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

Said since last year they never actually replaced Rhys hoskins. He got hurt and their deadline solution was rudolfo Castro. People might not have loved Rhys but he gave you 3 things they miss: 1) RH power and someone to hit in the 5 hole. They are using Jt who’s hit .205 and .167 the last two years with RISP. He shouldn’t be. Stott isn’t a 5. Castellanos is too hot or cold. And marsh frankly is vastly overrated by this franchise. 2) grinds at bats. He’ll see a ton of pitches and make pitchers work. Might get a mistake or the next guy will. They miss that. 3) in 2022 he hit .292 with RISP. You don’t just lose that and not expect a drop off. They have yet to replace it as Dombrowski had deadline last year, offseason and now another deadline.

i said before the year i thought doing nothing but adding Merrifield to the roster while other teams in the NL made moves would catch up to them. Ultimately leading to a disappointing out in the NLDS. As i watch this team they have similar issues to last year; 2-3 RP you trust and a lineup that is feast or famine with RISP (playoffs they hit a bunch of homers so it got overlooked til the end but they hit .218, .219 and .230 in the 3 series with RISP. That .230 is worse when you consider games 1 and 3-7 they hit .159)

No doubt.  Hoskins was a defensively liability... but an offensive asset.  I thought the best move was to move Harper back to the outfield (LF where he wouldn't have had to do as much) and resign Rhys. 

There's no one that can say that this team's lineup isn't markedly better with this lineup:
1 - Schwarber DH
2 - Turner SS
3 - Harper LF
4 - Hoskins 1B
5 - Bohm 3B
6 - Stott 2B
7 - Castellanos RF
8 - Marsh CF
9 - Realmuto C  

 

That's a weaker defense, but a dramatically stronger offense.

Just now, Iggles_Phan said:

No doubt.  Hoskins was a defensively liability... but an offensive asset.  I thought the best move was to move Harper back to the outfield (LF where he wouldn't have had to do as much) and resign Rhys. 

There's no one that can say that this team's lineup isn't markedly better with this lineup:
1 - Schwarber DH
2 - Turner SS
3 - Harper LF
4 - Hoskins 1B
5 - Bohm 3B
6 - Stott 2B
7 - Castellanos RF
8 - Marsh CF
9 - Realmuto C  

 

That's a weaker defense, but a dramatically stronger offense.

Preaching to the choir here. All offseason i said just move Harper back to LF for a year and let hoskins be here for one year. The 1 year of Harper in the OF wasn’t going to destroy him or his future. It gave you the best chance to win a WS. As badly as he was at 1b defensively he is a series changing type of bat. What he did in 2022 nlds vs. atlanta. Frankly that dbacks series might have gone much differently in game 3 or 4 if they had Rhys. 

1 minute ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Preaching to the choir here. All offseason i said just move Harper back to LF for a year and let hoskins be here for one year. The 1 year of Harper in the OF wasn’t going to destroy him or his future. It gave you the best chance to win a WS. As badly as he was at 1b defensively he is a series changing type of bat. What he did in 2022 nlds vs. atlanta. Frankly that dbacks series might have gone much differently in game 3 or 4 if they had Rhys. 

Rhys also offers the option to hit #2... and when Turner went cold and the DBacks decided they were just going to pitch around Schwarber and Harper and force the other guys to beat them... Rhys in between those lefties is a rough spot for a pitcher, because of the things you pointed out.  He's a battler, and while you might get him out, you are going to get used up in that at bat.   Sadly Stott USED to be a lot like that, but for some reason he's not grinding his at-bats the same way as last year.  He needs to get back to that and stop trying to hit 20 HRs.  They will come naturally but he needs to be that battler, especially with 2 strikes that shortened his swing and went the opposite way far more.  

 

18 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Rhys also offers the option to hit #2... and when Turner went cold and the DBacks decided they were just going to pitch around Schwarber and Harper and force the other guys to beat them... Rhys in between those lefties is a rough spot for a pitcher, because of the things you pointed out.  He's a battler, and while you might get him out, you are going to get used up in that at bat.   Sadly Stott USED to be a lot like that, but for some reason he's not grinding his at-bats the same way as last year.  He needs to get back to that and stop trying to hit 20 HRs.  They will come naturally but he needs to be that battler, especially with 2 strikes that shortened his swing and went the opposite way far more.  

 

Hasn’t really been brought up much, but I start to ask what’s Kevin long doing to help the young kids or they aren’t really listening to his advice. Guys like Kyle Schwarber, Harper, Turner, realmuto, and Castellanos are established veterans that been here for a long time or in the major leagues for a long time so essentially they are what they are. There’s only a couple things that maybe he can see and help him work out of a slump.

