2022 Phillies Major League Regular Season Discussion Part 2

[schillingfan]

Well, technically,yes. But Bohm was already in the line-up. Last night we had Hoskins and Bohm. Tonight we had Bohm and Sosa. I would rather have Hall’s bat in the line-up than Sosa. I would replace Sands with Hall as a pinch hitter. Hoskins may be out longer than just today.

[allentown]

But Hoskins was replaced by Bohm, and Sosa is actually not a big step down from Bohm

You realize this makes no sense. Hoskins and Bohm were both full-timers in the lineup. Bohm moved to 1B, but didn't replace Hoskins in the lineup, because he was already there. The new guys in the lineup is Marsh to lesser extent Segura. A lot of guys came back recently. Not really fair to say either Bohm or Sosa replaced Hoskins in the lineup.

[zambonir]

But last night that is what happened. It's no different than when Bohm moves to DH and Sosa plays 3B. Which only happened because either or Harper or Castellanos was unavailable to DH. But bottom line, the team can win games without Hoskins just like they have won games without Harper and Castellanos. Sure, Hall might replace Hoskins and contribute to the run scoring. But Sosa contributes to the run prevention. It's hardly cut-and-dried (and that's without even mentioning what Sosa did with the bat for a few games).

Now, maybe Hall should be at 1B instead of Bohm and Sosa should be at 3B instead of Bohm. At least on some nights. But that's another conversation. And it's all moot if Rhys plays tomorrow. Obviously if he's out longer Hall should return (unless Castellanos can first).

[andyb]

Well, Donny Sands has not appeared in a game since September 3rd (a blowout). We never needed 3 catchers. Hall had sat for a couple of weeks so they wanted him to get at bats and get back on track. That has now happened in the last 10 days.

They should call Hall up immediately even if Hoskins is ready to play. Hall for Sands. Then any determination on Sosa should depend on the severity of his injury (Munoz?). The Sands move never made sense other than needing an extra hitter for a few days while Hall got back on track. We have a fine backup catcher. We can't DH JT because of Bryce. A 3rd catcher is a waste of a roster spot.

[David_Criss]

Wheeler will soon surpass the one-month mark since he last pitched. How soon will be ready? The Phillies could go into the playoffs with Wheeler and Eflin in the pen or as openers at this point.
And we haven't heard anything about Castellanos in a few days either....

[fish]

Minor League Games - Week of September 13-18, 2022

Marsh has to hit of course, but I kind of like what I have seen from him the past couple of weeks.

Copying this over from the minor league thread to comment. It's an interesting change they've made in his approach- having him 'sit' down a bit more in his setup. Usually the adjustment is the other way around, but it seems to agree with him.

[andyb]

Possible that quiets some of the movement he had before the pitch. It might make him a bit quicker to the ball against good fastballs.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Sosa to the 10-day IL. Munoz called up to take his place on the active roster.

[andyb]

A little surprised they did not go get Hall too. Maybe they are waiting a day to see about Hoskins since there is a LHP for the Braves tonight and Hall would not have started anyway. Note that would be Hall for Sands. They obviously would bring him up for Hoskins if an IL move were required there.

[zambonir]

Well, I don't think I can make the same argument for Munoz at 3B (Bohm is once against at 1B tonight). But you can make the case that they could use Hall as a PH tonight just as much - or just as little - as they might in a playoff game.

[David_Criss]

When can we expect an update on Castellanos? LeHigh Valley only has 8 games remaining after tonight. How does he get game ready for the playoffs?
Guessing Coonrod gets optioned when Wheeler returns. Hope he can get healthy this off season.

[andyb]

Castellanos felt sore 4-5 days ago and was backing off his rehab for a few days. Hopefully he is restarting it now. Does not sound like he'd be ready this weekend. If he gets activated that last week it might have to be without any game action unless they get him a day or two of plate appearances in the instructional league.

