Fast forward almost a decade later to the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies who currently have three players with a sub-3.00 earned run average and two players that  can throw cheese (notice the tie-in with the title) and have 200 or more strikeouts. If the season were to end today Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay would become the 20th tandem to accomplish >200/<3.00, and only the second since 1977.

Halladay sits with 210 strikeouts and a 2.49era. Hamels sits with 207 strikeouts and a 2.93 earned run average. The wild card here is Roy Oswalt who sits with a 2.90 era and 181 strikeouts with 3 starts remaining.

In his 7 starts with the Phillies Oswalt is averaging just over six and a half strikeouts per game, just enough to ensure that the Phillies become the first team with a trio of starting pitchers to finish a season north of 200 strikeouts and south of a 3.00 earned run average.

As a die hard Phillies fan of course I was impressed to see Placido Polanco start the season with a grand slam and 6 runs batted in. As a student of baseball I was impressed by his situational hitting and his ability to put the ball into play in all 6 plate appearances.

In his first at bat he would come to the plate with Rollins on first base and a huge gap between 1st baseman Adam Dunn and 2^nd baseman Adam Kennedy. He would take an outside pitch to the right side missing it slightly ending up as a fly out to right field. After grounding into a fielders choice in his next at bat he would come to the plate with the bases loaded in the 4^th inning. With only a 3 run lead he hit a sacrifice fly to left field scoring Shane Victorino.

Two innings later, after Rollins tripled to deep right center, Polanco pulled a fast ball between a drawn-in infield of Ryan Zimmerman at 3rd and Ian Desmond at Short Stop for his second RBI of the day. His next plate appearance produced a 2 out grand slam in the top of the 7^th inning increasing the Phillies lead to 10 runs. Then, once again in the 9^th inning he would come up to bat with Ruiz on first base and another gap between first baseman Adam Dunn and 2^nd baseman Adam Kennedy. He would rectify his first inning blunder and hit a grounder in the gap for his third hit of the game.

To summarize just how well of a two-hole hitter Placido Polanco is he took two balls to right with men on first base, hit a sacrifice fly with a man on third and a small lead, hit a grand slam with two outs, and pulled a ball with a drawn-in infield to score Jimmy Rollins from 3^rd base.

Placido Polanco is the epitome of a ball player, a guy who will do virtually anything for his team whether it is stepping in to a pitch, sacrifice bunting, or advancing a player. This past season he finished 12th in the American League in hit-by-pitches, 16^th in Sacrifice Hits, and 32^nd in Sacrifice Fly Outs.

While he will not steal too many bases he is a great base runner with a career 70% stolen base percentage, a figure that is due to improve with Davey Lopes as the Phillies first base coach.

Over past two seasons, the Phillies have been witness to 4 players reach 100 or more strikeouts. So, a small ball type of player is just what the strikeout prone Phills need in the lineup. For $18 million over the next three years, the Phillies brought back a fan favorite that has led the league in at-bats per strikeout three times and finished in the top 7 on 8 occasions.

Pedro Feliz vs Placido Polanco

We all thought we knew what we were getting when we picked up Pedro Feliz two seasons ago, a great fielder with some pop in his bat. However he would hit a combined 26 home runs after 4 consecutive seasons of 20+ home runs with the San Francisco Giants. And after a good 2008 season in which he made only 8 errors in the field, he would make 15 this past season.

Placido Polanco has a career batting average that is 49 points higher and an on base percentage that is 55 points higher than Pedro Feliz. But what does this exactly mean for the Phillies? For this we turn to Project VORP, or Value Over Replacement Player.

VORP is the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement level player at the same position would contribute given the same percentage of team plate appearances. Projected VORP for Placido Polanco is 26.7 and only 3.0 for Pedro Feliz, which equals to a difference of 23.7. This formula projects that with Polanco in the lineup the Phillies will score roughly 24 additional runs and win an additional 6 games.

Andy Tracy

A name you may never have heard is Andy Tracy, another well traveled minor league player who has never gotten a real chance to play at the Major League level. In 1380 games played at the Minor League level, which is roughly 9 full seasons, Tracy has accumulated 296 doubles and 257 home runs. He has hit 20 or more home runs in 8 seasons and 20 or more doubles in 7 seasons. He has had two seasons with 120+ runs batted in. So how does a guy who is rated by scout.com to have an 88 in power and an 88 in patience and has dominated at virtually every Minor League level never get a chance in the Major League’s? It all comes down to dumb luck.

When Adam Tracy was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1996 David Segui was playing first base and playing it well. Between 1996 and 1997 he would hit .297/.378/.475. Realistically, Tracy did not have a shot until 1999 when he would accumulate arguably his best year in his early career hitting 25 doubles, 37 home runs, and knocking in 128 runs for double-A Harrisburg in only 134 games. Unfortunately, Brad Fulmer was on the Expos in 1998 and 1999 accumulating a .276 batting average and finishing top 5 in rookie of the year voting.

