4 hours ago, Blazehound said:

The bullpen is going to melt down in the playoffs, guaranteed. Each one of them has been incredibly shaky over the past month. Really wish DD did more than swapping out Soto and Dominguez for Esteves and Banks. 

We can always want more.  That is our prerogative as fans, but realistically what "more" could DD have done in your opinion?

With that asked ... and I really do want to hear everyone's thoughts on that ... I see the swapping out of Esteves and Banks as a huge improvement.  On a straight player vs. player basis Estevez is significantly better than both Soto and Dominguez. Banks is probably also better than both Soto and Dominguez.  He has been incredibly effective  against left-handed hitters.  Both additions make the whole bullpen more complementary, and the arrival of Esteves takes Alvarado out of the closer role, which his bouts of less than ideal control make him a problem similar to what Kimbrel was last year.

That’s a lot of moves 

 

 

 

I miss Harry. Love chase 

 

Nelson had like a 5.40 ERA at home coming into this game. Yet we can’t hit him. 
 

Hoffman has been brutally bad lately 

7-13

So a couple observations being there:

1. Hoffman’s pitch was right down Broadway and for a young catcher just called up he’s swinging at it and not going to take it. Hoffman has been bad the last 4 outings. His ERA is 18. They need him to get back on track otherwise we got massive issues 

2. Rojas was the best hitter tonight. He was robbed by Carroll in his first at bat otherwise he’d have 3 hits. And he hit the ball well almost every at bat. He looks like he might actually be developing. Still don’t like him going for the fences. But he really got a hold of two of those

3. schwarber, Turner were bad at the plate tonight. Had chances where Nelson was putting the ball and just didn’t do anything with it. They had chances to do some real damage but both were late with their swings all night.

4. Brandon marsh is not a five hole hitter and marsh might be the worst player in the lineup right now. And realmuto isn’t much better. he’s not been very good since the beginning of July. His slashes are .182/.255/.375/.630. He’s hitting just .231 since May 1. He looks completely lost at the plate today. He was the worst player I’ve seen in that entire game. That’s how bad he was. I think he’s a platoon player. His average against right handed pitching has plummeted as well. It’s why I said when they made that trade, you don’t trade high-end prospects for unproven commodities that you have to fix. If you’re gonna trade someone like Logan O’hoppe, which it would’ve been fine because he was blocked, you get proven commodities.

5. Stott has really regressed. He’s not even seeing a bunch of pitches. He’s getting behind 0-2 in counts not swinging and taking pitches. And then being behind 0-2 making his life harder. Sometimes gotta swing at the first or second pitch as it’s he best you’ll see. He’s far too often behind in counts by looking at strikes 

6. I didn’t think Wheeler had his best stuff tonight. Yet he still got through six innings. He looked uncomfortable, but was still out there battling. That stadiums dome does nothing as their AC blows and it gets super humid inside. He threw a lot more balls than I think were used too and his control wasn’t great early. He still managed to go six innings and only give up 2 runs and give them a chance to get themselves back into the game.

7. thought the bullpen was good up until Hoffman. Banks and strahm did what they had to do.

8. I give the Phillies defense a lot of credit. I thought that was one of the better games they played this year defensively. Would you like Alec bohm and Bryce Harper to get some of those balls that went by them? Yes but for the most part they were spot on with their defense tonight. And that’s not always the case with them.

9. coming into this game Nelson was terrible at home. He had been getting pummeled at home. It looked like to me early that the Phillies were going to chase pitches and make wheat contact. marsh, schwarber and Castellanos first two at bats they chased bad pitches. Now his stuff looked good tonight and had good control. But the Phillies had chances to hit some of those pitches and just completely missed or just whipped. It felt like a lot of the guys were late on their swings.

