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

This really tells the story of this team. Yeah we **** about Nola and the bullpen but this high paid offense does the same pathetic showing every year in the postseason.

Disco Dick Face Dave

The track record of Morey or Chuck Fletcher with the job security of Howie Roseman

38 minutes ago, John Blutarski said:

This really tells the story of this team. Yeah we **** about Nola and the bullpen but this high paid offense does the same pathetic showing every year in the postseason.

I mean, this really goes back to when Rhys hoskins went down with his ACL, they have needed from that moment in time a right hand handed power hitting bat in the middle of that lineup. They frankly needed it probably after that year if Hoskins stayed healthy cause they were gonna move on. But they needed it for a while.

Part of the reason I didn’t like that arraez trade was because he’s not a cleanup hitter and he’s not a power hitter. our ballpark does not play well into the type of hitter he is. Where he has a lot of success is a place like San Francisco and Miami. They have big outfields. That plays into what he wants to do. Citizens Bank Park is not an ideal park for him cause he doesn’t hit for power and it’s not as big of an outfield. He’s also another LH hitter. Add on they weren’t going all in. They didn’t have the prospect pool too and the deadline didn’t have enough to do it. Now you traded away a really good pitching prospect for Arraez who likely walks and you are in the same spot you would’ve been if you never traded for him. Except down potentially a really good prospect you could eventually use or traded for a better player

So they were going to be better with him than without him. But he was never gonna be enough to put your lineup over the top. You still needed that middle of the order right handed hitter. Like I said two years ago, they should’ve moved Harper back to the outfield and then signed Pete Alonso. Could once again signed him this offseason. Can’t hate Pete Alonso but he actually solves a massive problem.

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

I mean, this really goes back to when Rhys hoskins went down with his ACL, they have needed from that moment in time a right hand handed power hitting bat in the middle of that lineup. They frankly needed it probably after that year if Hoskins stayed healthy cause they were gonna move on. But they needed it for a while.

Part of the reason I didn’t like that arraez trade was because he’s not a cleanup hitter and he’s not a power hitter. our ballpark does not play well into the type of hitter he is. Where he has a lot of success is a place like San Francisco and Miami. They have big outfields. That plays into what he wants to do. Citizens Bank Park is not an ideal park for him cause he doesn’t hit for power and it’s not as big of an outfield. He’s also another LH hitter. Add on they weren’t going all in. They didn’t have the prospect pool too and the deadline didn’t have enough to do it. Now you traded away a really good pitching prospect for Arraez who likely walks and you are in the same spot you would’ve been if you never traded for him. Except down potentially a really good prospect you could eventually use or traded for a better player

So they were going to be better with him than without him. But he was never gonna be enough to put your lineup over the top. You still needed that middle of the order right handed hitter. Like I said two years ago, they should’ve moved Harper back to the outfield and then signed Pete Alonso. Could once again signed him this offseason. Can’t hate Pete Alonso but he actually solves a massive problem.

Yeah, I have no issue with Arraez at the top of the lineup but not cleanup. That's a joke. Honestly would like Arraez to replace Turner at the top but that will never happen with the Turner contract and how they kiss his arse and grant his every wish. Regardless of whether they sign Arraez this offseason they still need a cleanup hitter... which is the same story since Rhys was gone. And yeah I remember you and me pounding the table for Alonso at the time. I think that really would have helped the lineup more than any other single move at the time.

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

What universe are you living in that he is the best strategic catcher in baseball? It is 2026. He had a 1-40 streak to end the season and hasn’t been good all Fing year.

And if you were so good to strategically, tell me why Stubbs when he’s took over catching Nola around July figured out how to get Nola to pitch his best baseball in 2 years and a 2.82. Meanwhile, Jt got the opportunity again. The last two starts of Nola’s season. Guess what Nola sucked again. I don’t know maybe there’s a correlation between the fact Nola feels more comfortable pitching with stubbs and that might benefit him. So once again, if you’re gonna make the idiotic decision to start nola then you better just not compound it with the fact that you had data showing you he and Jt are not good together.

I said one of the best strategic catchers, and I am basing my opinion on the opinions of many baseball "experts.” Sorry if I don’t take much account on the opinion of a keyboard warrior on a football message board. His performance at the plate has been horrible, but here’s a clue for you, hitting is not a variable used to determine how great he is behind the plate. Not only does he have a great glove and one of the best arms, he studies batters as good as anyone. His awareness of the strike zone puts him among the best at ABS challenges. And again, I DGAF about the anomaly of a few outings for Nola being better with Stubs. Neither one of them should be on a major league roster in the playoffs. I love Stubbs, he’s a great motivator and team leader. I love Nola for what he did in the past, but he is not a decent starting pitcher anymore. I also believe JT is long past his time and we need to find his replacement, and it isn’t Stubbs.

