A Stat For Phillies Fans To Ponder

[philliesfiend55]

Jimmy Rollins Needs to play in only 3 Games next year to pass Richie Ashburn for 2nd place on the Phillies all-time list in games played. However those three games will only put him at 1795 major leagues games played (all with the Phillies). Mike Schmidt is the only Phillies player in history to play in 2,000 games or in 1,800 for that matter. His slugging of nearly 550 home runs resulted in Schmidt remaining with the Phillies for 2,404 games. Of course he is the exception to the rule.
The Phillies finished under .500 for 30 out of 31 years between 1918 & 1948. (1932 being the only year the team topped .500 in that span.) and player turnover was usually rapid to say the least. Despite the fact that the Phillies have built a winning tradition since 2001, with 10 above .500 finishes, one .500 finish in 2012 and one under .500 finish in 2002, where the team could have finished over .500 in '02 and '12, if it hadn't lost the last game of the season. Looking at the fact that 1795 games played puts you in second place in franchise history I see evidence of the ghostly presence of past horrible Phillies teams of the 20s & 30s, most of the 40s, and even rearing it's ugly head for brief more recent periods such as 1958-1961, 1969-1973, 1988-1992, and even as late as 1997-2000. With Rollins' long term contract he's likely to reach the 2,000 games milestone and even become #1 in hits for the franchise sometime in 2014. Two 2,000 games players in Phillies history will look at least a little better than the present situation
Check the remainder of the Phillies Top 6 in games played: #4 Larry Bowa 1739 games; #5 Tony Taylor 1669 games and #6 Del Ennis 1630 games and you'll see totals that those are decent runs for players with one franchise, but those numbers would not crack the top 10 for the Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants and many traditionally stronger teams.

-Dennis Orlandini (philliesfiend55).

[Ben Grimm]

I guess if one would consider a pitching equivelent, it looks like 440 games started would be about the same as 2000 games played using 150 games played as an averege - a bit over 13 years. Using that, both Carlton & Roberts would fit with Chris Short right on the fringe.

However I do disagree with your assessment that this team could soon turn into some of the horrible teams of the past. The largest difference between now and then is that ownership tasted success, and realized that the cash cow they have down in South Philly, along with the upcoming TV contract, gives them dollars to throw around. I'm against simply tossing money at a problem, because it usually doesn't have any long-term benefits. But they should be working both sides of the fence right now - keep the team competetive while fully working the draft & minor leagues to provide players such as they did back in the early 00s. I wouldn't be surprised to see a crop of young talent with totally different names on Baseball America's Franchise Top 10 list this time in 2014.

Then again, this team was playing with some long-term injuries. As they age another year, there's always that risk next season, but spring hopes eternal and if they can come out of the gate early it could be a fun season. These offseason maneuvers by Ruben will show us a bit of what to expect.

One thing I've stood by since the day he was hired was that Ruben does not respect the minor league system. So far, it's shown to be true as players were sent packing in any attempt to get high-priced talent. That can put you into a hole very quickly. It'll take a few years to know for sure, but i have a feeling the Jonathan Singleton move to get Hunter Pence could bite this team in the butt - especially if Dom Brown doesn't turn things around.

If some of the kids who looked okay this year in the system continue to improve, it could be a big boost for this franchise.