Is it rhetoric, GM speak or something else? RAJ has to know this team has no chance of contending even if they snagged the 5 playoff spot. Nearly impossible if you look at the NL Central.
Lots of chatter the Tigers are in on Papelbon...done give me Castellanos straight up and I make him my everyday left fielder today and move Brown to right field. Even if Castellanos isn't available Avisail Garcia would be. I don't kick in money for Avi, I would for Castellanos. Nick is a legit middle of the line-up hitter and can play a solid LF.
Next up move Michael Young to a team that really needs him and call up Maikel Franco in the same vein that the other teams like the Orioles brought up Machado. Will he struggle? Of Course but players are players and not to many would disagree that Franco is a big league player. Oh by the way remember a call up by the name of Howard. My middle line-up of the future is now Castellanos/Brown/Franco.
As for the off season it's Ryne, Qualifying offers to Chase and Ruiz and go hard after Matt Garza. Revere isn't going to get any worse and he might not get any better but at worst he would have value as a 4th OF. Roman Quinn our #3 prospect coming into the season has struggled at SS and you just drafted JP Crawford with the 16th pick. Move Roman now to CF and see if he can be ready in 2 or 3 seasons.
You probably cannot move Howard but that's no reason to stunt the growth of the next wave of core players and his embarrassing salary should not dictate he bats 4th.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Finding Dignity
For all intensive purposes the Phillies are out of the hunt. That's conjecture on my part sure. The question now is in light of the moves that need to be made for the better of the franchise how does one find dignity for the manager with the most wins and a WS title in Franchise History?
How does one go about replacing the best SS in franchise history and quite possibly deciding to move on from the best 2B in franchise history? Those are not easy decisions for any franchise let alone one that just a few years ago led the entire MLB in wins.
You look at the Cardinals and see how Mozeliak caught a few breaks. First LaRussa made the decision easy by retiring and then Pujols and Arte Moreno made it even easier by floating a ridiculous contract offer at Albert. Quite simply it was easy for the Cards fan base to accept his departure.
RAJ won't be so lucky. His hand will be forced. I don't imagine too many fans will begrudge him for replacing Charlie with Ryne. Utley and Rollins on the other hand will be a slippery slope. Rollins less so than 26.
For all the doom and gloom RAJ is positioned nicely to rebuild. Lee is marketable and would return major league ready talent. Probably a teams best right handed OF prospect and a high level pitching prospect. Papelbon as well could return a nice piece.
By all accounts the Phillies had a nice draft and they have two really good prospects in Jesse Biddle and Maikel Franco, a left handed starter with a 1.132 WHIP and 10.9K/9 in AA and Franco a 3B prospect at 20 in High A Clearwater.
Things are ugly now but let's see how the GM plays his hand because I believe he has a good one!
How does one go about replacing the best SS in franchise history and quite possibly deciding to move on from the best 2B in franchise history? Those are not easy decisions for any franchise let alone one that just a few years ago led the entire MLB in wins.
You look at the Cardinals and see how Mozeliak caught a few breaks. First LaRussa made the decision easy by retiring and then Pujols and Arte Moreno made it even easier by floating a ridiculous contract offer at Albert. Quite simply it was easy for the Cards fan base to accept his departure.
RAJ won't be so lucky. His hand will be forced. I don't imagine too many fans will begrudge him for replacing Charlie with Ryne. Utley and Rollins on the other hand will be a slippery slope. Rollins less so than 26.
For all the doom and gloom RAJ is positioned nicely to rebuild. Lee is marketable and would return major league ready talent. Probably a teams best right handed OF prospect and a high level pitching prospect. Papelbon as well could return a nice piece.
By all accounts the Phillies had a nice draft and they have two really good prospects in Jesse Biddle and Maikel Franco, a left handed starter with a 1.132 WHIP and 10.9K/9 in AA and Franco a 3B prospect at 20 in High A Clearwater.
Things are ugly now but let's see how the GM plays his hand because I believe he has a good one!
Monday, June 3, 2013
The Calendar Turns June
And the Phillies are 3 Games under .500, 7.5 Back of the Braves for the division and 8 Back for a Wild Card Birth.
Dom Brown is red hot with 16 HR's and an OPS of .895 without walking once in the month of May. A lot of chatter these days about how Brown was handled back in 2011 a lot of revisionist history but such is life in professional baseball.
To be fair the 2011 team went on to win 102 games they clearly were operating in a window where they had a legit shot at their 2nd WS in 4 years. Dom at that time while having decent numbers clearly looked like a player that still had some things to learn about being a professional.
There are times when that teaching should be done at that level and times when it should not. That year was the latter.
Moving on, Cole Hamels worst season in WHIP was 09 1.286 which followed his 08 WS MVP season where he logged a staggering 227 IP. This season the anomaly is 1.338 compared to his career average 1.148. The K rate is still there at 8/9 so this funk must be a command issue and issue of focus.
Decisions ahead loom large. Utley is still out with his oblique and Ruiz still out with a hamstring. Delmon is coming up on 100 AB's and his OBP and OPS numbers are bad, really bad which shines a bigger spot light on how bad he is defensively. I don't see this experiment lasting much longer. Lee and Papelbon are the guys to keep an eye on. Both are pitching very well and figure to be hot commodities at the dead line with strong potential to return big league ready prospects.
I look for the F/O to return a legit right handed bat prospect that can play either right or left now. I think that can be obtained with Paps. I'd be reluctant to move Lee without getting a haul in return.
Cesar Hernandez made his big league debut going 5/19 with 1 XBH.
Dom Brown is red hot with 16 HR's and an OPS of .895 without walking once in the month of May. A lot of chatter these days about how Brown was handled back in 2011 a lot of revisionist history but such is life in professional baseball.
To be fair the 2011 team went on to win 102 games they clearly were operating in a window where they had a legit shot at their 2nd WS in 4 years. Dom at that time while having decent numbers clearly looked like a player that still had some things to learn about being a professional.
There are times when that teaching should be done at that level and times when it should not. That year was the latter.
Moving on, Cole Hamels worst season in WHIP was 09 1.286 which followed his 08 WS MVP season where he logged a staggering 227 IP. This season the anomaly is 1.338 compared to his career average 1.148. The K rate is still there at 8/9 so this funk must be a command issue and issue of focus.
Decisions ahead loom large. Utley is still out with his oblique and Ruiz still out with a hamstring. Delmon is coming up on 100 AB's and his OBP and OPS numbers are bad, really bad which shines a bigger spot light on how bad he is defensively. I don't see this experiment lasting much longer. Lee and Papelbon are the guys to keep an eye on. Both are pitching very well and figure to be hot commodities at the dead line with strong potential to return big league ready prospects.
I look for the F/O to return a legit right handed bat prospect that can play either right or left now. I think that can be obtained with Paps. I'd be reluctant to move Lee without getting a haul in return.
Cesar Hernandez made his big league debut going 5/19 with 1 XBH.
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