Phillies Have Many Reasons to be Optimistic About Their Chances

A weekend series win vs the Padres taking 3 of 4 exposed some of the Phillies greatest deficiencies. It also leaves them in a position to move into post season position and to get comfortable sitting there long before September arrives. Thankfully as of late the good has outweighed the bad. Yesterday was a perfect example. A huge comeback left them with a 5-3 lead which they subsequently blew in the top of the 8th. Then in extra innings a passed ball by JT Realmuto allows the Padres to score in the 10th and Bryson Stott slides past the base in the 11th after a bunt. Simple mistakes threaten to hold this team back from expectations, but there are so many reasons to be excited. Here are a few;

That is the record that the Phillies need to duplicate in order to replicate last years 87 wins. I do not believe that 87 wins is going to be good enough to get in this time around, but it shows you that they are ahead of last years pace long ahead of August. They need to keep that rolling. 39-30 the rest of the way should secure a wildcard berth, but the Phillies want so much more.

It would be fantastic to track down the Braves in the NL East, but the hole that the Phillies have dug themselves is not only unacceptable but probably deadly. Making up a 10.5 game deficit would be the stuff of storybooks and in past seasons I wouldn’t be so pessimistic. Usually you have 19 games head to head with your divisional opponents but this season that changed to 13 games head to head with the balanced schedule. The Phillies only have 7 games remaining with the Braves and that math doesn’t seem to work. Ricky Bo and I both agreed that we could see the Phillies closing to within 6 but that the hill for now seems too difficult to climb.

The Phillies will probably need at least 92 wins to secure the top wildcard and that is maybe too conservative in projections. You need to have the wildcard series in your stadium this time around.

The rest of the way the Phillies will have 9 more home games than road games. That is a huge advantage as they have played well at CBP and have the memories of last years Red October to lean on.

The Phillies have a winning road record at 26-25. That doesn’t seem too impressive, but a winning road record late in July is something that a contender builds off of.

In their final 69 games half of them are being played against teams with losing records. A few of the other teams they face are teetering on having a winning record.

The Phillies currently trail the Marlins and Giants by a game and the Diamondbacks by a half-game. None of those teams are as deep as the Phillies and most certainly don’t have their star quality. The next step for them is to secure one of those spots and to start piling up the wins. This October you want to be able to set up your rotation for success.

When Buster Olney says anything Baseball related, it is worth listening to what he says. And luckily for Phillies fans, he has a lot of good things to say about the Phillies right now. He went on ESPN the other day with Philly's own Kevin Negandhi and sung their praises. Olney believes the Phillies are the team with the best chances to compete with the Braves. Especially considering we have not even seen Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, or Kyle Schwabrer play their best ball yet.

But he also alluded that they could be dangerous players at the deadline. And to get some insight into what he meant by that, The Anthony Gargano Show had him on today. Jamie Lynch and Andrew Salciunas filled in for Anthony and asked Buster Olney to expand on his thoughts about why he is so high on the Phillies, and also what he thought they would do at the deadline.

So will the Phillies be in on big names like Juan Soto, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, or Shohei Ohtani? Is that just wishful thinking? Is there a more realistic option he can see them making? Buster Olney got into that and more.

Before they asked Buster Olney about the big names, they had to touch on a realistic option first. And the first name that came to mind for him, was Cody Bellinger.

Olney mentioned Ohtani, so they had to ask. Will the Phillies be in on Ohtani? Dan Plesac reported that they may be in the mix on MLB Network, so they wanted to see what Buster thought.

The other hot names are Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. The Cardinals are bad for the first time in a long time. Leading to a ton of rumors that one of their superstars could be moved. But is there any smoke to that fire? Buster Olney poured a little bit of cold water on Phillies fans' dreams on landing one of those big bats.

The last name they asked about was Juan Soto. He took a flight back to Philadelphia for this weekend's Phillies-Padres series with the Phillies' other All-Stars. His name has also been floated for the Phillies. Buster Olney did question whether he is actually on the market though.

They also talked to him about how the Phillies match up with the Braves, the future of Aaron Nola, and more. You can listen to everything Buster Olney had to say below: