With 100 Phillies Games To Go, History Awaits, But Does It Indicate Good Things?

The Phillies 43-19 record after their extra-inning win on Tuesday night against the Brewers sets them up for great regular season success. It will most likely deliver a historic win total that should put them in the conversation of the best Phillies season ever.

Now I’m one to say that the “best” Phillies seasons ever were 2008 and 1980 without debate. October success means a lot more to me than bragging on regular season win totals. How crazy is this Phillies start? Let’s compare!

With 100 games to play and 43 wins already accumulated, playing just .500 ball the rest of the way would bring home 93 wins. That doesn’t seem like a huge total but it would be better than the 87 wins they had in 2022 and the 90 wins they grabbed in 2023.

We all know that the postseason was when they raised their level of play so any win total in 2024 will come with an expectation of playoff success. What would 93 wins mean? It would be a win total only eclipsed five times in the history of the franchise. So how did those five teams do?

The only regular season of my fandom that reminds me of this one was that 1993 season. The team got off to an amazing start and grabbed the attention of all of Major League Baseball. They weren’t expected to do anything, contrary to the high expectations of this year's squad.

That Phillies team started out (45-17) which is two games ahead of this year's pace. That team finished out their last 100 games (48-52) but went on to win the NLCS over the Braves before losing in six games to the Toronto Blue Jays.

That year's team didn’t start out that impressively. In fact, they were struggling after appearing in the World Series the previous two seasons. Their (32-30) start was a huge disappointment. What would come is a summer of incredible dominance.

They went (65-35) in their final 100 and cruised to a fourth consecutive NL East championship. What followed was a soul crushing loss to the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS which was the second step down the ladder after their 2008 championship.

The first of three consecutive NL East championships would be jump-started by a (44-18) start to the season. The team cooled off a lot along their final 100 games as they went (57-43) to close out. A three game sweep by the Cincinnati Reds awaited them in the NLCS.

It was just the beginning, but they felt the sting of a great regular season fizzling out in just a few days. They still would come right back the next season as one of the league's best teams.

That years team was fresh off a loss in the NLCS the previous season but hardly started out on a mission. They were (34-28) and then rampaged to an amazing (67-33) mark to match the 1976 win total.

What appeared to be a team built for a title failed to deliver. They won a post-season game this time around but still dropped the NLCS in four games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 2011 the four aces were supposed to help the Phillies stop the slide of losing the World Series in 2009 and the NLCS in 2010. They began (37-25) and won a fifth consecutive NL East championship.

In their final 100 games they terrorized the opposition going (64-36) and appeared to be the best team in the Phillies run. Unfortunately it ended in a horrible loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS in five games with Ryan Howard tearing his Achilles tendon in the final at bat. It was an omen of the bad luck that was to come over the next ten seasons.

In Philly, we tend to love the underdog. It starts with Rocky, but it carried into the actual teams in our city. We might love Bryce Harper, but the loudest cheer often goes to the guy who comes off the bench and delivers a big hit. But who are the best Phillies Bench players in franchise history?

Obviously if you are coming off the bench, you are not exactly an All-Star type player. If you were, you would be a starter.

Now in the modern era, with no DH, the role of the bench player has shrunk. Once you get to the playoffs, those bench bats, apart from guys in a platoon, shrink to barely anything. But playing in the NL, with no DH, for over 100 years, left a lot of room for big pinch hits moments.

As a bench player, you don't need to put up huge numbers. You just need to show up when it counts. As you will see, many of the guys who made this list, did just that.

Others came off the bench to give you a great glove. Some were just great clubhouse guys who brought great vibes to the team.

So who are the best Phillies bench players? That is what we are here to determine. We went position by position, and picked the best Phillies for each one.

Who is the best backup catcher in Phillies history? Which backup centerfielder made the list?

Bench player can be a fairly general term. Some player starting coming off the bench, but eventually earned a more full time job. Some guys can come off the bench, but really be part of a platoon and still get a lot of playing time.

