25 Greatest Players to Begin Their Careers with the Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies know first hand the importance of developing Major League talent within the organization.

A quick look at the Phillies’ roster in 2008, the year the club won its second World Series title, shows that building talent from within is imperative to winning a championship. Would they have been able to capture the National League pennant and the World Series without the contributions of Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, and so on and so forth? The simple answer is no.

Major League teams have realized this. After all, it is a pretty simple observation. That’s why we’ve seen the rapid, gigantic growth of the scouting and player development part of the game that was nearly non-existent in the not-too-distant past.

The Phillies have done their job of kick starting some legendary careers—that much is for certain. Once again, knowing the value of building from within has helped the Phils in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. They’ve had their share of busts, but they’ve also produced a few Hall of Famers.

Qualifying for this list is simple—a player had to play his first game in the MLB as a member of the Phillies. However, in order to keep this list relevant to the Phils, players will be ranked in order of their effectiveness to the Phillies’ organization.

So that’s it. This list demonstrates the value of building an organization from the ground up. Here are 25 of the greatest players to begin their careers with the Phillies

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