For Phillies, The Time To Win Is Now

When a baseball team wins a World Series, players and especially fans will begin to talk about the team's window of opportunity to win another championship. For the Phillies their window of opportunity is now. The Phillies have been successful in the past few seasons thanks in part to a tremendous nucleus of players. This nucleus consists of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth. The question that arrises from fans is how long will this core group of players be around to make another championship run? Lets go through each player's age and contract. Let's start with slugger first baseman Ryan Howard. Howard, at age 30, is locked in through 2011. Next is Utley who at age 31, is locked in all the way through 2013. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, at 31, is signed through 2011. The Flyin Hawaiin, who is 29, is locked in through 2012. And if you haven't heard yet, this year is the final year in Jayson Werth's contract. So what does this all mean? Basically it means that this core group, excluding Werth, has a two year window of opportunity to win another championship. This group is extremely special. They have won three consecutive NL East titles, two consecutive NL pennants, and oh yeah a World Series title in 2008. But for a championship deprived city like Philadelphia, one title in the past 27 years certainly is not enough. The Phillies realize how important winning is in this city. The Phillies realize how close they came to winning the World Series last year. The Phillies also most importantly realize that they have the talent to win the World Series in 2010. When you think about it the only changes from the 2008 championship team is Raul Ibanez in left, and Polanco at third. The pitching has changed but this is still the same group of guys that finally brought a championship to Philadelphia. This team has the talent, the coaching, and certainly the fans to make another World Series Run. All that's left now is to execute through out the season and in to the post season, and bring this city yet another parade.