Last season, Jimmy Rollins said that the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East. Rollins backed up his bold statement with an MVP season. This winter, Rollins was making new predictions. He claimed that this year the Phillies will win 100 games. Although the Phills haven’t been nearly as loud as other teams in offseason moves, they made the ones that they needed to in order to make Rollins’ prediction come true.
After Brett Myers succeeded in the role of closer last year, the coaching staff decided that they would like to have him move back to the second spot in the starting rotation. The acquiring of Brad Lidge from the Houston Astros made that possible. Although Lidge only had 19 saves in 27 chances, in his career, he has converted 123 saves in 150 chances. Along with that, he has a 3.36 career ERA and averages 1.4 strikeouts per inning. If Lidge can get back to his 2005 form, it will greatly strengthen the Phillies pitching staff with the 1, 2 punch of starting pitchers, Cole Hamels and Brett Myers.
The other transaction that will have the biggest effect on this season was yesterdays signing of 3B Pedro Feliz. Feliz rounds out an infield full of MVP candidates. Feliz’s offense will not improve the lineup that much, but his defense will. He ranked first in fielding percentage in the NL among third basemen. Third base was the biggest hole on the Phillies roster prior to yesterday. There is still some cap room left, and there is some talk that they are looking into signing another veteran pitcher. It has been rumored that veteran righty, Kris Benson is on the top of that list.
