Three-time defending division champs means absolutely nothing right now. The Phillies, the class of the NL East the last three years, sit in third place just two weeks away from the All-Star break. A massive power outage in the middle of the lineup and starting rotation injuries could be to blame. But, every team has issues in the 162-game marathon that is the MLB season.

The surprising Braves sit in first, a half game ahead of the Mets and 2.5 games ahead of the Phillies. The return of Jimmy Rollins has sparked the Phils to win five of six, and the Fightins have made up some ground on the Braves. yet, it’s the Mets who sit in position to make a run and steal first place.

With easier schedules than the Phillies, the Mets and Braves could be battling for first place before the All-Star break in two weeks.

Here’s a rundown of who each team plays the last two weeks.

BRAVES
Atlanta has the next six games at home, before finishing with six on the road. The Nationals (33-43) visit Atlanta the next three days, followed by Florida (35-40) on July 2-4. The Braves then come to Citizens bank Park to battle the Phils (40-33) before heading to CitiField to take on the Mets (43-32).

METS
The Mets go on the road for seven and finish with six games at home. They start with three games against the Marlins (35-40) in Puerto Rico. They then head to Washington (33-43) for four before heading home. The Reds (42-34) come to town for three, followed by the Braves (44-32).

PHILLIES
The Phillies have seven on the road and seven at home to finish the first half of the year. They travel to Cincinnati (42-34) for three and then Pittsburgh (25-50) for four games. The Braves (44-32) then come to Philly, followed by the Reds.

ANALYSIS
The Phils have the toughest road, but if they continue playing well, they have a chance to make a statement. Besides the Pirates, they play 11 games against first place teams from now until the break. If they stay within striking distance of the Braves, they have a chance to go head-to-head with Atlanta and take first before the Midsummer Classic.

The Braves and Mets both have series against the struggling Nationals and Marlins. They will face tough pitchers in Josh Johnson and Stephen Strasburg, so it’s not like they have a completely easy road. The Mets get the Reds and Braves at home, while the Braves play the Phils and Mets on the road.

At the end of the day, the Mets have the best shot to end the first half in first if they can take care of business at home. The Braves need to win their home games and hope to split their road games.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

Maybe it was the impending return of JA Happ. Maybe it was the impressive outings by Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick. Maybe it was the rumors of Pedro’s return to Citizen’s Bank Park for another postseason run.

Doesn’t matter what it was, but something sure lit a fire under Kentucky Joe Blanton’s right arm on Friday night as he pitched the Phillies to a 9-5 win over the Minnesota Twins. Blanton registered his first quality start in what seems like forever, going six strong innings and giving up three runs on seven hits. It was the first time since May 20 that he allowed under four runs, and just the third time all season.

Joe Blanton come out throwing strikes for the Phillies on Friday. Phils fans have been waiting a long time for an outing like that from one of their innings-eater.

An innings eater who never really wowed anyone but was a solid No. 3 pitcher on a championship staff, and a great No. 4, Blanton has been hampered with the injury bug and gotten hammered since returning from the DL. His performance Friday dropped his ERA to 6.96. Enough said.

Blanton, whose spot in the rotation has been anything but a sure thing recently, came out and held the Twins, a first place team, scoreless for five innings before allowing a run in the fifth and two in the sixth.

Granted, it’s just one game, but it’s a start that people have been waiting for all year from Kentucky Joe. At least now he’s put himself back in the mix of keeping his starting spot when Happ comes back.

Props to David Murphy at Philly.com for making a case supporting the fact that Chase Utley is likely in the midst of a slump, and not injured.

As Murph points out in his High Cheese blog, one of the best on the web in terms of analysis, most fans — myself included — seem to always jump to the conclusion that Utley must be injured when he is not hitting well.

That may not be the case and Murph is the first to persuade me to at least consider the fact that Chase just isn’t hitting right now.

Chase Utley: injured or slumping? Either way, the All-Star second baseman is hitting just .256 through Sunday.

