Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2008 Phillies land in this spot?
You can’t say enough about Chase Utley’s 2008 season. He was worth an MLB-best 3.5 wins above replacement defensively at second base, as the top defender in an infield that had Gold Glove-winning Jimmy Rollins at shortstop. He hit 33 home runs while doing this, first among second basemen in ‘08, as were his 104 RBIs — he was second in runs at the position, behind AL MVP Dustin Pedroia.
Utley led the majors in hit by pitches with a career-high 27, the second of a three-year period in which he led MLB in that stat and picked up 76 of them overall in that stretch. And he posted a Phillies-best .380 on-base percentage on top of all of that, as well, leading to a nine-win season, the second-best in the league that year behind only peak-era Albert Pujols.
Utley was just one guy, though. The Phillies also had the aforementioned Rollins, who in addition to the Gold Glove honors stole 47 bases in 50 attempts. Center fielder Shane Victorino picked up a Gold Glove, too, while posting a .799 OPS and collecting 36 steals of his own. Pat Burrell also mashed 33 dingers, while Jayson Werth posted an .861 OPS in right. Ryan Howard led the majors with 48 home runs and 146 RBIs. There were a couple of holes in the lineup — Carlos Ruiz provided far more behind the plate than at it, while Pedro Feliz wasn’t at third for his bat — and the bench was a bit weak, but there was plenty of powerful, patient depth to make up for it, and lots of defense, too.
The rotation was far stronger at year’s end than at the beginning. Cole Hamels was a stud, eating up innings and posting a 3.09 ERA, and 45-year-old Jamie Moyer defied time with a 3.71 ERA in 196 innings of work. Brett Myers was basically average, and then things got worse in a hurry. That is, until the Phillies made a deal with the Athletics to bring Joe Blanton aboard. Blanton did what Kyle Kendrick and Adam Eaton had struggled to all season, giving the Phillies another solid mid-rotation arm to shore up the staff and lengthen it for a postseason run beyond Hamels, Moyer and Myers. Kendrick and Eaton, in a combined 262.2 innings, posted a 5.62 ERA — that kind of performance could not be relied upon in big games in October.
The bullpen, anchored by Brad Lidge’s fourth-place Cy Young finish and 1.95 ERA in 72 games, was phenomenal, though, and more than made up for that weakness pre-Blanton. As a unit, the pen posted a 3.22 ERA, more than a full run better than the rotation’s, and miles ahead of the league’s 4.10 average. The Phillies cruised to a championship, facing their toughest opponent in October, the 97-win Rays, in the World Series. Like with the Brewers and Dodgers before them, they only won a single game against this squad.
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