Philadelphia Phillies

Every season I rank the Philadelphia Phillies top 10 prospects for the upcoming season. While the Phillies farm system has been ravaged the past couple of years thanks to trades for Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and most recently Roy Oswalt, it does not mean there isn’t great talent still left.

The Philadelphia Phillies are the solid favorite with Las Vegas oddsmakers to win the 2011 World Series.

But they might be overrated. 

The Phillies have a star-studded starting pitching rotation and a lot of big names but might not be quite as good as everyone thinks.

Age is a Problem

There's been no shortage of drama in Philadelphia Phillies camp, specifically in regards to the health of an aging club. When Brad Lidge and Placido Polanco joined All-Star second baseman Chase Utley on the sidelines this week, the city of Philadelphia went into what some would consider panic mode.

With little middle-infield depth, are the Phils in a bit of a bind?

"Yo Adrian! We did it!"

That's right Philadelpha, you certainly did.

There is a long-standing perception in sports of the Philadelphia fans as nasty, vitriolic enemies of all that is good and decent.

How much of that is true is open to debate, but not according to a recent poll by GQ magazine.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series in which I will analyze a current Cy Young Predictor formula.  I offer a replacement formula to account for the change in philosophy for the Cy Young voters with the growing influence of new-age statistics (sabermetrics) and use this new formula to project the Cy Young race in 2011 and beyond.

America's favorite past-time evolved into the first major professional sports league in the United States—Major League Baseball.

The MLB was founded in 1869, and now has 30 teams, one of them in Canada.

The nicknames of these teams helped create the names of sports teams ever since. For those of you curious baseball fans and history buffs, here are the origins of each MLB team nickname.

Note: If you are also interested in NCAA, NFL, NBA, and NHL nicknames, check out my profile for the articles.

The Phillies come into this year as preseason favorites to reach their third World Series in the last four years, and with good reason.

Going into spring training this year, the one team that fans picked to make the World Series (at least out of the National League) was the Philadelphia Phillies. 

In what can only be called a Cinderella story, the team landed prize pitcher Cliff Lee as they beat out the two favorites in the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees. Combined with their strong lineup, the Phillies were expected to be the top team in the National League and easily make it to the Fall Classic.

With the Grapefruit League in full swing now, there is plenty of news and notes making it's way out of Philadelphia Phillies' camp, and it isn't all bad (though, most of it is, so don't say I didn't warn you.)

Be it injuries or hot starts, spring training always seems to have its fair share of surprises for the Phils.

The grocery list of Phillies' player injuries has just grown a bit longer.  It began with Chase Utley's bum knee, moved on to a broken hand bone for Domonic Brown, a sore neck for Ben Francisco and now, Brad Lidge has joined the party.