A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
So it is still December, and the Phillies didn’t really change their core, but over the last week things got a bit crazy. So let’s just take a step back and figure out where we stand and who is still actually on the team, and could break camp on opening day. Locks: Hitters: Carlos Ruiz, Cameron … Read more
The Phillies are young, the Phillies are starting to get exciting, and the Phillies have a lot of money to spend. That makes a lot of people gravitate to the youngest big name free agent on the market in Jason Heyward. There is a lot to like about Heyward, he is 26, he has put … Read more
The bullpen was far from the Phillies’ biggest problems during the 2015 season. It was no large on talent and often was forced into using inferior pitchers due to a pitiful starting rotation. But with the departures of Jake Diekman and Jonathan Papelbon (and to a much lesser extent Justin De Fratus) the bullpen was … Read more
There is a school of thought that says the road to contention for a team is linear with the team advancing little by little each year until success is assured. This theory been debunked by many teams over the year who seemingly leap to contention from nowhere. Now this doesn’t mean the Phillies can jump … Read more
It is November, we are still 4.5 months from the start of the season, and yet the Phillies’ opening day roster is pretty well set. Even with a new GM, the events of the 2015 season have set the course of the offseason. In figuring out what is locked in, we can figure out what … Read more
The Phillies have finally hired a new GM so now we know what the face of the new front office will look like. There is obviously a lot to be done and much of it will happen very slowly. MacPhail has already left a lot in place around the Phillies’ baseball ops and on field personnel … Read more
The Phillies outrighted 7 players off of the 40 man roster today. Five of them are completely unsurprising, as Chase d’Arnaud, Jordan Danks, Adam Loewen, Erik Kratz, and Ken Roberts all go to AAA and then free agency after the world series. None of them had any future in Philadelphia so nothing lost here. The other two … Read more
So I am going to be brief here because Eickhoff has now qualified for my offseason series on graduated prospects so I want to save a lot of the big picture stuff for that. What I really want to do is react to the development of his curveball. Eickhoff mentioned recently that it took him … Read more
Earlier this week news came out that there is mutual interest between the Phillies and Jeff Francoeur on a return for the 2016 season. There is nothing definite here, it is more that the Phillies like Frenchy and Frenchy likes the Phillies. But this got me thinking about the makeup of the team next year. … Read more
As expected the Phillies’ September call ups are underwhelming, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. The three players getting the call today are relief pitchers Dalier Hinojosa (R) and Colton Murray (R), along with catcher Erik Kratz. These three players provide important depth for Phillies team that has been over performing, but running out of … Read more