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

0-2 with Risp…

No idea how a team can continually be so bad, but keep the hitting coach.

Just now, Diehardfan said:

No idea how a team can continually be so bad, but keep the hitting coach.

And they got rid of Milt but keep this bum

4 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

No idea how a team can continually be so bad, but keep the hitting coach.

I’m actually surprised they didn’t make a move in the offseason to do it. Just to shake things up. It’s cause Dombrowski looks at the stats and says he’s doing a good job but when you watch them you know they aren’t matching nearly as consistently as the stats indicate

Cease came in with a 4.53 ERA. Meanwhile Phillies make him look like Fing cy young

I'm at the point that I would rather a pitcher bat than Stott. He is absolutely putrid. Offers nothing offensively. 1st and 3rd with 1 out- how about a safety squeeze? Try to generate a run somehow instead of doing the same old same old. Guess bunting/ safety squeezes aren't hip and cool anymore- at least to the analytic dorks that have efed up this game. Granted, Thomson could call it, but he doesn't have the stones to go against his analytic overlords.

Yup this feels like a 2-0 type loss

About time Kepler got hot again

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

Yup this feels like a 2-0 type loss

Nice reverse jinx

Mick Abel is an interesting one. He turns 24 in a month. Young, still time to iron things out, sure. But also getting close to time to declare what he’s going to be.

He was the #2 prospect in the organization for FOUR straight years and was essentially tagged with an untouchable label for multiple consecutive trade deadlines.

Then he falls off the rails last year. Then cleans it up in AAA this spring. Then an electric debut in the majors. Honestly, he was incredible for 2 starts and has been bad ever since. He had one other low earned run start where he was consistently pitching to hard contact.

Not sure what they have in him or what they should do with him. Trade value has probably slipped away. Unless 2 starters go down, he’s not going to be in the October rotation.

Abel probably has…what…4 starts before Nola is back? Give him those starts to prove he belongs. If he keeps trending south, option him to AAA and tighten him up as a 1 inning guy to see if he can help in the pen. If he shows too much promise to do that, then great. But otherwise I’d try to transition him into October bullpen help.

Sanchez is getting ahead in every count and he’s hardly thrown a good pitch to hit. Masterclass in dancing around the edges of the strike zone. Every pitch is hitting the lines of the on screen box. So so annoying for hitters.

21 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Mick Abel is an interesting one. He turns 24 in a month. Young, still time to iron things out, sure. But also getting close to time to declare what he’s going to be.

He was the #2 prospect in the organization for FOUR straight years and was essentially tagged with an untouchable label for multiple consecutive trade deadlines.

Then he falls off the rails last year. Then cleans it up in AAA this spring. Then an electric debut in the majors. Honestly, he was incredible for 2 starts and has been bad ever since. He had one other low earned run start where he was consistently pitching to hard contact.

Not sure what they have in him or what they should do with him. Trade value has probably slipped away. Unless 2 starters go down, he’s not going to be in the October rotation.

Abel probably has…what…4 starts before Nola is back? Give him those starts to prove he belongs. If he keeps trending south, option him to AAA and tighten him up as a 1 inning guy to see if he can help in the pen. If he shows too much promise to do that, then great. But otherwise I’d try to transition him into October bullpen help.

Tbh i think he has a start before the all star break with how the Phillies are off the next two Thursdays. if he’s bad again then i think you might get painter for his start after the AS break.

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

Sanchez is getting ahead in every count and he’s hardly thrown a good pitch to hit. Masterclass in dancing around the edges of the strike zone. Every pitch is hitting the lines of the on screen box. So so annoying for hitters.

Amazing with Sanchez is control has gotten so so so elite. In the minors that was the thing he struggled with like Abel

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

Tbh i think he has a start before the all star break with how the Phillies are off the next two Thursdays. if he’s bad again then i think you might get painter for his start after the AS break.

I want to give Abel every chance to prove he’s going to be the real deal. He’s got the frame and easy stuff of a front line starter.

But hes not valuable enough in a trade. And hes too far off and too unreliable to be protected in the big league rotation. So I don’t think hes above a tinkering look as a reliever in AAA. It’s not a good step in a pitchers development, but they aren’t helping the team by just sending him to start games in AAA indefinitely again.

Thomson must have heard me. A bunt!

30 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I want to give Abel every chance to prove he’s going to be the real deal. He’s got the frame and easy stuff of a front line starter.

But hes not valuable enough in a trade. And hes too far off and too unreliable to be protected in the big league rotation. So I don’t think hes above a tinkering look as a reliever in AAA. It’s not a good step in a pitchers development, but they aren’t helping the team by just sending him to start games in AAA indefinitely again.

