Phil Sheridan: On paper, this Phillies team is tops

CLEARWATER, Fla. - There are two things you must understand about the 2010 Phillies with opening day exactly one week away.

First, this is the best overall team that has broken camp during the Phillies' recent run of success.

Second, the issues that may have you worried as March turns to April will be long forgotten by the time September and the pennant race roll around.

In the past, the status of relievers Brad Lidge and J.C. Romero would be the source of much anxiety. So would the last two outings by Cole Hamels, whose return to form is seen as one of the keys to this season. And so would the prolonged funk of leftfielder Raul Ibanez, who is hitting under .100 - the Mendoza Line divided by 2 - after tailing off during the second half of last season.

Make no mistake, any of these issues could hamper the Phillies in their quest to win a third consecutive National League pennant. But all of them would have seemed more dire in the past, when the Phillies were struggling to learn how to win. The woes of spring led to a slow start in April and that, in turn, led to a long string of moribund seasons.

Except for the pinstripes, this team bears no resemblance to those teams.

Two years ago, the Phillies left Clearwater with a starting rotation of Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, Adam Eaton, Kyle Kendrick, and Cole Hamels, who was considered a promising but fragile potential ace. Lidge was on the disabled list, his right-knee injury hampering his ability to develop proper arm strength. Pat Burrell was in left.

By the end of the season, the Phillies were World Series champions. Hamels was a star. Lidge had one of the all-time great seasons. Burrell was leading the parade down Broad Street. Eaton was long gone (until it was time to pick up his ring).

Last year at this point, the Phillies had overpaid (in the minds of many) for Ibanez to replace the beloved-in-hindsight Burrell. Romero was suspended by the commissioner's office because of a tainted supplement. The rotation was Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Joe Blanton, and Chan Ho Park. Lidge was ready to rock.

List some of the things that happened in 2009 and you would have to conclude the Phillies had a terrible post-championship falloff:

Lidge struggled much of the year. So did Hamels. Three-fifths of the opening-day rotation was gone by the end of the regular season. Leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins had a prolonged slump that saw him get benched in June.

The reality, of course, was quite different. The Phillies won their third consecutive division title by six games, then zipped through the playoffs to a second pennant and World Series appearance.

Cliff Lee, Pedro Martinez, and J.A. Happ had been added to the rotation. Only Happ was with the team on opening day. Rollins' troubles were offset by Ibanez's hot start and career years from Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino.

The point? The long, long baseball season, which is torment for dead franchises like the old Phillies, gives good, smart franchises plenty of time to assess and address their problems. The Phillies have become exceptional at that last bit, adding Moyer, Kyle Lohse, Blanton, and Lee with in-season moves during the last four contending seasons.

But the most important change is in the players themselves. These Phillies possess an easy confidence now, a result not just of winning but of looking around the clubhouse and recognizing talent.

"We've got a lot of great pitchers and a lot of great hitters," Blanton said the other day. "We've got a lot of talented baseball players all the way around."

They take that on faith. That was the theme Roy Halladay kept coming back to when talking about how excited he was to start his first season here after 12 years with the Blue Jays. He sounded very much the way Curt Schilling must have sounded after being traded to Arizona way back when, when the Phillies were a gulag of hopelessness.

It doesn't always make sense. Rollins' numbers look horrid for a leadoff hitter. Ryan Howard strikes out so much no one notices that the rest of the lineup strikes out too much, as well. The rotation has undergone major changes every year, a sure sign of desperation.

But the Phillies have found ways to win these last couple years, and there's no reason to think they won't do the same in 2010.

With Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, and Moyer in the rotation, and with Lidge and Romero joining the bullpen at some point in the first month, and with a lineup that produces runs instead of happy sabermetricians - this is the best Phillies team of this era.

That makes it very likely the best Phillies team of any era.