No National League team has made the World Series three consecutive years since the 1942-44 St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies look to turn that very trick this season. Adding ace Roy 'Doc' Halladay to the top of the rotation, the Phillies own one if the most talented starting staffs in all of baseball. It was an interesting offseason when Philadelphia traded every starting position player on their team to try to focus on speed and defense. Carlos Guillen, acquired from the Detroit Tigers, is expected to help carry the load offensively while youngsters Austin Jackson, Starlin Castro, and Matt Wieters will hopefully be big offensive contributors.
3 Questions
Will the bullpen be better?
After a shaky 2009 season the Phillies bullpen is completely revamped. Jonathon Papelbon is at the end of that bullpen and believes he has enough support in D. Bard and company to get him the ball.
Can this young lineup produce?
With a lineup that is lacking any significant power, can the Phillies score enough runs to help out the talented pitching staff. The Phillies have no 30 home run hitter in sight and will rely on heavy contributions from several first year players, including the self proclaimed phenom Starlin Castro. When asked about the inexperienced offense, veteran Carlos Guillen responded "I trust these guys, I watch them play in spring and they good players, we will be able to push runs 's across the plate." Even with Guillen's confidence, Philly fans are worried about the youngsters tendency to hit for low averages with a lot of strikeouts.
Does it even matter if the Phillies can score?
Get to the postseason. It is the goal of each and every MLB team. So does it even matter if the Phils can score runs with the dreadful division they play in? The Washington Nationals, or should I say Natinals, have been the laughing stock of the MLB for the last 5 years, and they traded their most prized possession Stephen Strasburg to the Phillies. So all their fans can look forward to is Adam Dunn's 40 home runs, 200 strikeouts, and a team in the basement of the division. The Florida Marlins may have one of the best players in all the game of baseball with Hanley Ramirez, but he has absolutely no help. The Marlins usually find a way to finish about .500 at the end of the year but it would be surprising if the pushed the Phillies for the division title. Speaking of finishing .500, the Marlins are projected to have 500 fans come out to see them play this year. They just don't have the financial backing it takes to get them over the hump, so we move onto the Atlanta Braves. The Braves scare no one, they just don't have much talent. Jason Heyward Bey is allegedly a superstar in the making, I say call me when he has done something. Unless Heyward is the .350, 40HR, 140RBI machine the Steve Phillips of the world are making him out to be, expect the Braves to finish under .500 and out of the division race by late July. Chipper Jones is 600 years old and I'm sorry, the pitching staff has too many holes besides the talented Tommy Hanson. That takes us to the New York Mets, arguably the biggest rivals of the Phillies. The Mets are most known for their constant chokes toward the end of the regular season, and with their former ace, Johan Santana, now in Philles red, it's hard to see the Mets overtake the Phillies for the best team in the NL East. The Mets run a lineup out there that is not going to scare many teams. Their best hitter is Jason Bay, and he isn't very good. They run a over hyped rookie in Brennen Boesch in thier 3 hole, which should prove to be a very costly mistake. Jose Reyes and David Wright haven't proved much except for one great year for each. If all it took was one great year to be an alleged 'superstar,' then Chris Shelton is the next Albert Pujols. And when you get to the bottom of the lineup, you get to Bengie Molina, Ike Davis, and Brandon Phillips; which is just too easy for me to take cheapies on. The bullpen is very weak when you have Fu Te Ni and company handing the ball to Fernando 'Walking the Tightrope' Rodney for the save. The starting staff of the Mets is absolutely terrible, you can't have a respectable staff if CJ Wilson and Mike Pelfrey are in it, sorry. Look for the Mets to be on Sunday night baseball 22 times, and finish 22 games under .500 and finish 4th in the NL East, just ahead if the AAA Nationals.
Grades
Offense: C+: A talented, yet unproven offense who can hopefully put together enough quality at bats to become a respected offense.
Defense: A: No weak spots in the infield or outfield. Strong arms from center and left field and a gun from behind the plate in Wieters. Starlin Castro and A. Escobar could compete for gold gloves at their repective postions.
Pitching: B+: An extremely talented staff but too many quesion marks for the young arms. Doc Halladay and Jonathon Papelbon will lead by example.
Manager: A- : Charie Manuel is just a boy and there is no other way to say it.
Bench: C-: A pretty weak bench hopefully won't have to be relyed on much this season.
Prediction: The Phillies win the NL East and meet the Red Sox for the World Series.
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