It’s Not About Winning 100 Games, It’s About Winning The World Series

With Philadelphia sports currently lacking a consistent flow of juicy stories, hearing Jimmy Rollins make another pre-season prediction is something to pay attention to.

“Yeah, we’ll win 100 games,” Rollins said Saturday when speaking to the media.

Kudos to Rollins for actually talking about something baseball related. So far in this 2011 spring training, we’ve had to revolve our Phillies talk around Joe Blanton’s feelings potentially being hurt, whether or not the team will extend the contract of the third winningest manager in team history and Ryan Howard’s psyche after leaving the bat on his shoulder to end the 2010 season.

But, while he should be applauded for making another prediction, what Rollins really should’ve said is, We’re going win the World Series. Anything less is an utter letdown.

This team has the greatest pitching staff on paper in the history of baseball.

They have three superstars in Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Rollins looking to bounce back after each putting on the worst statistical seasons of their careers last year.

Howard and Utley are contractually locked up in the long term, but Rollins isn’t. At 32, he needs to have an improved season to stay in Philadelphia, especially for the type of money he’ll probably want.

The Phils have a closer in Brad Lidge who for the first time in his tenure as a Phillie is not coming off of an injury riddled off-season.

If the pitching staff lives up to its expectations, those three guys mentioned have better productivity and Lidge has a good season, how can this team not win the World Series.

Rollins is without question the leader on this talented Phillies team. The common saying people like to use is, “The team goes as Jimmy goes.”

In 2007, he made the bold statement that the Phillies are the team to beat in the National League East. Everyone balked at the notion because the New York Mets just came off of a season that saw them fall one game short of a World Series appearance. Not to mention, the Phils hadn’t made it to the postseason since 1993.

Well, with a late September surge by the Phils and a monumental collapse by the Mets, the Phils won the division on the last day of the regular season, only to get swept in the NLDS by the Colorado Rockies.

In 2008, Rollins told the media exactly what he said yesterday, that the team will win 100 games and that doing so will win the National League East. That season, 92 wins was enough for the Phillies to win the division. With their 11 wins in the postseason, they eventually surpassed the 100 win mark, in route to the franchise’s second World Series championship.

Rollins chose not to make a spring training prediction in 2009. Instead, he waited until right before the start of the World Series against the Yankees when he said the Phils would win in five games. Obviously, that did not happen.

Last year, Rollins made no prediction and the season ended in the huge disappointment of losing the NLCS in six games to the San Francisco Giants.

So, don’t be mistaken. There’s nothing wrong with Rollins making yet another pre-season prediction. It’s a good thing he did. It raised the anticipation level of this season even more and the teams hasn’t even hit the field for an exhibition game yet.

But I think the majority if not every Phillies fan would trade a 100 win season for a World Series Championship.

The most wins the Phils have ever had in a regular season is 101, doing so in 1976 and 1977. If every thing goes as stated above, this team should win 100 games with their hands tied behind their backs and their eyes closed.

What really matters is winning the 11 postseason games necessary to have a parade. Anything less is utter failure.