I grew up going to the Vet in the 70s every week or so. Love my Phillies.

Thank God it's over. There was nothing about the team I could get excited for. They are big time flawed... it was painfully obvious, and I could not watch this group of players that have no identity play.

Now I will watch the very similar Eagles.

And so it ends just as we knew it would.

I do think the team needs an overhaul, but it’s not possible until you get closer to the end of some of the bad contracts. JT was a valuable part of the team a few years ago, but now he’s just an aging vet along with the rest of their core.

34 minutes ago, Steve 17 said:

I grew up going to the Vet in the 70s every week or so. Love my Phillies.

Thank God it's over. There was nothing about the team I could get excited for. They are big time flawed... it was painfully obvious, and I could not watch this group of players that have no identity play.

Now I will watch the very similar Eagles.

The Eagles have won 2 championships in the last 10 years. If the Phillies had that feather in their cap we’re having a different conversation about them as a team.

Mattingly won’t be back as manager

They need a manager who can get better production out of the team’s aging superstars even as their skills have diminished and they become more injury prone. A manager who can plug in role players with below average talent, but who can still make a big impact in close games. A manager who can deploy arms out of the bullpen with minor league talent, but utilizes those pitchers to shut down the other team. Then we’ll win.

since they lost, this is pretty much john middleton's mentality and should put this up at citizens bank park in 2028:

14 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

They need a manager who can get better production out of the team’s aging superstars even as their skills have diminished and they become more injury prone. A manager who can plug in role players with below average talent, but who can still make a big impact in close games. A manager who can deploy arms out of the bullpen with minor league talent, but utilizes those pitchers to shut down the other team. Then we’ll win.

I'd fire everyone - Dumbrowski, Mattingly, Kevin Long, Caleb Cotham, Dusty Wathan, the bat boy, the ball girls, the dudes in the Phanatics suit

57 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

I do think the team needs an overhaul, but it’s not possible until you get closer to the end of some of the bad contracts. JT was a valuable part of the team a few years ago, but now he’s just an aging vet along with the rest of their core.

We should have gotten a young backup catcher that can hit prior to this season. Who thought JT's hitting would regress to hitting just over .200 for the year?

We need to go get a catcher this offseason via trade or free agency.

1 hour ago, Tnt4philly said:

I said one of the best strategic catchers, and I am basing my opinion on the opinions of many baseball "experts.” Sorry if I don’t take much account on the opinion of a keyboard warrior on a football message board. His performance at the plate has been horrible, but here’s a clue for you, hitting is not a variable used to determine how great he is behind the plate. Not only does he have a great glove and one of the best arms, he studies batters as good as anyone. His awareness of the strike zone puts him among the best at ABS challenges. And again, I DGAF about the anomaly of a few outings for Nola being better with Stubs. Neither one of them should be on a major league roster in the playoffs. I love Stubbs, he’s a great motivator and team leader. I love Nola for what he did in the past, but he is not a decent starting pitcher anymore. I also believe JT is long past his time and we need to find his replacement, and it isn’t Stubbs.

First, the analytics have also said Jt has not been nearly as good defensively behind the plate this year as compared to years past. He was not good last year and dropped off from 0.8 WAR to 0.4. And his fielding run value (FRV) has been negative each of the previous two years and this year was close to the same as he was avg. so strategically he doesn’t give you great defense anymore. he’s been good at with ABS challenges and he also didn’t challenge a lot when he should have. He was conservative. Also Phillies have been good with ABS challenges that’s not exclusive to JT. Stubbs had a 64% challenge rate. Which is 10% better than the mlb average success rate. This isn’t a strictly Jt thing with the Phillies. They’re very selective on when they challenges. actually hurt them at times they didn’t challenge more. Because there’s been games guys had to throw more pitches because Jt refused to challenge a pitch that was clearly a strike and some times gave up more runs

Second, it’s not an anomaly. They strictly started pitching Nola with Stubbs in the second half of the year because he was so bad with Jt. They tried to go back to JT and he sucked again. I’m gonna give you a stat the last 4 starts that Nola had with Jt Realmuto. He pitched 15 innings and gave up 12 ERs. The last 8 starts that Nola had with Stubbs pitched 41.2 innings and gave up 11 ERs. So what does that tell us? That he was bad with Jt and good with Stubbs. That’s not an anomaly when you have that much information. Jt was not good with him. over the course of his entire career his numbers with Stubbs are actually better than they are with Jt. 3.52 ERA with Stubbs and 4.02 ERA with Realmuto. Let me point this out. It’s not just ERA either. Teams hit .288 with OBP of .333 and .848 OPS with JT. Meanwhile with Nola it was .233 with .285 and .648 OPS. So across the board, Nola was significantly better in 12 starts with Stubbs than he was in 15 (16 with playoffs included) with Jt this year. The biggest tell is that Nola gave up 22 homers (including tonight) with Jt this year. With Stubbs 9. again not anomaly, as there’s plenty of data from this year

