"I was right here in Philadelphia watching the World Series [which the Phils lost to Toronto]," said Beane, who was part of a panel discussing "Moneyball's Impact on Business and Sports." "Those '93 Phillies took a ton of pitches, walked a ton, and scored a ton of runs. That's when it hit me."

Hooray! Two nonstops, Fairbanks to Seattle, Seattle to Philly, and I'm there. No more messing around with Chicago or JFK!

Inaugural sales are pretty good, too. Might be worth a trip this summer.

I don't know if I followed up on this yet since my post in May about the dominance of the Phillies' pitching in 2011, but they ended up with over 30 WAR for the year (per the baseball-reference.com link above). That's better than many of the well-known "great staffs" of the past, like the 20 win Orioles, the 97 Braves, the 66 Dodgers, the 69 Mets, etc.

I know I did post a "the Phillies resembled the..." follow-up, where it turned out that the Phillies most resembled the 1997 Braves, but I don't recall putting the WAR into perspective.

Here's the link to my early season item fromthe yeat that summarizes things through a good chunk of May.

The article is about the Patriots, but many observations apply to the Phillies, or rather, to being a fan of the Phillies.

Marshall Harris and Jim Salisbury conducted the interview on CSN's Phillies Hot Stove. His answer regarding trades he made with the Phillies as GM of the Astros will be especially interesting to regular TGP readers, given the coverage the topic has received on this site.

In case you don't believe that Hunter Pence and Dom Brown are working out, here's the proof. The shirtless, flexing proof. Are Pence and Brown in the Best Shape of Their Lives? You be the judge! Photo courtesy of Hunter Pence's twitter account. I'll be over here fanning myself.

Come for the prospect insights, stay for the total sh*tshow of a comment thread.