The past two seasons, the Phantoms have saddled their fans with some pretty bad baseball, including a 100 loss season last year. Management has been adamant that the team’s quest for a turnaround be focused on patient rebuilding, not a quick-fix solution. And now, it seems, the Phantoms are poised to make some noise in the NL North.
"I don’t want to have another 100-loss season,” says general manager Dara Chhim, who took over the team in Season 5. “I’m not asking fans to accept another 100-loss season, but we are going to turn this around through scouting and development. We have a commitment to do this the right way in the long term.”
The Phantoms figure they can avoid triple-digit losses in 2008 and start moving forward by first improving a pitching staff that had a horrible bullpen and an atrocious rotation. The Phantoms are trying to right the ship by bringing up highly touted pitching prospect, Floyd Tracy, as well as trading for veteran pitcher, Louie Jones. They also acquired Clarence Shipley via the Rule 5 Draft.
However, the biggest news in the off season for Philadelphia fans was the announcement that the Philly Phenom, Joel Paige, was coming to play with the big boys. Drafted in Season 4, Paige was voted Rookie of the Year and was also given the Silver Slugger Award. He has ripped up opposing pitchers in the minor leagues and hopes to continue the trend in the big leagues.
Along with Paige, the Phantoms also added some heavy artillery by trading for big slugging first-baseman Bo Roundtree. Roundtree smacked 61 homers and drove in 161 runs last season with the Atlanta Kamikazes.
Philly fans get ready for Phantastic ride!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment