CTOD: Philadelphia Phillies

Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, Hamels. I think we have all heard enough of the hype and are ready to see what this rotation is capable of on a daily basis. For those of you who can't get enough of the Phillies super-rotation, then I highly recommend Curtis Cleveland's best rotation of all time article found here.

There were few surprises on the hill last season for the Phils. Halladay mowed through NL hitters for a spectacular 250 innings. Hamels pitched almost exactly the same way he has for the past 3 years, with #1 stuff, and his ERA came back down to near 3.00 after an unlucky 2009. Oswalt wasn't just lights out for his second half stint with Philadelphia, he was as good as he has ever been, posting his best K rate since his rookie year. Add Cliff Lee and things are looking mighty difficult for NL lineups this year. However, with the exception of Hamels, no one on this super-staff is a spring chicken. Doc-Lee-Roy are all north of 33 and it wouldn't be unreasonable to except any of them to start to decline or miss time with those nagging injuries that afflict older pitchers.

Best Rotation Of All Time?

One of the major questions, leading up to the 2011 MLB season, that has everyone from casual fan to serious fan buzzing is the strength of the Phillie's rotation. Is it the best rotation of all-time? How will it stack up? The questions are endless and we'll never really know until next season when we can look back. However we can certainly look at the stats to get a pretty good indication and in baseball stats never lie, you can't fake baseball.