They're a little lefty heavy, but if healthy, I'm not too worried. The one thing they're not going to replace with Werth was his combination of speed and power. His RBIs will probably be replaced (he hit under .200 with runners in scoring position), but his runs scored probably will not. I will miss his defense, though. I'm not trying to sell Werth short--he's a 5 tool guy--but a healthy lineup will mean more to the offense than Werth did.

Not scoring runs can hurt you. I see them as a favorite, but by no means an overwhelming favorite.



He was arguably their best position player last year. With all the other star players on the wrong side of 30, an aging, strikeout-prone Ryan Howard, and almost certain regression by Ruiz, their offense may be worse than you think.

He was probably the most consistent, but he was one of the few healthy and he was playing for a contract. I'm not saying he's not valuable. I just think a healthy Rollins at the top means more than Werth in the middle.

Yes it can. And actually the Braves rotation was 93 was probably just as good.

Yea, I think the Braves '93 rotation was probably better. Maddox had a better career than Cliff Lee probably will, but both were the biggest off-season signings in their respective times. Holliday is probably better than Smoltz (if not for his career, certainly for 1992 vs. 2010). Glavine's career was better than Hammels's will probably be. Even in their respective times, Glavine comes out on top. He was taking two 20-win seasons into 1993. Oswalt vs. Avery is a toss up. If Oswalt pitches like he did at the end of last season, he's better (he had a 1.74 ERA). But he can't do that for a whole season.

So, overall, I would say the Phillies big 4 is more established than the Braves' big 4 was at the time, but the Braves' big 4 went on to have better careers than this current Phillies lineup can manage (I believe). It's an interesting twist of fate that the team to beat the '93 Braves was the miracle Phillies with Dykstra, Daulton, Kruk and Schilling. The MVP of the Braves series was Curt Schilling, who went an impressive 0-0 with a 1.69 ERA (the second part is, of course, impressive). Mitch Williams managed to get those two wins because he first blew the save.

Not according to San Francisco!

From what little I've seen of Williams aside from Game 6 in '93, I never got how he was such a great closer. He had quite a few blown saves many years, and he never recovered after the Carter homer.

They were middle-of-the-road for an NL offense last year. They weren't poor, and they barely made the playoffs.

I honestly couldn't tell you. The '93 Phillies were my first baseball memory, so I can't comment on Williams's former quality of play. The general consensus is his fastball had declined too much and despite it being apparent to many, Fregosi decided to go with his guy. Williams did have 43 saves that season.

Greinke to the Brew Crew.

Fuuuuuuck.

How the fuck did they swing that? Yuck.

3.5 O/U on Webb's ERA next year

In Texas? Over.

Anywhere? Over.

"Congrats to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for making the baseball Hall of Fame, but seriously, fuck the voters who didn't put Palmeiro, Bagwell, McGriff and Raines on their ballots. Fuck you, you fucking asshole voters. Goddammit."

-from my Facebook

These writers who diminish the accomplishments of these guys because they played in the "Steroid Era" or, in Raines' case, because they don't grok sabermetrics, really piss me off.

I don't mention McGwire because yeah, he hit a fuckton of homers, but he was one-dimensional–his other stats don't add up to HOF-worthy.