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

Not sure why we are trying to be cute and not going with Hoffman or estevez after a day off 

i don’t mind strahm but really he’s not a closer 

Why is Strahm "not a closer"?  What is the deficiency in his pitching style that you find fault with?

16 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Why is Strahm "not a closer"?  What is the deficiency in his pitching style that you find fault with?

Strahm doesn’t have overpowering stuff like Hoffman and estevez can do. He’s usually 89-94. Fastball kind of tops out at 95ish. Whereas Hoffman and estevez can ramp it up to 96-99. I also think hoffman’s fastball combo with his slider is much more devastating than strahm’s. Estevez has a better mentality for a closer. Hes done it and had success. Strahm has had troubles in the past when asked too. Also strahm has been much more wild lately then Hoffman and estevez. Against the Braves he had the bases loaded and was fortunate to get out of the situation. Yesterday he gave up a homer. I think he’s better suited for a 7th inning role or if you need a bridge for two innings. 

Oh boy! 

 

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

Strahm doesn’t have overpowering stuff like Hoffman and estevez can do. He’s usually 89-94. Fastball kind of tops out at 95ish. Whereas Hoffman and estevez can ramp it up to 96-99. I also think hoffman’s fastball combo with his slider is much more devastating than strahm’s. Estevez has a better mentality for a closer. Hes done it and had success. Strahm has had troubles in the past when asked too. Also strahm has been much more wild lately then Hoffman and estevez. Against the Braves he had the bases loaded and was fortunate to get out of the situation. Yesterday he gave up a homer. I think he’s better suited for a 7th inning role or if you need a bridge for two innings. 

Greg Maddox didn't have overpowering stuff either.  That didn't make him less effective as a pitcher. 

Strahm has a 2.18 ERA (3.51 for his career).  Hoffman's is 1.85 (4.82 for his career)  Estevez's is 2.22 (4.21 for his career). 

They are effective now and significantly more effective than their career stats would indicate.

Bottom-line, your preference in what a closer looks like is just that ... a preference.  My preference ... and it too is a preference ... is that looks are irrelevant.  Production is what is relevant.

With that said, there is an important characteristic that is a factor.  If you are going to have a single designated closer, he needs to be just as effective against right handed batters as left handed batters.  If he can't be that, then I prefer closer by committee, with the makeup of the 9th inning batters determining which relief pitcher takes the mound. 

Off topic question, the Phillies began the year with a minor league pitcher that they had claimed from the Red Sox.  If I remember correctly he had some sort of military involvement and was of asian-american descent.  What happened to him?

4 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

I think the Harper being hurt stuff is a convenient excuse.  His wrist and elbow hurting hasn't caused him to swing and miss at 1,000 breaking pitches outside the zone over the past month and a half. 

Media is afraid to criticize him

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

Teoscar Hernandez is available. He’s having a great year. Strikeouts a lot. I’m also unsure if his resurgence is because he has guys like Ohtani, freeman, will smith and now betts that allows him to see more pitches.

Tbh i wouldn’t be shocked if they look to make a trade. The OF market isn’t great outside of Soto and Hernandez. Gamel is older. Bellinger likely opts in and i don’t trust Jackson profar. I think Kyle Tucker is going to get dealt. On the last year of his contract. Phillies could put a package of marsh, Caba and someone like Abel which might entice the Astros as he’s gonna walk at the end of the year and he’s coming off an injury season. Marsh being cheap for 3 more years and the Astros have taken on guys they believe they can fix problems with. 

Jays were stupid for giving him up

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

 

There have been 2 games in MLB history where a player had:
6+ RBI
5+ times on base
4+ XBH
3+ HR
a leadoff HR
a HR in the 9th or later

Both were by Kyle Schwarber within the last 30 days.

Francis is the AL pitcher of the month and has only given up 1 hit in each of his last 2 starts.  His era in August was 1.05 with 5 starts.

Might be touch sledding today at the plate.

 

Weak lineup today as well.

Wow

Nothing for three weeks and then 4 in 7 at-bats

He's an animal

Oh no, which elbow has he been having trouble with?

