2 hours ago, vsptroops said:

Here's the question- if you were a GM, would you trade for Aaron Nola? Not only are you trading for him, youre taking that abomination of a contract as well. The Phils would have to eat half just to make it somewhat appealing for a team. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see it but not gonna hold my breath.

Depends on how desperate the team is for starting pitching. But any chance on dealing him goes to if Nola begins to actually pitch closer to what he was 2022 and 2024 where his era was under 4. If he’s pitching like a no. 2 from now til the deadline i think you could make the move especially if you are just getting a BP arm. The money is a major issue right now as he’s pitching with a 6+ ERA. If he manages to right the ship i do think you can find a team that wants to go all in that isn’t hurting in the pen. Then again i don’t think you are getting a great bullpen arm just someone who’s better than what they currently have for most of their pen.

Tip of the cap

I respect Nola’s career here. Unless I’m missing someone, he’s inarguably the best Phillies’ draft pick and farm product since Ryan Howard, nearly a 1/4 century ago in 2001. (Which is actually really, really sad…but that’s another discussion).

He’s been up and down, but he’s had a very good, not great career.

Watching Nola this year feels a little bit like watching Roy Halladay in his last season, 2013. It just feels like the stuff is gone and it’s smoke, mirrors, and trying to dance outside of the zone so he doesn’t get hammered.

His walks are up this year and it’s not from a loss of control or mechanics…it’s because he needs to stay off the strike zone. His stuff is so below average now that he just cannot let it get close to the strike zone. If hitters take a few pitchers and he gets ahead in the count…or the chase out of the zone, he’ll get by. But he’s just going to be very, very vulnerable when he has to throw strikes.

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

Between the bullpen and our hitting I’m not sure what’s worse. I’d throw in our manager not removing Nola a batter before

I think the worst thing actually isn’t the bullpen or the generalized hitting. My sports (armchair) GM-ing philosophy is that the immediate end-of-the-line biggest problem isn’t actually your biggest problem.

Why is the bullpen not better? Wouldn’t Jeff Hoffman be nice right now? Why do we have a corner outfielder slugging .356 and no center fielder? We knew losing Hoffman would suck and that Kepler/Marsh/Rojas as the LF/CF situation weren’t good.

The Phillies knew that too. They couldn’t do anything about it because they have a bloated payroll that is overpaying guys (guys that were either always overpaid or are transitioning into worsening value years of their deals). There is too much money going into guys that are no longer cornerstone level producers to the point that there are no resources left to scrape together a bullpen or outfielders. So the problem isn’t really the outfielders or bullpen arms we happen to have. They are just the sad face of the problem. It’s the bad money going to better players at positions not considered weaknesses but who still aren’t able to carry the team. If they were getting paid what they are worth, we’d probably have a better outfield and bullpen. And if they were playing to their contracts, we’d be overcoming those issues.

Larry Christenson

Tom Underwood

Cole Hammels

..... as far as pitchers go.

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

Nola wasn’t great but still he had given up 2 thru 6.1. The issue is we can’t hit worth crap and our our bullpen blows. Plus Thomson is a moron who didn’t take nola out a batter sooner so Ruiz didn’t have to potentially face lindor

the offense stinks. where are they ranked with RISP? has to be last or near the bottom, no?

32 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I think the worst thing actually isn’t the bullpen or the generalized hitting. My sports (armchair) GM-ing philosophy is that the immediate end-of-the-line biggest problem isn’t actually your biggest problem.

Why is the bullpen not better? Wouldn’t Jeff Hoffman be nice right now? Why do we have a corner outfielder slugging .356 and no center fielder? We knew losing Hoffman would suck and that Kepler/Marsh/Rojas as the LF/CF situation weren’t good.

The Phillies knew that too. They couldn’t do anything about it because they have a bloated payroll that is overpaying guys (guys that were either always overpaid or are transitioning into worsening value years of their deals). There is too much money going into guys that are no longer cornerstone level producers to the point that there are no resources left to scrape together a bullpen or outfielders. So the problem isn’t really the outfielders or bullpen arms we happen to have. They are just the sad face of the problem. It’s the bad money going to better players at positions not considered weaknesses but who still aren’t able to carry the team. If they were getting paid what they are worth, we’d probably have a better outfield and bullpen. And if they were playing to their contracts, we’d be overcoming those issues.

Part of their outfield issue is they traded away O’hoppe who was a top 100 prospect and an offensively gifted catcher for marsh. Whom the angels gave up after a season and a half after being their top prospect. That trade hurts because if they used ohoppe’s value properly they have another competent outfielder. Instead they basically pissed away his value and hurt their long term future. It’s why i said at the time dont trade him for a guy the angels gave up on and you have to fix to Maximize value.

Then you get into bad contracts with Turner, Nola and Walker. Add on the way hoffman’s contract is structured he’s actually making less than Romano in year 1. They clear money in year 2 and 3 and could’ve afforded Hoffman. They just made a gamble Romano would be better an it blew up in their face. Walker being useless basically is around $20 mil they could’ve used to get a closer like tanner scott and a better outfielder rather than spending just $20 mil for Kepler and Romano

Another issue is they’ve done a bad job moving guys through the minors to be ready to take steps as BP arms. They have SP in the minors like painter, Johnson, and some other guys. But they don’t have bullpen arms close. Cause they just make everyone starters like mcgary has back end bullpen stuff. It’s likely the spot where he succeeds in any mlb role and would be better than Hernandez, Ross or Ruiz. Yet he’s working as a starter. Abel also has backend bullpen stuff but have him as a starter.

