2019 Phillies Season Discussion

[LoneStarPhan]

With 5 relievers going 6 innings tonight in Milwaukee, I expect a roster move tomorrow if Neshek is not ready to pitch.

Jim Salisbury (JSalisburyNBCS)

[LoneStarPhan]

Now this

Jim Salisbury (JSalisburyNBCS)

[andyb]

Well if Anderson is still with the team they can activate him and send him down for Pivetta on Tuesday. Or kick VV back to Wednesday since they have an off day Monday. Nobody would be on short rest anyway.

[Austinfan]

Not surprised by Neshek, he looked like Nesuck.
The bodies keep falling in the pen.
I think Klentak is going to be more reluctant to spend real money on veteran RPs after the last couple seasons - why pay $9M for mediocrity and a stint on the IR when you can just promote a 25 year old RP and get the same results?

[zambonir]

I think he did fine last season. But this season - adding Nicasio and Alvarez (cheap, but not dirt-cheap) and Robertson for a group of five more costly and non-optionable (If not necessarily more injury-prone, the kids get hurt too) was too much. With Neshek, Hunter and Nicasio all coming off the books he'll still sign at least one vet next year. Guys like Hunter and Nicaso aren't going to get paid $8-9 million anymore either.

[zambonir]

Great note:

The Phillies will be off on Memorial Day for the first time since 2005. Monday will be the first Memorial Day without a Phillies loss since 2014...

Phillies Vince Velasquez changes tone about possible role in bullpen, comes in...

[DurhamBull]

While I really don't begrudge Nick Williams his personal life, or his CBA rights, or the fact that he's getting a raw deal, it sounds like it was in fact, a bit of drama.

I dunno, it doesn't sound like drama to me. He did not promptly and cheerfully report to his assignment. He acknowledged that he's frustrated and maybe considering his options, the Phils acknowledged that he's not getting a great opportunity. Probably some hurt feelings on both sides but it was resolved within the bounds of their agreement. Maybe with a few days off he can get his head clear, focus on development, and be ready with a 900 OPS in LHV so that when one of the starting OFs gets injured, he's a no-question call up.

[gmwannabe]

you're right Zambonir, i hope the second rounder makes it. Still think he was brought up too early after that tremendous spring. they should've know it was against the AAAA and less pitchers. but, here's hoping. who's the southeastern scout that missed on riley? Corny is from the same region. jeez...
gm

[zambonir]

It's not a soap opera, but it was drama. Emphasis on was.

The other thing that stood out to me was he stopped just short of saying out loud, why whould I get sent down instead of Herrera being benched? Unfortunately, Herrera getting benched wasn't going to open up a job for him anyway.

It is an unfortunate circumstance of the protracted free agent market that they couldn't trade him until they knew how it played out. Conversely, Maikel Franco is very lucky. I think packaging him in July is probably the best use of the asset, barring injuries, and a .900 OPS and "this guy needs to play every day" probably does look better than hitting .221 as a PH (which he wasn't doing, but that would be league-average production).

GM, if Kingery has a good season, and, especially, if he takes to this role, then they didn't bring him up to early. A year of development is a year of development. Maybe a year of sucking in the majors will turn out to have been better than a year of doing great in AAA. Maybe he'd be struggling now as a rookie even with that extra time. The main thing is he got the reps.

[Austinfan]

Williams, Franco and Herrera all got a fair shot at winning a job.
Phillies brought in four new starters b/c Alfaro, Crawford and these three failed.

Kingery also failed, started the season on the bench and has hit his way into a starting spot somewhere.
Hernandez meet the challenge head-on.

Pro sports are tough, but I fail to feel too bad for a kid who made more in one year than I did cumulatively until well into my 30s. If you spend a couple years in the show and haven't socked away a few hundred K, it's your own fault.

[Squire]

Neshek to the IL. j.D Hammer called up. Don’t know how they got him on the 40 though perhaps Cozens got moved to the 60 Day

[LoneStarPhan]

Moving Cozens to the 60 day IL is a logical move since he is finished for the season. The crunch comes in October when they need to clear the 40 in preparation for the rule 5 draft. But that is a ways off and many things will change by then.

However, I see that it was Robertson that went to the 60 day IL so I guess Cozens is available to move if and when they need another spot.

