#229 - 1982 Philadelphia Phillies

The 1982 Phillies finished 89-73, three games back of the first place Cardinals.  As pictured, Bo Diaz led the team with his .288 average.  There is no picture for the HR leader otherwise we would get a look at the Phillies best offensive player, Mike Schmidt who led the team with 35 HR.  Steve Carlton was still setting the pace for the rest of the pitching staff.  He led the team with his 3.10 ERA and most of the other meaningful pitching stats.  

Flipside:  Topps shows 28 Phillies on the back including Pat Corrales who was let go halfway through the '83 season.  Hall of Famers listed here are Schmidt and Carlton.  Pete Rose would have been three.  No one on the club was snubbed as everyone with at least 39 innings or 39 at bats got a card...even Len Matuszak who batted .077.

 

The Starting Nine: 

C  Bo Diaz

1b Pete Rose

2b Manny Trillo

SS Ivan DeJesus

3b Mike Schmidt

LF Gary Matthews

CF Garry Maddox

RF George Vukovich

 

A veteran bunch, Phillies batters average age according to baseball reference was 31.1 years of age.  Diaz had a career year with a .288/.333/.450 line while starting 135 games behind the plate.  He was backed by Ozzie Virgil who hit .238.  Corrales loved playing his regulars everyday.  Rose and Matthews played in all 162 games and DeJesus missed just one.  Rose and Trillo both hit .271 with 3 and 0 homers respectively.  Schmidt had a fine year but often lacked runners to drive in.  He batted .280 with 35 dingers but drove in only 87. 

In the outfield Matthews hit 19 HR and stole 21 bases.  Maddox and Vukovich batted .284 and .272 and were backed up by Bob Dernier who stole 42 bases. 

 

Pitching Staff:

 

SP Steve Carlton 38 GS

SP Larry Christenson 33 GS

SP Mike Krukow 33 GS

SP Dick Ruthven 31 GS

SP Marty Bystrom 16 GS

RP Ron Reed 14 Sv

RP Ed Farmer 6 Sv

RP Sid Monge 2 Sv

RP Tug McGraw 5 Sv

 

The top four starters all logged over 200 innings with ERA's between 3.10 and 3.79.  Carlton was a true workhorse with 295 innings and 286 strikeouts both tops on the NL.  No one since then has topped Carlton's inning total, not bad for a 37 year old! Bystrom had a rough year (4.85 ERA) but was the only pitcher besides the top four to make more than four starts.

The bullpen was a bit of committee led by Reed and his 2.66 ERA in 98 frames.  Sparky Lyle was on the team until he was sold to the White Sox in August.  Monge had the next lowest ERA at 3.75, no one else in the pen was below league average.  John Denny came over late in the year via trade and started four games.

 

Oddball:  DeJesus hit just .239/.309/.313 and the Phillies would have done well to get rookie Julio Franco (8 for 29) a few more at bats.  Franco spent most of '82 hitting over .300 for the fifth consecutive season in the minors.  Of course at the time the Phillies thought he was 21 years old when he was actually 23.  That the Phils thought he was so young may have delayed the start of his major league career and who knows maybe cost them a win or two.