Following his career year in 1999, Andy Tracy was shipped to the New York Mets, who shortly thereafter picked up Mo Vaughn, who at the time was one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball. Vaughn was coming off a year that saw 36 home runs and 117 runs batted in. After just one season in the Mets organization he was sent to the Colorado organization for the following three years. He would follow up his first season of 24 doubles and 25 home runs with 42 doubles. 33 home runs and 120 runs batted the following year. Unfortunately the Rockies had Todd Helton, who averaged 47 doubles, 28 home runs, 97 runs batted in, a .343 batting average and a .457 onn base percentage those same three seasons.

The following two seasons, in 2006 and 2007, Andy Tracy would split time between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets. So for the second time in his career Tracy sat behind Kevin Millar on the Orioles who accumulated 26 doubles, 15 home runs and a .374 on base percentage in 2006. When he was shipped back to the Mets organization for the 2007 season, he was behind Carlos Delgado, who was coming off his 10^th consecutive season of 30 or more home runs.

His most recent two seasons have been spent in the Phillies minor league system. In 2008 he would hit .288 with 34 doubles and 22 runs batted in. In 2009 he would add another 23 doubles and 25 home runs. Spending his entire season with Lehigh Valley, he led the league in walks, finished second in home runs and runs batted in, and finish fourth in runs scored. In nine games with the Phillies he went 4-8. But dumb luck yet again finds Andy Tracy hitting behind former MVP Ryan Howard.

Barring an injury or two, Andy Tracy will remain a career minor league player. This past week he was one of seven players invited to the Phillies Spring Training camp for the upcoming season. But unless the Phillies are looking for another left handed bat off the bench the only time he will see is a call-up in August or September.

A leadoff batter should be able to do four things:

1. get on base
2. steal bases
3. see pitches
4. score runs

With that said just because a player can perform these four facets of the game does not mean he should automatically bat at the leadoff spot, see Hanley Ramirez. A player like Ramirez who can hit for power will waste his talent at the leadoff spot. Jimmy Rollins is better than average when it comes to stealing bases and scoring runs but lags behind most leadoff hitters in terms of getting on base and pitches per plate appearance.

While the Phills will most likely not land Chone Figgins this off-season it is nice to wonder what our lineup would look like this upcoming season if we did. Honestly, you could make an argument that every position player could be an all-star with the exception of Carlos Ruiz. People put too much emphasis on a player’s numbers when you should be looking at the makeup of a team. In terms of the composition of the lineup I would rather have Rollins over Figgins in every spot in the batting order other than the leadoff spot.

And looking at the four characteristics that every leadoff batter should have will explain why. Figgins gets on base more, sees more pitches per plate appearance, and steals more bases than Rollins. Not to take anything away from Rollins but runs scored is determined by the batters that hit behind you. Heck, it was only two seasons ago that Prince Fielder reached base 7 times in one game against the Florida Marlins and scored no runs. In fact in 3 singles, 3 walks and 1 double he only managed to reach third base once.

Get on Base
The most important feature of a leadoff hitter is the ability to get on base. Over the past three seasons Figgins has averaged an on base percentage 57 points higher than Rollins. What this correlates to is more stolen bases and more runs scored.

Stealing Bases
Over the past five seasons Chone Figgins has average 46 stolen bases per year while Rollins has averaged roughly 39.

What makes me most interested in picking up Figgins this off-season is how much his base stealing abilities will improve under Davey Lopes. In his three years as the first base coach the Phillies have lead the major league’s in stolen base percentage with 88% in 2007, 84% in 2008 and 81% in 2009. The 88% was the best in MLB history. And this past season the Phillies had 4 players in the 20-steal club; Rollins, Victorino, Werth, and Utley.

See Pitches
Chone Figgins finished fourth in the American League seeing 4.22 pitches per plate appearance this past season. He saw 4.07 P/PA in 2008 and 4.02 P/PA in 2007. Joining the Phillies lineup would prove disastrous to opposing pitchers as the Phillies had 4 players finish in the top 16 in the National League this past season. With the addition of Figgins the Phillies would surely have 5.

Phillies P/PA 2009
4.50 Jayson Werth (1)
4.12 Chase Utley (12)
4.08 Ryan Howard (15)
4.08 Raul Ibanez (16)

Score Runs
This past season, the Phillies were 61-19 (.763) when Rollins scored a run and 28-47 (.373) when he did not. For his career the Phillies are 482-221 (.686) when Rollins scores a run and 268-435 (.381) when he does not. In other words if our leadoff man gets on base and scores a run, we are going to win the game 70% of the time.

To put it into perspective, Rollins and Figgins score a run roughly every 2.15 times they reach base. Figgins reached 284 times this past season while Rollins reached 212 times. Those 72 additional times on base would mean an additional 33 runs being scored by our leadoff man.

We all know that Rollins is the team leader. We all know that he is not the prototypical leadoff man. So why not get the best of both worlds and pick up Figgins, bat Rollins in the 2 holes and see just how much the Phillies improve. And Ruben, I will pick up a Figgins jersey if it helps pay his $10 million contract.

