Quick, name me one other team in the majors right now who has sustained more injuries than the Phillies and ACTUALLY continued to play extremely well; all things considered.
I’ll give ya a minute.
Yeah, I couldn’t think of any either, and that’s because there really isn’t any. Sure, there are a couple of teams who have dealt with a season long injury list (Boston anyone) but nobody has duplicated what the Phightin’ Phils have in the 2010 season.
This is a team that has lost Placido Polanco (twice), J-Roll (twice), Chase Utley who recently returned, Shane Victorino, Carlos Ruiz and newest member of the DL Ryan Howard.
But in their place have come players who, for the most part, have filled in more than admirably when they were needed most.
Players such as Wilson Valdez, Ross Gload, Brian Snyder, Domonic Brown, and Ben Francisco have all filled in when asked and have done so with effective results on defense and on offense.
But time really does heal all wounds, and everyone except Howard has found their way back onto the playing field at just the right time.
Albeit, they are still chasing Bobby Cox and those pesky Braves! Don’t you just hate going away parties?
If the Phillies are going back to the postseason they are going to do it either by winning the division, or via the Wild Card, but there are a few things that they must do in order to keep the torrent pace that lifted them from 7 games out of first to nearly 2 games out of first.
Let’s take a look.