2022 Set -- Philadelphia Phillies

 The National League pennant winner was fortunate to the playoffs expanded to allow 6 seeds... and boy oh boy, did they take advantage! Dominating the Cardinals, powering past the NL East champion Braves and then cruising past their fellow wild card Padres in five games, the 9-2 run to the World Series was a sight to behold! The Phillies are led by their big free agent pickups from the last few seasons - Bryce Harper (duh), Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber. Personally, I'm excited to see if they can build on those 87 regular season wins after signing Trea Turner this offseason and, perhaps, snag their first title since 2008!

Philly phans are hoping Turner churns out a card similar to this classic from Jimmy in 2023!

Now let's get to the 2022 squad!

Lineup: This is a true feast-or-famine lineup, which I'm used to as a Brewers fan, and starts off with one of the more interesting 250 pt cards in the set -- Kyle Schwarber's OB 7, speed C, no defense card with a 1-4 K range and 5-12 walk range.... that, oh yeah, also smashes dingers from 14-20! He's certainly in the price range for most manager's #6 hitter, so it'll be interesting to see if his power production overcomes his lack of speed/defense. Likewise, Rhys Hoskins is an affordable hitter without any speed or defensive value that gives managers cheap xbh production -- since he's a 1B, I think he gets drafted as a cheap 6 or 7 hole hitter easily. These two sluggers are supported by the surefire stars -- JT Realmuto (arguably the best catcher in the set) and Bryce Harper. Harper is the only hitter over an OB 8 in the lineup, and he's giving xbh at 14 while playing +2 defense (looks like that injury helped him get a small sample size boost). Realmuto has phenomenal defense, A speed, and xbh at 13!!! Definitely worth the 400 pts in my book!

The rest of the lineup is, in a word... brutal. I'd avoid drafting them, although Brandon Marsh is fun as an A speed with +2 CF defense and a ton of singles for a 9 hitter. Oh, and people are going to love the 260 pt OB 8 Segura (we always do ;)). But overall, feels like a step down from Houston's lineup... but hey, those bright spots at the top are FUN!

Bench: Versatile Vierling mans the Phillies' bench -- he's got speed and can play any OF slot for some nice flexibility at 170 pts.

Rotation: Philadelphia has a solid rotation reliant on its two Tier 2, Control 3 aces: Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Basically, the Phillies decided to build around '00 Randy Johnson and '00 Kevin Millwood, which is always a bit risky (live and learn managers, we live and learn). That said, in this low OB set, they can absolutely get on a roll and just cruise through 6 or 7 innings. They're backed up by a pair of Tier 3 starters in Ranger Suarez (classic Control 4, on at 17) and trade deadline pickup Noah Syndergaard, who stayed healthy enough to earn a classic Control 3, on at 18 card. Rounding out the rotation was a rough season for Kyle Gibson, who dropped to a Tier 4. But for under 300 pts, he may find his way into a draft pick!

Bullpen: My friends and I have built a lot of "superteams" over the years, cobbling together cards from various sets/stand alone stars to build all star rosters for teams. Most of the time, like with 30 for 30, we'll impose a high salary cap to keep it from getting TOO unbalanced or out of control. To that end, we've fallen into habits for certain teams -- KC likes small ball and power bullpens; the Red Sox love pitching heavy teams that use a lot of valuable, high OB hitters; etc etc etc.... the Phillies ALWAYS punt bullpen. It'll be Brad Lidge or Billy Wagner and a whole 'lotta below-100 pt scrubs while IP 8 Roy Halladay and Curt Schilling team with IP 7 Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee to work horse their way around the weakness. Oddly enough, in the classic "real life mirrors showdown" vein, the Phillies perpetually seemed to need some extra bullpen help in real life too.

All that is a preamble to say.... this is a legit bullpen!!! I was SUPER surprised in a good way, and I'm hyped to add these guys to the potential squads in the future -- first, Brewers legend Corey Knebel is a decent Tier 3 closer who's going to garner looks for that 16-18 walk range. However, the addition of David Robertson was clutch, giving them a Tier 2, Control 6 stud too... we know people love the '00 Urbina, so I'm confident he'll be drafting. Philly has another pair of Tier 2 studs helping out afterwards, and both high controls! Rounding out is a real strong Tier 3 that I'm sure will be drafted to fill out a strong bullpen. Here, he'll be helping out Kyle Gibson or Noah when they struggle early-ish in games ;)

The Phillies come in at a commendable 5590 points. It's not surprising they won't be blowing it out of the water points wise -- after all, the cards are based solely on regular season stats -- but you can definitely see their recipe for success in the postseason: get hot behind their tandem of Tier 2 aces and support them with four shutdown bullpen arms while the low OB lineup takes advantages when (if?) they gain an advantage roll. If Castellanos takes a step forward next season and Turner plays at a 400ish pt level, watch out in 2023 from Philadelphia!