Here is the regular season break down

Third expert opinions? Guess what there were a lot of experts that said if you’re gonna start Nola, you should start with Stubbs based of the analytics. so that’s a BS argument by you.

fourth, nobody saying Stubbs is his replacement for him long term or any other game. frankly Stubbs isn’t a good enough offensive player to be a mlb backup. But unfortunately, the only catcher on the roster that has consistent success this year with Nola was Stubbs. So if you’re going to make the Dumb ass decision to use Nola (not Wheeler, even though you’re gonna use Wheeler for 4 innings anyways), then you should’ve started Stubbs. Using Nola’s starts after ASB (including playoffs and doesn’t include Marchan who started one game as he was awful with Marchan), he allowed 27 runs in 74.2 innings(3.25 ERA) with Stubbs and Jt catch. With Stubbs catching: 48.2 IP 11 ERs 6 HRs 2.03 ERA. With JT: 26 IP 16 ERs 8 HRs 5.54 ERA. So nearly double the amount of innings with Stubbs, less homers, 3.51 less of an era. There’s an enough data indicating that was not an anomaly. Especially the last 3 starts with JT where he has given up 10 runs in 8.2 IP (10.38 ERA).

Fifth jt was not just bad at the end of the year offensively. He was horrific. He finished the season 3 for his last 48. Somehow Stubbs who sucks, managed to be 4 for his last 18. Tell you everything about how bad Jt was entering the playoffs offensively. He basically was Stubbs offensively

this isn’t 2022, 2023 or even 2024 Jt Realmuto. Heck it’s not even 2025 Jt. He’s not as good as he used to be. Defensively he’s declined and a ton offensively. Maybe it’s not a keyboard warrior and more the fact that I actually watched and followed them all season. I don’t just show up for playoff games and the data strongly indicates using Stubbs over Jt with specifically Nola. this isn’t 2022 Jt

1 hour ago, Nice Work Pal said:

Mattingly won’t be back as manager

They want Cora. They tried to lure him after he got fired and we fired Thomson. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t him unless he gets a better job offer elsewhere.

21 minutes ago, CouchKing said:

We should have gotten a young backup catcher that can hit prior to this season. Who thought JT's hitting would regress to hitting just over .200 for the year?

We need to go get a catcher this offseason via trade or free agency.

His WAR per baseball reference is 0 and 0.1 per fangraphs. His defense has also regressed the last 4 years. Was slightly better this year DRV but his dWAR was declined each of the last 4 years and his DRV has been avg to below avg dating back to even 2023. He was actually negative previous two year and basically 0-1 this year which is not something to cheer for.

They could go out and get themselves another catcher so he doesn’t have to play 120+ games. however the smarter move would’ve been to not extend him last offseason to that ridiculous contract or refuse to go more than 2 years. I’d point this out victor Caratini got a 2 year $14 mil deal who's not good. had a -0.1 WAR compared to JT’s 0 this year. Jt had a defensive WAR of 0.4. He had a 0.1. He’s making 8 mil less than JT and out of the contract a year sooner. This isn’t they should’ve signed Victor Caratini. He sucks. but just showing you how much the Phillies overpaid for Jt and how much he is not the player offensively or defensively he was three years ago.

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

First, the analytics have also said Jt has not been nearly as good defensively behind the plate this year as compared to years past. He was not good last year and dropped off from 0.8 WAR to 0.4. And his fielding run value (FRV) has been negative each of the previous two years and this year was close to the same as he was avg. so strategically he doesn’t give you great defense anymore. he’s been good at with ABS challenges and he also didn’t challenge a lot when he should have. He was conservative. Also Phillies have been good with ABS challenges that’s not exclusive to JT. Stubbs had a 64% challenge rate. Which is 10% better than the mlb average success rate. This isn’t a strictly Jt thing with the Phillies. They’re very selective on when they challenges. actually hurt them at times they didn’t challenge more. Because there’s been games guys had to throw more pitches because Jt refused to challenge a pitch that was clearly a strike and some times gave up more runs

