Philadelphia Phillies

Catchers & Infielders:

• C – Darren Daulton (RF)
• C – Carlos Ruiz
• 1B – Sherry Magee (SS/LF)
• 2B – Chase Utley
• SS – Jimmy Rollins
• 3B – Mike Schmidt (1B)
• CI – Dick Allen (1B/3B/LF)
• CI – Ryan Howard (1B)

Outfielders:

• LF – Ed Delahanty (1B/2B/CF)
• CF – Billy Hamilton (LF/RF)
• RF – Chuck Klein (LF/CF)
• OF – Del Ennis (LF/RF)
• OF – Bobby Abreu (RF)
• CF – Richie Ashburn (LF/RF)

Starting Pitchers:

• SP – Grover Alexander
• SP – George McQuillan
• SP – Steve Carlton
• SP – Earl Moore
• SP – Charlie Ferguson
• SP – Chris Short

With every team, we started building their all-time 25-man and 40-man rosters by using the Hall of Fame as a starting point, figuring that a player enshrined in baseball’s immortal Hall would certainly qualify to make his team’s all-time roster.

Almost all the Hall of Fame members are easily identifiable with one team so it’s a simple way to start every roster with near-inarguable selections. There are a few brilliant players who made significant contributions to multiple teams, and it’s our job to decide where they made the biggest impact.

Philadelphia has to fight for Curt Schilling, Tug McGraw, and Scott Rolen:

Curt Schilling

Philadelphia: 9 years, 3-time All-Star, 0 Cy Youngs, 36.8 WAR, 3.35 ERA, 101 Wins, 61 CG, 1554 K, 1659 IP, 14 SHO

Arizona: 4 years, 2-time All-Star, 0 Cy Youngs, 25.9 WAR, 3.14 ERA, 58 Wins, 18 CG, 875 K, 781 IP, 5 SHO + 1 World Series Title

Boston: 4 years, 1-time All-Star, 0 Cy Youngs, 17.7 WAR, 3.95 ERA, 53 Wins, 4 CG, 574 K, 675 IP, 1 SHO + 2 World Series Titles

Tug McGraw

N.Y. Mets: 10 seasons, 1 All-Star, 0 CYA, 12.8 WAR, 3.17 ERA, 47 Wins, 86 Saves, 618 K, 792 IP, 1.30 WHIP + 1 World Series Title

Philadelphia: 9 seasons, 1 All-Star, 0 CYA, 8.2 WAR, 3.10 ERA, 49 Wins, 94 Saves, 491 K, 722 IP, 1.19 WHIP + 1 World Series Title

Scott Rolen

Philadelphia: 7 seasons, 1 All-Star, 0 MVPs, 29.2 WAR, .282 AVG, 533 Runs, 559 RBI, 150 HR, 71 SB

St. Louis: 6 seasons, 4-time All-Star, 0 MVPs, 25.9 WAR, .286 AVG, 421 Runs, 453 RBI, 111 HR, 33 SB + 1 World Series Title

Schilling is an interesting candidate because he’s beloved in Arizona and Boston for the seminal titles he delivered, but the bulk of his career was spent in Philadelphia.

Boston fans don’t like it, and Arizona will never forgive us for taking away both Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, but he belongs in Philadelphia.

Scott Rolen does too, although that one is a lot closer.

Tug McGraw’s numbers are split really evenly between the Mets and Phillies (even one title in each city), but his stats (slightly lower ERA/WHIP, more wins and saves in one less season) put him in Philly.

As with every team, we are trying to build an active roster with 13 position players and 12 pitchers, and then a 15-player inactive roster of guys who just missed the cut, but remain valuable as callups in case of slumps or injuries.

The 13 active position players are usually two catchers, six infielders, and five outfielders. The stats are built around the average of the player’s best three consecutive seasons.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame gives us a good start to the Philadelphia roster. Cooperstown gives the Phillies Mike Schmidt, Ed Delahanty, Billy Hamilton, Chuck Klein, Grover Alexander, Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, Dave Bancroft, Sam Thompson, and Richie Ashburn.

