WIP Blog by Joseph Santoliquito- The Phils Can Snap The Championship Drought
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The team with the best chance of winning a world championship in this title-starved city begins playing for real on Monday. What also begins is a golden era for Phillies baseball, rivaling another golden time in this team’s past in the late-1970s, early-’80s, when Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Pete Rose, Garry Maddox, ect., ect. were winning NL East title after NL East title—finally resulting in the franchise’s only World Series championship—in 1980.
This current version can achieve what that vintage version did. The only difference is that a World Series title could come sooner.
I do know one thing: If the Phils win the NL East again, which I believe they have a good chance to do—Johan Santana, or no Johan Santana—they’ll need to take a step back before going ballistic like they did last year, creating a hullabuloo as if they won the World Series not just the NL East title.
Maybe breaking a 14-year postseason freeze had something to do with that. But after clinching, the Phils’ bats froze and they were barely a blip on the postseason screen, being rolled over by a white hot Colorado Rockies team.
This team broke through the threshold in 2007. Now it’s time to look at a World Series championship this year.
Yea, I went C-word with the ’08 Phillies.
Offensively, the pieces are certainly in place. The Phillies right now have without a doubt the best shortstop and second baseman in the team’s history in reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. They also have what arguably could be another future all-time Phillie in first baseman Ryan Howard—if he continues at the pace he’s shown his first two seasons (I’ll take last year’s strikeouts and blame it on Howard entering last season 20 pounds beefier thanks to the MVP banquet circuit).
The starting pitching is questionable. Adam Eaton is still looking for the form that first attracted the Phils to him. Where have you gone ’05 Eaton, when you went 11-5 for the Padres? Brett Myers returning to the starting rotation isn’t exactly a bad thing, in my opinion, and gives the Phils a formidable, righty-lefty one-two punch, teamed with Cole Hamels. Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick are competent.
Brad Lidge, pending his return from the DL and no more strange accidents, like injuring his knee when he caught himself with a spike on his first pitch of batting practice in spring training, the Phillies’ pen should be okay, especially with depth in J.C. Romero and Tom Gordon in set-up roles.
The truth is this is a team that doesn’t need much pitching—take last year, when Phils starters had one of the highest ERAs in the National League. They still won—the division. The offense will overcome any peril. At least that’s the thinking Phils GM Pat Gillick appears to have.
Anyway, here’s a team that is capable of winning 94 games this season—sorry, Jimmy, no 100. But a team that will repeat as NL East champs and face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
That’s where I’ll stop.
It can happen. The pieces are there.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
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WIP Blog By Joseph Santoliquito- The Phils Can Snap The Championship Drought
The team with the best chance of winning a world championship in this title-starved city begins playing for real on Monday. What also begins is a golden era for Phillies baseball, rivaling another golden time in this team’s past in the late-1970s, early-’80s, when Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Pete Rose, Garry Maddox, ect., ect. were winning NL East title after NL East title—finally resulting in the franchise’s only World Series championship—in 1980. Read More...
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