Meghan Montemurro (M_Montemurro)

[Squire]

Ugh. Robertson. Tommy Hunter, David Robertson and Pat Neshek. Maybe we should stop Paul g bi money for over 30 relievers. We’re not good at it

[zambonir]

And Arano and Ramos are injured too. Last year Morgan was. Hunter and Neshek were still 3rd and 4th in reliever WAR last year (behind Seranthony and Arano) and I think they'll all still contribute (assuming no surgeries. Right now Arano seems to be the worst off!)

I don't feel sorry for Williams but neither he nor the Phillies were well-served by just keeping him until Harper came, and then finding no trade offer they could live with. Whereas Alfaro and Crawford got great value. Hindsight for sure but they would have been better off moving him early and rolling the dice on Altherr, a low-level signing like Adam Jones or a AAAA guy if and only if they didn't sign Harper. (Assuming they'd signed Manny of course.)

But they can still trade Nick for Cole Hamels again. Maybe throw in Cole Irvin too.

[andyb]

JD Hammer is this year's Seranthony. Missed most of last year but got healthy and blew through 3 levels this year (including the majors). I don't think he will be as dominant as Seranthony was when he came up, but I would not be shocked if they ease him in towards later innings pretty quickly.

Also, he is pitching 2 innings a lot. 22.1 IP in only 14 outings. He throws strikes too. Only 3 HR given up in the minors in his career so he has kept the ball in the park so far. I kind of like it when they are creative with a young player. I think they wanted to do this with Dohy also who has been pitching better of late. Would not be shocked to see him as well in a couple of months.

[bkeich]

NThis is the point where I really wish they would consider doing what I suggested 2 seasons ago. Move Velasquez in to a steady long reliever. 3-5 innings once per 4 or 5 days. Yesterday would have been a good chance.

That way you can rest the entire bullpen every 4 or 5 days and won’t end up with the situation we had against the cubs where we lost a game because we didn’t have enough relievers available.

Velasquez is perfect for this role, he is stretched out as a starter (or was) and is one of our better hitters as a pitcher. You need someone that you can send up to hit in the 7th inning or so and they can at least bunt or offer some threat(you PH for him if it is a close game and the situation warrants)

Doing this would be a huge advantage, we could live with just a few core relievers and have other guys in mop up roles, but by using 4-6 relievers in most games you really need a full bullpen of solid relievers, which we don’t have by any evaluation.

[bkeich]

KYes, Hammer has been this yearsDominguez, but hopefully he doesn’t get the same treatment /exposure. Kaplan fell in love with Dominguez and clearly overused him after he came up, way too many games and innings for a young pitcher and I think he either has a tired arm or he has been exposed.

With all our injuries in the bullpen, any reliever that does well is going to get run out there way too often. Every time a pitcher has a good game Kapler (out of necessity maybe) just keeps running him out there. The bullpen by committee is good in some ways, but bad in others, there is a temptation to overuse the flavor of the week.

[Austinfan]

Cozens isn't worth protecting at this point.
This was the season he needed to push for a promotion.

[zambonir]

The bullpen is still not costing us games! No such thing as a perfect bullpen. Even when the bullpen struggles it's not always a game the team would have automatically won, and even in this day and age, when you're in a game where that's the case, other aspects of the team missed other opportunities to win the game more easily (like the way Rhys just did tonight).

I'd rather have our injuries than the Yankees, though their record is still miles better.

I think it would be fun to see Gabe use Velasquez in the tandem starter role. My suspicion is, he is so heavily scrutinized already for being unconventional that they are reluctant to do it. Because there's no way they don't want to. I think asking Vince to go four innings is too much though. It's different being a reliever and he's not necessarily effective for that long. Moving him to the pen lets him do things more simply, and at maximum effort. Asking him to pitch like a starter for half a game just makes him another middle reliever. IN such a scenario, by the 7th inning when his turn to comes to bat he is probably not a better option than three-four more relievers, even when you're trying to save some of them.

[tom81]

I think Eflin’s outing Sunday determines who Tuesday's starter is. If he goes deep, 7+ innings in a 9 inning game, I think Valesquez gets Tuesday’s start. If he doesn’t go deep and they need someone to lock down one or two innings in the middle I think they turn to Valesquez for them and have Pivetta start Tuesday.