9b. to add to this Marte, Walker, Moreno didn’t play this game and it was one of their 5th starters. To me this is a game you should’ve won because you were clearly the better team in that game with all those factors and yet you manage to lose. This is what they looked like most of this time after the all star break 

10.  lastly, the thing I’ve talked about all year about them needing a five hole hitter still proves true. None of the guys they have are consistent enough as hitters to drive those guys home. And they don’t have anybody batting behind Bohm that you feel good about protecting Bryce Harper and bohm. Marsh is not that guy. He’s shown to not be that guy. Jt Realmuto is not that guy anymore. And Casty is way too streaky to put in the five spot and just hope he gets on a hot streak. You need either a five hole hitter or you need to move bohm to the five hole and find yourself a clean up hitter. 

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

So a couple observations being there:

1. Hoffman’s pitch was right down Broadway and for a young catcher just called up he’s swinging at it and not going to take it. Hoffman has been bad the last 4 outings. His ERA is 18. They need him to get back on track otherwise we got massive issues 

2. Rojas was the best hitter tonight. He was robbed by Carroll in his first at bat otherwise he’d have 3 hits. And he hit the ball well almost every at bat. He looks like he might actually be developing. Still don’t like him going for the fences. But he really got a hold of two of those

3. schwarber, Turner were bad at the plate tonight. Had chances where Nelson was putting the ball and just didn’t do anything with it. They had chances to do some real damage but both were late with their swings all night.

4. Brandon marsh is not a five hole hitter and marsh might be the worst player in the lineup right now. And realmuto isn’t much better. he’s not been very good since the beginning of July. His slashes are .182/.255/.375/.630. He’s hitting just .231 since May 1. He looks completely lost at the plate today. He was like the worst player I’ve seen in that entire game. That’s how bad he was. I think he’s a platoon player. His average against right handed pitching has plummeted as well. It’s why I said when they made that trade, you don’t trade high-end prospects for unproven commodities that you have to fix. If you’re gonna trade someone like Logan O’hoppe, which it would’ve been fine because he was blocked, you get proven commodities.

5. Stott has really regressed. He’s not even seeing a bunch of pitches. He’s getting behind 0-2 in counts not swinging and taking pitches. And then being behind 0-2 making his life harder. Sometimes gotta swing at the first or second pitch as it’s he best you’ll see. He’s far too often behind in counts by looking at strikes 

6. I didn’t think Wheeler had his best stuff tonight. Yet he still got through six innings. He looked uncomfortable, but was still out there battling. That stadiums dome does nothing as their AC blows and it gets super humid inside. He threw a lot more balls than I think were used too and his control wasn’t great early. He still managed to go six innings and only give up 2 runs and give them a chance to get themselves back into the game.

7. thought the bullpen was good up until Hoffman. Banks and strahm did what they had to do.

8. I give the Phillies defense a lot of credit. I thought that was one of the better games they played this year defensively. Would you like Alec bohm and Bryce Harper to get some of those balls that went by them? Yes but for the most part they were spot on with their defense tonight. And that’s not always the case with them.

9. coming into this game Nelson was terrible at home. He had been getting pummeled at home. It looked like to me early that the Phillies were going to chase pitches and make wheat contact. marsh, schwarber and Castellanos first two at bats they chased bad pitches. Now his stuff looked good tonight and had good control. But the Phillies had chances to hit some of those pitches and just completely missed or just whipped. It felt like a lot of the guys were late on their swings.

9b. to add to this Marte, Walker, Moreno didn’t play this game and it was one of their 5th starters. To me this is a game you should’ve won because you were clearly the better team in that game with all those factors and yet you manage to lose. This is what they looked like most of this time after the all star break 

10.  lastly, the thing I’ve talked about all year about them needing a five hole hitter still proves true. None of the guys they have are consistent enough as hitters to drive those guys home. And they don’t have anybody batting behind Bohm that you feel good about protecting Bryce Harper and bohm. Marsh is not that guy. He’s shown to not be that guy. Jt Realmuto is not that guy anymore. And Casty is way too streaky to put in the five spot and just hope he gets on a hot streak. You need either a five hole hitter or you need to move bohm to the five hole and find yourself a clean up hitter. 

