Phillies Power Rankings

Since I don't feel like analyzing and ranking every team in MLB, I decided instead to cull from a bunch of lists to see what the average power ranking for the Philadelphia Phillies is this year. Let's take a look:

Sports Illustrated: #16 - The rotation is still headlined by Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay and that's an encouraging start to any team, but Philadelphia's offensive production (both total runs scored and league rank) has dipped three straight seasons. On Opening Day the Phillies' four infielders and catcher will all be 33 or older, and the only player in that group who hasn't shown signs of decline -- catcher Carlos Ruiz -- is suspended the first 25 games of the season for a failed PED test. Adams and Jonathan Papelbon form a dominant back end of the bullpen, which had been missing in Philadelphia.
Newsday: #15 - Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are healthy, and Utley is entering his walk year. Michael Young doesn't have the store of good will he built in Texas and will have to perform to be appreciated. Ben Revere showed good tools with the Twins in 2012, but it was only one season. Can he do it again? The rotation is still a work of art (Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels), but Roy Halladay struggled mightily during the spring.

CBS Sports: #15 - The window of opportunity with the Howard-Utley-Rollins-Halladay-Lee nucleus is closing pretty rapidly. At least they have Cole Hamels to build around, but a pretty sizeable overhaul -- which kind of started with Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence being traded last season, obviously -- is coming soon. We'll see if they can stave it off this season.

Bleacher Report: #14 - Injuries to their core superstars hurt the Phillies badly last season. Once they finally got healthy and strung together some wins, it was already too late, as they'd dug themselves too big of a hole.
Age is certainly not on their side. But if they can avoid filling up the disabled list, the Phillies may have the horses to make one last playoff push before they start to think about rebuilding.
Cole Hamels is expected to step forward as the ace of the staff. Newcomers Michael Young, Ben Revere and Delmon Young will look to spark the lineup around stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley.

ESPN: #14 - It will be an uphill battle for the Phillies to catch the Nationals and the new-and-improved Braves with an aging and injury-prone roster, but they will benefit by having one of baseball's easiest first-half schedules.

Sporting News: #14

MLB.com: #14 (experts) / #12 (fans)

Fox Sports: # 12 - A healthy Ryan Howard makes this team — which features some of the best starting pitchers — a contender, again. What happened last season? We’re still not sure.


So on average, the Phillies are ranked at exactly 14, hovering in the middle of the pack on all the lists but never being ranked below #16. The return of Ryan Howard, the decline of Roy Holladay, the aging starters, and Cole Hamels are all common threads from each site. The Phil will have some work to do, but if they stay healthy I see no reason why they can't take down the Nationals and Braves. We'll see!

Carlos Ruiz to remain a Phillie through 2013

The Philadelphia Phillies made their first decision of the offseason thus far, and picked up the $5 million option on Carlos Ruiz's contract for 2013. This was a no-brainer obviously, as Ruiz was putting up career numbers before he was injured this season. Now if they could fill the holes in the outfield and third base, we might have a team to get excited about next year.

Benches clear during Phillies/Giants game

Leave it to Shane "I need a Lexapro" Victorino to inspire a benches clearing brawl during last night's Phillies/Giants game.  Definitely watch the video here, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out Shane was intentionally thrown at. He hit a homerun earlier in the game, and the Phillies were up by 6 runs at the time.  As a pitcher, you NEVER throw behind a batter unless you're trying to hit him.  That type of errant throw is not accidental by any stretch. 

I'm not condoning what Victorino did after the HBP, but he does have the right to be angry and defend his namesake and team.  He went a little over the top as has become expected by Shane, but let's not pretend the Giants were innocent.  Ramon Ramirez was wrong for the intentional HBP, and catcher Eli Whiteside was wrong for trying to tackle Placido Polanco as he was coming over to mediate.  And when I say trying, I mean trying; it was an awful attempt at a tackle.  Polanco was even quoted as saying simply, "He didn't tackle me".

Whiteside, Ramirez, and Victorino were all ejected from the game.  Pablo Sandoval also appeared to have Carlos Ruiz in a choke-hold at one point.  Suspensions have not yet been announced.

Oh, and as for Hunter Pence?  Welcome to Philly.  Tremendous support from the new guy, as he could have easily watched the brawl from afar without getting involved.  Fits right in, for sure.