2019 Phillies Season Discussion

[andyb]

Interesting lineup. From a defensive perspective, I think I'd rather play Kingery in CF and Franco at 3B then Williams in LF, McCutchen in CF, and Kingery at 3B.

This is a little bit of the platoon they are doing. Basically Kingery full time switching between CF and 3B. Franco against LHP and Williams against RHP. LHP tomorrow night I believe (kid making his first ML start) so Franco will be back in presumably.

[Lawman]

If you bring up Quinn, who goes down? Williams?

[andyb]

I think Gosselin goes down. Herrera was one of the few left-handed bats and since Quinn is no longer a switch hitter, I think you absolutely need to have a left-handed bat on the bench. Now if you don't think Williams should be in that role then you get someone from outside the organization (like the Nats did with Parra).

[julio]

More bad news:

Todd Zolecki (ToddZolecki)

... and some good news (h/t to Squire, who reported this in the minor league transactions thread):

Matt Gelb (MattGelb)

[nycphils]

More reason to stretch a bit with Kimbrel after the draft. Doubt they will do it and not even sure he’s worth it given his decline last year, but where else will real reinforcements come from?

[andyb]

The volume of injuries might lead to something different than Kimbrel. They need innings. Kimbrel is a 1-inning guy so does not help too much there.

I wonder if this leads to a re-evaluation of bullpen strategy with more usage of multi-inning relievers which could include some of the starters with options on the 40 (Anderson, De Los Santos, Suarez, Irvin).

All the short appearances are just killing the current bullpen (no direct correlation of course, but there is sure a lot of indirect evidence).

[Lawman]

Some news via twitter reports:

Victor Arano had arthroscopic surgery yesterday on his elbow.

Roman Quinn is "sore." Will be "tapered back" a bit.

[David_Criss]

Is Irvin an option to replace Morgan?

[andyb]

Probably though in a longer role. They pulled him after 3 innings today in case

[zambonir]

Dohy seems to have settled down, but probably don't want to rush him (or find the roster spot). Gotta get some good work from Velasquez this weekend.

[Austinfan]

Hammer is looking good, he's one option.
Morgan sounds like a minor injury.
While Arano sounds like he's out for a couple months, how far away is Ramos?

With Arrieta and Nola rounding into mid-season form, and the lineup pounding the ball, think they can survive a few weeks with depleted ranks. In the long run, auditioning a bunch of kids may provide organizational depth.

[LoneStarPhan]

Having six relief pitchers on the IL is a tremendous hit to the bullpen. At least five, if not all six, figured to be in the 8 man crew in the pen this season. They have Neris, Dominguez and Alvarez who have done pretty well so far plus the collection filling out the pen. Hopefully, Garcia and Hammer can impress and the converted starters (Velasquez, de la Santos, etc.) fill the void.

[zambonir]

It's funny though, last night they showed the opening 8 bullpen and there's only actually four guys missing from it. Of course that's still 50%! Hunter was already on the IL and Arano didn't make the team.

Hard to believe they got rid of Pazos and also that they didn't seem to have enough optionable guys. But still better to have the likes of Garcia, Hammer and Rios than another Nicasio or Alvarez. They have Davis too. Six weeks to see who can step up; there's always fringe guys on waivers if necessary.

[Austinfan]

Dohy, Leftwich and McGarry have enough stuff to contribute if they turn it around.

In fact, the collapse of Dohy and Leftwich at Lehigh is weird, given the numbers they put up in Reading:
Dohy 11 2 0 5 22 0.82
Leftwich 16.2 4 0 5 27 0.00
It's not that big of a jump to AAA ball, especially going from a hitter's park to a neutral park.

If they need a LH, two wildcards at Reading are Aaron Brown (the converted OF) and Jeff Singer.

[LoneStarPhan]

Alvarez has not been bad in May. He is contributing.
Arano figured to make the bullpen prior to spring training. I have to think something was not right with him from the start of the spring. He was very bad in spring training but was very good during the season last year.

[zambonir]

It seems to be true of all our injured pitchers that they struggled/felt sore and then wound up being injured. It doesn't sound like any of them were hiding pain or trying to pitching through something but the early warnings were there.

[LoneStarPhan]

Phillies Place Zach Eflin On 10-Day IL

Phillies now have seven pitchers on the IL who figured for ML use this season prior to the start of spring training.
Robertson
Hunter
Neshek
Arano
Morgan
Ramos
Eflin

[andyb]

Now we clearly know why they pulled Irvin in his last start.

A Velasquez/Irvin tandem start is probably the best short term option here. Tomorrow night against Kershaw so I am guessing it would be nice to get a win tonight with Saturday being much tougher.

[el-pietro]

Not the worst time to have Irvin in the rotation, low expectations anyway and hes a lefty against a very lefty heavy lineup.

On the other hand it feels like Eflin has been the most consistent Phillies starter so far in 2019. Nola seems to be turning a corner though so hopefully we see a string of good starts in a row from him.

[Austinfan]

I think this might be a conservative move, that is, given the lefty Dodger lineup, giving Irvin another start allows them to play it safe with Eflin. Back tightness usually isn't serious, now back spasms . . .