7-12

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. 

Three more to go and then we can take a minute to assess and see where things are as they come back home

Look, I was about to jump of a cliff but.....then I was listening to 97.5 last night, forget who was on but they made a great point......the decisions that were made, get JT surgery done, let Suarez rest, etc....all helped contribute to that slide along with the fact, they got out of sync with the London trip and honestly faced better competition.  But....they were all made at a time when the Phillies had a huge lead, and made with October in mind, not July.  They've halted the skid, they are playing better and they still have the BEST record in baseball.  

Is this team perfect?  Nope!  But you can say the same thing about every MLB team.  We need two things.....1. Be as healthy as possible going into October and 2. Go in hot

Did this swoon suck?  Yup!  It made for a long couple of weeks.....but come on, baseball is a marathon and the Phillies are exactly where they were before the slide....the best team with the best record in MLB.  PS, if the season ended today, the Braves wouldn't even be in the Playoffs!

One thing I will say though.....they definitely need to avoid that first round, with the Padres and Arizona both playing really well, would like to avoid that round at all costs.  Just get one more in Arizona and this brutal trip would be 5-5, get 2 wins and come back 6-4 and we should be thrilled.

16 minutes ago, NYEagle said:

Look, I was about to jump of a cliff but.....then I was listening to 97.5 last night, forget who was on but they made a great point......the decisions that were made, get JT surgery done, let Suarez rest, etc....all helped contribute to that slide along with the fact, they got out of sync with the London trip and honestly faced better competition.  But....they were all made at a time when the Phillies had a huge lead, and made with October in mind, not July.  They've halted the skid, they are playing better and they still have the BEST record in baseball.  

Is this team perfect?  Nope!  But you can say the same thing about every MLB team.  We need two things.....1. Be as healthy as possible going into October and 2. Go in hot

Did this swoon suck?  Yup!  It made for a long couple of weeks.....but come on, baseball is a marathon and the Phillies are exactly where they were before the slide....the best team with the best record in MLB.  PS, if the season ended today, the Braves wouldn't even be in the Playoffs!

Yep, exactly what I’ve been saying all along. MLB seasons last forever and no team stays hot all year with the possible exception of those few that have won 110 games. 
 

Let’s get thru the next three and then we can reset for the long stretch and on into October. 

The London trip excuse is nonsense, ask the Mets

Just now, DrPhilly said:

Yep, exactly what I’ve been saying all along. MLB seasons last forever and no team stays hot all year with the possible exception of those few that have won 110 games. 
 

Let’s get thru the next three and then we can reset for the long stretch and on into October. 

They are not a team that can be consistent through the postseason

1 minute ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

They are not a team that can be consistent through the postseason

Fine, then get hot for 15 games

4 minutes ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

They are not a team that can be consistent through the postseason

What team right now can you say with 100% certainty CAN be consistent?  The Guardians?  Lost 5 in a row.  The Yankees?  They were in a worse slide than the Phillies for a while.  The Orioles?  Good luck with their bullpen.  The Dodgers?  Good luck with that starting pitching.  

Point is I actually trust Dombrowski....I think him and Topper actually plan for the post season in the regular season now.  I think they intentionally are doing things this season that may cause slides, may cause panic, may cause doubt but they are doing them to prepare or be prepared for October.  Will it work out with 100% certainty?  We shall see.....

1 hour ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

They are not a team that can be consistent through the postseason

TBH, I actually think the bullpen is gonna wind up being fine in the playoffs. Because when you get to September and you have a big enough lead, you’re gonna be able to rest some guys. And I think that’s going to help some of those guys and look fresher in the playoffs.

The thing that concerns me more than anything is, can this team hit with runners in scoring position consistently enough. last night that game could’ve been over in like the 4th inning if the Phillies just did what they needed to do. Not going to be perfect with RISP all the time but through the first 5 innings this team was just downright awful with RISP against Montgomery who’s not been good his year. If you have bases loaded with one out and you managed to not score in the playoffs, that can be huge momentum turner. Imo their playoff success is going to come down to can guys hit with RISP in big moments and not just be reliant on HR. If they try to just hit HRs to a World Series title it’s not going to work cause eventually it’ll run dry. It’s exactly what happened in their last two playoff series losses 

 

2 hours ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

They are not a team that can be consistent through the postseason

Is there any team in MLB that can be consistent through the postseason?

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