Best Phillies season

As we make our way through the National League East teams and try to find the best season for each franchise, it's time to take a look at the Philadelphia Phillies. 

This team was actually pretty hard to decide on. The Phillies have had three seasons in which they won 100 games, but they didn't win a World Series in any of those seasons. Their two World Series-winning seasons were actually pretty far down the list of their best winning percentages. 

So after taking into account regular season record, number of All-Stars and award winners, I'm going with 2011 as the best season in Philadelphia Phillies' history. 

The Phillies won 102 games in 2011, finishing with a winning percentage of .630, the best in team history. The team had five players make it to the All-Star Game that year - Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee. 

The team's rotation is rated as one of the best of all-time. Halladay, Lee and Hamels each won at least 14 games and each finished with an ERA of 2.79 or below. They also finished second, third and fifth respectively in Cy Young voting.

The team led the league in ERA (3.02) and was third in strikeouts (1,299). The offense wasn't great, but players like Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino still finished in the top 15 in NL MVP voting. 

The Phillies weren't able to keep their momentum going throughout the playoffs, though as they lost to the Cardinals in the NLDS. They took St. Louis to game five, but couldn't finish, losing the final game 1-0. 

Although finishing the season with a championship would've been nice, when you set your franchise record for wins and lead the league in wins for a season, while having one of the best pitching staffs of all time, that's a pretty great season.