A Look Ahead - 2011 Phillies

Ryan Howard is just one young gun to arise from the Phillies farm system.

The Phillies are a team trying to win now.  They've dedicating themselves to making the MLB club the best it can be, even if it means losing valuable young players. Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Roy Halladay, are among the pool of talented and expensive pieces they've added to the club in recent memory. A team that was purchased for 30 million dollars in 1981, is now valued at over 500 million dollars, 537,000,000 to be exact.  The Phillies are good, no matter which way you slice it.  But this success, may come at a cost, the future.



I won't say the Phillies are all home grown talent, but by any means there not like the Yankees and Red Sox, like there 140m payroll may dictate.  Out of there starting 8 and the pitching rotation only 6 players (Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins) were drafted and brought up by the Phillies.  However, the rest weren't essentially "bought".  Roy Oswalt, Roy Halladay, and Joe Blanton were traded for, therefore they don't fall into the category.  The Phils did there homework on Werth early and got him for 800k before his career really set foot, counting him out, and Shane Victorino was drafted in the Rule 5 draft.  That leaves Placido Polanco and Raul Ibanez.  Both were "bought" in free agency in 2009 and 2008.  So 2 of the teams 18 "starters" were Yankeed.  I went through every teams 18 starters and found 18 teams had the 2 or more "purchased" players.  That's over 50% of teams in the MLB.  Overall, this proves the point that the Phillies payroll only got so high due to the costs it takes in the modern age to retain your players.  Now we move on to 2011.

Jayson Werth will most likely be in another uniform after this winter, as the Phillies have 140 million locked up in player salaries for 2011, even with vets like Durbin and Dobbs leaving the team.  Domonic Brown looks like he's ready to step up as the full time starter in right field.

I already mentioned that Dobbs and Durbin will be gone, but to join them Romero, and Ransom have expiring contracts.  Andy Tracy, John Mayberry, and Paul Hoover could be used to fill in the bench, while Scott Mathieson, Drew Carpenter, and Antonio Bastardo have pitched well in the minors.  They could round out the bullpen.