The hoopla and front page making signings for the Phillies appear to be a thing of the past as this year, the Phils are soon heading to Spring Training minus a lot of the hype that we’ve heard and seen from them in previous years.
The departure of Roy “Doc” Halladay is one reason that the Phillies have lost some of that luster that they used to have around this time of the year, but also, the whole team is kind of different as well as there are no big predictions coming from Jimmy Rollins yet and just a mumbling of how things have gone wrong from a couple of other Phillies players over the winter season.
So what did go wrong with the Phillies last year?
Cole Hamels has echoed the sentiments of a few other players that know the difference of the way the Phillies played when they had a “winning combination” and now the past two seasons that they haven’t. He said it’s about chemistry and the club just did not have that optimism and chemistry that help you win ballgames sometimes.
Maybe all of that will start to change this year, the Phillies have been off the pedestal for the top spot in the NL East now for a couple seasons, they last won the NL East in 2011 and had reeled off 5 years in a row that ended in 2011 for the top spot in the NL East. The Phillies arguably had the best run in their history with the span from 2007 to 2011 and have a World Series championship to show for it and made it to the World Series in 2009 which they lost to the Yankees in 6 games.
The team lost a lot of the swagger that it use to have and players have gotten much older since the run that the Phillies put together for 5 years but it doesn’t mean that they are finished. They still know what is needed to get the job done and it they are healthy and stay in contention, they just may have a lot of game in them to do that.
Some may say that the Phillies haven’t got a chance to do well now, but perhaps they are that sleeping giant that can’t wait to show itself once again, a return to the dominance where they were for many years, putting Philadelphia and the Phillies in an awesome light where players clamored to play here for the chance to win a championship, maybe those days just aren’t over yet.
