The Incredible Return of the Phillies' Pitching

In 2011, the Philadelphia Phillies had the single best pitching rotation in baseball: Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Kyle Kendrick. And also Joe Blanton, because Oswalt got injured a bit.

After a lot of those guys left, the Phillies' subsequent rotations became more and more disappointing. The pinnacle of this was 2015, where Philly brought in Aaron Harang, Jerome Williams, Chad Billingsley and Kevin Correia to help sort things out. At the same time, they were calling up Adam Morgan, Aaron Harang and Jerad Eickhoff, and trading Cole Hamels. There was so much dissonance between youth and over-the-hill that the rotation was swamped to begin with.

Somehow, things came around. Nola got stronger, the elders left, the Phils traded for Vince Velasquez, and brought up Zach Eflin and Nick Pivetta. And somehow, Jake Arrieta decided he wanted to be here.

And now here we are. All five are excellent. All five are leading the team in WAR. And nobody could have predicted it.

Aaron Nola might be one of the best pitchers in the NL, but Jake Arrieta is back to his Cubs numbers. Plus, Vince Velasquez has finally figured out how to stay in the strike zone without getting clobbered, and his ERA has gone down significantly. It's also been a great year for the bullpen: Seranthony Dominguez has been strong in the ninth, Pat Neshek has been flawless in long relief, and Victor Arano, Luis Garcia and Edubray Ramos have all been consistently good.

The pitching, which was torrid the last few years, is exceeding the exploits of the offense. And that says something, especially after Wilson Ramos' killer night last night.

The Phillies might be able to pull off contention this year. They still need to hop back on 1st, but...they could be dangerous if they get the momentum.

Coming Tomorrow- The only decent pitcher left on the South Side of Chicago.