Murphy points out that Utley was actually hurt at the end of the 2008 season. And, he may have been roughed up last year. However, he also does a good job of providing evidence that Utley has had bad hitting streaks. For example, he says Chase hit .191 over his last 31 games last year.

The point is, Chase, like every big league player, has periods where they just do not see or hit the ball well. Even Ted Williams had slumps in his day.

Why is Utley’s average an issue right now (he’s hitting .256 after the trip to Boston)? As Murphy says, the beginning of the season magnifies slumps because it’s easier to bring averages down when you have a small sampling of at-bats.

What’s more, Phillies fans need to realize that Utley has actually shown signs of dropping effectiveness at the plate each of the last four years. He hit for a career high .332 in 2007. Since then, his average has dropped each season: .292 in 2008, .282 in 2009 and .256 through Sunday.

Don’t get us wrong. He’s still good for 30 homers and 100-plus RBI a year. But, just think how much more potent this lineup would be if he were hitting for average. As it is, they can’t pitch around Utley with Ryan Howard, Placido Polanco and Jayson Werth surrounding him in the order.

The bottom line is, although we want to like Chase so much that we can’t believe he’s capable of hitting below .270, the fact is it is possible. So, unless we find out Utley is injured, we just have to accept the fact that he is human and in the midst of not hitting like the rest of the lineup.

The good news is, he has a ton of time to turn it around. And, when he does, opposing pitchers will pay.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

“Raauuuuuuuulllll…..”

A year ago, that sound reverberated throughout the cozy confines of Citizens Bank Park. The man signed to a three-year deal to replace Pat Burrell in left field launched 19 homers and hit .329 in his first 55 games. A groin injury ended his hot streak and Ibanez was never the same last year after the All-Star break.

Fast forward to this year and the man has gotten off to a .247 start through Sunday. He was hitting as low as .229 a week ago.

Rauuuullll Ibanez is starting to show signs of putting the pieces of his bat back together. he's hit .391 his last six games.

Over his last six games, Ibanez has gotten nine hits and driven in five runs. He’s gone 9-for-23, a .391 average. On Sunday, he ended an 84 at-bat homerless streak with a tow run shot off of Tim Wakefield in the fourth inning.

Will the real Raul Ibanez please stand up? Was he as good as the beginning of 2009, as bad as this year, or somewhere in between?

Your answer may be here.

Last year, after a pinheaded blogger pontificated that Ibanez had performance-enhancing help in hitting 22 homers by mid June, SI.com’s Joe Posnanski analyzed Ibanez’s career and discovered that the veteran outfielder has a 55-game stretch each year during which he performs like a true stud. As Posnanski wrote, “when he’s hot, he’s HOT.”

Consider these numbers from 2002 through 2009:

• In 2002, he .hit 328 with 15 doubles, 15 homers and 54 RBI during a 50-game stretch in the middle of the year.
• In 2003, he hit .326 during a 55-game segment of the season.
• In 2004, he hit .365 in 54 games.
• In 2005, he .330 in 55 games.
• In 2006, he had 18 homers and 57 RBI in 52 games.
• In 2007, he finished the last 52 games of the year hitting .363 with 15 long balls.
• In 2008, he hit .374 with 17 doubles and 13 homers during55 games in the middle of the summer.

Nobody can conclude that Ibanez is 100 percent out of his season-long slump at this point. But, it’s a start. And, at this point, you have to at least look at his past and hope we’re about to see a surge greater than any sea during a hurricane that carries the Phillies lineup back to relevance.

At this point, we’d all take that.

Raaauuuuullllll…. Good to see you still have a pulse.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

He’s baaaaaccckkkk!

Cole Hamels, the onetime ace and World Series MVP for the Philadelphia Phillies, has officially regained the form that made him the centerpiece of the Phillies rotation just two years ago.

Cole Hamels has bounced back from a terrible 2009 campaign. He's pitched great in eight of his last nine starts.

