Before play on Tuesday night the Phillies stand at 15-11 on the season despite this team going through a rebuilding phase.  ESPN.com MLB Columnist Jerry Crasnick says that this season is not about wins and losses but about seeing who can play for the future:

 

"I look at them and see a team, anything to me north of 70 wins I think is pretty good. I don't know if the record is that important this year but I think it's more of a case of just developing these guys and seeing if they can play. You have some young guys who look like they're confident, who are ready to be leaders, you want to keep everybody healthy, you want the pitchers to build up their innings. I would say when you look at (Maikel) Franco, (Odubel) Herrera, the three starters (Aaron Nola, Vincent Velasquez, Jared Eickoff), (Hector) Nerris looks like a potential dominant guy, you know possible Closer, that's six guys that you can kinda hang your hat on. All of a sudden you add in J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams and (Jorge) Alfaro and (Zack) Eflin or (Mark) Appel, all of a sudden you're talking about 12 or 13 guys. Then you maybe bring in a couple Free Agents...a couple of years from now maybe you got a team that's ready to contend for a Wild Card spot or a Postseason spot."

Hear more of what Crasnick had to say about the Phillies young stars and their development into a team that is not far away from being a contender

More From 97.3 ESPN