2021 Phillies Major League Regular Season Discussion (part 2)

allentown 2021-09-30 20:08:19 UTC #502

He'd have to be insane to come back. He's having fun now. He's winning. He's allowed to actually manage, something he was never allowed to do in Philly.

phillychuck 2021-09-30 20:15:30 UTC #503

I think Billy Martin is no longer an option.

zambonir 2021-09-30 21:43:03 UTC #504

Kidding (was basically saying the same thing phillychuck did).

flyers19rw 2021-09-30 23:54:14 UTC #505

What makes anyone think that Kapler would have done any better than Girardi with this bunch. What Kapler has for a roster in SF is far superior overall than the cards that Girardi has been dealt.

Philsmania 2021-10-01 00:05:55 UTC #506

It's entirely possible that Kap may have done worse. It will be interesting to see if he keeps it up when the Giants transition to younger core. I always saw a lot of Tito in him and Tito did much better with vets in Boston than young players in Philadelphia.

zambonir 2021-10-01 00:29:53 UTC #507

Kapler wasn't dealt good cards either. But this roster is far better than the 2018 roster, and somewhat better than the 2019 roster.

And the Giants roster isn't at all better on paper, and also not much younger. Their GM - and yes, the manager and coaching staff - just got more out of them.

It doesn't matter if it's Mackanin, Kapler or Girardi, the common denominator for the last 10 years is the organization.

(Except in Sandberg's case, he actually did stink.)

Think we'll have a pitching coach stick around for two years for the first time in forever? He's a Driveline guy too.

flyers19rw 2021-10-01 00:31:17 UTC #508

Baloney. The Giants roster is far superior to that of the Phillies.

zambonir 2021-10-01 00:36:16 UTC #509

It shouldn't be though. Why do Cutch and Didi stink but Crawford and Longoria don't? How are Posey and Belt better than JT and Hoskins at their age? I wouldn't have traded Nola for any of their starting pitchers last off-season and possibly not Eflin either. But there they are.

bkox 2021-10-01 00:39:27 UTC #510

Well I guess the question is... Are the Giants that much better... or is the coaching/managing that much better... or are the 2021 Giants like the 1993 Phillies that just totally out played expectations for one year and might fall apart next year

allentown 2021-10-01 00:42:32 UTC #511

It would have been good to see what Kaplan could have done if he was allowed to make the in-game decisions with his coaches rather than being the implementers of the conclusions of the unproven analytics department.

zambonir 2021-10-01 01:04:16 UTC #512

Yeah but Kapler was basically part of that analytics department. He bought in. But he - and they - learned from their mistakes... and then didn't get to stick around long enough for the Phillies to benefit from that.

What's crazy is that it's still fundamentally the same coaching staff, especially the old-timers who were supposed to balance Kapler's inexperience at bench coach and 3B. And Fuld - one of the people who helped botch the original analytics roll-out - is the GM!

Some of it is luck but the Giants got Kevin Gausman, who was lousy in 2019 before rounding back into form in 2020, where the Phillies got Chase Anderson, who was lousy in 2020 and did not round back into form this year. The Giants have gotten huge results from Ruf, Wilmer Flores and Yastremski; we got Matt Joyce and Ronald Torreyes.

mdougherty12 2021-10-01 01:09:55 UTC #513

The rejuvenation of Posey, Crawford, Belt, and Longoria has been huge for San Francisco. Those guys were all looking close to done at the end of 2019, and they're all having good to excellent seasons in 2021 in their mid-30s.

zambonir 2021-10-01 01:43:59 UTC #514

And that is likely not sustainable, but without even know too much about their farm system (other than the catchers) I'm confident it has a brighter future than ours! (Or the '93 Phillies).

bkox 2021-10-01 01:45:51 UTC #515

ranked 8th by MLB pipeline.. Says its the deepest its been since bungartner and posey were coming up

bkox 2021-10-01 02:20:34 UTC #516

Longest postseason droughts in pro sports:

19 … Mariners [2001] pending 2021
15 … Kings [2005-06]
10 … Phillies [2011]
10 … N.Y. Jets [2010]
10 … Sabres [2010-2011]
7 … Tigers [2014]
7 … Angels [2014]
6 … Pirates [2015]
6 … Royals [2015]
— Reuben Frank ( @RoobNBCS ) October 1, 2021

bkox 2021-10-01 13:59:21 UTC #517

Another pick for Harper

An AL executive said this to me about Bryce Harper the other day, 100 percent unprompted, at the end of a long conversation in which I never brought up Harper’s name:

“What Bryce Harper has done, on a team that really shouldn’t be a playoff contender, is insane.

andyb 2021-10-01 14:16:10 UTC #518

Knowing how the voters think, I am guessing going 0 for Atlanta killed Bryce's chances.

Philsmania 2021-10-01 14:20:13 UTC #519

Harper, Soto, Ohtani, Tatis and Guerrero have all had individually spectacular seasons. But, unless Toronto can play their way in, all five of them will be watching the Postseason on TV. And, it's entirely possible that Guerrero will be the only one to play on a winning team with the Phillies stuck at 81 wins and having to finish in Miami which has been a snakepit for them in recent years.

BaseballCat 2021-10-01 16:10:54 UTC #520

I think Austin Riley is a dark horse in the MVP race. OPS and SLG not quite the Harper level, but everything else is there. He was good in the minors, but not this good. I keep waiting for this blossoming effect to happen to a Phils prospect!!

bkox 2021-10-01 16:30:24 UTC #521