A season removed from a career-high 4.32 ERA and a 10-11 record, Hamels has pitched well in eight of his nine last starts. In that stretch, he has not allowed more than three earned runs in a game, although he allowed three in two-thirds of an inning in Atlanta on June 1.

On April 28, Hamels went to sleep with an ungodly 5.28 ERA. Tonight, he’ll travel to Manhattan with a sub 4.00 ERA. In fact, he’s allowed just 15 earned runs in his last 48.2 innings.

Going into the season, many said Hamels was the key to the Cliff Lee deal and the Phillies season. The theory was the Phils could trade Lee because they expected Hamels to rebound and fill the No. 2 spot behind Roy Halladay.

Early on, that didn’t appear to be the case. Now, Hamels is the least of the Phils concerns. Instead, getting him run support is an issue.

Coming into Sunday’s 5-3 win against Boston, Hamels had lost his last three. However, in games against the Padres and Mets, Cole had given up a total of four earned runs. The Phils offense gave him one run in the two outings combined.

If Hamels can keep this up, nobody can blame the Phils lack of wins on dealing Lee. That’s not to say the Phillies are a better team without Lee. However, Hamels has picked up the slack and then some. Now, if the team could just hit more consistently.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

If there were a red panic button in the Phillies dugout, manager Charlie Manuel may have smacked the crap out of it last night. How else do you explain benching your one, three and four hitters in the fourth inning of a game? How else do you explain sitting three all-stars?

Granted, the 12-0 score probably had a lot to do with it. However, benching three guys gives the appearance of trying to send a message. Last week, the last skipper to win a championship in this city was critical of his players’ nanchalant attitudes before a game; they were watching a movie in the clubhouse.

Manuel has always been seen as a players manager who will do what it takes to protect his guys. He’s clearly not doing that now. Not with benching Jayson Werth the last couple weeks; not with saying Werth may be affected by his pending free agent status; not by calling out players preparation; not by pulling a third of your lineup in Boston.

The question now becomes, should the Phillies fans join Manuel and hit the red button?

To be clear, the last three weeks have flat out sucked in the Land of Red Pinstripes. A team built to outscore teams has managed to cross home plate just 41 times in its last 18 games, a paltry 2.3 runs-per-game average. They’ve failed to score more than three runs in 15 of those games, and been shut out six times.

That just isn’t going to get the job done. Some say the Werths of the lineup are pressing and trying too hard. Well, they’ve done that when most of the media attention has been on the Flyers run to the Stanley Cup Finals. Now that Michael Leighton has found the puck in the net behind him, the Phillies are really going to be under the microscope. Oh, and the fact that they sit in third place behind the Braves and the friggin’ Mets won’t help matters.

To panic or not to panic? That is the question.

REASONS TO PANIC

Jimmy Rollins: The shortstop’s .341 average and other offensive numbers aren’t the problem. Neither is his defense. The issue here is his calf. He’s played a total of 11 games this year and is trying to wrap up his second stint on the DL. He is the Phillies motor; as he goes, the Phils go. It’s not a coincidence that the Phillies offensive ineptness started the night after Rollins reaggravated his calf injury. The team averages nearly three runs a game less without their sparkplug. If Rollins can’t get that injury completely healed, this offense will continue to suffer.

Chase Utely is not the .260 hitter he's shown this year. Could an injury be to blame?

Chase Utley: I’m likely going to be dodging rocks from the women who see me in the streets after putting Utley in this category. His work ethic and baseball prowess aren’t being questioned. Like Rollins, his health is something to look at. A .260 average this season? That’s not Utley. We all know it. An injury can be the only explanation for his struggles at the plate. Just remember, in 2008 Utley started red hot and tailed off big time. The Phils did not win a World Series due to their offense that year. After the parade down Broad, we learned Utley needed hip surgery. To be clear, an injured Utley is better than anything else the Phils could put out there, but don’t be surprised to learn of an injury at some point.

