come into this weekend at a modest 20-24 record, five games out of first place in the NL East. I have good and bad news regarding the club; the bad is that they're 20-24, the good is that they're only five games out in the division. This season the phils have played mediocre baseball and have found themselves with a losing record. The offense can't decide if it wants to produce runs or not, while the relief pitching has been outright terrible. As of right now, the core of the team is in good health, but one wonders if this will last all season long considering the age of most of these players. The Phils have played roughly 1/4th of the season thus far, and it's hard to tell what direction they will enter going into the final 3/4th of the year. Only one thing seems apparent; the NL East is still up for grabs. As bad as the Phillies have been, they are still in the hunt to win the division. The Braves, who are in first place and seem to be the best team in the division, only hold a five game lead on Philadelphia. The NL East have collectively been played sub-par ball, but that means that one of these teams will walk backwards into the playoffs. Why can't that team be the Phillies? If they remain to stay healthy and heat up when the weather cools down, who is to say they Phils won't be the NL East representative in this year's NLDS? Their chances are slime to say the least, but then again.....stranger things have happened to this club.