Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Bold Predictions for the End of the Season

The drama of the trade deadline has come and gone, so the world of Major League Baseball is preparing for the final push.

The Phillies are no different than every other team except for the fact that they currently have the best record in baseball and, despite having their nine-game winning streak snapped last night, seem to also be the hottest.

The aces are dealing and everything seems to be coming together for what could arguably be the best Phillies team in history.

Here are five bold predictions for what will almost definitely be an exciting end of the season for the Phillies.

5. Ryan Howard Is Going to Get Really Hot

Philadelphia fans in general have not been overly thrilled with Ryan Howard this season.

He is only batting .250 and his on-base plus slugging percentage is over 100 points lower than his career mark.

He is leading the National League in RBI with 87, but his home run numbers are down slightly with only 24. He has not been able to provide the amount of power that he normally unleashes in the middle of the lineup.

Why then do I think he is going to get really hot?

Over his career, September and October have been his best months.

He has batted .307 with a .422 on-base percentage and 59 home runs in 191 games. Also, with Hunter Pence now covering him in the lineup, it will be similar to having Jayson Werth back, and I think that Ryan Howard will start producing that much power again.

4. The Phillies Will Win the Most Games in Franchise History

The Phillies have 48 games left. Right now, they have 74 wins. The most games any Phillies team has won in a season is 101. They did that back to back in 1976 and 1977.

So, they need 28 wins out of 48 games for this to happen. This should honestly not be that much of a problem.

They have two series against Atlanta, one with Arizona, one with Milwaukee, and one with St. Louis. Everyone else that they play is under .500. Only 17 of the 48 games are against teams that have winning records.

28-20 should definitely not be impossible, and I'd expect that record of 101 wins to be shattered.

3. Roy Halladay Will Win the Cy Young

Maybe this isn't very bold, but I would be willing to assume that this will be a runaway.

Halladay is 14-4 with a 2.55 ERA. Over his last 10 starts, he is 6-1 with a 2.54 ERA. Except for his bout with heat exhaustion a few weeks ago in Chicago, he has been dominant and definitely will not crumble through a postseason run.

In fact, just like Ryan Howard, Halladay has been at his best in September and October with a career ERA of 2.47 during these months.

For you sabermetricians, his 5.9 Wins above Replacement according to FanGraphs leads Major League Baseball, and he is one entire Win ahead of teammate Cole Hamels who is second in the National League.

Again, there is no reason that Halladay will not be able to win the Cy Young again.

2. John Mayberry Jr. Will Take More and More Playing Time from Raul Ibanez

I know that Charlie Manuel likes Raul Ibanez.

Even though Mayberry has a higher average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, plays better defense, and has more home runs per plate appearance, Ibanez will still probably be technically the starter for a while.

However, my bold prediction will have Mayberry as the starter by the end of the year. He could very well lose that spot next year because of Domonic Brown, but I think Mayberry will appear more and more consistently in the lineup.

Over his past 10 appearances, Mayberry has been batting .400 with four home runs in 20 at-bats. Ibanez on the other hand is batting .200 with only two home runs.

Not that I normally advocate riding a hot streak from a youngster like Mayberry rather than trusting in a consistent performer such as Ibanez, but in this case I think that Mayberry has been performing all year and can provide what the Phillies need going down the stretch.

1. The Phillies Will Win the World Series

Maybe not a surprise, but this is a bold prediction. It is always possible to be the best team in baseball all season but then plummet in the playoffs.

I do not see that happening with the Phillies.

If the playoffs started today, the Phillies would be playing the San Francisco Giants. They just proved that they can definitely handle them. The Phillies have a deeper rotation, more offensive potential, and Tim Lincecum cannot pitch every day.

After that, the Phillies would play the winner of the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers. Again, Philadelphia will ride their pitching through either of these series. The Phillies' arms should be able to contain the Brewers' powerful lineup, and despite similar pitching success, the Philadelphia bats are more powerful than Atlanta.

The World Series very well could feature a matchup with the Boston Red Sox who just happened to lose two out of three to the Phillies earlier this season. I know that I put a lot of faith into the Philadelphia rotation, but again, I do not see how the Red Sox will be able to go deep enough in the rotation to hold off the Phillies. By this point in the season, the Phillies should be hitting the ball to provide more support than necessary to lead the Phillies to another World Series.