WeAreNDHockey
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With the GM already on record as saying contention might be a ways off is there any hope for the 2015 Phillies? 13 games in and we're on a pace for 112 losses. Will Sandberg still be the manager when the All-Star break rolls around. Will Cole Hamels still be anchoring the rotation when the trade deadline comes July 31st? Will they sell out another game at Citizen's Bank Park in 2015? These questions and others will be answered over the next 6 months.
As the season kicked off I could not find a single Phillies beat writer who did not tab the Phils for anything but a last place finish in the NL East. The same thing held true with every national columnist I could find (Yahoo sports, ESPN, SI, etc). That's a pretty bleak assessment for a team that just 4 short seasons ago set a franchise record with 102 wins. Then again what can really be expected of a franchise that has only really had two extended runs of seasons (amounting to a couple of dozens of years combined) where they either contended or were fairly expected to contend in over 130 seasons of existence? 37 last place finishes is no accident. Perhaps this team will surprise fans like the 1993 team did, or the 1915 team, maybe.
As the season kicked off I could not find a single Phillies beat writer who did not tab the Phils for anything but a last place finish in the NL East. The same thing held true with every national columnist I could find (Yahoo sports, ESPN, SI, etc). That's a pretty bleak assessment for a team that just 4 short seasons ago set a franchise record with 102 wins. Then again what can really be expected of a franchise that has only really had two extended runs of seasons (amounting to a couple of dozens of years combined) where they either contended or were fairly expected to contend in over 130 seasons of existence? 37 last place finishes is no accident. Perhaps this team will surprise fans like the 1993 team did, or the 1915 team, maybe.
