2019 Phillies Season Discussion

[Squire]

RHP Drew Anderson optioned back to AAA
INF Mitch Walding optioned back to AAA
RHP Enyel De Los Santos called up
INF Sean Rodriguez called up and added to 40 man roster
LHP James Pazos DFA'd

[el-pietro]

Rodriguez is starting at SS tonight.

[andyb]

I saw this coming after his 4-4 day last week. Not sure there is evidence that Rodriguez has more range at SS than Asdrubel Cabrera did though. Or more evidence than a week that he can actually hit balanced by the last 2 years of data that showed he couldn't.

[David_Criss]

So Drew Anderson will be this years Jake Thompson. When you look at the very small sample size at AAA Rodriquez and Romine are fairly similar. Walding got a shot because he was on the 40-man, but how many times can he strike out? And he was struggling out of the gate. Gosselin was the better hitter of the three when he was called up, but is a 2B. He had only played 42 games at SS at the minor league level and 16 at the Major League level, while Rodriquez had played 379 and 176 respectively, but Romine played 603 games at SS in the minors and 188 at the Major League level. Given the start of this season, the fact that we are still a week away from finishing April and Mitch Walding, Sean Rodriquez and Phil Gosselin have had stints with the parent club-----ouch.

             AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	.OBP	.AVG	.OPS

Phil Gosselin 31 7 13 3 0 0 6 1 0.538 0.419 1.055
Shane Robinson 37 10 13 1 0 2 5 2 0.478 0.351 1.019
Roman Quinn 18 6 6 0 1 0 2 1 0.4 0.333 0.844
Andrew Romine 49 6 15 0 0 3 10 3 0.346 0.306 0.836
Sean Rodriguez 45 7 12 2 1 4 12 0 0.327 0.267 0.949
Mitch Walding 50 9 11 2 1 3 13 0 0.298 0.220 0.778
Dylan Cozens 52 14 10 1 1 6 14 3 0.348 0.192 0.945

[andyb]

It looks to me like they are using that last relief pitcher with options slot to rotate a long man through. Eickhoff, then Anderson, then De Los Santos. Whenever one of those goes more than 2 innings we rotate another one in for the next game to have a long reliever ready.

Sean Rodriguez is not likely to help much, but this is a game where we should feast on a bad pitcher. Jason Vargas. We rarely faces lefties and we have been having issues with good fastballs lately. Do not have to worry about that against Vargas. Pretty close to a must win for an early season game IMO.

[zambonir]

I find it more interesting that, we now know, the Phillies were just never that impressed with Pazos. Couldn't knock Alvarez off the roster, couldn't beat out Davis for a call-up, and there are obviously other guys in AA or AAA who could rise up the ranks mid-season. Hard to believe a lefty reliever loses his 40 spot so the Phillies can have two aging back-up utility guys tho.

I also wonder, since Pazos was also in the deal, how much of getting Nicasio was because they liked him and how much was to make the Santana deal work? But he's clearly not going anywhere.

With Robertson and Hunter both out they do have two optionable bullpen slots, so one is for a short man (started with Ramos, then Arano, then Davis briefly, now Ramos again) and the other for the long (which Anderson actually started, followed by Eickhoff, then Anderson again when Eickhoff left the bullpen. Hopefully De Los Santos is not needed tonight and will contribute at home).

[andyb]

Bonus is we have a couple of 40-man slots available when we eventually move on from Gosselin and Rodriguez. Players not on the 40 that might help at some point this season include Grullon, Jan Hernandez, Haseley theoretically, Dohy, and Irvin (a LH long man might be an interesting tandem to all our RH starters). Not counting guys like Romero who need more development but could be more interesting in the second half.

[zambonir]

Altherr will open a 40-man spot too. I suspect we'll be seeing Rodriguez or Gosselin up and down for a while yet. If Altherr moves on and Quinn gets hurt again one of those guys + Kingery is more likely to provide that 5th-OF insurance than Cozens (or Walding).

What about Gilbert?

[teabag259]

It’s just a damn shame that Quinn can’t remain healthy.

[zambonir]

Gotta feel bad for him. Honestly think you have to trade him to a bad team that can afford to ride out his ups and downs for another year or two. He can barely justify the 40-man space on a contender, if not now, than next off-season.

