From 1976 to 1980 they won 4 NL East titles, 1 National League Pennant and 1 World Series.

 From 2005 to present they have won 3 National League East titles, 2 National league Pennants and 1 World Series.

The first team included the group known as the Whiz Kids, with nearly every member of the team either in the hall of fame, or close to it, and known nationally as household names due to the exposure they recieved during their dominance.  The [...]

Roy Halladay is there.So is Cole Hamels.

J.A. Happ? Check

Brad Lidge? Check.

The pitchers and catchers have arrived at Clearwater, Fla., one day earlier than tomorrow’s mandatory date.

According to philly.com every pitcher has reported except for Jamie Moyer and Jose Contreras. (There’s an old persons joke just begging to be inserted with that).

So good news baseball fans; despite the snow that appeared outside our windows today, baseball is ready to get going again.

The only real news of the day is that J.C [...]

Do you think that this is what the Phillies had in mind when they pulled the trigger on the trade that brought Cliff Lee to Philadelphia? Did they have some crystal ball somewhere that told them Jamie Moyer would get hurt, that J.A Happ would be ineffective in his first post-season start and that Cole Hamels would not show the form that won him the NLCS and World Series MVP in 2008?

Nah, probably not.  What they did know about the [...]

The Phillies and Rockies are deadlocked at 1-1 after the first two games at Citizens Bank park, and now they are off to chilly Colorado.   The talk this year has focused on the Phillies pitching.  Everyone seems to agree the offense and defense are good enough to repeat as World Series champions, but the jury is still out on the pitching staff.  On an off day with no game scheduled, I am taking this time to review the Phillies pitchers; today [...]

We’ll know for sure this afternoon when the Phillies will announce their starter to oppose the Rockies Ubaldo Jimenez.  Charlie Manuel has a 12:30pm press conference and its expected that by 1pm we’ll know who will be starting.

Most media reports have the Phillies giving the honor to Cole Hamels with Cliff Lee going game two.  Hamels 2009 season certainly wasn’t vintage Cole, but the Phillies evidentally believe that the experience he gained last year when he was both the MVP [...]

The past two nights the Phillies are looking like a team that gave it’s all to clinch the division and are not all that concerned about home field advantage for the championship series.  With the exception of another towering homerun by Howard in the bottom of the first (his 44th) the Phillies offense was flat.  Joe Blanton looked equally flat as he allowed 5 runs in 6 plus innings and never seemed to be on top of his delivery. 

Charlie Manuel [...]

The Phillies closed out a game at Citizens Bank Park for a much needed 7-4 win over the Astros on a night when the Braves finally faltered in their headlong rush toward postseason.  Braves fans saw a glimmer of hope for the first time in 5 years as the perennial NL East champions made a valiant attempt but simply had too much ground to make up and too little time. 

It is all but done now.  The Phillies have 5 games [...]

The Phillies took another game to the wire tonight. With their magic number down to three, they tried to fight for the victory. Moyer pitched 4 in relief of Kendrick, and seems to be becoming the Phillies specialist in long relief. Now all we need is a closer.

The Phillies continue to be an offensive juggernaut. Howard hit his 43rd homerun, Baku chipped in with his 3rd and the Phillies scored 5 runs in the loss to Milwaukee. Walker came in [...]

The Phillies traveled to Florida to play the Florida Marlins a rare double header. Joe Blanton came out and threw another quality start in the first game pitching 7 innings of shutout ball. The Phillies offense secured the win with an assortment of seeing eye hits, good fielding, baserunning and steals.

Ibanez did hit a late home run but that only accounted for 1 of the 9 runs the team scored in the first game, the rest came on singles and [...]

The Phillies won again.  Hit 4 homeruns.  Ho hum.  We Phanatics are getting spoiled.  This is a really good team, with a lot of depth.

Example 1. Pitching :  Happ left in the third with a mystery injury, probably reinjured his oblique muscle, and with all the talk about the bullpen, Kendrick comes in and pitches 4 innings of shut out 2 hit relief.   The Phillies bullpen for all it’s late inning woes has been notorious this year for clutch long middle [...]

Joe Blanton again made a case to be in the Phillies’ rotation, pitching six scoreless innings in the Phillies 6-1 win over the Nationals.

Of course that comes after Pedro strengthened his case and Cliff Lee assured his. Then there is J.A. Happ who has made a season-long case to pitch come time for the postseason.

Never before has a Phillies team had such a great problem.

At this point there are only two things assured: First, Cole Hamels will be in or [...]

Jamie Moyer was back in a familiar role for the Phillies today. He stepped back on the mound as a starting pitcher for the first time since his demotion to the bullpen. It definitely showed that he was a little rusty, but the oldest player in baseball shook off the cobwebs after allowing hits to the first five batters he faced and got back in the starting rhythm. After falling behind 4-0 in the first inning, Moyer promptly dispatched the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I know, I could’ve used Jamie Martinez as well but I think everyone gets the idea here.  For the second time in four starts Pedro Martinez had a good performance interrupted by rain.   On Friday night in Philadelphia Martinez survived the first 63 minute delay  but after play was resumed for all of 7 minutes Pedro’s night was done as the Braves and Phillies waited through a second 45 minute delay.

Enter Jamie Moyer.   Making his second relief appearance since being [...]