[slotdirt]

To wit - Jurrjens in 2009 (easily his best season to date - as a 23 year old) pitched 44 innings in the month of September (presumably antitrust's predicted tail-off period), and gave up but seven earned runs in that period. 2010, he was hurt and missed like half the season, so that doesn't count. In 2008, he had two really good starts coming down the stretch, and two really mediocre ones, so we'll call that a wash. In 2007, he didn't even come to the big leagues until mid-August and was 21, so I don't think we can hold that against him either.

In any event, Jurrjens is only 25 and has a freaking 1.87 ERA at the midpoint of the season and a 205 ERA+ (which if it holds, would be the best ERA+ season in baseball by a pitcher not named Martinez or Clemens since Kevin Brown in 1996). I'd say he's going to win the Cy Young if he continues to pitch this way.

Which brings me back to your original statement of:

"btw, so far phillies pitching staff is meeting / exceeding expectations."

To which I replied:

"They are? I'm not even sure their rotation is the best in baseball right now, let alone best of all time as folks were predicting preseason."

And has generated about two pages of you calling me every name you can think of. Meanwhile, the Phillies rotation really are exceeding expectations? Because I heard they were going to have the best rotation EVER. Can you honestly say that the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies have the best rotation in major league baseball history? Because that would be the only real way they could have somehow exceeded their expectations.