2010 Baseball Previews: NL East – Could the Phillies Actually be Better? 3
With less than two weeks left until opening day, let’s abandon the designated hitter and take a look at the Senior Circuit, otherwise known as the National League.
In the eastern division, the NL is right up there with its AL neighbors – well, almost, anyway. In the last 10 postseasons, the World Series representative from the National League was an eastern division team for four of them (Mets in 2000, the Marlins in 2003, and the Phillies in ’08 and ’09), winning in ’03 and ’08. Things are looking decent for that to be the case again in 2010.
1. Philadelphia Phillies
Many predict that Halliday will have a historic year in Philadelphia.
At some point, things will have to work out in favor of someone else besides the “Phightin’ Phils, but it would be hard to make a case for it being likely this season. As if the Phillies weren’t the odds on favorites based the fact that they are coming off of two consecutive World Series appearances, they also went out and picked up a picked up a pitcher by the name of Roy Halliday. On paper, the Phillies getting Roy Halliday is the equivalent of the Lakers getting LeBron James. Many already have this newest Philadelphia son pegged to be the NL Cy Young winner. Some even mention the NL MVP, as well. There are even a couple of optimists who think he could win 25 games now that he’s in the NL and playing for the offensive juggernaut that is Philadelphia. While 25 seems a stretch (in 11 season, Halliday has had 25 decisions or more only three times,) AL pitchers who move to the NL seems to have great initial success.
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