July 2: PREGAME -- It is what it is

The striking thing about the Phillies these days isn't that they've dropped 17 of 21 games. And it isn't that they've lost seven straight series, including this weekend's here in Toronto.

It's that manager Charlie Manuel seems resigned to his team's plight: with so much young pitching and an offense that's too lefty-dominant and incapable of producing runs without hitting homers, Manuel makes veiled references every day that the Phillies are what they are.

Not good.

Check out Manuel's remarks from Saturday, when he was asked if he plans to hold a team meeting: "If you take a look at our team and how we lose, we've got young pitchers, and we've got some players on a down slide. Right now, the way we've been playing, I don't want to go in there and really pile on the young players. Meetings are a timing thing. Yeah, I've been thinking about having one. I've had them this year. But I was a player for 20 years, and I know everything about meetings and all that crap. Believe me, if that would help, I'd do it every night. I don't see any sense in that."

Then, in perhaps his most revealing comment, Manuel talked about how the Phillies need to get better fast if they hope to make the playoffs.

"Have we got the pieces?," he asked, rhetorically. "I don't know."