All Phillies team 1965-2016, pitchers

mage Courtesy of Bing

The Phillies haven't enjoyed an overabundance of outstanding starting pitchers over the years, but they still have a couple of hall of famers in their five man rotation. Plus, they do have a clear cut anchor on this staff.

Starting pitcher: Steve Carlton In 1972 Lefty had one of the greatest seasons of any pitcher in the history of MLB. He went 27-10 for a Phillies team that went 59-97. He led the NL in innings pitched with 346.1, and strikeouts with with 310. His WAR for that season was 12.1. In all, Steve had five 20 win seasons for the Phils. He also led the league in strikeouts five times. His record with the Phillies was 241-161 with an ERA of 3.09. His WAR for his 15 years with the Phillies was 64.6. Steve Carlton easily heads up this Phillies rotation.

Starting pitcher: Cole Hammels Cole Hammels was like Steve Carlton lite. Both were lanky left handers with nasty sliders. While Hammels may not be as devastating as Carlton, he was still plenty good for the Phillies. In 10 seasons with the Phils Hammels complied a record of 141-97 with an ERA of 3.34. Thrown in there were a couple of season where he had a WAR of 6.6. Cole has done some nice work in the post season, running up a record of 7-6 with an ERA of 3.48. In 2008 he was the MVP in the NLCS as well as the world series. That's a real nice resume padder.

Starting pitcher: Curt Schilling Though Schilling gained more notoriety for his work with the Diamondbacks, he was pretty good for the Phillies, too. Schiling was with the Phillies from 1992-2000. Twice he led the NL in complete games. In 1998 he led the NL in innings pitched with 268.2. Curt had five seasons of 14 wins or more. He finished his run in Philadelphia with a record of 101-78 with an ERA 3.30. His WAR for his Philly years was 36.8. Not a bad run.

Starting pitcher: Jim Bunning By the time 1965 came along, Jim had already toiled in Detroit for nine years and with the Phillies for one. In 1964 Jim was the ace for that Phillies team that collapsed, but he put together some nice years after that. From 1964-66 Jim's win totals were 19-19-19. He followed that up with 17 more wins in 1967. The side-arming right hander led the NL in innings pitched in 1967 with 302.1 and strikeouts with 253. Jim finished his six season with the Phillies with a record of 89-73 and an ERA of 2.93. He would work inside to hitters, four times leading the NL in hit batsmen. Bunning's WAR for his Phillies career was 31.4. In 1965-67 his WAR totals were 8.1-.8.9-7.8. His overall WAR for the Phillies was 31.4. One other thing, it was in 1964, but on June 21, 1964 Jim pitched a perfect game against the Mets. That's a little icing on the cake.

Starting pitcher: Chris Short And we make another trip in the Way Back Machine. Chris Short first showed up in a Phillies uniform in 1959. He didn't really start on a nice run until 1964 when he went 17-9 with an ERA of 2.82. In the following two seasons, he went 18-11 and 20-10. After an off season in 1967, Curt went 19-13 with an ERA 2.94. While Curt's stats aren't mind boggling, he did have a nice run with the Phillies. In 14 years with the Philies, his won and lost record was just over .500, at 132-127. His ERA was good at 3.38. That's good enough to nail down the fifth slot on this Phillies rotation.

Relief pitcher: Jonathan Papelbon While Jonathan isn't everybody's idea of an ideal teammate, he was an effective closer for the Phillies. Jonathan recorded 123 out of 138 save opportunities. That's hard to argue with. He was still getting a lot of strikeouts when he was with the Phillies, averaging 9.5 per 9 innings. Papelbon might not leap to mind when you think about great closers, but he's the best the Phillies have had.

Relief pitcher: Tug McGraw After telling the Mets, “You gotta believe!”, Tug went on to have a nice run with the Phillies. Tug spent 10 years with the Phils, recording 92 saves with an ERA of 3.10. Tug had a great season for the 1980 world series winning Phillies. He saved 20 games and put together an ERA of 1.46. He also got the save in the world series clinching game six. He gets bonus points for that.

Relief pitcher: Ron Reed In a sleeper pick, I went with Ron Reed. The primary reason was I couldn't find anybody I thought was better. Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams had his moments, both good and bad. The same could be said for Brad Lidge. Reed did a nice job out of the Phillies pen from 1976-83. In his eight years in Philadelphia, Reed saved 90 games with an ERA of 3.10. He also had a sneaky good won-loss record of 57-38. Actually, the more I look at his stats, the better I like Reed.

So, there are my picks. Your picks may vary. Let me know.