The Philadelphia Phillies have suffered through five consecutive non-winning seasons.
The last time that the club fielded a winner was with the franchise record 102 victories of the 2011 campaign.
Phillies leadership spent much of the last three years turning the final pages from the previous championship era. With the trade of Carlos Ruiz and the buyout of Ryan Howard‘s contract, those final pages have now been turned.
The club has traded veterans for prospect packages. There have been high draft picks resulting from the losing campaigns. These have combined to provide a vastly improved farm system.
Some of those highly ranked young acquisitions and prospects have begun to emerge in the big leagues already.
