Can you imagine if Scott Rolen made his Major League debut with the Philadelphia Phillies as we know them today?
If you’d have told 20-year-old me that the young third baseman the Phils selected in the 2nd round of the 1993 amateur draft, the kid they developed through a then-sketchy minor league system, groomed to be the heir apparent to Mike Schmidt, would one day be elected to the Hall of Fame, I would have assumed Rolen spent his entire career in Phillies pinstripes, piled up playoff appearances, All-Star nods and MVP awards, ascending to franchise legend status, an icon, and Philadelphia’s next megastar.