Valentine, Kruk crazy in their Phils prediction

ESPN Analysts Bobby Valentine and John Kruk are nuts.

On today's edition of Baseball Tonight, both predeicted the Phillies would win between 90-92 games this season.

Are you kidding me?

Did they forget that a team without Cliff Lee, a rash of injuries, almost every ofensive player having a down year, and only a few months of having Roy Oswalt led the majors with 97 wins last season?

I'm not saying the Phillies don't have question marks this season.  They do.

But they still run out the best rotation in all of baseball and potentially one of the most dominating rotations in baseball history.

Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton.

Between the five, they have three Cy Youngs, 10 other top-five Cy Young finishes, a World Series MVP award, two LCS MVP awards, 18 opening day starts, six 20-win seasons and 13 trips to the All-Star game.  Oh yeah, Blanton is not included in those numbers.

That is pretty impressive.

Doesn't the saying go that "pitching win championships?"  Valentine and Kruk seem to have forgotten that. 

No, they are not questioning the rotation but did speak of potential bullpen and offensive production as to why they did not predict the Phillies to win as many games as most think they will win.

Sure, injuries can be a concern, but that is the same with anyone and cannot be predicted. 

So for arguments sake, we have to assume each pitcher will make it through the season with no major injuries.

The Phillies lost a major cog in the middle of their lineup, and right-handed hitting Jayson Werth signed with the Washington Nationals.  The Phillies will likely not be able to replace his full production.

However, consider that Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, and Raul Ibanez had down years last year.  Also consider that Rollins, Howard, and Utley spent a great deal of time on the DL. 

And they still win 97 games.

Barring major injuries, there is no way that this team will only win 90-92 games.

Their pitching is better and one would have to assume that some of their big offensive guns would return more to normal form than they were last year.

At only 90 wins, the potential is there that the Phillies would not even win the NL East.  The Braves are capable of that many wins.

So they are saying that there is the possibility the Phillies don't win their own division.

C'mon.

The Phillies have the potential to win 100 games.  Valentine and Kruk have it all wrong.