2 hours ago, mattwill said:

Greg Maddox didn't have overpowering stuff either.  That didn't make him less effective as a pitcher. 

Strahm has a 2.18 ERA (3.51 for his career).  Hoffman's is 1.85 (4.82 for his career)  Estevez's is 2.22 (4.21 for his career). 

They are effective now and significantly more effective than their career stats would indicate.

Bottom-line, your preference in what a closer looks like is just that ... a preference.  My preference ... and it too is a preference ... is that looks are irrelevant.  Production is what is relevant.

With that said, there is an important characteristic that is a factor.  If you are going to have a single designated closer, he needs to be just as effective against right handed batters as left handed batters.  If he can't be that, then I prefer closer by committee, with the makeup of the 9th inning batters determining which relief pitcher takes the mound. 

Couple things: Greg Maddox was a starter not a closer. Two different objectives being a starter and being a backend of the bullpen closer. Nola doesn’t have overpowering stuff. It’s fine as a starter if you know how to pitch and can locate really well. Can do it as a RP, but in today’s game the analytics have shown it’s much tougher especially as a closer. It’s why a lot of teams don’t have guys like strahm closing out. To be honest, I think the reason why he was used last night, was because Estevez and Hoffman were really rode very hard in the last series. So they were trying to give them a little more rest. 

To be honest, I was actually listen to a podcast where they talked about the Phillies specifically. The Phillies starting pitching isn’t a bunch of guys that just blow you away. Zach Wheeler can do that but he’s unique where he can blow it by you and he has great control. everybody else really isn’t so much that. Sanchez can do that at times. But when he tries to do that, his control isn’t always there. The Phillies are one of the only teams in today’s game that have gone to guys that know had a pitch with control more than just hard throwing flamethrowers and have success. It’s also partially why they haven’t had a lot of guys have Tommy John surgery in their rotation. While other teams have seen a lot of these guys have to go through that. Andrew painter is about the only prospect/rotation guy (would’ve been in the rotation) that has had Tommy John surgery over the last couple years. Meanwhile Dominguez had TJ and he is a flame thrower type guy  

second Greg Maddox is one of the best pitchers we’ve seen in the 30 years. If we are comparing strahm to Maddox that’s pretty lofty expectations. it’s unfair to strahm as good as he’s been this year, he doesn’t have that type of pinpoint control and he’s not in the same class as maddox. This year he’s been phenomenal but he reminds me a lot of jc Romero whereas Hoffman and estevez are more madson and lisge

On hoffman was a 1st round pick. He was actually largely a bust until the Phillies signed him and kind of resurrected his career. He was Ok his last year in cincy. The reason why he was a first round pick was because he had electric stuff. Like really good stuff. It’s why since he put it together he’s been unbelievable. I will point this out. Jeff Hoffman fell to 9th in the draft because he had TJ. If Jeff Hoffman didn’t have that, he would’ve likely went top three and potentially no. 1. That’s how good his stuff was. I think Hoffman’s career is much different if the Rockies started him as a RP and he didn’t develop in the Rockies system  

couple of other things with Jeff Hoffman, the Rockies tried to make him a starter since they took him 9th overall. He wasn’t good as a starter. Because he didn’t know how to pitch or control wasn’t there when he was younger. He just had really good stuff and just tried to beat you just because he had really good stuff. that’s that whole argument you have in Greg Maddox. That’s what made him great. It’s the same with Nola.  Nola stuff isn’t hoffman’s. He’s closer to Maddox. He knows how to pitch when he is on he is hard to hit because he’s accurate with where he wants it to go, can pitch backwards or forwards and learned how to be a starting pitcher. Hoffman didn’t have that as a starter. rockies tried to move him to BP in 2020. He was not good in 2020. Then again pandemic a lot of guys had weird years. Hoffman was strictly bullpen in Cincinnati, that’s when you saw Jeff Hoffman start to turn his career around. Got here and his control has been fantastic. Credit to cotham cause he’s done a terrific job having him learn how to pitch not just rely on his stuff

