For just the second time in team history, the Philadelphia Phillies own the number one pick in this year's MLB Draft. To obtain that number one pick, the team posted the worst record in the league in 2015.
However, 2015 was far from a lost year, as the Phillies infused their minor league system with young talent through a slew of trades and also completed a front-office overhaul that seems to have put the team in a much better situation for the future.
2016 isn't necessarily supposed to be a season where the Phillies make a drastic improvement record-wise, but most pundits seem to believe that with a younger roster, the Phillies have a chance to creep towards winning 70 games this season.
USA Today doesn't fall under that umbrella, however, as the outlet released their 2016 record projections, suggesting that the Phillies will tie with the Cincinnati Reds for the fewest wins in the league.
Atlantis Sportsbook was the first casino to release over/under for each MLB team's win totals in 2016 last week, and projected the Phillies at 66.5 wins. While that would be an improvement over last year's number, some fans feel the team will even surpass that number. Granted, gambling and making actual projections aren't the same thing, but 61 really feels like it is cheating the Phillies.
The Phillies back-end of the bullpen, given the trades of Jonathan Papelbon and Ken Giles, won't be as good as it was last year, but the rest of the team should improve. The starting rotation isn't going to be special, but the additions of Jeremy Hellickson and Charlie Morton, paired with the young duo of Jerad Eickhoff and Aaron Nola, should help the rotation to improve. The lineup, with Maikel Franco and Aaron Altherr joining Odubel Herrera in the lineup for a full season, should at the very least be slightly better than in 2015. J.P. Crawford, Nick Williams and some of the organization's top minor league talent could also debut at some point this season.
It's also difficult to see the Phillies being a worse team than the Atlanta Braves, given that the Braves appear to be the closest thing baseball has to tanking. Even if the Braves do finish with a better record than the Phillies, the Phillies getting to play a worse Braves team in 2016 than they played in 2015 should allow them to improve on their 63 wins from a season ago, not regress.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
