I just bought tickets to the 1st home game the Phillies play in the NLDS, I got an email, and they went on sale at 10am today. 
No, their big problem is that ownership likes the 'modern' but only trusts the grey-haired executives, so we are in never-never land. The team has no coherent philosophy. It gave way too much sway to a very inexperienced analytics department and didn't allow their bright young manager to just do his job. They hire young GMs, but don't trust them. Only the grey-haired 'didn't you used to be?' They change their approach to hitting and pitching. They make changes in instructional staffs in slow waves, after much deliberation, rather than decisively so that they never have continuity across scouting/development/all levels. They are nostalgic for the past success of fading players. They also allow new GMs and managers to bring in favored, over-the-hill players. Who in their right mind decides that the way to go, when you already have a couple players who should be DHs and a long-term contract to Harper who will end his career as a DH, that the way to improve is to go all-out on budget to buy two more not-young sluggers who should play DH. A slow team of 4 DHs is missing big parts of the game. This year's team is an improvement over last year's, which was an improvement over the 2020 team, but it is unbalanced. We started the season a SP short, resulting in guys hitting a wall because they've already pitched too many innings. We lack speed. We lack defense. We lack young players who look like they will be better-than-average major leaguers. If we don't end this season successfully, it is likely DD built more of an albatross than a path forward this past off-season. The bottom line, as always: if you can't develop above-average, home-grown players in reasonable quantity, you won't succeed.
The Phillies definitely were willing to win. They tanked several seasons, ultimately getting the #1 pick. We had easily our share of top of draft picks. It was unlucky that the pickings were so slim the year we had the #1 pick. Prior to last season, it was a very long time since the Phillies had a winning record. Being willing to lose wasn't the problem.
I think it is too early to hang any labels on the Dombroski regime. It will be a couple of years before we really know how the revamped scouting department is really doing and how the international signings are panning out.
Probably more than Munoz who seems to only be a pinch runner lately (and is banged up a bit because he got hit by a foul ball on his ankle in the dugout).
Well, I'm as angry as anyone but I still see that they took a big step forward this year, unfortunately its really the first time in years they have been able to identify talent at the margins that they could play to their strengths to add depth, and even fix a guy's development (Jose Alvarado). When this team plays they way they are capable, and that's just having players perform at career norms, i think it's a team that can compete in the playoffs. What I can't explain is a team with all that talent that every September looks flat, disinterested and that plays so far down below their abilities. Maybe it is because there is a different skillset needed to win, I don't know.
Maybe part of it is the "don't panic" mentality that doesn't seem to respond to urgency. The quotes coming from the team and Thomson- "just trying to relax and have fun" "we don't really talk about the playoffs" "we've been in these kinds of funks before and come out of it"...well, you don't have time, every game does count, and maybe you should be focused on where you are and what it takes to get to the playoffs.
They took a significant step forward in spending and in wins, but it doesn't look like a solid foundation has been layed. The Castellano signing was awful. We started the season with a shortage of SP able to go a full season. That is catching up to us now. This team is slow, it field very poorly, and it tied up a lot of $ in future contracts. Can you make sense of this?
I guess I haven't had time to sift through my email today. As it happens I am not going to be in town and certainly wouldn't have felt any urgency in any case. It's not really a jinx, it's just how business works.
It looks like the rotation is set up for the remaining games as Wheeler, Nola, Suarez, and Falter. A rain out tomorrow would really screw things up for up timing wise for the playoffs. At that point, I wonder if they save Wheeler for a must win game or playoff game 1? Pitching Falter in a must win game would be tough on him.
I don't know that it would be tough on him. He seems to have the personality for it. And he'd basically be facing the Sugarland Skeeters, potentially. I think if tomorrow is rained out and the Brewers win you probably still let Wheeler pitch what is, in fact, a must-win game. The goal is to not play that make-up game. If you do, you figure that out then.
Good lord are we at risk of catching the Padres? Definitely don't want!
Fun game tonight, not only is the division race on the line in general but tonight's winner gets the tiebreaker. So Atlanta win almost insurmountable.
Yeah, the Padres are only a game ahead of the Phillies. They must have the tiebreaker against the Brewers since they’ve clinched.
I am not ready to wrap my ahead around the possibility of all the Phillies, Astros and Padres all playing meaningless games, as well as the Phillies and Padres at least deep in the back of their mind, preferring sixth. But, first things first.
(And a first-round series against the Mets would certainly be something. What kind of something, I don't know.)
Remember 1983...Dodgers 11-1 against the Phillies in the regular season. The NLCS was a different story.
That is what's known as anecdote. Or a low-probability event. Could happen, doesn't mean it will. (Just like the Phillies blowing a 96% chance of the playoffs on September 14).
Also, how did the Phillies do against the Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 regular season?
The Mets match-up is less about the season series as the pitching (and no less applicable with the Braves). On paper Mets cancel out any advantage Phillies might have with Wheeler and Nola. Cardinals don't do so at nearly the same level.