[luckymann]

LAST YEAR: 70-70 7 ½ GB, 4th / .289 / 3.55
BNN PREDICTION: 85-69 6 GB, 2nd / .257 / 2.47
FARM SYSTEM: 9th
BEST PROSPECT: OF Norm Siebern (15th)
PAYROLL: 8th, $25,552
HIGHEST PAID PLAYER: 1B Pete Runnels, $1,938
CASH BALANCE: $209,415
GAINS: 2B Adam Kennedy (trade)
LOSSES: P Ham Iburg (trade); P Mark Gardner (trade)

Boy I hope there’s plenty of other stuff to do in the City of Brotherly Love between April and September, because I’m pretty sure the baseball side of things just ain’t gonna cut it this year.

That said, the Phillies are in nowhere near as dire a state as their crosstown counterparts. They have genuine superstars in catcher Bill Crowley, 3B Eddie Joost and staff leader Howie Camnitz. They have one of the more robust rotations in the game in Camnitz, Herman Pillette, Tommy Hanson and Johnny Broaca. They have Pete Runnels and his 5-odd annual WAR donation to the cause. So it’s not an entirely hopeless cause. But this is an old group and – outside of OF Norm Siebern, who is still a couple of seasons away – I’m not seeing much coming through their farm system, so if they are going to wrap themselves in any sort of glory they’ll need to bust a move and do so this year.

Can they?

BNN has them finishing runners-up in the NL, which surprises me. I just don’t see how this could be possible, even if absolutely everything goes their way. Once again I just feel this team is bound for mid-standing mediocrity. I find them about as inspiring as an Instagram poem, and with as little chance of being remembered.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: P Howie Camnitz; P Johnny Broaca; C Bill Crowley; 1B Pete Runnels