When we signed Pedro Feliz to a two year guaranteed deal with a club option for a third, we thought we were getting two things, a good defensive third baseman and a below average hitter with some pop in his bat. In his four years prior to joining the Phills, Feliz average 32 doubles, 21 home runs and 84 runs batted in. In two years at hitter friendly Citizens Bank Ballpark, Feliz has averaged only 24 doubles, 17 home runs and 65 runs batted in with a .252 batting average, a .295 on-base-percentage and a .411 slugging percentage. And, I would be perfectly content with those number had he produced a similar season defensively in 2009 as he did in 2008 when he boated only 8 errors and a .974 fielding percentage.

However, Feliz would make 15 errors and boast a .966 fielding percentage this past season. With a litany of average to above average third baseman on the free agen market this off-season including Mark DeRosa, Chone Figgins, Freddy Sanchez, Rich Aurilia, Adrian Beltre, Wilson Betemit, Joe Crede, Troy Glaus, and Miguel Tejada, it seems like an upgrade is imminent.

While the Phillies are not in the position to spend the millions that would be necessary to sign Sanchez or Figgins, Mark DeRosa could be an affordable upgrade and a perfect fit. Born and raised in South Jersey, DeRosa is a University of Pennsylvania graduate that has played for 5 different teams in the last 6 years.

In his past 4 full seasons from 2006 to 2009 DeRosa has averaged 144 hits, 30 doubles, 17 home runs, 78 runs batted in and 228 total bases with a .281 batting average, .356 on base percentage, and a .448 slugging percentage. As per his ability to play 3rd base, with the Cardinals this past season he played 519 innings without making an error.

While I would not expect that to continue over the length of a full season I would expect his offensive output to, especially in the postseason. In 7 career playoff series his teams have an abysmal 1-6 record but not of any wrongdoings on his behalf. He has hit less than .333 in only one series and boasts a .358 average, a .414 on base percentage and a .566 slugging percentage in 22 career post-season games. Compare these numbers with Feliz who in 10 series has only hit more than .333 twice and boasts .196 average, .229 on base percentage and a .293 slugging percentage and it is a no-brainer.

On his first pitch of his first at-bat against his first big league pitcher, hard throwing A.J. Burnett, a sinker hit his wrist shattering his radius bone. A downward spiral would cause him to miss the remainder of the spring training as well as the first 44 games of the regular season. A second arthroscopic surgery in the off-season caused Werth to miss the entire 2006 season leaving him contemplating ever playing in the big league’s again.

It would not be until a family friend convinced Werth to see Dr. Richard Berger, a specialist at the Mayo Clinic at the time, and recipient of Chicago Magazine’s 2009 Top Doctor Award, that would get him back on the right track. After a successful surgery the Dodgers no longer needed his services so in stepped Pat Gillick, then the General Manager of the Phillies and former General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles that drafted Werth out of high school in 1997. Now a senior advisor in the Phillies organization, Gillick says of Werth, “I thought, with his height, he had all the tools to be a real good catcher. But I also knew he had a few more avenues, a few more opportunities because he was so athletic. He’s sort of unusual from that standpoint.”

And where does this unusual athleticism come from you ask?  His mother ran track at the University of Florida. His stepfather, Dennis Werth, was a backup first baseman and utility player for the Yankees and Royals. And his uncle, Dick Schofield, played 14 major league seasons winning a World Series in 1993 with none other than the Toronto Blue Jays.

Werth has matched Uncle Dick’s World Series rings and has one upped him in the stat column. In his last 6 World Series games Werth’s stats, .450/.607/.750. In 20 at-bats he has accumulated 9 hits, three 2-baggers, one 4-bagger, eight walks and three stolen bases.

As per any ill feelings towards AJ Burnett, “I don’t even think about it,” said Werth, “ It could have been anybody.” The last time he face Burnett this past May he roped a 2-run home run in a 7-3 Phillies win going 2 for 4 with a walk, two runs batted in and a run scored. With his recent success in both the World Series and against A.J. Burnett, Werth could lead he Phillies to another World Series victory.

Brad Lidge recently stated that he has never seen natural instincts in a catcher like those of Carlos Ruiz. Lidge adds that his ability to read what opposing hitters are thinking, and then calling for the correct pitch makes him a great catcher. And to think it was just a year ago that he was splitting time with Chris Coste, a well traveled minor leaguer that did not get his start in the big leagues until after his 30^th birthday.

After realizing his recent successes the past two postseasons it is no wonder by fans are toting signs that read “Choochtober” and are now referring to Ruiz as “Senior Octobre”. Going into the highly anticipated Phillies-Yankees World Series that begins in roughly two hours, Chooch offensive numbers read .345/.465/.517 over his last 4 playoff series. In those 19 games he has 20 hits, 12 walks, 11 runs bated in, 9 runs, 4 doubles, 2 home runs and 2 stolen bases. And get this, only 2 strikeouts. Not to shabby for a defensive catcher.