It is probably happening so quickly before our very eyes that it has not yet registered with even the most loyal Phillies phan but this current club is doing an excellent job of incorporating young players from a system that is still considered mediocre at best by most people who follow this stuff. Yesterday the Phillies used 15 players and no less than 9 of them were home grown...Nola, Brogdon, Dominquez, Hall, Hoskins, Stott, Bohm, Vierling and Maton. On Saturday night Suarez was efficient in registering his 8th win of the season.
I think it is clear that one of DD's mantras, and he has said as much, was that the team had bought enough stars [Harper, Wheeler, Realmuto, Schwarber, Castellanos] and now needs to build with home grown talent the players that surround these store bought stars...and it appears to be working. The hitting stars yesterday were Hall, Hoskins, Maton and Stott and they all have one thin in common, they were all drafted and developed by the Philles,
Look, as someone who grew up on this site by focusing on the pharm system because the big league club was so bad [ the JD Drew situation "drew" me to this site], I have bemoaned the seeming wasteland that was the Phillies system over the past decade since the departure of Mike Arbuckle. However, credit seems due to a system that is not only offering players that fit around the edges [Maton, Brogdon, Vierling] but is providing players that are really contributing [Hall, Suarez, Dominquez].
I was always a phan of the DD hiring and despite some harsh criticism [some of it here] he has done a remarkable job of reshaping this club. The fact is that this is a VERY dangerous club now, capable of beating any team in a short series and all without the reigning National League MVP, arguably one of the 10 best players in baseball. And as someone who watched Marsh play often here in SoCal, I think acquiring him was a great move, he is highly skilled, young and with 5 years to refine those skills.
By the way, I am also an advocate of what allentown has been preaching...how important it is to keep our homegrown products. He is right about this, we just naturally care more for players we have nurtured and rooted for since their early days in the system. My two favorite players are Nola and Hoskins and I realized it was because they were home grown...this is why I loved Callison, Short, Schmidt, Luzinski, Allen, Burrell, Rollins, Utley and Howard. They were ours.
Baseball is a funny game and things can turn on a dime. But I now suspect our 10 year journey through the desert is almost at an end. The team is well run, spends as large market teams should, has young players who are likely to continue to get better and veterans who are still in their prime.
Oh, and a pharm system that now seems quite capable of keeping the talent flowing from the minors to the majors.
