Philadelphia Phillies Are Underrated Going Into Opening Day 2016

At the end of September, the Philadelphia Phillies qualified as one of the biggest dumpster fires in all of sports, behind arguably only the neighboring Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA, but ahead of just about everyone else.

The Phillies, though, hired a new general manager, Matt Klentak, and he has done a remarkable job of putting out the flames and sweeping away the ashes. Yet the expectations seem to be the same for the team and that is patently unfair. Klentak has pieced together a far better starting rotation than the team had a year ago, and to expect this team to win only 63 games again this season is off the mark.

They have a couple of great young hitters in third baseman Maikel Franco and outfielder Odubel Herrera, and a platoon system at first of Darin Ruf and Ryan Howard should be more productive than sending Howard out there every day. Any time Howard gets an opportunity to sit on the bench has to be placed in the category of addition by subtraction.

Manager Pete Mackanin said his goal is to win 81 games, which is probably too high, but it is definitely reasonable to expect somewhere between 63 and 81 for this team. If they win 73 games that is a good jumping off point to a better season in 2017 which is what fans should expect.

While almost none of the MLB projections have the Phillies getting out of the mid-60 win totals, a starting rotation of Jeremy Hellickson, Aaron Nola, Charlie Morton, Jerad Eickhoff and Vincent Velasquez has to be better than adding 37-year-old retreads. The Phillies tried that route in each of the last two seasons by signing A.J. Burnett two years ago and Aaron Harang last year, which totally backfired. Morton, 32, is the oldest starter.

There is also something to be said for the culture of winning the team established in spring training. The Phillies finished the Florida portion of their camp with a 15-10 record, behind only the Washington Nationals (18-4) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (22-7) in the National League. Mackanin feels the good habits developed will carry over to the real games that begin next week.

Another 63-win season, or even 65, does not compute with this group. They might not win 81, but 73 is certainly attainable.