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!

Some off-season MLB news

Roy Halladay of the Phillies was unable to win a second consecutive NL Cy Young Award, as that honor when (27-5 decision) to Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.  Halladay finished second, with Cliff Lee third and Cole Hamels fifth.  That's a ridiculous rotation.

The Houston Astros will move to the American Leage West after the 2012 season, finally creating 2 equal 15 team leagues.  Also, by the 2013 season, there will be 2 wildcard teams in each league instead of 1.  Those 2 teams will play a 1 game playoff to decide who will advance to the divisional round.  It's about time some playoff changes were made, as baseball is one of the most difficult sports in terms of making the postseason. Only 8 out of 30 teams make the playoffs currently, which is only 27%.  (via USAToday Sports)

Cliff Lee wins second NL Pitcher of the Month Award

Cliff Lee went 5-0 this June, posting a 0.21 ERA and rightfully winning the NL Pitcher of the Month Award for that month.  His July was OK, subpar for Lee's standards.  Yet his dominance emerged again in August, as Cliff posted another 5-0 record with an ERA of 0.45.  He received another NL Pitcher of the Month Award today, and is also the only pitcher in MLB history with 2 months of 5 wins and a sub 0.50 ERA.  Unbelievable.

Cliff Lee is the man!

Cliff Lee just hit his second homerun of the season to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead against the L.A. Dodgers in the top of the 7th.  Ridiculous.  The man should never bunt, let him hit!

Phillies at the Break

What a way to end the first half (or so) of the 2011 season.  The Phillies demolished the Braves 14-1 to head into the All-Star Break tied for a franchise best with 57 wins (and only 34 losses).  That's good for the best record in MLB, and the largest division lead at 3.5 games.  With the way the starting pitching has been, I really can't see this team not finishing as strong as they've started.  Next stop: another division crown and 100 wins.

Also, congrats to the Phillies All-Star representatives: Roy Halladay (starting pitcher), Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Placido Polanco, and Shane Victorino (fan vote).  Only Roy and Cliff are playing in the game, but good luck to the NL regardless.

What an at-bat by Cliff Lee!!!

Saw 10+ pitches and hits a homerun (finally). It's about time!

34

And the scoreless streak for Cliff Lee ends at 34 innings. Sad to see it end, but great job the past month by Lee. Here's to starting another one!

A simple equation

Cliff Lee + 3 consecutive complete game shutouts = fucking amazing

21%

That's the percent of the Phillies' wins that have resulted in a shutout.  I made a post earlier in the season, when they had a whopping 26% of their wins as shutouts.  Sure, that number has dropped 5 percentage points, but who cares?  They still have the best record in MLB, and Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels are all at the top of their game.  And for them, that's ridiculous.  Combined, they are 26-11, with an average ERA of 2.63.  The Phightin' Phils are 47-28 after 75 games, good for 19 games over .500.  Wow!

Philly

Cliff Lee on the mound for the Phillies tonight (as I type), and the Flyers open up their playoff series against the Sabers.  Should be a good night!

Sit down Werth!