11- you are a jinx

4 hours ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

11- you are a jinx

If they lose the next two games I’m trending towards it not being 

6 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

So a couple observations being there:

1. Hoffman’s pitch was right down Broadway and for a young catcher just called up he’s swinging at it and not going to take it. Hoffman has been bad the last 4 outings. His ERA is 18. They need him to get back on track otherwise we got massive issues 

2. Rojas was the best hitter tonight. He was robbed by Carroll in his first at bat otherwise he’d have 3 hits. And he hit the ball well almost every at bat. He looks like he might actually be developing. Still don’t like him going for the fences. But he really got a hold of two of those

3. schwarber, Turner were bad at the plate tonight. Had chances where Nelson was putting the ball and just didn’t do anything with it. They had chances to do some real damage but both were late with their swings all night.

4. Brandon marsh is not a five hole hitter and marsh might be the worst player in the lineup right now. And realmuto isn’t much better. he’s not been very good since the beginning of July. His slashes are .182/.255/.375/.630. He’s hitting just .231 since May 1. He looks completely lost at the plate today. He was the worst player I’ve seen in that entire game. That’s how bad he was. I think he’s a platoon player. His average against right handed pitching has plummeted as well. It’s why I said when they made that trade, you don’t trade high-end prospects for unproven commodities that you have to fix. If you’re gonna trade someone like Logan O’hoppe, which it would’ve been fine because he was blocked, you get proven commodities.

5. Stott has really regressed. He’s not even seeing a bunch of pitches. He’s getting behind 0-2 in counts not swinging and taking pitches. And then being behind 0-2 making his life harder. Sometimes gotta swing at the first or second pitch as it’s he best you’ll see. He’s far too often behind in counts by looking at strikes 

6. I didn’t think Wheeler had his best stuff tonight. Yet he still got through six innings. He looked uncomfortable, but was still out there battling. That stadiums dome does nothing as their AC blows and it gets super humid inside. He threw a lot more balls than I think were used too and his control wasn’t great early. He still managed to go six innings and only give up 2 runs and give them a chance to get themselves back into the game.

7. thought the bullpen was good up until Hoffman. Banks and strahm did what they had to do.

8. I give the Phillies defense a lot of credit. I thought that was one of the better games they played this year defensively. Would you like Alec bohm and Bryce Harper to get some of those balls that went by them? Yes but for the most part they were spot on with their defense tonight. And that’s not always the case with them.

9. coming into this game Nelson was terrible at home. He had been getting pummeled at home. It looked like to me early that the Phillies were going to chase pitches and make wheat contact. marsh, schwarber and Castellanos first two at bats they chased bad pitches. Now his stuff looked good tonight and had good control. But the Phillies had chances to hit some of those pitches and just completely missed or just whipped. It felt like a lot of the guys were late on their swings.

9b. to add to this Marte, Walker, Moreno didn’t play this game and it was one of their 5th starters. To me this is a game you should’ve won because you were clearly the better team in that game with all those factors and yet you manage to lose. This is what they looked like most of this time after the all star break 

10.  lastly, the thing I’ve talked about all year about them needing a five hole hitter still proves true. None of the guys they have are consistent enough as hitters to drive those guys home. And they don’t have anybody batting behind Bohm that you feel good about protecting Bryce Harper and bohm. Marsh is not that guy. He’s shown to not be that guy. Jt Realmuto is not that guy anymore. And Casty is way too streaky to put in the five spot and just hope he gets on a hot streak. You need either a five hole hitter or you need to move bohm to the five hole and find yourself a clean up hitter. 

this is exactly the reason why this team will never get over the hump,it's been the same issues for long time and the management ignores it and goes by analytics bs and as a result we blow it in the playoffs. we had the players that took us to the world series, for some reason dave the moron just gets rid of them and we are back to the same issues that's been killing us for years.

Wasn’t someone saying the bullpen wouldn’t be a problem? Took all of one day for that to display itself. The Phillies simply don’t have a World Series quality bullpen. 

2 hours ago, Blazehound said:

Wasn’t someone saying the bullpen wouldn’t be a problem? Took all of one day for that to display itself. The Phillies simply don’t have a World Series quality bullpen. 