But the guys he’s really working to improve are the young kids. Stott has regressed this year. marsh is largely same type of player we received from the angels. In 2022 he hit .262 vs. RHP and .188 vs. lhp. In 2023 .292 vs. RHP and .229 vs. LHP. This year, .274 vs. RHP and .140 vs. lhp. His best season against LHP was his rookie year where he hit .260. But really it has been this the last 3 years. Johan Rojas’ bat hasn’t gotten better as the course of the season has gone on. And he has elongated swing, which is a problem because he’s not a power hitter. The one guy who’s been better this year has been Bohm. It’s a problem cause i don’t think the Phillies believed Stott, marsh and Rojas would’ve taken the steps back or not improved at all over the course of the year. Let’s remember when the Phillies made that trade for Marsh (was really struggling with the angels) it wasn’t a trade that they thought he’d just be a platoon player. They gave up a highly coveted catching prospect cause they believed he could be an everyday CF. 2 years into it he has the same issues. 

 

I keep seeing people say don;t worry it is just a lull, well 1/3 of the season is not a lull. And i think we tend to overrate some guys on this team

20 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

I keep seeing people say don;t worry it is just a lull, well 1/3 of the season is not a lull. And i think we tend to overrate some guys on this team

If you would have told me before the season that that Turner, Realmuto, Schwarber and Harper would miss a combined 88 games between May 3rd and July 20th, I would assume we'd be barely alive in the Wild Card race. 

The Phillies went 41-25 in those game and still have the best record in baseball.. 

They're the best team in baseball. They will make moves to get even better. 

I'm not worried, at all. 

 

37 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

I keep seeing people say don;t worry it is just a lull, well 1/3 of the season is not a lull. And i think we tend to overrate some guys on this team

Not me. I’ll say it. Marsh is vastly overrated by the fan base and the organization. The stats have shown he basically has the same issues after 2 years of working with long/phillies that he had with the angels where he can’t hit LHP and is a platoon player. 

Big loss for the Mets when he finally got back and could’ve helped them down the stretch  

 

And there it is. Again should’ve skipped his start vs  A’s and given him 15 days off between starts. So earliest he’ll be back is August 8 at Arizona 

 

56 minutes ago, iladelphxx said:

If you would have told me before the season that that Turner, Realmuto, Schwarber and Harper would miss a combined 88 games between May 3rd and July 20th, I would assume we'd be barely alive in the Wild Card race. 

The Phillies went 41-25 in those game and still have the best record in baseball.. 

They're the best team in baseball. They will make moves to get even better. 

I'm not worried, at all. 

 

Every team misses key players throughout the year

10 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

Every team misses key players throughout the year

My bigger argument is what classifies as the best team in baseball? Are we talking about the roster being the best in baseball? Are we talking about how they are playing currently being the best team in baseball? Are we talking about the best record? I can make the argument the Phillies have the best record and even roster in mlb. But when you play the most recent 1/3 of a season and go 27-25 and 20-20 in the last quarter of the season i have a hard time saying you are the best team in baseball.

Injuries did not help them over this stretch. Credit they didn’t fall apart. but frankly they got more guys back, healthy and began playing worse. This feels far more like a consistency issue which they had last year and in 2022. 

So he must close to coming back. Cause his normal starts are usually like Bp

 

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

My bigger argument is what classifies as the best team in baseball? Are we talking about the roster being the best in baseball? Are we talking about how they’re playing being the best team in baseball? Are we talking about the best record? I can make the argument the Phillies have the best record and even roster in mlb. But when you play the most recent 1/3 of a season and go 27-25 and 20-20 in the last quarter of the season i have a hard time saying you are the best team in baseball.

Injuries did not help them over this stretch. Credit they didn’t fall apart. but frankly they got more guys back, healthy and began playing worse. This feels far more like a consistency issue which they had last year and in 2022. 

Would it change your opinion if I told you that every world series champion from 1969 until 2019 had a 52 game stretch where they went 27-25 or worse at some point during the season?

For instance, the 1980 Phillies had a stretch where they went 25-27. The 1998 Yankees (who finished 114-48 for the best record of any world series champion over those 51 seasons) had a stretch where they went 24-28.

17 minutes ago, NothingClever said:

Would it change your opinion if I told you that every world series champion from 1969 until 2019 had a 52 game stretch where they went 27-25 or worse at some point during the season?

For instance, the 1980 Phillies had a stretch where they went 25-27. The 1998 Yankees (who finished 114-48 for the best record of any world series champion over those 51 seasons) had a stretch where they went 24-28.