I’d add Dombrowski has made some bad trades/moves in general that has nothing to do with contracts that have hurt us. like trading away Dominguez for Austin Hayes and Dominguez is cheap and would look great right now as a RHP backend bullpen guy. Also dealt away verling for Soto. Verling right now solves a corner outfield spot instead of spending 10 mil on Kepler. if Dombrowski didn’t make some bad trades you have a Dominguez, verling and potentially a competent mlb CF from the O’hoppe trade.

55 minutes ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

the offense stinks. where are they ranked with RISP? has to be last or near the bottom, no?

According to statmuse 5th. But really it’s like last year where they have these 2-3 games where they are awesome. Then 7-10 games where they look like they couldn’t hit a ball off a t ball stand

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

Part of their outfield issue is they traded away O’hoppe who was a top 100 prospect and an offensively gifted catcher for marsh. Whom the angels gave up after a season and a half after being their top prospect. That trade hurts because if they used ohoppe’s value properly they have another competent outfielder. Instead they basically pissed away his value and hurt their long term future. It’s why i said at the time dont trade him for a guy the angels gave up on and you have to fix to Maximize value.

Then you get into bad contracts with Turner, Nola and Walker. Add on the way hoffman’s contract is structured he’s actually making less than Romano in year 1. They clear money in year 2 and 3 and could’ve afforded Hoffman. They just made a gamble Romano would be better an it blew up in their face. Walker being useless basically is around $20 mil they could’ve used to get a closer like tanner scott and a better outfielder rather than spending just $20 mil for Kepler and Romano

Another issue is they’ve done a bad job moving guys through the minors to be ready to take steps as BP arms. They have SP in the minors like painter, Johnson, and some other guys. But they don’t have bullpen arms close. Cause they just make everyone starters like mcgary has back end bullpen stuff. It’s likely the spot where he succeeds in any mlb role and would be better than Hernandez, Ross or Ruiz. Yet he’s working as a starter. Abel also has backend bullpen stuff but have him as a starter.

I’d add Dombrowski has made some bad trades/moves in general that has nothing to do with contracts that have hurt us. like trading away Dominguez for Austin Hayes and Dominguez is cheap and would look great right now as a RHP backend bullpen guy. Also dealt away verling for Soto. Verling right now solves a corner outfield spot instead of spending 10 mil on Kepler. if Dombrowski didn’t make some bad trades you have a Dominguez, verling and potentially a competent mlb CF from the O’hoppe trade.

There is probably both science and art to transitioning failed starter prospects into bullpen arms. Like you said, Mcgary and Abel are the first to come to mind.

Any 20 year old that throws 98+ with a breaking pitch with bite...obviously you want to try to develop them into a front end starter. Exactly when the time comes to rock them up as 1-2 inning bullpen arms is tricky. I know they talk about stiff wrists and 2 pitch arsenals...but the last one, obviously, is age.

Mcgarry is going to be 26 this year. We are done here. Put him in the pen and see what you can get out of him as a 1-and-done pitcher now. He could be bullpen help in the majors by the summer. He should have preparing for that immediately in spring training.

23 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

There is probably both science and art to transitioning failed starter prospects into bullpen arms. Like you said, Mcgary and Abel are the first to come to mind.

Any 20 year old that throws 98+ with a breaking pitch with bite...obviously you want to try to develop them into a front end starter. Exactly when the time comes to rock them up as 1-2 inning bullpen arms is tricky. I know they talk about stiff wrists and 2 pitch arsenals...but the last one, obviously, is age.

Mcgarry is going to be 26 this year. We are done here. Put him in the pen and see what you can get out of him as a 1-and-done pitcher now. He could be bullpen help in the majors by the summer. He should have preparing for that immediately in spring training.

I’d add in the draft there’s some college players that are 22-24now. They have solid sometimes even good stuff just older so ceiling isn’t as high you can take in the middle rounds and they would be ready for bullpen roles within 1-2 years. We’ve been bad at selecting those guys. We tend to stay with younger guys with higher ceilings

McGarry and Abel should be thrown into bullpen roles at their age and having control issues. Much easier to try to have their control be there for an inning than 5-6.

Bullpen is going to get tattooed having to go 7 innings and this lineup still can’t hit worth crap

At least Ranger is gonna be back soon

What happened to Sanchez?

25 minutes ago, vsptroops said:

What happened to Sanchez?

Apparently hurt his forearm

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

Apparently hurt his forearm

Great, he'll be out at least a month.

7 minutes ago, vsptroops said:

Great, he'll be out at least a month.

Be lucky if it’s a month. It could require surgery and the idiotic Phillies will try rehab for 2.5 months then he’ll need surgery anyway and miss 2025 and 2026.

This team is cooked

I’ll say it, Kerkering is a mental Midget. Feels like he always comes up small in big situation.

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

I’ll say it, Kerkering is a mental Midget. Feels like he always comes up small in big situation.

They just need five relievers. No big deal.

Just now, Diehardfan said:

They just need five relievers. No big deal.

Hey strahm is ok lol

Ah yes a Phillies base running gaff staple

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

He doesn't have any food options