10-year plan

By Tim McManus

As a Phillies fan I'm obviously a glutton for torture, so I thought I'd take this time to perform an excruciating exercise: Look back at the Philly rosters from the past 10 seasons, and see what our team could look like today if things worked out differently.

We're going to neglect who was traded for who, which players were harping to ditch this city, salary concerns, etc. We're just looking at players who were once in the Phillies' possession, mixed with some that are currently here.

The starters looks like this...

1B: Jim Thome
2B: Chase Utley
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Jimmy Rollins
LF: Pat Burrell
CF: Aaron Rowand
RF: Bobby Abreu
C: Johnny Estrada

Meaning the lineup would look something like this:

1: Rollins
2. Utley
3. Rolen
4. Thome
5. Abreu
6. Burrell
7. Rowand
8. Estrada

Not completely depressed yet? No worries, the pitching staff is up next.

Starting Pitching

1. Curt Schilling
2. Kevin Millwood
3. Eric Milton
4. Carlos Silva
5. Brett Myers

Middle Relief

Rheal Cormier
Todd Jones
Ben Gordon

Closer

Billy Wagner

Think that 13-year playoff drought might go ahead and get broken? How many rings would we have by now? Still think the disgruntled stars would be pining to get away from this team?

I will now go suffocate myself with a Rollins' beanie cap.