Id feel better. But i also know there’s teams that did great in April and May then never got back to that level. We can say there’s always been a team that’s won a WS with that type of stretch in season. But i can also likely find a team most years that had a really hot stretch for a quarter/third of a season that also didn’t win a ws. To me the issues the Phillies have aren’t new. It’s the same as last year 

that said i don’t think they are doomed to be this for the rest of the season. At some point i think they snap out of it. But right now i don’t think they are best team in baseball. Like i said before i think the Phillies have the same issues they had last year. They are wildly inconsistent with RISP which is what i discussed all last year (along with missing Rhys) and was evident in the playoffs as when the HRs stopped it got them. And last year they were way too heavily reliant on Alvarado, Hoffman, strahm and kimbrel. Kimbrel fell off second half and you basically had to hope kerkering a rookie could step up with minimal mlb experience in the playoffs. Right now you got 3 guys heavily relying on in Hoffman, strahm and kerkering. And the rest you hoping can step up (i think they get a RP so I’m less concerned with this area) 

 

 

Hard to believe there is still a remnant of the Phillies trade for Cliff Lee.  Carlos Carasco starts tonight at age 37.   

 

Phillies need to get the bats going.

18 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Hard to believe there is still a remnant of the Phillies trade for Cliff Lee.  Carlos Carasco starts tonight at age 37.   

 

Phillies need to get the bats going.

People won’t actually admit it, but Reuben Amaro at the trade deadline did a fantastic job for the Phillies and giving them a chance to win a WS with a farm system that was largely middle of the road. Got Lee, Oswalt and pence. His biggest mistake during the 09-11 run might have been dealing Lee away when acquiring halladay 

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

Id feel better. But i also know there’s teams that did great in April and May then never got back to that level. We can say there’s always been a team that’s won a WS with that type of stretch in season. But i can also likely find a team most years that had a really hot stretch for a quarter/third of a season that also didn’t win a ws. To me the issues the Phillies have aren’t new. It’s the same as last year 

that said i don’t think they are doomed to be this for the rest of the season. At some point i think they snap out of it. But right now i don’t think they are best team in baseball. Like i said before i think the Phillies have the same issues they had last year. They are wildly inconsistent with RISP which is what i discussed all last year (along with missing Rhys) and was evident in the playoffs as when the HRs stopped it got them. And last year they were way too heavily reliant on Alvarado, Hoffman, strahm and kimbrel. Kimbrel fell off second half and you basically had to hope kerkering a rookie could step up with minimal mlb experience in the playoffs. Right now you got 3 guys heavily relying on in Hoffman, strahm and kerkering. And the rest you hoping can step up (i think they get a RP so I’m less concerned with this area) 

I agree with everything that you said here- I'm counting on them trying to find 2 bullpen pieces (or maybe 1 and Sanchez gets some work out of the pen in the playoffs- heck, I'd take 2 and a few innings out of Sanchez). It would be amazing if they could get Alvarado right, or maybe he'll never reach that level and he is what he is right now.

Honestly, I wish they had done more to keep Rhys. Certainly there would have been some defensive sacrifices, but he really worked pitchers and was always one of their more consistent hitters with RISP.

I'm trying really hard to not get down on them, but they need to get their act together

5 minutes ago, NothingClever said:

I agree with everything that you said here- I'm counting on them trying to find 2 bullpen pieces (or maybe 1 and Sanchez gets some work out of the pen in the playoffs- heck, I'd take 2 and a few innings out of Sanchez). It would be amazing if they could get Alvarado right, or maybe he'll never reach that level and he is what he is right now.

Honestly, I wish they had done more to keep Rhys. Certainly there would have been some defensive sacrifices, but he really worked pitchers and was always one of their more consistent hitters with RISP.

I'm trying really hard to not get down on them, but they need to get their act together

You’re preaching to the choir with rhys. I said they needed him and should’ve kept him. And letting Harper play right field or left field for one year was not gonna deteriorate him and destroy him for the future. It made more sense to bring back Rhys and let him play first base for a year because of the offense he brings and what he brings at the plate with his approach. They still haven’t replaced it. Rhy wasn’t just about the numbers and RH power. He was always one of the leaders in the league at seeing pitches. Which helps the rest of your team. Because the guy might get tired and make a mistake to the next hitter because he did that. Or he might make a mistake to the guy in front of him, knowing that he’s gonna be in a battle with Hoskins afterwards.

To me, the Phillies kind of just discarded him like his void was filled and they didn’t realize they never actually replaced that bat in the lineup. He should be your 5 hole hitter right now. With the fact that Jt has hit 205 last year and 167 this year with runners in scoring position  You have a hole in your 5 spot that could be settled with Rhys that really fixes your lineup 

 

 

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

People won’t actually admit it, but Reuben Amaro at the trade deadline did a fantastic job for the Phillies and giving them a chance to win a WS with a farm system that was largely middle of the road. Got Lee, Oswalt and pence. His biggest mistake during the 09-11 run might have been dealing Lee away when acquiring halladay 

Definitely a mistake, but I don't think they had the players to offer in trade without sending him.   Still can't believe that team only got 1 WS win, and with the weakest team of the bunch, IMO.