2021 Phillies Major League Regular Season Discussion

[Taudawg]

Andrew McInvale is the minor league pitcher in the deal. Not really a prospect. Age 24 having solid year at AA - 37th round pick. I would have thought a solid reliever with 3 more years of control would have brought more in return, but I guess not. I understand the reasons behind the trade for 2021, but I don't see how this part of future strategy for the Marlins. Guess that is the market, so I'm not expecting much back when we trade Neris, Bradley and others.

[David_Criss]

Spencer Howard should be a relief pitcher or a 2-3 inning opener. Basing this on small MLB sample, but if we look at his minors record and even back to college, this is who he is. He's really good the first time though a lineup - or 40ish pitches.

The Phillies do need a closer...just saying

[bkox]

The Phillies will activate Jean Segura for tonight's game, but there is no corresponding move yet. There is no lineup either. Both Didi Gregorius and Brandon Kintzler are with Triple-A Lehigh Valley to continue rehab assignments tonight.

— Matt Gelb ( @MattGelb ) June 29, 2021

[andyb]

They are carrying 14 pitchers so imagine they just send Feliz or De Los Santos down for the moment (and more like EDLS because of options).

Maton probably stays until Didi comes back. Kind of wish he got a SS start or two.

[bkox]

Spencer Howard has been sent to AAA

[andyb]

Williams leading off for Herrera tonight with Segura second. Hoskins all the way down to 6th against a LHP that he is 4-8 with a HR against in his career (note Cutch even better at 4-7 with 2 HR). We hit Rogers very well last year. This year not as much.

[zambonir]

So Falter just becomes Moore's tandem partner instead probably.

I wonder if they'll try and get Howard back up on a reliever's schedule. I mean, we've seen what he can do in 2-3 innings as a starter but can he have that same effectiveness if he has to do two innings every three days, or one inning every two?

[bkox]

Hoskins all the way down to 6th against a LHP that he is 4-8 with a HR against in his career

Its amazing how Rhys seems to have fallen off a cliff in June. 0-36 slump.. followed by a decent week. and now another 0-21 slump. And I dont remember his defense being this bad in prior years.

On June 1st he had an .852 OPS. Its dropped over 100 points since then

[andyb]

But his OPS against LHP is still 876 this season. Career .900. He still kills LHPs. I'd probably lead off Cutch against LHP and push Hoskins up to 5th. Hoskins has definitely slipped, but he also is probably one of our best 2 or 3 bats against LHP even considering the streak.

Girardi just overreacts a lot. Rides the hot hand too much. Then tries to search for short term magic that is not there.

[bkox]

Spencer Howard said the plan is for him to start every fifth day in triple A and stretch out to 100 pitches. Sounds more like an investment in Howard’s future and he won’t be rushed back to the Phillies. “We see you as a starter,” Howard said he was told.

— Matt Breen ( @matt_breen ) June 29, 2021

[zambonir]

So, the same plan they had in April before they proved unable to stick to a plan.

I guess the good news is this team isn't showing enough to where we might worry about him being on another team August 1.

[Sabin]

Some June batting stats...

Hoskins
.133 /.220 /.344 /.564
22.0% k-rate
10.0% bb
.111 babip
4 2b /5 hr /12 rbi

Bohm
.333 /.359 /.387 /.746
24.4% k-rate
3.85% bb
.446 babip
4 2b / 11 rbi

McCutchen
.313 /.429 /.642 /1.070
11.9% k-rate
15.5% bb
.283 babip
4 2b /6 hr /19 rbi

Realmuto
.240 /.329 /.400 /.729
19.5% k-rate
10.8% bb
.268 babip
3 2b /3 hr /10 rbi

Herrera
.237 /.270 /.409 /.679
17.0% k-rate
3.0% bb
.253 babip
7 2b /3 hr /11 rbi

Harper
.266 /.356 /.484 /.841
21.4% k-rate
10.0% bb
.289 babip
2 2b /4 hr /8 rbi

[bkox]

Whats happened to the quality of NL 1st baseman that allows Rhys to lead the NL 1st baseman in 2Bs and XBH and be 2nd in HRs and RBIs?

[mdougherty12]

First base offense league-wide isn’t what it was 10-15 years ago when Pujols, Votto, Cabrera, Howard, etc. were in their primes.

[Taudawg]

Only three 1st baseman in all of baseball have an OPS over 800 (qualified). This will change now that summer is here and with the sticky stuff crackdown.

[zambonir]

This seems like a fairly recent change though. Like, IIRC, Rhys was very firmly middle-tier offensively in 2019 with a .819 OPS.

His stats right now are brutal. Missing 50-60 points of OPS just from the OBP side.

[bkox]

RHP Chase Anderson expected to rehab with #IronPigs tonight in Trenton. #Phillies

— Jay Floyd ( @PhoulBallz ) June 30, 2021

[julio]

Anderson went on the COVID IL three weeks ago. That's awfully long for a precautionary quarantine - I wouldn't hold my breath about his rapid return to form.

[andyb]

Given that the Phillies are using an extra slot on the 40-man roster for Anderson, they were going to have to start his rehab at some point. Now I think they have 20 or 30 days of rehab potentially. I am sure some other DFA will come up over the next 30 days to resolve the roster slot, though of course logistically they can't keep carrying all these long relievers (Moore and Anderson most notably now) and not using them much in critical situations. It makes the day to day bullpen short and that, as we have seen, is a problem.

[zambonir]

"How you doing today Chase?"

"Still have the sniffles."

"Well, we better leave you on the IL."

Repeat 20 times.

(Apologies for making light if he really had COVID - though less so if he wasn't vaxxed.)

Given the rehab period syncs up with the trade deadline I think the Phillies have actually managed to manage the roster crunch. Should there never be a space and they are buyers, they can try to offload Anderson in a trade or just finally waive him with only two months of salary left to pay. They will also have to decide whether to actually put Kintzler back on the 26-man.

At this point we're back to 13 pitchers and just one long reliever, Moore or Falter. De Los Santos is up for Coonrod and Feliz is up for Kintzler.

Also Matt Joyce is still on the 40, surely he is DFA'ed when the time comes.