Philadelphia Phillies: The All-Time Bracket
Championship
Our all-time Phillies bracket concludes with a matchup of two teams separated by nearly a full century, neither of which had post-season success.
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Game 1: The first game goes to 2011 for its 102-60 regular-season record and .630 percentage. Those are franchise bests; in 1915 the Phillies played 90-62 .592 ball.
Game 2: The 1915 team lost four of its five post-season games, a .200 percentage. The 2011 team lost three of five, but that’s a .400 post-season percentage and a 2-0 edge for 2011.
Game 3: Neither team was exceptional offensively. At 97, the 1915 team’s OPS+ is one point better than 2011’s 96.
Game 4: Both teams present a 127 staff ERA+. We need a tie-breaker, highest individual ERA+ among a regular starter. For 1915, that’s obviously Alexander at an other-worldly 225. The best the 2011 team can offer in response is Roy Halladay’s 163. The championship series is even at 2.
Game 5: The 1915 Phillies present a 41.1 WAR, Alexander’s 10.9 accounting for more than one-quarter of it all by himself. The 2011 team had nothing to compare with Alexander, but it did have Halladay 8.8, Lee, 8.5, and Hamels, 6.4 The result was a team 54.2 WAR and a 3-2 series advantage.
Game 6: The exceptional fielding of the 2011 team is decisive. It fielded .985, five points above the league average. In 1915 the champions fielded .966, but that was only two points better than the league average.
Result: 2011 in six games