Gillick: On paper, Phillies better than 116-win Mariners team

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In more than a half-century in professional baseball, Pat Gillick has seen thousands of games, from hardscrabble fields in Latin America to perfectly manicured big-league lawns. He's scouted tens of thousands of players, from gangly teens hoping to make it big to aging veterans just trying to hang on.

Along the way he earned the reputation for being a shrewd talent evaluator, a talent that led to such success as an executive with four franchises that he'll be enshrined in the Hall of Fame this summer.

These days he shows up every morning at Bright House Field, a 73-year-old senior adviser to the Phillies, moving from field to field, surveying a team that many think has a chance to be something special.

What makes his perspective unique is that 10 years ago, when he was general manager of the Seattle Mariners, he got the same up-close-and-personal view of a club that went on to reel off 116 wins, most in the expansion era, tied with the 1906 Chicago Cubs for the most ever.

So, Pat, which club is better: the 2011 Phillies or the 2001 Mariners?

"This team is better, on paper," he said. "On paper."

That caveat is understandable. Gillick isn't predicting that the Phillies will set a new record. To win that many games, a lot has to go right, even for the most talented roster. Those Mariners used just six starting pitchers all season. They were largely injury-free. They seemed to have a knack for getting the big hit at just the right time.

A decade later, it's striking to realize that while that Seattle team had a bunch of very good players, only rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki and designated hitter Edgar Martinez could now be considered strong Hall of Fame candidates.

The staff ace was Freddy Garcia, at a point of his career when he could be dominant. Jamie Moyer, continuing to prove that baseball life really can begin after 30, won 20 games. Aaron Sele, Paul Abbott, John Halama and Joel Pineiro rounded out the rotation.

(Coincidentally, three of those pitchers would eventually play for the Phillies, but only Moyer had any success in red pinstripes. Gillick acquired Garcia from the White Sox before the 2007 season. He arrived with a sore shoulder and won just one game. Abbott was toast by the time he showed up in 2004.)

Let's just say that that staff doesn't leap to mind when the discussion turns to finding historical comparisons for Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton.