By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
As Philadelphia sports fans have learned over the last few years, rebuilding is an inexact science. Still, fans and media members (mostly media members) want to know prior to the season how many wins the team is aiming for, perhaps as a way to gauge the progress of a rebuild.
After Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said that he believes the team could play at a .500 clip in 2017, club president Andy MacPhail responded by saying that he was more focused on improvement than an exact number of wins this season. General manager Matt Klentak was asked to give a similar answer on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia's Philly Sports Talk and met the two in the middle:
"I don't wan't to put any limits on what the team can do. I think it's important to keep everybody motivated and not set a number at the beginning of the year. There's so many factors that play into that — player health, underperformance, overperformance. All those things will inevitably happen to every team this year at varying times."
Klentak's answer seems to fall somewhere in between those given by Mackanin and MacPhail, which is predictable. Mackanin, who is in a contract year, naturally is more concerned with the amount of games that the Phillies win in 2017 than MacPhail is. MacPhail, who needs to have a longer view than Mackanin, may be slightly more concerned with player development.
That's not to say Mackanin isn't concerned with player development. Heck, he'll be leading the effort. But Mackanin may be more worried about trying to win 80 games, as opposed to 75, even if pieces like Howie Kendrick and Jeremy Hellickson, who aren't likely to be with the Phillies for the long-term, help lead the team to five extra wins.
As general manager, Klentak needs to both be concerned with the team's record and the development of the team's key young pieces. He did a nice job of adding veterans on short-term contracts this year, which in theory will both help to provide leadership to an otherwise young team and put the team in a position to win more games.
The best scenario for the Phillies in 2017 may be for younger talents like Maikel Franco and Vince Velasquez to take enough of a step forward to help the Phillies win more games, while showing that the club's rebuilding process is on its way to allowing them to return to contention soon.
