With Pitchers and catchers having reported to Clearwater, Fla., Spring Training is officially underway.

The Phillies, who are coming off of consecutive trips to the World Series, return much of the same core from the previous two years with newcomers, Roy Halladay, Placido Polanco and Danys Baez now on as additional reinforcements. There will be plenty of debate about how the team’s offseason will affect the team this season. The biggest question is did the team improve?

The Philadelphia Daily News’ Paul Hagen took a stab at answering that question today and the result was a mild yes. Hagen points to the rotation, bench and catcher position as upgrades, with the bullpen a downgraded and the infield and outfield remaining the same.

In regards [...]

If the Phillies want to become a dynasty, I offer 5 suggestions to send them on their way. They have a good balanced ball club, one that has won the National League east three times in a row, been to 2 World Series and won one. That is a good 500 or so games for the team. But to truly become a dynasty, they need to sustain this level of play for 1000 or so more games.

That is tough in an arbitration filled, salary capped, league unless they plan on spending half a billion dollars each and every off season like the Yankees seem to do. Frankly, as much support as the Phillies get, I still  [...]

In Game One of the NLCS it was Chan Ho Park that got the big outs, not George Sherrill.

And as a result, the Phillies have a 1-0 series lead.

Carlos Ruiz and Raul Ibanez each hit a three-run bomb to help lead the Phillies past the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-6, in a slugfest, Thursday night.

The much-maligned Phillies bullpen was good enough as it allowed two runs over four innings to hold the win for an OK Cole Hamels.

The biggest performance was turned in by Park, who entered the game with Adam Either on second an no outs in the seventh and the Phillies protecting a 5-4 lead.

Park proceeded to get Manny Ramirez to ground out, struck out Matt Kemp and finished [...]

It appears as if Charlie Manuel finally heard the rest of us. I find it admirable that he stated Lidge was his guy a few months ago when the closer first started to struggle and was staying with him to the bitter end. I can appreciate his attempt at loyalty and integrity. But at a certain point, even Manuel had to recognize as manager of the defending World Series champions, his primary objective should be to win games. Lidge’s difficulties this season were dangerously close to infecting the rest of the team.

Tonight Cole Hamel’s evened his record at .500 by pitching 6+ strong innings of 1 run ball. Manuel then brought Chan Ho Park and Brett Myers in for middle [...]

Tonight’s headline is not about a Phillies closer blowing another lead. Wednesday was Clippard’s turn to come into a game in the late innings with the score tied and give up two long balls to the first two batters he faced.

The Phillies are back on track. Cliff Lee is still the man. The Phillies continue to crush the long ball just when they need it. After watching another lead vanish in the bottom of the 7th, the Phillies came up to bat in the top of the 8th inning and jumped on Washington’s relief pitcher, Tyler Clippard. The first two batters who faced him, Werth and Ruiz, both went [...]