A look back at the 2000 Phillies

Out of Bounds is taking a look back at how the Phillies got to where they are today. We'll take a look at the team from 2000 to the current team. Today we start with 2000.

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Terry Francona led the Boston Red Sox to its first would championship in 86 years in 2004.

He had no such luck as the Phillies manager.

In his fourth and final year at the helm, the Phils had their lowest win total since 1988 (not including the strike shortened 1994 season).

With a record of 65-97, the Phillies finished in 5th place, 30 games behind the first place Atlanta Braves.

Considering the Phillies have drawn over 3 million fans in 2008 and 2009, the lack of success showed in 2000, as they only drew 1.6 million fans.

However, the Phillies team was not all that bad.

Curt Schilling and Randy Wolf anchored the pitching staff, while Scott Rolen, Pat Burrell (his first season), and Bobby Abreu were the teams top position players.

Amazingly, Andy Ashby was the highest paid player on the team at $5.9 million. That sounds hilarious on two fronts. First off, $5.9 million is nothing these days. Second off, no wonder the Phillies were so bad with Ashby being their highest paid player.

Rolen led the team with 26 home runs, Abreu had 25, Ron Gant had 20, and Burrell had 18.

While the Phils had a few nice players, they certainly had their shortcomings with guys like Desi Relaford at shortstop (hitting .221). Meanwhile, Jimmy Rollins made his major league debut, but played sparingly in only 14 games. Good thing they decided to keep Rollins as the long term option.

The pitching staff was terrible. Ashby went 4-7 with an ERA over 5, Paul Byrd went 2-9 with an ERA over 6, and Schilling only went 6-6. Wolf led the team with 11 wins and Robert Person was second with 9 wins.

Jeff Brantly was the closer and finished with 23 saves.

June was the only month the Phillies had a winning record and a terrible September of 9-20 ended a miserable season.

Not all was lost in 2000 though, as the Phillies drafted one of their best players today, Chase Utley.

Of course, the Phillies also made a bonehead trade in 2000, sending Shilling to the Arizona Diamondbacks (where he would go on to win a World Series) for Omar Daal, Nelson Figueroa, Travis Lee, and Vicente Padilla. Brilliant trade.

Below is the starting roster as well as the full team roster.

Next, we'll take a look at the 2001 season.

C Mike Lieberthal
1B Pat Burrell
2B Mickey Morandini
3B Scott Rolen
SS Desi Relaford
LF Ron Gant
CF Doug Glanville
RF Bobby Abreu

SP Andy Ashby
SP Paul Byrd
SP Bruce Chen
SP Robert Person
SP Curt Schilling
SP Randy Wolf

RP Scott Aldred
RP Jason Boyd
RP Chris Brock
RP Wayne Gomes
RP Mark Holzemer
RP Vicente Padilla
RP Steve Schrenk
RP Ed Vosberg
RP Bryan Ward
CL Jeff Brantley

#2 Rico Brogna
#5 Ron Gant
#6 Doug Glanville
#8 Desi Relaford
#10 Travis Lee
#11 Kevin Sefcik
#12 Mickey Morandini
#12 Tom Prince
#13 Tomas Perez
#14 Gary Bennett
#15 Clemente Alvarez
#16 Marlon Anderson
#17 Scott Rolen
#19 Brian Hunter
#21 Kent Bottenfield
#23 Kevin Jordan
#24 Mike Lieberthal
#25 Rob Ducey
#26 Alex Arias
#27 David Newhan
#28 Chris Pritchett
#29 Jimmy Rollins
#30 Scott Aldred
#31 Robert Person
#33 Kirk Bullinger
#33 Pat Burrell
#34 Paul Byrd
#35 Cliff Politte
#37 Omar Daal
#37 Bryan Ward
#38 Curt Schilling
#39 Bruce Chen
#41 Jason Boyd
#43 Andy Ashby
#43 Tom Jacquez
#44 Vicente Padilla
#44 Carlos Reyes
#45 Jeff Brantley
#46 Mark Holzemer
#46 Trever Miller
#47 Amaury Telemaco
#49 Mark Brownson
#50 Ed Vosberg
#52 Steve Schrenk
#53 Bobby Abreu
#54 Randy Wolf
#55 Chris Brock
#61 Wayne Gomes
#63 Reggie Taylor
#72 David Coggin
#78 Doug Nickle