FanPost

Revised Look at Comparables to the 2011 Phillies and a Nomination for Dumbest Comment of the Year

Because stupid people deserve to eat crow, I've been saving this one. Back on June 9, 2011, the following was posted on this site:

While I would be pleased to see a 100+ win season by the Phillies, I am still more inclined to believe that the Phillies will end up in the low to mid nineties of wins, as I predicted earlier this year mainly as a result of my discounts for injuries and age. I think the Braves will start to catch more breaks and will be right there at the end because, dang it, they are really good, too. But what fun would a baseball season be without cardiac events in late September?

What a doofus. On a related note, as proposed by the same doofus around the same time, the Phillies no longer resemble the 1985 Royals. Instead, they are nearly identical to...

...the 1997 Atlanta Braves. Read it and weep. What a difference a healthyish team (particularly Chase Utley) makes.

1997 Braves: Pitching: 27.6 Hitting/Fielding: 20.9.

2011 Phillies YTD 9/15/11: Pitching: 28.4 -- Hitting/Fielding: 20.0.

The Braves went 101 - 61, finishing first in the NL, and they have a deserved reputation as one of the finest pitching teams in modern MLB history. The Phillies have 14 more games to go, and they may be able to pick up another 4 WAR during the remaining games. The Phillies will almost certainly end up with more than 101 wins.

This isn't Braves taunting -- that is easily discernible in other, obvious ways. This is just a status update on two posts from the sort of Wayback Machine.