2021 Phillies Major League Regular Season Discussion

[Patchmk88]

Didi is just awful.

[zambonir]

I suppose it could happen but he hasn't been showing the velocity, has never shown the first-inning control, and now the sticky stuff crackdown. And even if they had really tried to make him a reliever they would have had to non-tender him (heck, even Bradley got non-tendered last year).

The real problem is that he actually was the best option all the times they used him, because all the other starters actually were that bad.

Now I'd be surprised if he's anything other than the garbage time long man, and it's a toss-up whether he or Anderson or Moore should be first cut (though they still have Hammer and De Los Santos to option).

[bkox]

#Phillies Didi Gregorius is batting .162 over his last 41 games played and .115 over his last 16 games.

— Ryan M. Spaeder ( @theaceofspaeder ) August 1, 2021

[bkox]

Andrew McCutchen has some sort of knee injury, but Joe Girardi was not certain of what it was. Right knee. Stiffened early in the game. His status for Sunday is uncertain. Probably no Hoskins tomorrow. Phillies need a win.

— Matt Gelb ( @MattGelb ) August 1, 2021

[bkox]

Mets come from behind to win tonight.. Braves win tonight as well. Braves have caught us in the division and we are 4.5 out

[bkox]

A pretty remarkable stat in what's been a disappointing week for the Phillies. The last time they held a lead during a game was a week ago today against the Braves. The only time they led in their 2 wins against Washington was after the game ended, both wins came on walkoff HRs.

— Sean Kane ( @SKaneNBCS ) August 1, 2021

[bkox]

Spencer Howard talks to media about how the Phillies messed with him. called it a "tough go up there". Seems relieved to no longer be here

Link to the video.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1421978723587436546

[Sabin]

Yeah, hard for me to say much to the specifics that I wasn't a part of, but I have questioned some of the tinkering the club continues to do with some of its players. Suarez being another recent example of yo-yoing around the bullpen (and now rotation). Moore made similar comments a month or so ago that appeared to show a disconnect with direction between player and management.

This will inevitably happen on occasion, but is generally not good to be a more common occurrence.

[Taudawg]

We will never know, but Spencer could be a defensive fella - saying these things as an excuse. He wouldn't be the first athlete to make himself the victim. In the minors, Spencer pitched in 53 games, all 53 were starts. MLB - 2020 6 games, 6 starts. This was the first year he came out of the bullpen in Phillies org. However, the 6 starts in 2020 and the 7 starts in 2021 all came with the same results. He was great the first time through a lineup, or 3 innings-ish. After, not so much.

Or maybe Dombrowski agrees with Spencer's assessment and just reached the conclusion that all the messing around with the kid had broken him (for the time being at least) and it was best if he could reset in another organization. Dombrowski needed starters and relievers and he got a prospect to boot.

[zambonir]

Even on this board I can remember some real off-season debate about Howard - was he our #5, should he start in AAA (or rather, alternate site), should he go into the pen given he was still one of the best major league arms on the 40? In hindsight he probably should have just gone into the rotation, as neither Moore nor Anderson proved to be better, and it might have ended up the same way (with either failure, or success but him hitting his innings limit).

Doesn't change the fact that they jerked him around this season, or that he could still turn into an excellent player next year, but of course he could also break. At the end of the day this was just a simple trade of future value for 2021-2022 value.

The tinkering still doesn't reflect well on anyone, Girardi included, but Dombrowski had to sign the wrong players and Cotham had to be unable to make them better before you even get to the tinkering.

[Austinfan]

Howard forced the tinkering, despite his physique, he has never shown the ability to throw 100 pitches and not lose his stuff, after 4-5 starts, the same result which means it's more than just building up strength, there's something weird the way his stuff would fall off a cliff after 50 pitches. It wasn't just hitters adjusting the second time through, his velo would go from 96-97 to 91-94.

This may explain why he wasn't a starter most of his college career as well, they may have seen the same thing and thought he was better suited to a BP role.

[andyb]

One of the issues with Howard is that he previously DID show stamina and hold velocity late in games. How soon we forget:

MiLBY says yes to Howard's playoff no-no

Something happened in the last 3 years. Whether it was shoulder injuries, tinkering, or his body just not handling the velocity which he grew into, it happened. The bouncing back and forth between different roles probably did not help, but the fundamental reality is that Howard is not the same pitcher he was several years ago and the roles were in reaction to that diminished stuff.

[David_Criss]

Nola, Wheeler, Gibson is not a bad trio at all. Get Eflin back and this team will have a decent rotation. The problem is after the first three, the Phillies only have openers at this point in Moore, Anderson, Suarez, and God help us VV to fill in the final 2 spots.

Gibson at least gives the team hope as Howard was an opener, too.

I like giving Suarez a shot at starting. My fear and very first thought was: if it doesn't go well and he loses confidence and then we are out a starter candidate and one of, if not, the brightest bullpen options this seasons. I hate that my thought process immediately went there, but then again, how many times have we seen that? Hoping for the best cause I like Ranger and want to see him as the fifth starter next year.

Thinking positively - Falter will need some time to build back up and Eflin comes back and the team goes on a crazy win streak in September to clinch the NL east --- trying to fix my thought process.

[kmc1019]

While I'm glad about the addition of Gibson and Kennedy, it's frustrating that the Tyler Anderson trade fell through, since picking up both he and Gibson were not mutually exclusive in any way. Having Gibson and Anderson - and ideally the return of Eflin - would have given the Phillies as deep a starting pitching staff outside of any team not named the Los Angeles Dodgers.

[gmwannabe]

i forgot about that no hitter. what a great game!! what the heck happened?
gm

[allentown]

He was once our top prospect for good reason. When you look at first and second round drafted pitchers who fail to have successful MLB careers, it seems to me that injury is the primary cause of failure. Howard has had shoulder woes for years. Part of the role shifting was to limit his IP. He entered this year with the Phillies openly acknowledging the need to limit his IP. After a respectable 112 IP plus playoffs in 2018 at Lakewood, he logged only 71 IP and a rehab start at GCL in 2019, and only 24 IP in 2020. This year's stats suggest that his shoulder just isn't right.

[bigegypt0417]

Matt Winkleman tweeted Knapp was moved from the paternity list to the bereavement list...

[julio]

Matt Winkleman tweeted Knapp was moved from the paternity list to the bereavement list...

Oh, no! That can't be good.

[Philsmania]

Matt Winkleman tweeted Knapp was moved from the paternity list to the bereavement list...

Oh, no! That can't be good.

Between that and Brito, there's been a lot of tragedy in the Phillies organization the past three days. Condolences to the Knapp family.

[el-pietro]

Hopefully its just an administratve error. Hopefully.
Why do they even need specific lists for these kinds of things? We have no right to know whats going on in Andrew Knapps life unless he wants to share it. Surely one catch all list for leave due to personal reasons or similar should suffice.