Shane Victorino: The Flyin’ Hawaiian has ten homers and 36 RBI so far this year. He also has 32 strikeouts. OK, so why does a guy who is tied for the team lead in HRs with Ryan Howard, Werth and Utley in this category? Power numbers aren’t his game. He has already matched his HR total from last year, and is just four away from his career high of 14 in 2008. He is already more than halfway to his career high of 62 RBI from last year. Meanwhile, since becoming an everyday player in 2006, Victorino has not hit below .281 for a season. He hit better than .290 the last two years. Right now he’s hitting .263. The man needs to get back to slapping singles and doubles in the gaps.

Rauuuul Ibanez: Was Ibanez as good as his torrid start to the 2009 season? No. However, a .242 average with three long balls? That doesn’t come close to cutting it. If the $12-million man doesn’t get his bat going, he needs to sit the bench and John Mayberry needs to be given a chance to platoon with him. Every year, Ibanez seems to have a 55-game tear. So, while we can’t give up hope on him just yet, the fact that he is hitting this bad is a cause for concern.

Rauuuul Ibanez better get that .243 average up and soon. The Phils need to hope he has another 55-game tear in him.

Joe Blanton: A 1-4 record with a 6.07 ERA from a guy who was to be your solid No. 3 starter has to make you lose sleep at night. I’m sure the fact that some people will always say, “there’s Cliff Lee’s money,” whether or not it’s accurate, has to be weighing on the organization, if not Blanton himself. The fact is, this man is an innings eater who pitched well the last two years. If he can’t get himself straight, and soon, the Phils rotation is taking a huge hit and Pedro Martinez may yet find himself back in The City of Brotherly Love.

Danys Baez: A 4.50 ERA and a 13-12 walk-to-strikeout ratio doesn’t cut it for a guy thought to be a solid addition to your suspect bullpen. He just seems to give up the wrong hit at the wrong time. Can’t have that.

The Phillies bench: Wilson Valdez has been OK filling in for Juan castro and Jimmy Rollins. But Ross Gload and Greg Dobbs aren’t getting the job done. The Phils need to call up a John Mayberry or make a trade to address the bench play.

REASONS NOT TO PANIC

Roy Halladay

Ryan Howard: Granted, 10 homers for the $25 million man at this point in the season may cause you to want to worry. Don’t. He is hitting .291, the highest of his career since his 2006 MVP year. As far as his power numbers, this guy usually doesn’t heat up until the summer temperatures do. At the end of the day, he’ll still have 40 HRs and be a part of the MVP talk. Don’t worry about the big man.

Placido Polanco: The professional hitter continues to impress at the plate. The Phillies, for the most part, have been better at the plate since Polanco himself returned from a DL stint. He’ll hit better than .300, hit some long balls and score runs. Combine him with Rollins at the top of the order and you could see the Phils lineup explode again real soon.

Jayson Werth He is mired in a terrible slump. He will break out of it and soon. He’s not a 40 HR guy, nor is he a .355 hitter. Finishing the season with a .280 average and 25-30 HRs is the player Werth is. He’ll bounce back and end the season with those numbers and help force pitchers to throw hittable balls to Howard. The Phillies will still need to PayDaMan at season’s end.

Jayson Werth will be taking more curtain calls before the end of the year. The Phils will still need to PayDaMan.

Starting Rotation: Halladay is Halladay. Cole Hamles has bounced back quietly, not allowing a big-run performance in about seven games. JA Happ will be fresh when he returns from the DL and be fresh down the stretch. For playoff purposes, you just need Blanton, Jamie Moyer or Kyle Kendrick to step up their game as the fourth guy. The thought here is that the combination of Moyer and Kendrick gets the job done.

Jose Contreras and Brad Lidge: Contreras is a very flexible pitcher who can toss the eighth inning or throw a couple innings of long relief. Lidge, if he continues to pitch the way he has, could very well be back to his 2008 form. He just needs to stay healthy.

