Tonight, Roy Halladay comes off the DL which means for the first time this season we will see the full Phillies team with all key pieces healthy. It only took 91 games.
Chase Utley was the first to get back, then Ryan Howard and now Halladay completes the team as we’ve come to know it.
Of course, this begs the question… what does it all mean? During the 91 games without the full squad the Phillies managed just a 40-51 record. Had they been able to hang around .500 in the absence of all these guys, this might actually be a pretty exciting time. You could legitimately see them putting together a run at the playoffs or even the NL East.
However, as things stand now the Phils sit 11 games under .500 and 13 games back in the division. They need to make up 4 games just to get out of the NL East basement. They’ll have to make up probably 8-9 games to get themselves into wild card contention, which wouldn’t seem totally ridiculous until you also factor in that there’s 8 teams they’ll need to jump over in the process.
They’ve won 3 straight, which is a start. With 71 games still to play, we’ll have to see if last year’s team can play like last year’s team, now that the whole gang is here. That said, even that may not be enough.