Phillies mailbag: answering your questions about the red-hot Fightins and anything else

The Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants on Monday with a 6-1 win. Zack Wheeler was dominant through seven. Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering each pitched a scoreless inning. Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber went deep. Nick Castellanos reached base four times.

Just another beautiful day at Citizens Bank Park for the team with the best record in baseball. The Fightins’ win on Monday was their 17th in their last 20 games.

I’m running out of words to describe this incredible Phillies start, so tonight seems like a good time to write my first-ever mailbag piece. I love this format. Because if the article is garbage, it’s basically your fault and not mine.

Let’s dive in:

This one’s easy. Hell yes these Phillies are capable of winning the World Series. They could have easily won it in 2022 after taking a 2-1 series lead over the Astros. They could have won it last year too (and should have at least gotten there).

And this 2024 team is the best of the bunch. They have the deepest rotation, best bullpen, and best defense of the entire three-year resurgence. Their offense is right there with the other recent squads. The team doesn’t shy away from the bright lights of the postseason (the Braves can attest to that), and the experience of the past few years should serve them well if they go on another deep run.

A lot still has to break in the Phils’ favor before we actually get to a parade. They need to stay healthy, of course. We saw with Trea Turner just how quickly things can change on that front. There are a lot of other great baseball teams to get past, with the Dodgers and Braves presenting formidable obstacles in the National League alone. No team wins a championship without a little luck, and luck has been in short supply throughout this franchise’s history.

So will the Phillies win the World Series? Who knows. But I can confidently tell you that it’s entirely realistic that the Phillies will win the World Series, and not many writers can say the same for the teams they cover.

Great question. They’re all so different. The ’93 Phils caught my heart at exactly the right age, and kept me chasing the high of a successful baseball team straight through the final out of the ’08 World Series. You never forget your first love, right?

The 2011 team is the most talented Phillies group I’ve seen in my life, but the end to their postseason eliminates them from contention. In contrast to the ’93 overachievers, the ’11 team underachieved when it mattered most, and nothing feels worse than that. Plus they represent the end of the entire ’07-’11 golden era.

2022 was wild. The whole run feels like a fever dream–from Nola’s gem to clinch a playoff spot in Houston, to the incredible comeback against the Cardinals in the first game of the wild card round, through the NLDS victory over the Braves (will the Hoskins bat spike clip ever not give us chills?), through the NLCS and Bedlam at the Bank (other than a championship, can you name a more incredible moment?), and right through a few games of the World Series. Magical. If they won it all–and they came damn close–the 2022 Phils would be the pick. Hearing Dancin’ On My Own still gets me feeling a certain type of way.

But 2008 gets the nod. They won it all, which is the ultimate tiebreaker. And it’s not as if they weren’t fun to watch. Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels… most Phillies fans can name the entire roster, and just about every player was electric. They had magical moments of their own (see, e.g., Stairs, Matt). And if you’re around my age, you waited a very long time to see your first Philadelphia sports championship.

The video clips from that 2008 season are starting to show their age, but come October you can bet your ass I’ll be watching them all over again.

I absolutely never expected anything like this. The @2008philz twitter account started as a goofy hobby, much like some Facebook fan pages I ran back in the day. As the account kept growing, I had some vague thoughts about doing something more professional in the industry. But they were much like the musings of unemployed George Costanza in that one Seinfeld episode: “I like sports, I could do something in sports.”

Also–I had a crippling fear of putting long-form writing out in the world for judgement, and I wasn’t comfortable enough in front of cameras to start a podcast/stream. Not a problem nowadays because, like any fear, you get over it by just doing the damn thing. But at the time they seemed like insurmountable challenges.

Finally, in 2022, I decided to really take things seriously and see what I could do. I started the newsletter and poured my heart and soul into it. Some of the writing was good, some of it was a mess… but people really responded to it, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful.

The newsletter served as a resume of sorts. Then PHLY was looking for a Phillies writer, and shit, here I am.

Life is very much like baseball in that, while you can control some things and tilt the odds in your favor, an unsettling amount of it will always be left to pure chance. I caught a lot of tough breaks early in life, but in recent years I’ve had a horseshoe up my ass. I’m having an absolute blast with the PHLY gang and I can’t wait to see where it all goes.

Early gut feeling says bullpen piece.

It’s so tough to predict a team’s late-season needs in early May. Guys get hurt, guys start to struggle, anything can happen. Right now, however, looking around the roster it’s hard to find many spots to upgrade (absent a blockbuster deal for a super-duper star).

It felt like they were one bullpen arm away in the 2023 NLCS and, despite the success of Jose Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, Orion Kerkering, and others, you get the sense that a shutdown closer could get this team to another level. Imagine if the rotation guys continue to go 6-7 innings, the ninth inning is game over because the closer is untouchable, and Thomson is able to mix and match Alvarado, Hoffman, Kerkering, etc. in the seventh/eighth? Former all-star closer Gregory Soto becomes a middle-inning guy?? The Phillies can turn to Matt Strahm or Spencer Turnbull for multiple innings when necessary??? Just filthy.

Another option could be a right-handed bat, depending on how Whit Merrifield plays over the next couple months. (Merrifield looks good lately after a rough start.) If you search for a relative weakness on this team, they are just 7-6 against lefty starters. And that was before they lost right-handed bat Trea Turner for six weeks.

As far as the other right-handed hitters go: Alec Bohm has played out of his mind, but history says his numbers will regress some; Nick Castellanos has struggled, will soon go on a tear, and will then struggle again; J.T. Realmuto and Johan Rojas have played well but they probably don’t give you enough firepower. Would the Phillies feel comfortable against a LHP in the postseason with a starting lineup featuring Castellanos on a cold streak, Merrifield, Rojas, and Edmundo Sosa? Maybe. But a team this close to a championship might go all-in.

Assuming you get each of these players in their best Phillies season, here’s your lineup (check Lieberthal’s ’99 numbers before you yell at me online):

1. CF Lenny Dykstra (1993)
2. SS Jimmy Rollins (2007)
3. RF Bryce Harper (2021)
4. 3B Mike Schmidt (1980)
5. 1B Ryan Howard (2006)
6. DH Dick Allen (1966)
7. 2B Chase Utley (2008)
8. C Mike Lieberthal (1999)
9. LF Lefty O’Doul (1929)

SP: Grover Cleveland Alexander (1915), RP: Ryan Madson (2010), CL: Brad Lidge (2008), Manager: Charlie Manuel (2008)

Gotta end things and get full custody, you simply can’t have a disgusting person like that around your kids. The courts will understand.

Sorry I couldn’t get to everyone’s questions! But this was fun and we’ll do it often.

The Phillies begin a quick two-game series with the Blue Jays on Tuesday. Cristopher Sanchez (1-3, 3.68 ERA) starts for the Phils and RHP Jose Berrios (4-2, 1.44 ERA) gets the ball for Toronto. 6:40 p.m. start.