Not Philly's Best

Contrary to popular opinion, this 2010 Phillies team is not the best we've ever seen. They're not even the best we've seen in the last 2 years. They will be remembered, yes, for the opportunities they wasted, the talent they squandered, the potential they failed to live up to. They will be remembered for their star-studded pitching, which did not let them down this postseason and for their World Series-winning manager, who did.

Once again, for the 2nd-straight year, the Phillies postseason ended short of glory amidst a chain of logic-defying choices by their manager. For the 2nd game in the final 3 of their losing NLCS, Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel made an odd move, out of step with both himself and his team. Before game 5, Manuel had declared Ryan Madson the one pitcher he was wary to use because the day before Madson had been asked to extend beyond his regular 1 inning of relief work. Yet, inexplicably, Madson was relied upon for 2 innings the very next game, the decisive game 6, which ended the Phillies' season. For the last 3 winning seasons, Madson could be counted on to setup in the 8th and Lidge, 12-12 in postseason saves with the Phils, to close the 9th. Suddenly, in an alarming divergence from that proven path, Manuel seem to think he could transform Madson into a workhorse multi-inning reliever, instead of the 1 inning power pitcher he so successfully is.

The obvious and best choice for the 7th would have been Jose Contreras, an assured veteran who had posted 3 shutout innings in the series with 3 S.O. and no walks.

To start the 7th, Madson came on strong, as he had throughout the playoffs and the season, for that matter, since returning from foot injury, which caused him to miss May, June and the 1st week of July.

Madson struck out the 1st 2 batters before allowing a double to 2B Freddy Sanchez. Madson would get out of the inning, but clearly was losing something on his stuff due to having been overworked all week. It was with 2-out in his next inning of work, the 8th, that Madson finally betrayed his ailing arm, which had finally had enough of what Charlie Manuel was dishing out. A 2-out HR to Juan Uribe that only barely got over the right field wall at 346 feet was all the Giants would need against a Phillies team that falls decidedly short of the best we've ever seen.

Yes, the 2010 Phils featured Ryan Howard with his new 125 million dollar contract extension and yes, Hall-of-Fame-to-be pitcher Roy Halladay. True, they added Roy Oswalt on July 30th as a late desperation move to save their season and, yes, it worked. However, gone from the repertoire that made them great in '09 and '08 were any killer-instinct key hits with runners-on-base.

When Ryan Howard stood helplessly watching called strike 3 to end the Phillies season, he instantly became a symbol for his feeble team. This Phillies team, championship Phillies 3.0, was 0-for-everything during their postseason and 0-for-every scoring opportunity after the 1st inning in their final game. So, why not lose it all with 2 runners on and the bat in the most dangerous hitter on the team's hands, watching the pitch sail by and the season come to a close.

The 2008 Phillies would never have let these opportunities slip away without a key hit. 12 runners left on base. TWELVE runners left on base, in a must-win elimination game at home. That is the definition of impotence. Much will rightfully be said about the Giants' timely hitting and their superb situational arms in the NLCS, but that won't begin to tell the tale of a Phillies team, once giants themselves, riddled with helplessness and incapability at the plate.

"If you don't hit, it doesn't matter how good the pitching is," Shane Victorino said after the Phils were shutout in game 3 in S.F. "We scored nothing. I don't know why we're not hitting. We're not going to sit here and worry about why we're not hitting. We're going to think about when we're going to hit."

Unfortunately, for this Phillies team that has slumped at the plate at various times over the last 2 seasons, the bottom of the well may be nowhere in sight.

"Usually when a team gets into a slump, you see one or two players who are still hitting," former GM and team advisor Pat Gillick said earlier this season. "But we've had a number of players who really haven't hit up to what they're capable of."

No kidding.

12 runners left on base in an elimination game at home Saturday night bears repeating.

This team lacked killer-instinct and the will to live.

They had a great starting 3, sure, but so did the Giants, who will send Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand to the World Series to face Cliff Lee. What set the Phillies apart was that they were a shadow of their former selves at the plate, especially when it mattered most. You can't tell me the 2008 team would have flailed about and looked so pitiful with the bat when called upon to be the hero. This team struck out when they should have driven the ball, grounded into double-plays when they used to put one in the gap. It is easy to tell the pretenders from the real thing, and this year's Phillies-- great as they were from the mound and impressive as their 2nd-half run was-- were a shadow of their former selves.

Postseason Phillies team HRs by year:

2008: 19 HRs
2009: 25 HRs
2010: 4 HRs

Postseason Phillies team batting average by year:

2008: .260
2009: .247
2010: .210

Postseason runs scored by 2010 team:

18 earned runs scored in 6 NLCS games. That's an average of 3 earned runs per game.

7 earned runs in 3 NLDS games. That's an average of 2.33 earned runs per game.

When you ponder those staggeringly futile offensive numbers, it's a miracle this year's Phils ended the postseason with a winning record, albeit barely, at 5-4.

Charlie Manuel's managerial moves in losing the NLCS were the equivalent of wild pitches, off the mark and miscued. He has been getting plenty of national attention for all the wrong reasons this week, as the sports world collectively raised eyebrows and wondered, 'What is Charlie thinking?' (Notably, ESPN's featured article: "The mismanagement of Charlie Manuel on 10.21.10.")

However, despite their blemishes, we must love this team for the same reason their opponents feared them coming into this postseason: they were once great. They will endure in our hearts, they will always be our heroes.

The greatest Phillie of all-time, Mike Schmidt, recently said that this team is "a unique group" that has already "surpassed our accomplishments." If they win the NLCS and return to the World Series, he feels this team will "officially be the best team in Phillies history, bar none."

Well, perhaps Schmidty was right and that caveat will haunt this team, like Ryan Howard's called strike 3 Saturday night will haunt him for the rest of his offseason and beyond.

If they win the NLCS and return to the World Series. Well, they fell short. What they did accomplish these last 4 years in winning the division and a World Series, including 6 playoff series wins in 3 years was tremendous. However, now that their season has officially closed, there is no irrefutable case for the 2010 Phillies as the best ever.

In my post on 10.6.10, I wrote:

"It has been said... that this is the best Phillies team ever, although [the] '93 Phillies team won just as many games: 97. When you consider the fact that the 1976 and 1977 Phils won 101 games a-piece, I find that a difficult claim to stake.

However, the argument is there and it's a strong one and their postseason performance may yet prove it true. Although, can it honestly be said that this year's version is definitively better than even the 2008 team? The starting pitching is obviously better, but is the hitting? In potential, perhaps, but not in final season statistics, and this year's bullpen wasn't the stellar cast of '08."

I stand behind my assessment, then, of the 2010 Phillies, a very good ballclub with remarkable starting pitching and stacked with former all-stars that ultimately fell short of its predecessor versions because, contrary to the popular opinion we've been hearing the past couple months, they weren't as good.

I was right when I said, back in February, that the Giants were a NL tower, and I was right again on October 6th when I said this Phillies team wasn't our best. It was exciting to imagine they were, but games aren't won on potential, only on timely hitting and execution when the game is on the line.

On October 13th, after the Phillies offense failed to show up in their series sweep of the Reds, despite the Reds' undeniably putrid pitching, Shane Victorino said: "Who doesn't want to get 10 or 15 hits a game, and put up a lot more runs, but it's about the timeliness of the hits. It's not about how many, but about when."

Leaving 12 runners on base in the game that ended their season Saturday said it all, and Ryan Howard watching called strike three with 2-on in the bottom of the 9th, down a run was the image that aptly summed it up.