Phillies and wins ring a bell?

 

Last year could be described as anything but acceptable for the 2012 Phillies. Nagging injuries, inconsistency in the line up and failed production left this team at an even .500 (81-81) record which isn't much of an accomplishment for a team that held baseball's 2nd highest payroll behind the evil empire (estimated $173.4 million) in 2012.  However, 2013 brings about change, new beliefs and jobs potentially being on the line as members like Charlie Manuel, Chase Utley, Roy Halladay, Carlos Ruiz and Michael Young will be free agents following this up coming season.  2012 was an eventful season, but will 2013 be more favorable towards the Phillies? Lets find out!

Upon looking towards the start of the new season lets consider a couple of things:

 

• Age - going into spring training, the phillies have 13 players that are age 30 + and 9 are 33 + (all 13 presumably will make the 25 man roster), so playing 140 games + for this group might be challenging.
• Health - injuries hurt the phillies right from the start, they entered 2012 with Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and arguably Roy Halladay on the DL.  Chase hasn't played a full season since 2009 and since father time usually isn't very kind to players who play the game like Utley, staying on the field could be something difficult for one of the games best 2nd basemans.
• Stability - Every game featured a different line up for the Phillies, wether it was the Hector Luna's to the Mike Fontenot's to the Kevin Frandsen's to the Ty Wiggintons of the world the Phillies never really had a solid and consistent line up until the return of Utley and Howard.
• Additions - the addition of Mike Adams is bigger than people take it for, in 2012 the Phillies blew 13 leads in the 8th inning, this rebuilt bullpen along with bringing back durbin and the continued growth of young guys like Bastardo, Horst, Amount and Schwimer could make a big difference if all goes according to plan. (then again any bullpen that gets rid of Chad Qualls is considered "greatly improved")
• The Division - the division doesn't really scare me to bad, I do think the Nationals are legit and probably will win the East but lets examine the other 3 teams. The Phillies and braves always end up in close games so if they can finish 9-9 vs them I'll take it as a win, the Mets in another year or 2 could contend with the Nats for the east but for now there still a W.I.P. (work in progress) and the Marlins main goal this past offseason was to just hand teams this year W's so there 10-8 record vs. the Fish last year I inspect to greatly improve.
• The fountain of Youth - I understand the Phillies don't have the Wil Myers, Jurickson Profar and Dylan Bundy's of the world, but the future doesn't look as bad as people believe it to be. In September the Phillies got to see some young star talent at work, the bullpen of Jeremy Horst, Phillipe Amount, Justin DeFratus didn't perform all that bad and showed some promise, and with still more talent on the way (Tommy Joseph, Jesse Biddle and Cody Asche) could step in at any time and take you by storm.

With all of this in mind lets also consider the Phillies 2nd half season.  The Phillies went 36-24 in the final 2 months of the season, and 44-31 after the all-star break.  With a healthy Roy Halladay, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and continued all-star performance from Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Carlos Ruiz the phillies could and can carry that 2nd half performance into this up coming season. 

My prediction for the Phillies and the NL east :

1. Washington Nationals 96-66
2. Atlanta Braves 93-69
3. Philadelphia Phillies 89-73
4. New York Mets 78-84
5. Miami Marlins 60-102