2018 Season MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

[flyers19rw]

I'd like to add hitting philosophy to the list of "news" that the organization instituted. Atown is correct. Too many changes in too short of a time especially for young players who haven't established themselves yet in the game. If one put themselves into the position, as many of these Phillies players were this season, where they had this many major changes made to their job, how successful would they have been? It would be difficult to be successful. Now, how do TPTB properly evaluate these players under these circumstances? My call is that most of these players are not as bad as they showed this year and will be traded of for a value that is less than it should be. Don't be surprised to see Hernandez, Herrera and Franco get moved and then thrive in new environments.

[zambonir]

I'm not that worried about that. First of all I don't know that they will move on from all those players. Secondly, Franco has had ample opportunity to be better, and was worse under last year's hitting coach (plus his big problem is he's just not that good defensively either, if he was his current bat would be fine). Hernandez is aging, they still love what he does but he doesn't have a long-term future here. Herrera, who knows, but he's the one player on the roster besides Kingery whom Klentak took ownership of (contractually).

Some fans like to vent by saying the players stink. But for a lot of people on this board, especially because we fall in love with these guys as prospects, it always seems to be the position coach and front office (or minor league development staff) who lets them down.

[EastFallowfield]

Rockies score 2 runs in a 3 game sweep by the Brewers.

[mdougherty12]

The Rockies ended up with 91 wins, but they had a -2 run differential before their 4 game sweep of the Phils during the last week of the season.

[zambonir]

This story makes a good case for the Phillies' issue being talent more than tactics. The Brewers and Yankees, like the Astros and Dodgers last year and the Indians and Cubs the year before, use their bullpens hard and the Brewers, especially, don't care about roles (not even starter/reliever). Of course the playoffs are different but it shows how relievers are also not fungible anymore - at least until their arms give out - and the question then becomes, can the Phillies develop this group into that or do they need more veteran help?

It’s October Baseball, When Relievers Are More Popular Than Pumpkins

[flyers19rw]

This story makes a good case for the Phillies' issue being talent more than tactics.

If the Phillies had made the personnel moves that the Brewers did they might be playing ball right now. Could have had Yelich, Cain and Moustakas. Didn't do that so they're on the outside looking in. This are a fears of mine for this offseason-can the Phillies properly evaluate talent and are they willing to go get it when it matters?

[zambonir]

I just meant the bullpen, but absolutely. Neverthless, the price would have been high - possibly unpayable - for Yelich, nobody wanted Moustakas either time (he didn't look like an upgrade over Franco) and Cain could end up being a bad contract. I don't think they misevaluated Yelich or Cain really. Mostly it's because the Brewers won 86 games last year and still had Braun and several veteran pitchers. Phillies were a totally different team on a different timetable.

Like the Braves, however, the Brewers kicked the Phillies butt in a more important way - by hiring their GM a lot faster, and hiring one from a good organization. Philly wouldn't have liked him any better though (a Harvard sportswriter!)

[andyb]

I think the deal the Phillies explored for Yelich was tied to taking Stanton (and most of his salary). At some point we backed off on that, though in hindsight any deal for both Stanton and Yelich would have probably started with including at least 2 of Herrera, Altherr, and Williams plus a few prospects.

That would look pretty good now even if they took 100% of Stanton's salary. I wish they had done some sort of deal of course. The "glass half full" thought is that the front office was very correct in their desire to add Yelich even if they could not get it done.

[flyers19rw]

This is the most puzzling part of last year's off season. The Phillies had the money and the prospects to make the Yelich or Yelich and Stanton deal but it didn't happen. It made no sense unless the PTB were (1) absolutely sure that they could rope in Machado; (2) Harper; (3) MM plus Harper; and the longshot, (4) obtain Trout. At this point its hard to have faith that they'll do any of these moves unless Trout goes hardball with the LAA and tells them that he wants out and will not sign anywhere but with Philly. That scenario might have legs. His manager is gone and it looks like a long rebuild in LAA. Trout couldn't be blamed for making that move. Still its a long shot.

[zambonir]

Did we really have the prospects? I mean, it's easy to say now, especially given that Yelich is the MVP, that it would have been a great deal, but I definitely remember people being leary of A) giving up a big package (even though our players might not have even been good enough) B) Yelich being a good but not elite player and C) taking on Stanton.

Plus Stanton made himself very difficult to trade, he wasn't coming here, certainly not to help the Marlins either.

[Patchmk88]

The Dodgers Might Be in Actual Legal Trouble | FanGraphs Baseball

Wasn’t really sure where to put this as it affects all of baseball and it looks like the Dodgers may be in trouble. We all know that human trafficking is a problem for the sport and this article seems to point to the Dodgers as a major offender. One important note is that the end of the article mentions Kapler as a possible perpetrator.

[Austinfan]

Yeah, there's the "everyone wants to come here syndrome" that a lot of fans have about free agents.
Free agents and NTCs means the player gets to choose, and I'm sure Stanton had no interest coming to Philly.

The world looks very different when you have $100+M in the bank.