With 10 players coming from Cooperstown, WAR (Wins Above Replacement), a great stat for looking at the all-around contribution to a team for both hitters and pitchers, can help us find the rest.

We get lots of help here, as in order we find: Chase Utley, Sherry Magee, Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Callison, Roy Thomas, Dick Allen, Del Ennis, Gavvy Cravath, Cy Williams, Garry Maddox, Von Hayes, and Juan Samuel.

Each team needs three catchers on their roster, so Carlos Ruiz, Mike Lieberthal, and Darren Daulton are under consideration as well.

Shorter but exceptional Philadelphia careers from Ryan Howard and John Kruk put them on our radar too.

Once plugged into the simulation software, we looked at their OPS (on-base + slugging percentage) and their defensive rankings and they break down like this:

CATCHER: Darren Daulton, Carlos Ruiz
FIRST BASE: Sherry Magee, Ryan Howard
SECOND BASE: Chase Utley, Ed Delahanty (sometimes)
SHORTSTOP: Jimmy Rollins
THIRD BASE: Mike Schmidt, Dick Allen
LEFT FIELD: Ed Delahanty, Del Ennis
CENTER FIELD: Billy Hamilton
RIGHT FIELD: Chuck Klein, Bobby Abreu

Billy Hamilton is not the Billy Hamilton most current fans think of – this isn’t the recent speed demon from Cincinnati but an absolute BEAST from the 1890s.

That leaves inactive roster options for Juan Samuel, Greg Luzinski, Dave Bancroft, Scott Rolen, Pat Burrell, Sam Thompson, Mike Lieberthal, Richie Ashburn, and Cy Williams.

For the pitching staff we’re looking for six starters and six relievers. Bear in mind that across the whole game you will see dynamic, outstanding starting pitchers that can’t crack an all-time rotation but are better served as relievers on a team than sitting inactive.

Hall of Fame pitchers automatically belong on the roster so we have three slots taken by Grover Alexander, Steve Carlton, and Robin Roberts.

With 24 players on the total roster we have room for 16 more pitchers. Once we dug into the career WAR rankings (as Phillies) we came up with: Cole Hamels, Curt Schilling, Chris Short, Charlie Buffinton, Charlie Ferguson, Curt Simmons, Al Orth, Tully Sparks, Dan Casey, Aaron Nola, Kid Gleason, Earl Moore, George McQuillan, Jimmy Ring, Jack Taylor, Curt Davis, Phil Collins, and Syl Johnson.

Dynamite relievers that bear consideration include Jose Mesa, Mitch Williams (I know!), Steve Bedrosian, and Tug McGraw.

We looked at their overall numbers in the simulation software and leaned heavily on ERA to come up with these designations:

STARTING ROTATION: Grover Alexander, George McQuillan, Steve Carlton, Tully Sparks, Charlie Ferguson, Robin Roberts
RELIEVERS: Chris Short, Robin Roberts,, Curt Schilling, Jose Mesa, Cole Hamels
CLOSER: Tug McGraw

That’s a pretty good staff if Curt Schilling is a long reliever. The inactive pitcher options are Jose Mesa, Steve Bedrosian, Chris Short, Aaron Nola, Dan Casey, and Al Orth.

So how did we do?

How would you split the third base at-bats between Mike Schmidt and Dick Allen?

Or Chuck Klein and Bobby Abreu in right field?

Let us know in the forums below and if you make a compelling case we will adapt it in-game. We want every squad to be the best they possibly can be and appreciate your help fine-tuning the Phillies for Eternal Baseball.

Photo Credits:

• Philadelphia Phillies vs. Miami Marlins by Dave Rosenblum
• Citizens Bank Ballpark by Ian D’Andrea