2025 Phillies: Lowered Expectations?

This is a time of optimism for baseball fans.  Spring Training.  The weather is getting warmer and my lawn is getting green again.  Hearing the crack of the bat from Florida is one of the best sounds ever.  Franzke and LA coming out of my radio is something I waited all winter long to hear.

So why am I not so optimistic?  I should be thinking of the title of that wonderful Dickens novel... Great Expectations.  That's what I should have.  Great Expectations.  Instead I'm thinking the Phillies need help from David Copperfield to win the World Series.  Why?  Because the Phillies are not better than the Dodgers.  Dare I say...it's a Tale of Two Cities.  We could ask Al Oliver...who played for both teams.  Would that result in an Oliver Twist?  

As you enter a new season, especially with a loaded team like the Phillies, you ask yourself...can they win the World Series?  Can they? Sure they can.  Even with the Dodgers buying any player they want, we all know it's the hottest team that wins the World Series, not the best team.  

So please don't get me wrong.  It's not that I am totally down on this team.  But to be honest, the last couple of years have definitely impacted my optimism.  The Phillies were the better team in the 2023 NLCS, but lost games 6 and 7...two HOME games...to the Diamondbacks to lose the series.  Last year, the Phillies were better than the Mets.  But it didn't show.  In both years the lineup went cold all at the same time.  Last year, that dry spell combined with the bullpen imploding, resulting in the Phils losing in the DS.  Hell, you can go back to 2022 in the World Series, when the Astros threw a combined NO-HITTER against the Phils.  This lineup goes cold all at the same time, at the worst possible time.  

I am so torn about this season.  I want to go to The Bank and experience the Bedlam like I always do. And I will be there as many times as I can.   But in the back of my mind, I know I'll be thinking, "this is great now, but talk to me in October when it matters".  Will you feel the same way?  I feel like a lot of Phillies fans will have that mentality after the last couple of years.  

It can be hard to be REALLY hopeful about a World Series title, when objectively the Phillies aren't even the best team in the National League.  The Dodgers top pretty much every power ranking I've seen, and for good reason.  My hope is, the Phillies are hot at the right time.  When this team is firing on all cylinders, it can beat anyone.  

The Phils crushed the Dodgers on the way to the World Series in both 2008 and 2009.  Maybe history can repeat itself in 2025.  My expectations may be lowered...but my hope for this team is still sky high.  I was also down on the Eagles early on in the season and they ended up on Broad Street.  Let's have another parade, but this time in red.