Second, it’s not an anomaly. They strictly started pitching Nola with Stubbs in the second half of the year because he was so bad with Jt. They tried to go back to JT and he sucked again. I’m gonna give you a stat the last 4 starts that Nola had with Jt Realmuto. He pitched 15 innings and gave up 12 ERs. The last 8 starts that Nola had with Stubbs pitched 41.2 innings and gave up 11 ERs. So what does that tell us? That he was bad with Jt and good with Stubbs. That’s not an anomaly when you have that much information. Jt was not good with him. over the course of his entire career his numbers with Stubbs are actually better than they are with Jt. 3.52 ERA with Stubbs and 4.02 ERA with Realmuto. Let me point this out. It’s not just ERA either. Teams hit .288 with OBP of .333 and .848 OPS with JT. Meanwhile with Nola it was .233 with .285 and .648 OPS. So across the board, Nola was significantly better in 12 starts with Stubbs than he was in 15 (16 with playoffs included) with Jt this year. The biggest tell is that Nola gave up 22 homers (including tonight) with Jt this year. With Stubbs 9. again not anomaly, as there’s plenty of data from this year

Here is the regular season break down

Third expert opinions? Guess what there were a lot of experts that said if you’re gonna start Nola, you should start with Stubbs based of the analytics. so that’s a BS argument by you.

fourth, nobody saying Stubbs is his replacement for him long term or any other game. frankly Stubbs isn’t a good enough offensive player to be a mlb backup. But unfortunately, the only catcher on the roster that has consistent success this year with Nola was Stubbs. So if you’re going to make the Dumb ass decision to use Nola (not Wheeler, even though you’re gonna use Wheeler for 4 innings anyways), then you should’ve started Stubbs. Using Nola’s starts after ASB (including playoffs and doesn’t include Marchan who started one game as he was awful with Marchan), he allowed 27 runs in 74.2 innings(3.25 ERA) with Stubbs and Jt catch. With Stubbs catching: 48.2 IP 11 ERs 6 HRs 2.03 ERA. With JT: 26 IP 16 ERs 8 HRs 5.54 ERA. So nearly double the amount of innings with Stubbs, less homers, 3.51 less of an era. There’s an enough data indicating that was not an anomaly. Especially the last 3 starts with JT where he has given up 10 runs in 8.2 IP (10.38 ERA).

Fifth jt was not just bad at the end of the year offensively. He was horrific. He finished the season 3 for his last 48. Somehow Stubbs who sucks, managed to be 4 for his last 18. Tell you everything about how bad Jt was entering the playoffs offensively. He basically was Stubbs offensively

this isn’t 2022, 2023 or even 2024 Jt Realmuto. Heck it’s not even 2025 Jt. He’s not as good as he used to be. Defensively he’s declined and a ton offensively. Maybe it’s not a keyboard warrior and more the fact that I actually watched and followed them all season. I don’t just show up for playoff games and the data strongly indicates using Stubbs over Jt with specifically Nola. this isn’t 2022 Jt

Sorry the slashes with Nola with realmuto catching was .275/.333/.541/.874. So over .200+ OPS difference.

BTW I F'n called it on Ray Kerr too - lifetime ERA in the mid 4s goes 3.1 innings and gives up 1 hit. Say what you want about Nola but this game was over before he ever took the mound because our sluggers are all Louisiana swamp ass in elimination games.

8 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

BTW I F'n called it on Ray Kerr too - lifetime ERA in the mid 4s goes 3.1 innings and gives up 1 hit. Say what you want about Nola but this game was over before he ever took the mound because our sluggers are all Louisiana swamp ass in elimination games.

He was a LHP. Smart by the Braves to go LHP. They can’t hit LHP whether it’s a good or bad pitcher.

But like you said it was over before Nola because the lineup was destined to fail because they have most of the year

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

They want Cora. They tried to lure him after he got fired and we fired Thomson. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t him unless he gets a better job offer elsewhere.

That means Dombrowski is back then. With an extension.

Sad state of affairs this team is in. Really sad. Better do something, as we have only gotten worse year after year. Didn't even show up last night, NOLA! WTF?

I truly think they need to blow it up this offseason.

Nola - 34

Schwarber - 34

Harper - 34

JT - 36

Wheeler - 37

With the exception of Nola, you could move everyone of those guys for value, some obviously more than others. If you ate $10M annually from Nola’s contract, you could easily find a suitor.

Given Bohm and Arraez are free agents, and Duran, Stott and Marsh will be the same next offseason, I can’t see a path for this team to seriously contend in the next 2-3 years.

The clearest path is to clear salary and restock on young prospects and MLB ready talent.

18 minutes ago, Blazehound said:

That means Dombrowski is back then. With an extension.

Unfortunately, I think that’s the reality we live in. Middleton has ann affinity with Dave and his past success. Dave can do no wrong. Even though the farm system is one of the worst in baseball by multiple outlets. They have one of the worst lineups in baseball (analytics back this up 2nd worst wRC+). They had one of the worst bullpen in baseball. All while having a 300+ million dollar payroll with 38 1/2 million dollars on players who are not even in the Phillies uniform either all season or since April.