with estevez, his stuff is always been good. It has had an uptick over the last couple years. But his biggest issue was that his control was never there. Can tell by the amount of walks he had prior to this year. You never knew when he was gonna lose control. It’s kind of like what Jose Alvarado is going through right now and how the Phillies fixed him for a couple of years. Stuff is legit nasty but control wise an issue. He would walk a lot of guys and you didn’t know where it was going. Because he pitched so hard he got himself into trouble with his control. So this year the angels got him to start throwing it 2-3 MPH less and it showed that he could control where the ball was going. it’s why he was dominant with the angels. It is why he only has 8 walks on the year. That by far the lowest in his career. Credit to the Phillies because when he came to the Phillies, cotham has actually got him to have his fastball up 1-2 mph with being able to control it better. Also his slider based on analytics has more spin since coming here. why he’s been so effective over the last month. That’s a feather in cotham hat  

 

1 hour ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

Jays were stupid for giving him up

And the mariners for letting him walk to FA. The Dodgers made a lot of moves this off-season. But I would argue their best besides Ohtani was him. Because of what they paid to get him and the production they’ve got out of him. Obviously Ohtani is the greatest signing because he’s a MVP type player. But Hernandez for what they paid and the production they’re getting is pretty ridiculous

2 hours ago, mattwill said:

Off topic question, the Phillies began the year with a minor league pitcher that they had claimed from the Red Sox.  If I remember correctly he had some sort of military involvement and was of asian-american descent.  What happened to him?

Noah song. That was last year. Basically because they took him in the rule 5 draft, he had to be on the 26 man roster by a certain point and for so long to keep him. Because the Phillies didn’t do that, he reverted back to the Red Sox.

Son of a b Sanchez 

Need to have the convo about Sanchez home and away. At home he’s been dominant. 2.24 ERA and pretty consistent. On the road his era is 5.43 and you don’t know which Sanchez you are getting that day. Could get vs. dodgers or could get vs. dbacks. Which brings up what are you gonna do in the playoffs with Sanchez. Because I don’t think you wanna go into a game 3 if the series is tied or you’re behind on the road needing to win with Sanchez taking the mound. He is a far better player at home.

also his day game era is 6.54 in 6 starts. 

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

Need to have the convo about Sanchez home and away. At home he’s been dominant. 2.24 ERA and pretty consistent. On the road his era is 5.43 and you don’t know which Sanchez you are getting that day. Could get vs. dodgers or could get vs. dbacks. Which brings up what are you gonna do in the playoffs with Sanchez. Because I don’t think you wanna go into a game 3 if the series is tied or you’re behind on the road needing to win with Sanchez taking the mound. He is a far better player at home.

also his day game era is 6.54 in 6 starts. 

Well he won't have to pitch during the day in the playoffs so that's one problem solved!

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

Need to have the convo about Sanchez home and away. At home he’s been dominant. 2.24 ERA and pretty consistent. On the road his era is 5.43 and you don’t know which Sanchez you are getting that day. Could get vs. dodgers or could get vs. dbacks. Which brings up what are you gonna do in the playoffs with Sanchez. Because I don’t think you wanna go into a game 3 if the series is tied or you’re behind on the road needing to win with Sanchez taking the mound. He is a far better player at home.

also his day game era is 6.54 in 6 starts. 

Signs of a mental midget

2 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Well he won't have to pitch during the day in the playoffs so that's one problem solved!

Not necessarily true. Nlcs always has one day game. Game 3 vs. dbacks last year was a day game. I believe nlds always has one too. I want to say either game 2 or 3 was a day game 

Back on track…. 4 consecutive games with a double play 

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

Not necessarily true. Nlcs always has one day game. Game 3 vs. dbacks last year was a day game. I believe nlds always has one too. I want to say either game 2 or 3 was a day game 

Well sheet

Well that’s not good. Harper taken out of the game after being hit by a pitch in the elbow. 

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

Well that’s not good. Harper taken out of the game after being hit by a pitch in the elbow. 

Was it the same elbow he's been having trouble with?