The Champs of Philadelphia

That was just amazing last year, wasn’t it? The Mets couldn’t take the heat while the Phils turned on the stretch juice for the second season in a row, and this time they took it all the way to the first Philadelphia pennant in 15 years and the first World Series championship in almost 30.

Well, they are going to continue with their same winning nucleus, and I’m very happy to see that–these boys can hit!. Howard, the best home run hitter in the majors for the last three years despite striking out more than Dave Kingman, has been resigned (and guess what A-Rod? No dope!), and on the mound Hamels has a sweet deal that he more than deserved to get (maybe he got a hitting bonus package, too). Base stealing ace and defensive wizard Jimmy Rollins is back at SS and Chase “The Machine” Utley stays at 2B. Victorino and Werth are also back in there, so we have a wicked combination of speed and power in this line-up.

But GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told the “Wilmington News Journal”, “We’ve got our backup catcher competition, our fifth-starter competition, some bullpen competition. I’m getting excited about seeing guys perform because I know that we’ve built a situation now that all the players know we’re built to win. This is not about developing players at the major league level. This is about putting players on the field to win, and you can learn a lot about a player when they’re put in these situations.”

I’m excited about RHP Carlos Carrasco and I think he’s going to win a place in the starting rotation. But unlike many people, I think Madson can show a season-long form similar to what he displayed down the stretch in September. And of course, we still have the closing machine, Lidge.

The great thing about these Phillies is that they are such a team. I’m expected a third straight division title, but I know that baseball history is against us getting the rest. Still this is a city where history was made before.