An upbeat piece from Bob Ford is your recommended reading on this miserable, rainy and damp Friday before the holiday morning: [Philly.com]

The problem, however, is trying to figure out what might keep that gap from growing to 11 games after two-thirds of the season or 17 games by the end. There is nothing about what has happened so far that was really a shock – with the exception of the poor start by Cole Hamels and the unforeseeable good one by Kyle Kendrick.

If those two surprises balance out, then the rest – old guys getting injured, role players underachieving, age eroding production – is pretty much what might have been expected, barring the miracle the organization hoped to receive.

Third baseman Michael Young has a decent, if somewhat empty, batting average, but the other offseason position-player acquisitions, particularly Ben Revere and Delmon Young, have been disappointments. Among the organization players looking to build something, only Domonic Brown’s offense has been encouraging, and even that is faint praise when you consider how much congratulation is being heaped on a .248 hitter.

Yeah, go read that.