How the Philadelphia Phillies Rediscovered Themelves

The Philadelphia Phillies have been in the wake of making history for the past week and a half now. They have also been in the middle of some pretty wicked trade rumors regarding Roy Halladay. So you would think that they would be getting just about every waking moment of TV time on Comcast Philly, and would be the team making Peter Gammons’ hair get whiter as the hour passes.

Well, they have been the team that has been followed by both Gammons and Buster Olney, but they have just recently drawn attention to themselves for their amazing win streak.

Even after the Phillies 10 game win streak ended with a 10-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs in the series finale, the Phils have been the epitome of the sports television world.

It does not happen often that one of my favorite teams is the center of attention on television. In fact, it has only happened about three times in the past couple of years. The Phils winning the World Series, the Sixers trading away Allen Iverson, and the Miami Dolphins winning their first game back in 2007.

Now that number increases to four.

With Jayson Werth’s first career walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 13th inning, the Phillies became the first World Series champions to have a double-digit win streak in the past 35 years!

To get to number 10, the Phillies had to reach deep inside of themselves to rediscover their identity. They are not a team that relies on their starting pitching. Heck, they are not even the kind of team that gives total faith in their bullpen.

The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series last year with their defense, and most of all, their bats. The Phillies could not win at home in the first half of the year because they were focused on playing small ball. Here’s a newsflash. It did not work out for them.

The Phillies could not win at home because they were getting beat at their own game. The Phillies are now back to pummeling teams with double-digit runs, and a solid bullpen to shut opposing teams down. Look for that to remain the same the rest of the way in the regular season.

The Phillies have certainly transformed themselves into a team that fans all over the world want to know about, and what is going on with them. They have entered the world of teams such as the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankess, and the Chicago Cubs. The Phillies are the new hot team in the MLB.

They have the chance to win back-to-back-to-back World Series Championships without Roy Halladay. If the Phils were to acquire Doc, then they would automatically become the favorites to win it all for the next two years.

The problem is, they have to get Halladay first before sportswriters can go crazy with their predictions.

With the news announced that the Phils would not give up pitcher Kyle Drabek in a deal for Halladay, it seems like the Phils would have to give up more to compensate for Drabek.

The Blue Jays will have scouts at some of Drabeks games, and are currently waiting out a rain delay to watch Drabek pitch, just in case general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. changes his mind.

So, instead if trading Drabek, maybe the Phils would have to trade a pitcher such as Antonio Bastardo, or Joe Savery. In my mind, the Phils could make a pretty awesome starting rotation out of Savery, Bastardo, Cole Hamels, Drabek, and Drew Carpenter in a couple of years.

Savery is doing awesome down in the minors, and Bastardo will be a great pitcher once he develops his other pitches besides his fastball.

Carpenter has already gained some major league experience this year and pitched well enough to get the Phillies a win.

Drabek seems to be pretty good, and has been scouted and put under a microscope by many. A highly respected source says that Drabek is the real deal. I would expect Drabek to be on the major league roster next year, maybe because of Jamie Moyer’s possible retirement.

But, with all of those prospects comes a couple of years that the Phillies and their fans have to wait for them to fully develop.

If the Phillies were to trade one of multiple of those pitchers, the Phillies would in return get one of the top three pitchers in the league, in Halladay, and would set themselves up for multiple championship runs in the next couple of years.

Again, the Phils would have to trade Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, and some major league talent, in my mind Shane Victorino, and possibly two more pitchers to even get the Jays to talk about the possibility of trading away the best pitcher in their franchise history.

The Phillies will have to give up a lot to get Halladay, but in the end, it will be worth it, and might even make the next two years the best ever in Philadelphia Phillies history!