Phillies Most Powerful Teams
By Matt Veasey
The 2009 Philadelphia Phillies hold the franchise record, hitting a collective 224 home runs that season.
From 2004 through that 2009 season, the team reached the collective 200 home run mark during a season four times, the most prodigious stretch of power production in the now 133-year history of the Phillies ball club.
In the final season at Veteran’s Stadium during the 2003 campaign, the club had banged out 166 long balls, thanks largely to the presence of newly signed free agent slugger Jim Thome, who crushed 47 of those homers by himself.
The record stretch began the following year, with the very first season at Citizens Bank Park, which has rightly earned a reputation as a home run hitter’s paradise, a true bandbox of a ball park.
In that 2004 season, the Phils set a franchise record at the time by banging out a cumulative team total of 204 home runs. Easily the most memorable of those was the 400th in Thome’s career, which he blasted at home at Citizens Bank Park on June 15th that season. That Phillies club also set a record which still stands today.
That year, nine different players hit double-digit home run totals on the season: Thome (42), Bobby Abreu (30), Pat Burrell (24), David Bell (18), Mike Lieberthal (17), Placido Polanco (17), and Jimmy Rollins (14) reached the mark as starters, while Chase Utley (13) and Jason Michaels (10) reached the mark as part-timers.
Two years later, the 2006 Phillies broke that season cumulative record by bashing 216 home runs. Leading the way was a new slugging first baseman, Ryan Howard, who crushed a franchise record 58 home runs, smashing Mike Schmidt‘s old record of 48 set back in the 1980 season.
That 2006 club saw Utley’s power continue to grow, as the 2nd baseman slammed 32 homers. Burrell had 29 and Rollins 25, and two other players reached double digits as well. Those were center fielder Aaron Rowand with a dozen, and perhaps surprisingly David Dellucci, who ripped 13 homers off the bench.
More from That Balls Outta Here
- 11 Free-agent deals the Philadelphia Phillies wish fell through
- Phillies-Mets owners’ rivalry grows after shocking Carlos Correa deal
- Could Rich Hill become ‘Jamie Moyer 2.0’ in Phillies rotation?
- Does Bailey Falter have a future in Phillies’ rotation?
- Prospect Andrew Baker could help Phillies bullpen in 2023
The 2007 Phillies fell just short of that previous season record, but still surpassed the 200 mark by banging out 213 home runs in winning the first of what would be five consecutive NL East crowns. Howard again led the way with 47, Burrell had 30, Rowand hit 27, Utley had 22, Shane Victorino hit a dozen, and Greg Dobbs came off the bench with 10 homers.
But leading the way that season was National League MVP Jimmy Rollins. JRoll had famously boasted in the preseason, when most prognosticators were saying that the Mets were the division favorites, that the Phillies were actually “the team to beat” in the NL East. He backed that up with a season for the ages: 30 homers, 38 doubles, 20 triples, 94 RBI, 139 runs scored, 41 steals, and a .296/.344/.531 slash line.
The 2008 Phillies again won the NL East, and beat out the ’07 bunch by one homer, smashing 214, just two short of the club record set by the ’06 crew. Though they fell just short of the home run mark, they did win the World Series, just the 2nd in franchise history. Jayson Werth had 24 and Pedro Feliz hit 14 to join Howard, Utley, Rollins, Victorino, and Burrell in double digits.
That 2008 Phillies club thus had seven players in double digits. Though it was two short of the team record of nine players who reached the mark back in 2004, the world champs just missed that mark. Three different hitters off the bench all hit 9 homers in 2008: Dobbs, Chris Coste, and Geoff Jenkins.
The last Phillies team of that great era to reach the 200 mark would be the current record-setters. The 2009 Phillies returned to the World Series, losing in six games to the New York Yankees. But that team did set the franchise record by bashing out 224 home runs en route to the NL pennant.
The record-setting 2009 Phillies home run leaders were Howard (45), Werth (36), Raul Ibanez (34), Utley (31), Rollins (21), Feliz (12), and Victorino (10) while the final starter, catcher Carlos Ruiz, would hit nine to just miss that double-digit level.
One of those 224 home runs came off the bat of perhaps the least likely home run hitter of the entire powerful run of those mid-late 2000’s teams. Pitcher Chan Ho Park, in his lone Phillies season, went deep on April 25th at Land Shark Stadium against Chris Volstad of the Florida Marlins. It was his first since an incredible two-homer game in 2000, and the 3rd and final of his 17-year MLB career.
So the 2004 and the 2009 Phillies each hold current franchise home run records. The 2004 group with their nine players hitting the double-digit HR mark, and the 2009 club with their overall total of 224 long balls. Those are some ambitious marks for the next great Phillies team to make a run at, hopefully some year soon.