Literally banks and strahm were perfect last night. Hoffman who’s been great all year has hit a rough spot. If you believe they lost last night due to the bullpen fine. But they lost cause once again they scored 2 runs and allowed a starting pitcher to go into the 8th who had an ERA of nearly 5.50 at home entering the game dominate them. Going to have a really hard time winning playoff games scoring 2 runs. Again last 5 games against Dbacks last year in the nlcs they averaged 3 runs and scored 1, 1 and 2 runs in games 3,6 and 7. Going to have a hard time winning any of those 3 games averaging 1.3 runs. I don’t care how good your bullpen is, ask them to be perfect cause you can barely get 2 runs is likely a recipe for a loss  

Merrill Kelly is expected to start Sunday for the dbacks. So going to see what the Phillies lineup looks like against gallen and Kelly who are likely 1-2 you’d face in a playoff series against the dbacks. Should be a good test for our lineup to see exactly where they are at  

3 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

If they lose the next two games I’m trending towards it not being 

Nola Vs Gallen, not feeling too good

2 hours ago, Blazehound said:

Wasn’t someone saying the bullpen wouldn’t be a problem? Took all of one day for that to display itself. The Phillies simply don’t have a World Series quality bullpen. 

I am more worried about the offense just going totally cold and swinging at everything

11 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

Nola Vs Gallen, not feeling too good

It’s also Kelly vs. Sanchez on Sunday. Really they should’ve won last night with Marte not starting in that game and wheeler going. Add on Nelson who’d been bad at home for the dbacks. 

10 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

I am more worried about the offense just going totally cold and swinging at everything

The bullpen has its issues. But they’re gonna have enough time in September to give guys rest so they’re gonna probably be fresher in the postseason. I have less concerns about the bullpen because I think they have the guys there to get it done. Especially if they’re fresh and they’re not going into the postseason being taxed

I can’t say the same thing about offense. marsh is Fing bad right now. And he’s been terrible since the beginning of July. And he’s basically been a 230 hitter since the beginning of May. Stott is regressing and hasn’t been good all year offensively outside of like 3 weeks and is being pinch hit against LHP. Realmuto can’t hit with runners in scoring position. Castellanos might be hot and he might also just be very cold. When Johan Rojas is your best hitter last night that’s a Fing problem. They were 0-4 with RISP. For the series so far they are 4-19 which is an .210 average. Again the same issue they had vs. dbacks last postseason. 

Either he’s more hurt then they let on or they are just giving him a ton of time off as he needs rest and they are up 8 games in the division with marlins and nats coming up 

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

Either he’s more hurt then they let on or they are just giving him a ton of time off as he needs rest and they are up 8 games in the division with marlins and nats coming up 

This is a big scam, they are giving him rest

I’d add last night Bohm gets a leadoff double the next 3 batters proceed to strikeout out. Jt struck out on 3 straight pitches none of which were in the zone and swung at. And Castellanos struck out on a ball in the other batters box in the dirt. Then schwarber comes up with a chance to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead with Rojas at 3rd. He strikes out. Like you have to be able to come up with big hits. Rojas was about the only guy who had consistent at bats. Even with Harper’s homer he was chasing and swinging at bad pitches. His 9th inning at bat, none of the pitches he saw were strikes yet he swung 

Suarez if fine.  This is the rest he needed.

Many have moaned and groaned but the Phils have had an extended period of grinding thru the muck and they are about to emerge in full control in the East and likely top record in the MLB or at least the NL.  Of course there is plenty to nitpick about just as every other team but let's take stock of the positives for one moment and see things for what they are, the Phils are on top with just over seven weeks remaining and every single one of us would have taken that before the season started.

If the season ended today I’d argue the diamondbacks are the best team in the NL. Getting Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez back is huge. Their bullpen was upgraded at the deadline. Their lineup has had guys in and out most of the season and still lead the MLB in runs scored. Kind of think it’s a bad matchup for the Phillies.