A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Adam Morgan is not a prospect, at least not by the arbitrary requirements that govern the Rookie of the Year race. He has 84.1 innings of major league baseball under his belt, during that time he was a #5ish starting pitcher who showed some good and some bad. This spring Morgan had almost a perfect … Read more
So we can’t let tanking go. If the Phillies are bad, they are tanking because they are bad. If they are good, they are tanking because they did not try hard enough to win. The newest champion for the Phillies are Tanking Front is Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors who took on the subject in … Read more
I love small sample size observations. As long as you are not counting on them being predictive and you do your best to understand why the change has occurred. In this case I was intrigued by Hector Neris’ early start to the season where he has not allowed a run, while walking only 2 and … Read more
I like stats and trivia, which is probably why I like baseball. There is no day that feeds that desire and need like Opening Day. We have new rosters and a data point that we can compare against every other Opening Day. So without me continuing to ramble about this, it is time for useless facts … Read more
As all of you know, the Phillies are playing a series against their minor leaguers. Today they have announced the roster for the series. No information on who will start and how much they play. Hitters: C: Jorge Alfaro/Andrew Knapp 1B: Brock Stassi/Rhys Hoskins 2B: Scott Kingery/Jesmuel Valentin SS: J.P. Crawford/Malquin Canelo 3B: Mitch Walding/Angelo Mora OF: Nick Williams/Dylan … Read more
Bunts are bad. They hurt your pitchers, they destroy your offense, and they drive your fanbase insane when Ryne Sandberg calls for them every time a man gets on base. But what if bunts are good? The Phillies certainly think so, at least in a different way this spring, as they work on the squeeze … Read more
The Phillies made the first of their cuts from the #5 starter competition this weekend. They sent soft tossing lefty, Brett Oberholtzer to the bullpen. Oberholtzer is out of minor league options, so the Phillies needed to keep him in the majors to keep him in the org, and he has pitched well to earn … Read more
Both the Ruben Amaro and Matt Klentak lead front offices acquired a lot of pitching in the past few seasons through trades, signings, drafting, and waiver claims. Much of that pitching was in the high minors at the time of acquisition, and was poised to be part of the wave of players that the organization … Read more
Ken Giles is really really good, he might even be underrated nationally. He is also the crux of some arguments about the strategy of the Phillies and their aims and goals for the 2016 season. For some, the trade was part of a larger set of moves that were tanking, or intentionally making the team less competitive … Read more
As I mentioned earlier this week, projections for the Phillies in 2016 have been bleak. It is not just a couple of spots on the roster that look poor, the whole roster is projected to be horrible. By Fangraph’s projections, the only two players expected to be above average are Maikel Franco (2.7 WAR) and … Read more