I think the issue is his command issue has come back his last couple starts. If it happens again i don’t think it’s helping him to just let him go out there and not have it. Plus they’ve been looking for a reason to try and bring up painter but don’t have the rotation spot.

i think they tried to move him to being a reliever then back to the rotation. Imo i think he’s likely better long term as a RP. I think more he throws day to day he might learn better command and his stuff is good enough to be a back end of the bullpen guy.

22 hits today

Trade Kepler while he is on fire!!

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

Has Rojas or Marsh ever hit like this in AAA?

38 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Has Rojas or Marsh ever hit like this in AAA?

Rojas hit .382 in triple A but he also only has/had 34 ABs (believe he was called up from double A to the Phillies. Went to triple last year for a short time)

Marsh was the angels top ranked prospect at one point. But in triple A hit .283 and double A .304

I think if Crawford was a righty he would have been called up by now.

He's hitting .342 but his BABIP is .413, which is crazy high.... He has a 62.3% ground ball rate and almost 45% of them are hit to the shortstop side.

He's basically been slapping grounders and using his speed to eke out hits. That works well in AAA but won't be as successful against MLB caliber defenders.

7 hours ago, iladelphxx said:

I think if Crawford was a righty he would have been called up by now.

He's hitting .342 but his BABIP is .413, which is crazy high.... He has a 62.3% ground ball rate and almost 45% of them are hit to the shortstop side.

He's basically been slapping grounders and using his speed to eke out hits. That works well in AAA but won't be as successful against MLB caliber defenders.

Tbh i think they are going to deal him at the deadline for an OF bat with at least this and next year in terms of control. Reason i say that is he’s never gonna learn to change somewhat of his approach in AAA. Because he is so good in AAA and having a success he is he’s not changing what he does. So the only way that’s ever gonna happen is if he gets to the major league level and he doesn’t have remotely the same success and it forces him to start adjusting.

frankly, I don’t think the Phillies wanna bring him up before the trade deadline. Because they bring him up and he struggles for that reason they are going to have to send him back down to work on that. And teams will use that against them saying we don’t know if we can actually fix that as he showed he couldnt be the same player at this level doing what he was in the minors. So you lose some of that value behind the mystery of Crawford triple A stud. However, I do think some teams will hold it against I’m saying your outfield stunk and yet have this guy hitting as well as he is in triple A and you didn’t even attempt to try to bring him up. makes teams concerned about why they didn’t

@e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! and I argue about this all the time.

I'm not not high on any of their prospects. I'm normally all for keeping the young assets, but I'm terminally jaded from seeing so many hyped prospects lose steam, fade, and ultimately disappear gradually into useless fodder.

Painter remains immensely valuable, but I just don't see it with any of the others, Crawford and Miller included. If one of them can get us an interesting piece to put this team over the top (I don't think they can), then I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

@e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! and I argue about this all the time.

I'm not not high on any of their prospects. I'm normally all for keeping the young assets, but I'm terminally jaded from seeing so many hyped prospects lose steam, fade, and ultimately disappear gradually into useless fodder.

Painter remains immensely valuable, but I just don't see it with any of the others, Crawford and Miller included. If one of them can get us an interesting piece to put this team over the top (I don't think they can), then I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

Painter is not getting dealt because wheeler retires in 2 years, Ranger is gone at the end of the year then you are down to Sanchez, an aging declining nola and maybe luzardo if he’s re-signed. They can’t afford to deal him away and really they need him to become the pitcher they envision

You could trade Miller and Crawford but the issue is there has to be a player out there that is worth giving up a top 25 prospect in all the baseball like Miller and a top 100 prospect like Crawford. The problem is last year everybody wanted Luis Robert jr for Aidan Miller. Robert has been dog crap. He had one great year surrounded by so-so and injuries. And some not so great locker room stories. It would be different like if the Padres when they went to the nationals and trade for Soto. They gave up a big package to get Juan Soto. But they knew he had multiple years left on his contract and he was an All-Star caliber player to give up those type of prospects.

The only hitter that has became available in the last calendar of All-Star ilk was Kyle Tucker. Now you could do it but you’re risking the fact that Kyle Tucker is a free agent at the end of the year and he just walks away. So you only get him for one year then you’re also down your prospects. Now, if you’re confident you can get him signed under contract for the foreseeable future then you should’ve done that.

Go look at the names out there the Phillies are interested in as a hitter: Garcia, Tyler Ward, Cedric Mullins, Jarren Duran, Luis Robert jr. Duran is about the closest one to that and frankly, I think Duran is vastly overrated by people. And he’s a left hand so it doesn’t solve your problem.

as for RP there’s guys there. Would need to get the twins Duran, orioles Bautista or guardians clase. Those guys make sense as they are AS caliber and multiple years left on contract.