Introducing Your 2006 NL East Champions

I don’t know what the Phillies slogan is going to be this year — it seems like it’s going to be something like “Paint the Town Red,” which ties in nicely with an MAB Paints promotion (sigh) — but I think it should be this: “Be Optimistic. No, Really. We’re Going To Do Pretty Good This Year.”

Yeah, the Fightin’ Phils still don’t really have anyone who can pitch, but the offense should be outofsight aside from the black holes at third and catcher. I’m not sure saying they’re going to win the pennant, but I feel they’re going to be better than people are saying.

Don’t believe me? The Replacement Level Yankees Weblog recently ran 2000 simulations using the Diamond Mind software — no, I don’t really know what that means, either — and some other cool baseball stat geek programs. Check out the results:

That’s the average of all three sims. Now, the author says to take it with a huge grain of salt (and adds that the Phillies are probably ranked too high) but I think I, as a Phillies fan, can totally ignore that advice. Whoo! Go Phils! To the playoffs we go!

The 2006 Diamond Mind Projection Blowout [Replacement Level Yankees Weblog]