57 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

149 year old sport

11 hours ago, Dave Moss said:

Agreed. They needed to score in the 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11th innings. They didn't and eventually the Dodgers got another run across.

This is exactly it. You're facing elimination on the road; you're going to get walked off very soon. The offense has to have urgency to get a run across -- milk a walk, lean into a pitch, slap the ball into play. If you can't play small ball you're not going to win in the playoffs. The Phillies are not built for the playoffs.

The Phillies once again lose a playoff series because of the offense disappearing and the bullpen choking and Dave Dombrowski in the offseason had a plan to address these issues by signing Max Kepler and Jordan Romano. That is a fireable offense. Everyone knew those were the issues of this team and he addressed it in a totally unserious way. That will stick with me more than anything from the NLDS itself...that this series was lost in the offseason.

They better give us an offseason to be excited about or it's going to be hard to care about the team going into next season. And it's time to change the coaching staff because they didn't make a single change from that coaching staff. Imagine embarrassing yourself against the Mets, running it back with the roster AND the coaching staff. Utter arrogance from the top brass.

IMO there's no way Middleton can let DD continue with the same staff and the same roster with minor tweaks even though DD probably already has the excuses lined up as to why they should do just that. I could see Middleton giving DD one more offseason unfortunately. Just hoping for at least: punt Thomson & Long, trade Kerkering, Castellanos, Walker, Marsh, Bohm; re-sign Schwarber (mainly because we heard this was already a strong possibility so I'll take it) and also a cleanup hitter (less likely if Schwarber signs but also still necessary) and JT, bring up Crawford, sign some bullpen guys that aren't a complete gamble and waste of money like Romano and Ross. Just initial thoughts.

11 hours ago, JohnB said:

Phils lose, Eagles lose. As I said on Tuesday, it's a tough week to be a Philly sports fan

Six days from Hell

10 minutes ago, John Blutarski said:

IMO there's no way Middleton can let DD continue with the same staff and the same roster with minor tweaks even though DD probably already has the excuses lined up as to why they should do just that. I could see Middleton giving DD one more offseason unfortunately. Just hoping for at least: punt Thomson & Long, trade Kerkering, Castellanos, Walker, Marsh, Bohm; re-sign Schwarber (mainly because we heard this was already a strong possibility so I'll take it) and also a cleanup hitter (less likely if Schwarber signs but also still necessary) and JT, bring up Crawford, sign some bullpen guys that aren't a complete gamble and waste of money like Romano and Ross. Just initial thoughts.

I'm guessing Dombroski still has a few years to go. He took over the worst bullpen in history.

I agree with your assessment that we didn't do enough last offseason.

I'm okay with trading players. Wanna keep Bohm for now. Might add trading Stott and declining club option on Alvarado to your list.

I liked our trade deadline pickups: Duran and Bader. and Luzardo last offseason. Need more of that caliber.

We are short on outfield bats. Need to replace Kepler, Marsh, Castellanos. Not sure Crawford comes up next year. Not for Opening Day.

1 hour ago, Sack that QB said:

The Phillies once again lose a playoff series because of the offense disappearing and the bullpen choking and Dave Dombrowski in the offseason had a plan to address these issues by signing Max Kepler and Jordan Romano. That is a fireable offense. Everyone knew those were the issues of this team and he addressed it in a totally unserious way. That will stick with me more than anything from the NLDS itself...that this series was lost in the offseason.

They better give us an offseason to be excited about or it's going to be hard to care about the team going into next season. And it's time to change the coaching staff because they didn't make a single change from that coaching staff. Imagine embarrassing yourself against the Mets, running it back with the roster AND the coaching staff. Utter arrogance from the top brass.

Blame for the playoff loss, in order from most culpable:

1. Turner, Harper and Schwarber. Enough said.

2. Topper. The bunt call and the starting pitching and bullpen situational mismanagement. Should be a fireable offense given his past playoff gaffes.

3. Dombrowski. Didn’t do enough in the bullpen. Duran was a great pick up, but that wasn’t nearly enough. Romano was a humongous bust. Robertson, while somewhat useful, just isn’t a high leverage guy anymore.

1 hour ago, CouchKing said:

I'm guessing Dombroski still has a few years to go. He took over the worst bullpen in history.

I agree with your assessment that we didn't do enough last offseason.

I'm okay with trading players. Wanna keep Bohm for now. Might add trading Stott and declining club option on Alvarado to your list.

I liked our trade deadline pickups: Duran and Bader. and Luzardo last offseason. Need more of that caliber.

We are short on outfield bats. Need to replace Kepler, Marsh, Castellanos. Not sure Crawford comes up next year. Not for Opening Day.

Stott turned it on in the second half once they made some adjustments and is one of the best defensive 2nd baseman in the game. I'd keep him

Not that it matters but I have to say I don't remember a game with so many check swing strike calls, for both teams. Had to be close to double digits. One day closer to spring training.

