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 second team is still playing so does not have the advantage of securing a historical place in our minds and memories as of yet, but may equal or exceed the ability and statistics of the first group of Phillies superstars. 

This [...]

Thank God, baseball is back ! 

Pitchers and Catchers reported a day early as the Phillies get geared up to try to make it 4 in a row.  The role that used to belong to the Atlanta Braves as the perennial team to beat seems to have been handed over to our Phitens.   The Braves and Marlins both made off season moves that indicate the team in their sights is in fact the Phillies.  The Mets also signed Jason Bay for 66 million for four years to improve their chances at being competative.  They may finish 15 games out instead of 24, but will never seriously challenge.

I believe this year the race is a two team one.  The Braves and the [...]

For the third time in a week the Phillies locked up one of their starters with a three year deal.

It is being reported that Carlos Ruiz and the team have agreed to an $8.85 million, three-year contract that avoids salary arbitration.

Ruiz joins Joe Balnton and Shane Victorino as members who have joined the three-year club last last few days.

Three has indeed been a magical number for the organization. When the team acquired ace Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays, they singed him to an extension that guaranteed to keep him in town for the next three years. The team then worked quickly to lock up Balnton, Victorino and Ruiz for what they hope will be three more years of success, [...]

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  [...]

It wasn’t a blown save, it was something much worse.

Bard Lidge allowed three runs in the ninth inning and the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4, to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the World Series, Sunday night.

Pedro Feliz hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th off Joba Chamberlain to tie the game at 4-4 and give the Phillies the momentum heading in to the ninth. Lidge came in and got the first two hitters out, as it appeared his postseason reconciliation was going to continue.

Then it all fell to pieces.

Johnny Damon hit the blooper of all bloopers to keep the inning alive. Damon, not the fastest runner these days, stole second and third [...]

Pivotal Game 3 has arrived.

To say that Cole Hamels has been a disappointment this season would be an understatement. Coming off of a postseason where he was the NLCS and World Series MVP, big things were expected of the young left-hander. Those expectations were never met as Hamels went 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA. He consistently gave up big home runs and never quite found a rhythm. Even upon the Phillies’ return to the postseason, Hamels could not find his 2008 magic.

If he can find it tonight, all of those aforementioned stats will be forgotten.

Hamels takes the hill tonight as the Phillies host the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series.

Opposing Hamels will be postseason veteran Andy Pettitte. With [...]

Joe Blanton will get another chance to crack a home run in the World Series.

More importantly, he will get a chance to pitch the Phillies past the Yankees in Game 4, on Sunday. Manager Charlie Manuel announced today that Blanton will get the call, instead of using Cliff Lee on three days’ rest. Lee will pitch Game 5.

Manuel said that he did not think Lee would be ready on three days’ rest and that he did not want to push him. He also said that he will use J.A. Happ exclusively out of the bullpen the rest of the way.

Blanton started Game 4 against the Rays last year, combining a strong pitching performance with a clutch home run in what [...]

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 the starters get their grades for the regular season.

It was a strange year.  Only four Phillies even qualified as starters.  Two midseason pickups have to be factored into the mix.   Two of last seasons standouts made no difference on the [...]

If the Philadelphia Phillies want to repeat as World Series champions, they will have to prove their worth on the road.
Starting pitcher Cole Hamels had a rough outing, allowing four runs in five innings, and the Phillies could not battle all the way back in a 5-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies in Game 2 of the NLDS.
Yovit Torrealba provided the big blow, hitting a two-run home run in the third inning . From there, Aaron Cook corralled the Phillies hitters until the sixth when the Phillies battled back with three runs.
Trailing by one in the ninth, the Phils threatened, putting runners on first and second with two outs, but Colorado closer Huston Street got Shane Victorino to hit a [...]

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 rested Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino took over the leadoff spot for the night and went 1 for four.  Tracy got his 4th pinch hit in the 7th inning, but was stranded on base as were all the Phillies that [...]

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 groundouts, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly as the Phillies scattered 11 hits overall to beat Florida 9-3 in the opener.

Blanton has had 15 quality starts in his last 16 games, allowing 4 runs or less and raising his [...]

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 inning relief, between Happ early in the year, Madsen all year long, Moyer late in the year and Kendrick tonight, all 4 pitched 4 innings or longer in relief of starters for various reasons.

And these starters are pretty dang good [...]

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 near the front of that rotation. Second, Lee will be right there with him.

From there, things get cloudy. For how well he has pitched this season and the fact that he is right-handed points to the notion that Blanton will [...]

On a warm night after seeing Cliff Lee treated as a mere mortal for the second consecutive start and getting shut out the first game at Houston, the Phillies beat themselves after another quality road start by Joe Blanton,  followed by another blown save.

This time Blanton pitched well into the sixth and assorted Phillie hitters contributed with their bats as they scored 4 runs on 10 hits in support.  It looked like a nice win to rebound from yesterdays ugly 7-0 defeat.  Then 2 walks and 2 hits in the ninth allowed by Lidge cost them another certain win.   For those of you who might be new to this post, I will repeat myself here.  This is a well balanced [...]

Last night we found out that Cliff Lee wasn’t really Superman after all as the Braves showed up with some Kryptonite, smashing three homers off the new found Phillies ace.  Lee gave up more runs in the fifth inning than he had allowed in all five of his starts since joining the Phillies.  It was the first time in two years that he had allowed two homers in an inning and three homers in a game as the Braves battered the Phillies on their way to a 9-1 victory.

With Saturday nights debacle behind them, the Phillies sent Joe Blanton out to face the Braves and Jair Jurrjens in front of a national audience on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast.  The [...]