Charlie Manuel: The skipper has a way of getting the most from his players. He will get this thing turned around. remember, in 2008 he kicked the crap out of a water cooler, sparking the Phillies to reel off a nice win streak. They ended that season on Broad Street. Forget the appearance that he may be alienating players with his public comments. If he’s doing that, it means he’s tried everything else and the players know that.

THE BOTTOM LINE

To panic or not to panic? Just remember, “the play’s the thing.”

How this team plays on the field between now and the All-Star break ultimately will tell us whether or not to reach for the red button. As it stands, if Rollins comes back healthy this lineup will score runs. And, with the way the pitchers have performed recently, that’s all it’ll take to surpass the Mets and Braves in the NL East.

Remember, this team was the best in the NL as recently as two weeks ago. You don’t go from being that good to this bad overnight. They will turn it around as the sweltering summer nights infiltrate South Philly.

For now, sit back in the recliner and reach for the Coronas instead of the red panic button.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

The sound Joe Blanton hears outside his locker is the ringing of the bullpen phone — a signal he may need to hear before he gets into a game the rest of the year if he’s not careful.

Since his arrival from Oakland two years ago, Joe Blanton has eaten plenty of food and innings for the Phillies. He’s saved the bullpen and was a key to the team’s 2008 World Series title.

Kentucky Joe Blanton displays the motion that could have him joining the bullpen if he isn't careful.

In a league and city of “What have you done for me lately?” Kentucky Joe is on the verge of pitching himself out of the Phillies starting rotation. His latest outing — a five-run, five-inning performance against the Padres — increased his 2010 ERA to an unacceptable 6.07. Unacceptable for a team with championship hopes. Unacceptable for a guy who just inked a three-year, $24 million contract.

Granted, Blanton started the year on the DL with an injury to his oblique muscle, but the numbers just aren’t there for him so far this year. And, if he doesn’t pick it up soon, Charlie Manuel, Rich Dubee and Ruben Amaro are going to have a difficult decision in a few weeks when JA Happ returns from his own DL stint.

When the team reported for spring training, Blanton was penciled in as the third most consistent man in the rotation. Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick were supposed to battle for the fifth spot, with neither garnering much in the way of expectations from baseball observers.

Fast forward to early June and both Moyer and Kendrick have clearly outpitched Blanton. Maybe he’s still hurting, and if that’s the case he should shut it down and get healthy.

However, there’s no denying that when it comes to himself, Moyer and Kendrick, he’s the one that could be on the outside looking in.

Since a brutal start to the season, Kendrick has worked hard to reduce his ERA from 17.47 after his first outing to a respectable 4.62. He hasn’t allowed more than two runs in three of his last four starts. To put it simply, Kendrick has calmed down and displayed the dominance he showed in spring training and, to an extent, the latter part of last season when he was in the Phillies bullpen.

Moyer, on the other hand, was viewed as a washed-up-waste-of-money after an injury-plagued 2009 season. All the 47-year-old-ageless pitcher has done is rack up an average 5-5 record with an unreal 3.98 ERA. Unreal because who would have expected that from him entering the year.

In addition, he’s tossed two complete games and has not allowed more than four runs since May 2. In fact, he’s only allowed more than four runs twice this year. Moyer’s not coming out of the rotation at this point.

Blanton has a couple weeks to regain his form and bump, most likely, Kendrick back to the bullpen. But, if Kentucky Joe doesn’t get his mojo back before Happ returns — and his first rehab outing is scheduled for Tuesday — then Blanton will be the odd man out.

By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

For a team that started out killing the ball every which way and scoring runs at a historic pace, the last week and change for the Phillies has confused baseball pundits to say the least.

Ten runs in the last 81 innings (84 as of this writing as the Phils trail the Braves 5-0 after three innings on Tuesday). That’s just more than one run per game.

Those are your 1990s Phillies. Your 1990s sorry ass Phillies. That’s not Howard, Utley, Rollins, Werth and Rollins. Is it?

The Phillies are averaging a tad more than one run per game since JRoll went back on the DL. They averaged five runs with him, and 7.2 during his first six games of the year.