[flyers19rw]

This article puts a bit of a stink on Gabe Kapler. He is specifically named in this article as being a "former Dodgers' employee who ran the Dodgers’ player development system from 2014 through 2016" when this activity was taking place. Its hard to believe that he didn't have knowledge of it. Whether or not he was actively involved in it is another question. According to this article, Kapler might potentially be banned from baseball due to either his actions or knowledge of events involved in this investigation.
It would behove Middleton to have a chat with Kapler to determine if he was involved or had knowledge of this illegal activity in any way.

[Philsmania]

I don't know but wouldn't this behavior be more on the Dodgers' scouting department? Kapler was director of player development. See how on this site we've been debating whether Almaraz and his department (the guys who bring in the players) or Jordan and his department (the guys who develop the players that the scouting department brings in) are the problem at the root of the Philllies' pharm system's current state of mediocrity. Now the guys who were above Kapler who oversaw or were responsible for both might have a problem if all of this is true.

But, for the sake of conversation, if the worst case scenario is true for Kapler, that could be something of a black eye for Klentak, especially if comes out that there were widespread whispers out there that Kapler may have been dirty which Klentak chose to ignore.

[allentown]

One important note is that the end of the article mentions Kapler as a possible perpetrator.

The money quote: "
In other words, for current and former Dodgers employees — including people like Gabe Kapler (who ran the Dodgers’ player development system from 2014 through 2016) and Friedman — getting banned from baseball may end up being a best-case scenario depending on the extent of their involvement and whether they knew or should have known about the illegality going on in their operations."

Some significant qualifiers, but having the name Gabe Kapler and "getting banned from baseball may end up being a best case scenario" is shocking.

[zambonir]

While I like the writer, I would decribe this article as an opinion piece. As the article also mentions:

So who is the target? That depends, of course, on when the illegal acts occurred. One possibility is that involved members of the Dodgers’ international scouting department who were terminated in 2015, a year after president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman assumed command. That shakeup was fairly comprehensive: the team fired vice president Bob Engle, scouting coordinators Patrick Guerrero and Franklin Taveras, and several others. But even if that’s true, Friedman may very well still be on the hook if he (a) was aware of the activity but (b) didn’t immediately notify authorities. There’s also the fact that these employees were present for a full year after Friedman took over, and I doubt a prosecutor will be sympathetic to the argument that it was necessary to retain the services of known criminals in order to sign some free agents. Plus, the Dodgers’ internal communications cited in the SI story regarding illegal activity were from 2015 and 2016, after the Dodgers cleaned house.

While it's not a good look in any case it still seems unlikely he would have been involved in this aspect of operations, and the only reason his name keeps coming up is he's a major league manager who people have heard of. There have to have been five-ten other people on the Dodgers' organization chart between Friedman and Kapler and nobody is bringing them up because they aren't as well-known.

If the "this was still going on in 2015 and 2016" theory is true that also implicates the Braves' current GM.

And let's not kid ourselves - nothing about this story is probably shocking to Middleton or Sal. It is a black market and every team shops it.

[phillychuck]

Player development occurs after players are signed. I'd think it's more likely than not that Kapler wasn't involved.

[julio]

Player development occurs after players are signed. I'd think it's more likely than not that Kapler wasn't involved.

My instinct here is to refrain from forming an opinion or judgment, pending evidence. To (rather egregiously) paraphrase Sherlock Holmes - drawing a conclusion prematurely, before you have the evidence, tends to cloud your objectivity as evidence is obtained.

Time will tell.

And let's not kid ourselves - nothing about this story is probably shocking to Middleton or Sal. It is a black market and every team shops it.

This is the larger point. MLB's involvement in Latin baseball is significantly corrupt, in a lot of ways. MLB in general, frankly, has more than a minor problem with corruption. Collusion among franchises over various labor-related issues, over time. "Lobbying" and "contributions" to friendly Congressmen (read: bribes) to protect MLB from the requirements of federal anti-trust law. A sometimes capriciously-enforced "anti-drug" policy for organizations that, a few decades ago, openly put bowls of amphetamines out in the locker room for the players to help themselves. Etc.

One might argue that it's "not fair" that a few individuals from a few organizations periodically get caught and disciplined...when frankly, the whole industry (MLB) "rots from the head."

[allentown]

It seems the directions of the investigation has been shaped by which organization the whistleblower was from. The investigation started with a big pile of incriminating internal documents from the Dodgers organization, so that is where the heat is. As the writer says, it doesn't matter how much you value analytics, it's probably not a good idea to make a graph of the magnitude of criminal behavior within your organization.

[Austinfan]

The fact that the new GM fired everyone a year after taking over counsels patience.

Why wait so long? Well for one thing you'd better have done an internal investigation before you engage in wholesale terminations or you might be facing a defamation or other suit. And before you gut your organization, it's standard OP to line up replacements.

The fact that they actually compiled a list of all the people they worked with and ranked them according to perceived corruption suggests they were aware of a problem and were trying to identify the really bad apples and avoid working with them - but in LA I doubt you can find many local agents with pristine hands.