Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Biggest Surprises of the Season so Far
June 14, 2011 by Matt Goldberg
Filed under Fan News
The Philadelphia Phillies, heading into June 14, stand at 40-26.
They currently have the best record in baseball, and hold a two-and-a-half-games lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East.
Their wins project to 98 for the season, one more than they amassed during their MLB-best 2010 regular season run.
So, how do we uncover and rank the 10 most surprising developments from the 66 games played so far?
That’s easy. We look just a little deeper, and maybe go just a little lighter at the same time.
The Phillies started to evolve into a pitching-first team last season, and that trend has certainly continued and accelerated. Indeed, Phils fans of the last five years or so—who have enjoyed this baseball renaissance—may have known that the team would play more low-scoring contests, but were they prepared to root for a team that would now rank eighth in the league in runs scored (and closer to 13th than they are to sixth)?
On the bright side, they are tied for second in ERA, and figure to finish no worse than the top two.
So, where are the surprises? We expected Roy Halladay to challenge for another Cy Young, and he has not disappointed. We also expected Cole Hamels to be good, but this good?
And while baseball cliché No. 423 tells us that injuries are always a part of the game, did we expect this many?
Please stay tuned and view one man’s opinion of the top 10 surprises of the Phillies’ season so far—ranked in ascending order of “surprise” rather than “importance.”