Sportswriters tend to be a cynical bunch, with baseball beat writers being especially jaded.
I guess covering the same guys for 162 games is going to breed a little contempt. So it was quite refreshing to roll into Phillies camp and hear the scribes who follow the team talk about what a fun team this is to cover. The Phils are a young, mostly mediocre bunch, but they play as hard as any team in the majors, and their clubhouse chemistry is fantastic. They've got a talented kid at every position except left field, where they're trying to groom the top pick from the 1998 draft, slugger Pat Burrell , to take over. However, their starting pitching, with the obvious exception of Curt Schilling, is awfully suspect, meaning that Philly won't pose a serious threat to the Braves and Mets in the NL East.