Edit - And looking at the Lehigh Valley schedule they are home this week through Sunday but up in Syracuse for the last 3 games the next Monday-Wednesday. Can't imagine they'll send him to Syracuse to rehab.

[David_Criss]

And in the most predictable roster move of the year. Wheeler up Coonrod down.

Roster Moves: Phillies reinstate Zack Wheeler from IL, send right-handed...

[andyb]

They had to do that. He was not pitching well since he came back. Should not cost them an option I believe since he will have been on optional assignment for less than 20 days (only 8 days left in the AAA season). I wonder also if the 15 day assignment rule applies after the AAA season is over though I suppose any further recall would be for an injury so they can do that if needed.

Still want them to bring Hall back. I suppose they might want to keep Guthrie instead and Sands could go down for Castellanos whenever he is ready.

[Austinfan]

I suspect it'll be Guthrie, he's hitting well, and he can play all over the field.

[zambonir]

I don't think the Phillies struggles are a big mystery. It's 50% strength of schedule and 50% injuries. With better health they might be more competitive against the best teams, but so it goes. The bullpen's struggles are still directly related to both the loss of Knebel and Seranthony (putting more pressure on the others in addition to the rough return of Seranthony himself) and the rotation's own struggles. The line-up has never not been missing two key players and Harper is not yet himself.

They're going to make the playoffs, and maybe with health and luck they'll do better in October than they have in these last five games. Maybe they'll even do better over these next four. But at least we get to ride the ride. And I still welcome the 6th seed over the 5th.

Here’s 12 thoughts on a flagging playoff push as the Phillies try to ‘stay in...

1. Interim manager Rob Thomson pushes back on the Phillies-can’t-beat-good-teams narrative, citing their victorious season series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. The facts remain: Against winning teams, they were 5-11 since the All-Star break, 16-17 under Thomson, and 29-34 overall, with eight of the last 15 games coming against playoff-bound clubs.

2. Nobody is asking the Phillies to apologize for beating up on the NL’s four weakest teams, but it’s hard to ignore that they are 37-11 against Washington, Miami, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati and 43-56 against everyone else.

Phillies keep making postseason berth more difficult, but the math is still on...

The Phillies, right now, are a postseason team by default. The National League must send six teams to the tournament. The sixth-best team was always going to be a good — not great — team. But the Phillies have lost five straight games. They have lost 16 of their last 20 games against teams with winning records, since July 10. They are neither good nor great in their current form.

[andyb]

Maybe the manager does make a difference?

Rosenthal: OK, Phillies fans, I will say it — I was wrong!

[zambonir]

The thing is, we'll never really know. Clearly there was a vibe shift (sorry). And he did some tangible things differently than Girardi with the bullpen. His embrace of younger players wasn't truly by choice but I think it's safe to say Girardi would have made different choices (leaning on the AAAA players more). Maybe Didi doesn't get released, even.

But at the same time, a lot of what happened under Thomson might have still happened under Girardi - the softening schedule, Ranger rounding into form, the deadline moves, better depth throughout. And when this team has played the Mets and Braves recently they've still looked like the team from May.

The craziest thing about the season IMO is that the team probably played its best baseball - albeit against mostly bad teams - without Harper and Segura. Segura was already on the IL before Thomson took over, even.

[andyb]

The move to Stott was the biggest one that Girardi might not have made (or made as soon). I think that really sent a message that if the young players played well they would actually play.

Though I kind of wish Sosa was healthy now because Stott has made a couple of lazy errors this week that it would probably be healthy for him to watch a game or two against a tough lefty.

[zambonir]

Sosa is an underrated loss for sure.

Hopefully they can win a couple of games this weekend (as well as in Chicago) and make the Nats series relatively low pressure (with the actual clinching there at some point).

The weird thing is that by all accounts Girardi pushed to break spring training with both Stott and Bohm. But then he couldn't really manage it, and even favored Camargo some.