Honestly, they don't need to knock it down but they need to make a few changes

Schwarber has to be let go. You can not pay him that kind of money and have a team around him especially when he just vanished outside of one game. Fans on WIP will flip out and I couldn't care less.

That starting pitching was amazing without Wheels. Keep them. I don't care if they have to eat money trading Nola do it. Keep Ranger and Luzardo. Write off the Nola money with what you won't be paying Schwarber.

Wheeler, Sanchez, Luzardo, Ranger, and Painter are a darn good starting 4 plus whatever you get from the kid.

They need a legit 4 hitter. Spend the damn money.

No question they need at least two arms in the pen. Sign one and hope Wood, Obermueller, or Bowker can be the other. They could use more but I'm not sure what they will have to spend after the above.

Keep the starters, sign a 4, get at least one pen piece (bridge to Lidge) externally and that team will be in good shape. Alvarado will be back as well

Casty gone

Schwarber gone

Walker gone

And the manager has to go. The only way I'd keep him is if they have new coaches around him including a pitching coach who gets to make the calls. He has no damn feel at all. It's not normal but he can't make those decisions anymore. He needs a veteran OC to take the responsibilities away from him like Nick last year.

Everyone but JT can go IMO. Bader needs to be back the same with Alvarado. I don't see any other options behind the plate.

1 hour ago, mattwill said:

Six days from Hell

Sounds like a documentary in the making

The Phillies lose, the Eagles lose, and the Flyers lose, all in one day. It reminds me of being a Philly sports fan in the 60's and early 70's.

Game 4 above was the one that still hurts to this day. I saw him go in and was driving down a canyon in snow going NOOOOO when I saw on the app he went in. When Kimbrel went in I knew they were done. He literally tried that same thing the game before and it went to crap so Robby T thought let's try it again

Just now, Mlodj said:

The Phillies lose, the Eagles lose, and the Flyers lose, all in one day. It reminds me of being a Philly sports fan in the 60's and early 70's.

80s and most of the 90s outside of a few years.

28 minutes ago, Mlodj said:

The Phillies lose, the Eagles lose, and the Flyers lose, all in one day. It reminds me of being a Philly sports fan in the 60's and early 70's.

Did you move in the 80s and 90s?

1 hour ago, Blazehound said:

Blame for the playoff loss, in order from most culpable:

1. Turner, Harper and Schwarber. Enough said.

2. Topper. The bunt call and the starting pitching and bullpen situational mismanagement. Should be a fireable offense given his past playoff gaffes.

3. Dombrowski. Didn’t do enough in the bullpen. Duran was a great pick up, but that wasn’t nearly enough. Romano was a humongous bust. Robertson, while somewhat useful, just isn’t a high leverage guy anymore.

If flip 2 an 3 but i don’t think it really matters as both should likely be gone. The reason why I would flip them is because of all the poor spending that Dombrowski has done. If you spent better than the roster would be better. They probably would beat the Dodgers because the talent on both rosters is not like head and shoulders different. One team is better than the other but it’s not this wide gap. It’s enough though that you have to be better spending especially since the dodgers are never going to stop spending. The fact is you had $94 million invested in Nola, Castellanos, Romano, Ross, Kepler, Alvarado and Walker. What did you get from them in the playoffs? Not remotely close enough to justify them collectively making what they are being paid.

Furthermore this was the third time in four years that you went into the playoffs and your bullpen was an issue. The only year they went into it where you felt like they had a complete bullpen was in 2024 (still imploded). The other years they didn’t. In 2022 they didn’t have a good bullpen. They basically had Alvarado, Dominguez, and they used eflin as a closer to start the postseason and Ranger got pushed into the bullpen. This has been a consistent theme with him. It’s something fans of other places have said he’s done

Dombrowski and Middleton are to blame way more than Thomson. And can we stop calling him by his stupid nickname

36 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

This was said back in May and june. The Phillies need to stop treating it like he’s eventually gonna get there. He might have the stuff to be a high leverage bullpen arm. But it takes a mentality and mentally that he just doesn’t have it. Unfortunate because with the stuff he has, he should be going out there and dominating some of these guys consistently. But the mentality to do it, he does not have it.

I also kind of think this is the type of situation that could completely ruin him if he’s not mentally tough. Then again he’s been bad for 2.5 months we might already be there

17 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

Did you move in the 80s and 90s?

Yes, went into the military in the early 80's, so not living there cushioned the losing of those years a bit.

Thomson isn’t perfect but this may have been one of his finest moments just from a human level. He’s a good man.

It sucked what happened and was a massive blunder by Kerkering, but it doesn’t do any help to reprimand or criticize him for it. He needed support there and I thought it was cool and a good look by Thomson to be the first one at the top of the dugout to meet him.

5 minutes ago, Mlodj said:

Yes, went into the military in the early 80's, so not living there cushioned the losing of those years a bit.

Joe Shades was cushioned by his Mom’s basement

1 hour ago, Dave Moss said:

Joe Shades was cushioned by his Mom’s basement

Had a very nice recliner to watch, although no cable growing up back then so was spared much of the phillies horror show of the 80s