3 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

No eliminating them all.  I agree it will never happen but its hurting the product IMO

How?

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

Frankly we really should avoid using soto in high leverage situations. He’s had this issue all year. He’s super inconsistent and tends to be wild. At this point i actually trust Orion over him. Unfortunate cause it was a solid trade for what they gave up but he just hasn’t lived up to what they thought he’d be. 

Unless Kerkering or Hoffman couldn't go last night, it would absurd beyond belief Soto pitched over them in the 9th. It's like Hoffman gave up one HR, that frankly wasn't even a bad pitch. Riley had to reach and golf it out of there, and he's lost all confidence in him.

Just now, Alphagrand said:

He's still batting Schwarber leadoff; he's a good manager and has a good record of making in-game decisions, but that one needs to change.  

The Phillies lost the World Series last year because they got no-hit in Game 4, at home, leading two games to one.  Totally changed the momentum of the series for the worse.  Not much the manager can do when the offense is completely eliminated.

La Russa would have moved Nick last year instead of leaving him in game after game. Bohm could have made a difference in that spot the same way swapping them this year could help. They can't do much to help them hit, but he can move people around and get things going. 

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

Frankly we really should avoid using soto in high leverage situations. He’s had this issue all year. He’s super inconsistent and tends to be wild. At this point i actually trust Orion over him. Unfortunate cause it was a solid trade for what they gave up but he just hasn’t lived up to what they thought he’d be. 

That's MLB relievers in a nut shell though.  Wildly inconsistent.  JC Romero was absolutely lights out in end of 2007, and pretty much all of 2008.  Unhittable in those spots... BUT then, just fell off a cliff.

 

But bullpen use in the playoffs today is so wildly different from even then.  Back then, you wanted the starter to give you 6+, have a guy to get you out of the 7th, have a set up guy and then a closer.  Now we see starters going only 5, or less and you need crazy innings on the back end, making each decision that much harder and that much more critical.

3 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Unless Kerkering or Hoffman couldn't go last night, it would absurd beyond belief Soto pitched over them in the 9th. It's like Hoffman gave up one HR, that frankly wasn't even a bad pitch. Riley had to reach and golf it out of there, and he's lost all confidence in him.

Nope.  He was afraid of Rosario vs a righty, so Hoffman and Kerkering were off the table by default, which is why Strahm was the next guy.  

10 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

I don't know what it is about baseball that people look at it with far less nuance than other sports.

Today the prevailing sentiment is Topper managed yesterday to perfection. I'm not gonna bury the guy, because he's done a great job, but saying "every move he make worked" is going too far with it. Going to Soto in the 9th didn't work. Dude set up 1st and 3rd with no outs. Strahm got out of it and credit to him, but the Soto move did not work like Topper expected it to or he wouldn't have needed Strahm to finish the game off like that. Can't judge a game's decisions just based on if you win or lose. And this works in the other direction as well. In defense of Topper, he shouldn't have been knocked for his pitching decisions in game 2, because I think they made logical sense.

Soto was going to start the 9th just like Kimbrel started the 8th.   He was never going to close out the game.   Straham (or someone else) was going in at some point during the 9th.   Topper based his decisions on matchups - and it worked out last night and yes it was tense.  
 

But do you expect a team that won 100+ games to just roll over and let us win in the 9th?   Both teams were going "all-in” during the last 2-3 innings based on matchups - that’s the difference between regular season baseball and playoff baseball. 

He reads the blog

 

People can say what they want about what Topper is doing, but it IS working.  The bullpen surrendered ZERO runs last night... there were some tough moments and without the catch by Rojas, it likely ends badly.  BUT... he had Rojas out there, despite his lack of hitting in the NLDS, and he made the play.

The pitching staff, as a whole, surrendered 8 runs over 4 games against an historically great offensive baseball team.  If you were just told that the Phillies would give up only 2 runs per game and win the series in 4, everyone would have been ecstatic about it and would have been lauding the effectiveness of the bullpen.  It wasn't an ideal situation to have each pitcher they turn to have to do an up/down, but Topper saw the risk of the matchups as greater than the delay between batters.   He was playing the left-right matchup game.   Not every move he made was perfect, but he sure made more good moves than bad and it worked out pretty well.  

 

Enjoy the ride, don't look for or fear a crash at the end.

So it's looking like no Slay, Evans, or Carter for Sunday based on the injury report. You never want to look past an opponent, but with the grueling seven game stretch they have coming up after this, they need those guys healthy so I'm not opposed to sitting them. That stretch is going to make or break their season when it comes to homefield. 

1 minute ago, Diehardfan said:

La Russa would have moved Nick last year instead of leaving him in game after game. Bohm could have made a difference in that spot the same way swapping them this year could help. They can't do much to help them hit, but he can move people around and get things going. 

La Russa used to bat his pitchers 8th, though -- so I wouldn't consult him on setting batting lineups.  The rest of your overall points stand, though.

I'd probably bat Marsh leadoff, then Turner-Harper-Castellanos-Schwarber-Realmuto-Stott-Bohm-Rojas.  Give the bottom of the lineup a bit of punch.  

