Phillies have ‘some hunger in our mouths’

Yesterday we found out that Hanley Ramirez has the “hunger of a rookie.”

Today we find out some bad news for Marlins fans: The Philadelphia Phillies are also very hungry, maybe even hungrier than Hanley Ramirez. That’s what happens when you reach the NLCS and then sign Cliff Lee in the offseason.

This is what Phillies starter Roy Halladay told Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com:

“The longer you play the more hungry you get,” Halladay said. “All of us are to the point where we’ve had success and established ourselves. Once you do that, the most important thing becomes winning. I know Oswalt and Cliff feel the same way. We’re at that point in our careers where you really have to start chasing it. To be able to be on this team, right now, I think we all have to like our chances and hope we can do what we need to do to get it done.”

Shane Victorino went even further:

“There’s some hunger in our mouths,” centerfielder Shane Victorino said. “I don’t think we can be any hungrier than we are right now.”

Since this is two hungry guys vs. Florida’s one hungry guy, I’m going to have to tab the Phillies as the early favorites to win the NL East. Of course we have yet to hear from the Mets, Nats and Braves, so things could change.

All this talk of appetites brings two questions to mind:

1) Could there possibly be a better way to explain the arbitration process than to give a fake Prince Fielder a bunch of cheeseburgers? (“Now, the arbitrator cheeseburger’s decision is binding and determines the number of cheeseburgers for compensation. He could determine that the player deserves six, eight, or 10 cheeseburgers, which I will now eat.”)

2) How will this phenomenon affect all these players who are in the best shape of their lives?

As complicated as these matters are, one thing is clear: I’m hungry for spring training to start.

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