Cooling Down Philadelphia Phillies Offense

The Philadelphia Phillies have come out of the gate smoking baseballs all over the yard. And into the neighbor’s yard too.  It’s getting to the point that their start is drawing historic comparisons.  

They’ve played seven games and scored 50 runs, an average of over seven runs a game.  Extrapolated out over the course of the season it puts these Phillies at 1,157 runs, far and away a Major League record.

But let’s not get too far indulged in this team and start predicting they’ll score 1000 runs this year.  Remember, the season is young and the only teams they’ve played are two perennial cellar-dwellers, Houston and Washington.

Houston was 13th in team ERA in 2009, Washington dead last.  They’ve faced pitchers like John Lannan, Jason Marquis, Craig Stammen, and Felipe Paulino.  Hardly the type of pitchers that hitters wake up and dread having to face.

Philadelphia’s lineup is intimidating all the way through and they’re clearly the class of the National League.  But let’s remember that eventually the schedule will turn and they’ll face pitching staffs of a much higher caliber.  

Both Atlanta and Florida feature impressive starting rotations.  St. Louis and San Francisco will stop in and say hello with Cy Young caliber starters along the lines of Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Cain.

Players like Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jayson Werth are among the league’s elite, and elite hitters destroy sub-par pitching.  And right now, that’s what Philadelphia is doing.

But the 2010 Philadelphia offense is not historic.  They have just had quite a first week.

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