I tried to keep it to actual bench players, but obviously in some cases the lines get murky, and you could argue these guys are more than just a bench player.

Behind the plate, Coste had his issues. At the plate though, Coste did a lot of great work for the Phillies. In 256 games, he hit .272 for the Phillies, hit 23 HRs, and Slugged .440. Coste could more than handle himself at the plate.

Hutton is not a house hold name. But the guy knew how to get hits when the team needed it. With the Phillies, he had 8 go ahead pinch hits, and 2 that tied the game. In the 1977 NLCS, Hutton hit .309 with two homeruns.

He also had a knack for hitting against Hall of Famers, Against Tom Seaver, Hutton hit .320, with 11 walks, and 3 HRs in his Phillies career.

We haven't even mentioned his great glove at 1st base. I considered going Jeremy Giambi, who hit 12 HRs in just 211 at bats with the Phillies in 2002. But I went with the impact of Hutton's bat in big moments over Giambi’s 1 good year in a otherwise meaningless season for the Phillies.

The early 2000s was not the best era for the Phillies. It was far from the worst, but there was not much going on in terms of winning. But Super Utility Man Tomas Perez quickly became a fan favorite.

He had every thing Philly fans love in a player. Most notably, heart and effort. He was a bright spot in that era. He was not strictly a 2nd baseman, but with Jimmy cementing himself as the SS in that era, he played a lot of 2nd. Wherever he played, he won the hearts and minds on Philadelphia, and earned a spot on this list.

At the plate, Bruntlett left a lot to be desired. But he had his moments. Bruntlett hit a HR in Game 2 of the World Series, not to mention that he was the World Series clinching run when he came in as a pinch runner in game 5.

Throw in the fact he performed the 15th ever unassisted triple play, and only the 2nd that ended a game, and he deserves a place on this list. The crazy part is he only appeared in the field for 4 more MLB games for the rest of his career after turning that play.

Dobbs has 330 fewer Pinch Hit plate appearances than the Phillies all-time leader. Despite that huge gap, he is only 6 off of having the most pinch hit RBIs in franchise history.

In 2007 he lead the league in pinch hit RBIs. He followed that up by hitting .355 the next year and leading the league with 22 pinch hits.

His career after 2008 went downhill, but he was a pretty important part of the 2007 and 2008 teams.

Nobody has more pinch-hit opportunities than Greg Gross. He came to the plate 568 times as a pinch hitter. 300 more than the next guy on the list. His 117 pinch hits for the Phillies, 63 more than the next guy on the list.

He never hit for power, with a career SLG of .298 as a pinch hitter, but he got on base, and racked up singles.

In that 1980 run to the first World Series in franchise history, he was the catalyst behind multiple rallies. 3 separate times he had a single that helped lead to a game-tying rally.

If we are talking about the most clutch bench bats in Phillies history, Unser has a strong case. He had a pinch-hit game tying single in the 1980 NLCS. Later in that same game he was the game winning run. He was also the game tying run in one of the World Series games that same year. Then, in game 5, he drove in the game tying run.

Those 3 games alone are enough to land him on this list. But he also had a .356 OBP as a pinch hitter for the Phillies, and holds the franchise record for the most postseason pinch hits in a single post-season.

You are welcome Ray Dunne. Ray is the captain of the John Mayberry Jr fan club. I also loved the guy, but I don’t want to steal his John Mayberry Jr thunder. In a recent Instagram video we did, he talked about why John Mayberry Jr is his favorite Bench player in Phillies history, and brought up this walk off Grand Slam as the main reason why. Hard to argue with the reasoning.  

Stairs did not have many hits for the Phillies, but the ones he did have are memorable. With the standout of course being when he hit one into the night.

There is no way i could make this list without including the guy behind one of the most iconic moments in Phillies history. For that one play alone, he belongs here. But he is also second in pinch hit HRs in Phillies history. The one guy above him, played in the 1920s. Stairs had 7 total, not counting the NLCS HR, and his 5 in 2009 set the single season franchise record.