Chase Utley

Part 4 of 7 Phillies Championship Advantages

As they say, timing is everything. After a highly challenging 2010 season wrought with unending obstacles, that little bit of wisdom might particularly ring true for the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Part 3 of 7

Although the Phillies have a league-wide reputation as an offensive powerhouse, their numbers were down across the board this season. Appearances can be deceiving. 

A peek at the rankings suggests that the Phillies might take a back seat to other playoff teams in terms of offensive output.  

The Philadelphia Phillies are in a good place. It's a place most young kids, high school standouts, and college athletes covet.

The sporting pinnacle.

You're on a team—your own team—that you helped build with your own hands and you are enjoying success year after year.

This is what Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and the rest of the gang are experiencing now.

They've clinched four straight National East crowns, and they find themselves standing alone at the top of the mountain as the hottest team in the MLB.

After clinching their fourth straight division title, the Philadelphia Phillies have established themselves as the team to beat in the National League.

After Minnesota's blundering 10-1 loss to the Tigers and the New York Yankees' 10-8  loss to the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies sit alone with the MLB's  best record.

With just over a week left in the MLB season, I figured it'd be good to look at the possibilities for this postseason's match-ups.

While certain teams have much work to do in regards of locking their position in the postseason, I thought it would be fun to look into the playoffs as they sit today.

If the postseason started right this instant, the match-ups would look like this:

American League Division Series

Texas Rangers at New York Yankees

Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins

The advent of sabermetrics has changed the way we look at "clutch."

"Situational hitting" is luck. "Inducing weak contact" is luck. "Performing under pressure" is luck. It's all been proven with math and logic and regression analysis.

But screw that, because it's a pennant race, and even the most logical stathead has subjective ideas about who he'd most want to see step to the plate with his favorite team's season on the line.

This Sunday afternoon, the Phillies and the Eagles are both playing at about the same time (Eagles at 1pm and Phillies at 1:35pm). So if you have to choose one game to watch, which team would you watch?

I think it should be the Phillies. I am hoping this weekend the city of Philadelphia finally makes the right choice. We should be a baseball town, not a football town. We want to paint the town red, not green.

Why should you watch the Phillies rather than the Eagles?

It's been 66 years since the National League has seen a three time National League champion.

The year was 1944 when the mighty St. Louis Cardinals won their third straight pennant after finishing first in the NL with a 105 win season.

With the playoffs around the corner, potential matchups are being examined. The regular season is winding down and the hunt is heating up. For the Padres and Phillies, two playoff hopefuls, there is a chance the two will face each other in the postseason.

Whether the Phillies and Padres win the wild card or their divisions, there is a good chance they'll face each other, making for an intriguing matchup.