Philadelphia Phillies: Projecting the 2012 Phillies’ Bullpen Ladder

There is an old saying that goes, “every team is only as strong as its weakest link.”

This is the case in all sports and all teams. For the Philadelphia Phillies, a team with a great amount of talent but as observed in the 2011 NLDS, quite a few flaws as well, their weakest link was partially caused by a lack of bullpen depth.

For the Phillies, who, in the past, 2008 to be exact, had the best bullpen in MLB, the opposite could be said of the 2011 team. Suffering injuries to all three of their closer options, the Phillies were forced to start an inexperienced pitcher at both the closer and set-up positions. Although the experiment worked at first, both of the young arms burned out by September, giving the Phillies few options in the bullpen.

Although the bullpen cannot be solely blamed for the 2011 postseason failure, it is a contributing factor. In 2008, the Phillies won the World Series with their excellent bullpen, and in 2012, they are going to need a bit of a bullpen redux in order to hope to do it again.

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