[LoneStarPhan]

Walding does have the unique stat that 100% of his ML hits are home runs. Yes, one home run in 19 at bats gives him a career BA of 0.053 but two walks make his OBP .143 and OPS .353. In his 19 at bats, he has 14 strike outs. I think his future with the Phillies will be in providing an opening on the 40 man roster at some point this season.

[el-pietro]

Cozens is up, Quinn to the IL.

Matt Gelb (MattGelb)

[Squire]

Good to see Roman Quinn back at home.

[el-pietro]

Apparently hes going to be gone for a while. Altherr lives to breath another day.

Matt Gelb (MattGelb)

Not all bad news though

Matt Breen (matt_breen)

[andyb]

I would not be shocked if Rodriguez stays and Cozens goes back down if Segura is healthy. It is not like Cozens will help in CF over Williams so I think we'll see Altherr and Cutch there until either Herrera or Kingery is back.

I will say that in a purely pinch hitting role, Cozens might be a better fit than Williams. HRs and BBs are often what we want in late inning pinch hitting situations.

[donaldorc]

Is our team jinxed or is this a typical IL around the league? I think much of our problem on the recent road trip had to do with some of our stars on the IL, especially Segura.

[zambonir]

I don't think we are even close to being a Top 5 injured team this year (see the Yankees, for instance. And we haven't lost a starting pitcher).

I also think when you have one of the best offensive starting eights in the league, losing 25% of it hurts a lot more. Last year if we'd lost Crawford (which we did) and one of the OFs (Hoskins actually did get hurt in May) it wasn't as big a deal.

But obviously having both back-ups for SS and CF getting hurt at the same time is pretty unusual.

I've lost track of who is actually on the roster/bench now. It's Gosselin, Cozens, Williams, Knapp, with Rodriguez and Altherr technically now starters. So once Segura comes back I would think Cozens stays and Gosselin goes - though Gosselin and Rodriguez are both probably more able to play CF than Cozens (in theory, if you still buy defensive spectrum).

[David_Criss]

I've lost track of who is actually on the roster/bench now. It's Gosselin, Cozens, Williams, Knapp, with Rodriguez and Altherr technically now starters. So once Segura comes back I would think Cozens stays and Gosselin goes - though Gosselin and Rodriguez are both probably more able to play CF than Cozens (in theory, if you still buy defensive spectrum).

Altherr continues to survive. We all had him dumped off the 40-man as soon as Quinn was ready to be activated. He was activated to early IMO, but not to many options when you carry 8 bullpen pitchers. So the question now is does McCutchen move to center and Williams plays in right or do they leave Cutch in left and keep running Altherr out to center for his glove?

Gosselin is here until Segura is activated.
Cozens or Altherr will go when Hererra is activated.
The other is here until or if and when Quinn is activated.
They love Rodriquez, so I would not be surprised to see him survive when Kingery is activated leaving Williams as the 4th and only true bench OFer to go with Rodriquez, Kingery and Knapp

My hope is they move Cutch to CF and play Williams. I can't imagine Altherr gets to many more opportunities to show he doesn't have the bat anymore. He could be designated and Adams or Robinson could be given a shot, too.

[andyb]

My hope is they move Cutch to CF and play Williams. I can't imagine Altherr gets to many more opportunities to show he doesn't have the bat anymore.

Until Herrera is back I can see them doing a L/R platoon with Williams in LF and Altherr in CF. Probably depends on how the defense looks with Cutch in CF. Then when Herrera is back we'll go back to normal. If Quinn is still hurt they might keep Altherr, but if he does not start hitting and they go back to a shorter bench they might keep Rodriguez instead.

[zambonir]

Altherr is cooked but Adams and Robinson are not serious alternatives (let alone upgrades). I think in your scenario above Kingery starts playing back-up CF (if Rodriguez hangs around).

It's a tough stretch. At the end of the day, the injuries are an excuse and wondering about chemistry or slumps or whether they were as good as we thought ignores the obvious. If Segura, Herrera, Kingery, Quinn, Robertson and even Hunter were all out for the season, this would not be a playoff team - or Klentak would have to sacrifice some talent and salary space to trade for at least a couple of replacements.