Not-so-old 2013 Phillies battle perceptions

It's almost too easy.

Thirty years after the Wheeze Kids won the National League pennant, another bunch of aging Phillies will try to defy time and recapture recent glory. What a perfect angle for opening day, right?

Well, no. The '83 Phillies really were an assemblage of last-legs superstars: Pete Rose was 42. Tony Perez was 41. Joe Morgan was 39. They won 90 games that year.

The oldest of this season's "old" Phillies regulars is 36-year-old Michael Young. Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins are 34, fully eight years younger than Rose was. Ryan Howard is 33, which is the same age Mike Schmidt was when he hit 40 home runs and finished third in the 1983 MVP voting.

Roy Halladay is 36? Steve Carlton won 15 games (and lost 16!) while pitching 283 2/3 innings in 1983. He was 38. And except for John Denny, he didn't have anyone else in the rotation anywhere near the level of Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee.

So these Phillies are not exactly the Was Kids. Not yet.

There is a kind of reverse buzz around the team as this season opens. For five years, ever since the 2007 team stormed to that first division title of the era, the air fairly crackled with anticipation at this time of year. Even last year, despite uncertainty about Utley and Howard, the Phillies had added an elite closer, Jonathan Papelbon, to a 102-win team.

But this year is different. The Phillies' postseason streak is over. The predominant feeling among most fans seems to be a nagging anxiety that the best era in the Phillies' long history is also over - ended prematurely by chronic injury, fading skills, and the breathtaking ascension of the Washington Nationals.

Call it denial, if you like, but things actually look pretty upbeat from here. As longtime readers will attest, cockeyed optimism isn't exactly my default setting. And it's not like it's a product of irrational thinking.

For the first time in two years, Utley participated in spring training and will be in the opening day lineup. He looks like himself. If he can coax a vintage Utley season from those achy knees, the Phillies lineup will be markedly better.

A typical Howard season will be even bigger. However you break down his game - too many strikeouts, too little patience, whatever - there is one very important fact about Ryan Howard. When he plays, the Phillies win 57.3 percent of the time. Even with the obvious overlap, that's a few percentage points higher than with Utley, Rollins, or Carlos Ruiz.

With another year of recovery from the devastating Achilles injury that punctuated the end of the 2011 postseason, Howard appears to be in prime condition. If you don't think his exhibition numbers mean anything, consider the level of concern if he'd had a bad spring. Howard has a quick bat and that get-me-to-the-plate-boys look in his eye.

Rollins is Rollins. Young should be the best offensive third baseman the Phillies have had throughout this era. Although they are missing a key guy, the suspended Ruiz, there is no uncertainty about his condition or when he'll return.

The outfield is questionable. Ben Revere is going to bring speed and energy to the top of the lineup. Domonic Brown appears poised for a breakout year, but that means nothing until he does it. All you can say about Laynce Nix and John Mayberry Jr., at this point, is that someone has to hit seventh.

But the pitching remains a strength. Hamels and Lee are a better 1-2 than the Phils had when they won the World Series. And that doesn't even factor in Halladay, whose disquieting spring had the region on DEFCON 5. The guess here? He'll be good enough. Not great, perhaps, but good enough.

The addition of Mike Adams to set up Papelbon was the underrated move of the offseason.

So it's OK to be optimistic about the season, even if this does shape up as the last go-around for the team as we've known it - maybe especially because of that.

It couldn't begin any more auspiciously - with Hamels making his first opening day start against the revamped Braves. On Wednesday, Halladay will get his tensely anticipated first start. By the time Cliff Lee finishes up Thursday, we'll start to have some answers after an offseason of questions.

By Friday's home opener, who knows? Maybe the buzz will be back. That's one thing that never gets old.