Philllies final grade

Philllies 2005 grades by position by the Inqy. REport by M. Hayes.

someone explain these two sentences to me:

“But consider this: He [Manuel] took a team that figured to barely contend for .500 to the brink of the playoffs and the most wins since 1993 - two more than Larry Bowa's 86-win seasons. Yes, a looser clubhouse mattered to the likes of Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Ryan Howard, Jon Lieber and Aaron Fultz.”

Wow, Burrell hits for 33 more RBI than in ‘04, Utley turns in the greatest offensive season in the history of Phillies 2nd basemen (Samuel had one season that rivals it, with 28 hr and 100 rbi), the CF/No. 2 slot in the lineup becomes the most reliably consistent position in the line-up card, Ryan Howard turns in a vintage, Thome-esque half season of 22 HR and 63 rbi in 88 games, a couple of our starters completely outperform their expectations, Billy Wagner turns in the greatest closer performance in team history (38/41 in save opportunities, granted, 2 of those really, REALLY HURT).

And what do we have to show for it?

Two more wins. And how does Marcus Hayes justify saying that this was a team that “figured to barely contend for .500”? This was a team built to dominate the division, at least contend for the division title all season long.