 

 

My latest release just surpassed 5,000 streams on Spotify. And since I have no friends. I thought I’d share my latest achievement with you guys. 😂

Just now, Alphagrand said:

La Russa used to bat his pitchers 8th, though -- so I wouldn't consult him on setting batting lineups.  The rest of your overall points stand, though.

I'd probably bat Marsh leadoff, then Turner-Harper-Castellanos-Schwarber-Realmuto-Stott-Bohm-Rojas.  Give the bottom of the lineup a bit of punch.  

 

Fair, but he would have made adjustments was my point during a series vs watching Houston take the best player out of the game because he had a cold bat after him. 

The problem with trading for Jerry Jeudy is that his 5th year option was picked up. That's 13M next year. No thanks.

2 minutes ago, Know Life said:

 

My latest release just surpassed 5,000 streams on Spotify. And since I have no friends. I thought I’d share my latest achievement with you guys. 😂

Good stuff. Don't take this the wrong way but this is the perfect music for me to play on a low volume during work. I hate silence but if I hear lyrics I get distracted.

2 minutes ago, Know Life said:

 

My latest release just surpassed 5,000 streams on Spotify. And since I have no friends. I thought I’d share my latest achievement with you guys. 😂

What kind of music?  

Hip hop reggae by any chance? 

1 minute ago, DEagle7 said:

What kind of music?  

Hip hop reggae by any chance? 

Hip hop, yes. Reggae, no.

10 minutes ago, RLC said:

The problem with trading for Jerry Jeudy is that his 5th year option was picked up. That's 13M next year. No thanks.

I know the cap isn't really "real" and it can be maneuvered, played with, and no one is better than that than Howie is. But people wanting to make these moves without thinking of guys like DeVonta, Dickerson, and some others doesn't make sense to me. Dickerson is on pace to be commanding top tier OG money. And if Carter continues to be who we all think he is, that's another $100+ million deal coming down the pipeline. 

6 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Good stuff. Don't take this the wrong way but this is the perfect music for me to play on a low volume during work. I hate silence but if I hear lyrics I get distracted.

Lol, I’m the same way when I work, so I completely understand.

2 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

I know the cap isn't really "real" and it can be maneuvered, played with, and no one is better than that than Howie is. But people wanting to make these moves without thinking of guys like DeVonta, Dickerson, and some others doesn't make sense to me. Dickerson is on pace to be commanding top tier OG money. And if Carter continues to be who we all think he is, that's another $100+ million deal coming down the pipeline. 

Yup. If you're going to trade for an expensive player, he better be a dawg (AJ Brown, Slay) otherwise other players will be upset about their contracts. 

35 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Unless Kerkering or Hoffman couldn't go last night, it would absurd beyond belief Soto pitched over them in the 9th. It's like Hoffman gave up one HR, that frankly wasn't even a bad pitch. Riley had to reach and golf it out of there, and he's lost all confidence in him.

That was my question. I know Hoffman gave up that home run on Monday but he has been their second-best reliever pretty much all year. He had 2 days off from that pitch and that outing. I still trust him. He has usually bounced back from a bad outing the next time and is fine. I was surprised they went back to Soto. He is very inconsistent and from one batter to the next never know what he’s gonna give you. The only reason I can think of is that they knew with Soto if he went back out there for the 9th, they could pull him at any time because he finished the eighth inning. Whereas if Hoffman got himself into trouble, he would still have to face a minimum of three batters. That said, I feel much more confident in Hoffman not imploding facing three batters than I do with Soto.

Doh

It's good to finally have a cautious, pragmatic medical staff again. It's a long season and next man up. Don't rush them.

Milton Williams break-out game incoming.

30 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

He reads the blog

 

Hopefully Howie consults Steve Smith first before making that trade.

36 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

That's MLB relievers in a nut shell though.  Wildly inconsistent.  JC Romero was absolutely lights out in end of 2007, and pretty much all of 2008.  Unhittable in those spots... BUT then, just fell off a cliff.

 

But bullpen use in the playoffs today is so wildly different from even then.  Back then, you wanted the starter to give you 6+, have a guy to get you out of the 7th, have a set up guy and then a closer.  Now we see starters going only 5, or less and you need crazy innings on the back end, making each decision that much harder and that much more critical.

Given the fact that Hoffman had 2 days off and has been great all year and has bounced back from poor outings, I trust him more than Gregory Soto. soto been inconsistent all year and frankly not good for a majority of the season. The only reason I could come up with for why they kept Soto out there is that they knew because he finished the eighth inning that they could remove him at any time in the 9th. If you put Hoffman in that situation to start the 9th he has to face a minimum of 3 batters. So if he got himself into trouble again, you couldn’t remove him after the first batter or the second batter like you could with Soto.

The Soto trade this off-season might be the move the where they thought they were going to cash in but really has been underwhelming. They didn’t give up much to get him for the potential high upside so worth the shot  I’d be surprised if he’s back next year