Series Thread (Games 58-60): May 31-June 2 vs. Phillies

Don't tell me I lost a step
Criss-crossed in the wrong direction
Found myself in a conversation
From a missed connection

Fri 5.31 7p: Kenta Maeda vs. Arrieta
Sat 6.1 7p: Clayton Kershaw vs. Eflin
Sun 6.2 1p: Rich Hill vs. Pivetta

It may not exactly be Harper's Folly, what with the Phillies in first place over Atlanta by three games in the NL East. But the Dodgers' decision to pass on off-season gem Bryce Harper definitely kept us away from long-term (13-year, $330M) constraints, and possibly also kept us from short-term disappointments as well (espn.com just re-graded the off-season transactions, and Bryce Harper's acquisition by Philadelphia earned a C- grade):

There are a lot of positives here as the Phillies are in first place, attendance is up more than 9,000 fans per game and Harper has played every game. His defense has been vastly better than last season and he has hit three of the 30 longest home runs of the season. On the other hand, he is hitting .243/.364/.475 with 10 home runs -- a relatively soft number considering 69 players had already hit 10 before Harper reached double digits Wednesday -- and was tied for the major league lead in strikeouts entering Wednesday. He ranked 84th in the majors in wOBA and the Phillies didn't give Harper $330 million to be the 84th-best hitter in the game.

Holy shit, it's a blockquote! We haven't used one of those for a while now!

So maybe Harper is feeling like Los Angeles is...a missed connection?

Anyway, this weekend we get a chance to see Harper again, and while we won't be trotting out our own offseason acquisition (five years, $60M; D-grade), staph-infected A.J. Pollock, we seem to be rolling pretty well nonetheless: most wins in the majors; best record in the NL; 8.5-game lead on the Padres. Let's keep it rolling.