Whoa, Placido Polanco really let himself go (US Presswire)
The Philadelphia Phillies are coming off a 102-win campaign, led by a pitching staff that delivered a league-best 3.02 ERA in 2011. That team mark beat the National League average by 0.80 runs per nine innings, which is no small advantage. This starting rotation is just ludicrously good — Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels all rank as consensus top-seven fantasy starters — and Philly added Jonathan Papelbon to the bullpen during the off-season. In all likelihood, run prevention will not be a problem in the year ahead.
Run scoring, however, could be a different story. It's been a little while since we've had that worry with this team. The Phils ranked at or near the top of the National League in total runs every year from 2004 to 2010, but they slipped to seventh in 2011. Philadelphia's batting order is loaded with familiar names, but, in a way, that's part of the problem — there's a decent chance that 28-year-old Hunter Pence will be the only player under 30 in the opening day lineup. And he turns 29 in April. You'll recall that 32-year-old first baseman Ryan Howard tore his left Achilles tendon on the final swing of the Phillies' post-season, so we probably won't see him until May at the earliest.
Philly's rotation should be dominant enough to carry the team into October, but this roster isn't quite the fantasy juggernaut it used to be. Not surprisingly, all the pressing questions involve the first eight spots in the batting order...
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