Granted, baseball is a marathon and slumps happen. Just as well as the entire Phillies lineup hit early in the year, the team is now in a collective slump. They will hit again and score major runs. You have to feel sorry for the pitchers who face the Phillies when they do hit like wildfire again.

If nothing else, however, the last nine games should prove one thing — the importance of Jimmy Rollins to the Phillies offense. Granted, he’s rarely been the typical high-average leadoff guy. But, he gets on base and makes things happen. When Rollins is involved, the Phils wear out home plate.

With a .341 average in his 11 games this year, Rollins was the spark plug that ignited the motor of the new Big Red Machine. In the first six games of the year, the Phils averaged nearly 7.2 runs per game. Then, during his first stint on the DL with a calf injury, the Phils posted 5.2 runs a game, a two-run per game difference.

Granted, six games is not a great sample. But, it is what it is.

When Rollins came back, the Phillies were scoring about 5 per game and continued that average with him. In fact, they put up a 12-spot in JRoll’s first game back. Overall, they scored 24 runs in five games with their starting shortstop, including two run-run outings. Then, the wheels fell off when JRoll reaggravated his calf injury.

During the 11 games Rollins has played this year, the team averages 6.1 runs. When he hasn’t played, the team averages just 4.28 runs.

In the nine games since Rollins when back on the DL, the team has been shutout five times (and is in danger of a sixth as of this writing). They’ve scored three runs twice and one run another game.

The Phillies are 2-7 since JRoll went down, having won one of those games 1-0 thanks to Roy Halladay’s perfect game.

This isn’t to say that JRoll’s absence is the only reason the team has slumped, but it hasn’t helped and is likely a major root problem.

This team needs its spark plug back. And soon.

He won’t be a complete cure by himself, but the Phillies need a guy at the top of the lineup who can make things happen. No matter what people say about JRoll’s average for a leadoff hitter, he’s always made things happen.

That didn’t last long. Just four-and-a-half games back from a strained calf muscle, Jimmy Rollins was back on the bench with the same injury.

JRoll, who returned Monday after missing a month, left Friday’s game against Boston in the sixth. He reinjures his calf and is listed as day-to-day.

Reports and tweets indicate he may need to undergo an MRI after the weekend.

As we learn more, we’ll share it.

Foxsports.com doesn’t rank among my “must read” sites each day. There’s a reason for that, and it’s stories like this one.

The site, in its infinite wisdom, ranked the top 10 ballparks in Major League Baseball. Citizen’s Bank Park, one of the best in terms of food options, view and taser guns, didn’t make the list.

Citizens Bank Park failed to make Foxsports.com's list of the top ten ballparks in the country.

Maybe CBP isn’t among the top third of ballparks, but surely it’s better than some on the list.

Making the top 10 were:

1. AT&T Park (Giants)
2. Wrigley Field (Cubs)
3. Oriole park at Camden Yards (Orioles)
4. Coors Field (Rockies)
5. Fenway Park (Red Sox)
6. Busch Stadium (Cardinals)
7. Target Field (Twins)
8. Dodger Stadium (Dodgers)
9. Kauffman Stadium (Royals)
10. PNC Field (Pirates)

Wrigley, Fenway, Dodger Stadium and Oriole Park clearly belong on the list. The history of the first three gets them on the list. Oriole park was the first of the retro stadiums to consume the nation.

Ashburn Alley itself should get CBP in the Top 10 list of baseball ballparks in the nation.

Target Field is too new. Kauffman Stadium is a water fountain surrounded by seats and nothing else.

Coors Field? Please.

PNC Park? I guess it’s not bad if you want to look at the skyline of the Steel City. Honestly, it’s really nothing more than an AT&T Park knockoff.

The bottom line is CBP with it’s Schmitter, cheesesteak options, Chickie’s and Pete’s, Bull’s BBQ, Ashburn Alley and other amenities belongs in the top 10.

On the plus side, at least Steinbrenner’s $1 billion abomination didn’t make the list either.