2022 Phillies Post-Season Campaign Discussion

[Austinfan]

The problem with Nola (and Suarez) is their success is highly dependent on command, and it seems that command goes before velocity (probably b/c to maintain velocity pitchers overthrow, you have to have plus plus secondary pitches to accept a substantial decline in velocity).

Wheeler at 97-98 can be a little off with his FB, and if his secondary pitches are off, can work his way out of bad counts with that FB. Nola is unhittable when he's hitting the edge of the strike zone, but when he misses and throws it down the middle - watch out!

[David_Criss]

Who starts/opens Saturday: Eflin, Thor, Falter or Gibson?

[LoneStarPhan]

I am guessing Thor starts game 4.

[andyb]

There is talk of opening with Falter to face the lefties in the first inning (i.e. Soto) and then going to Thor. Though if I open with Falter I think I would be intrigued to let him go several innings if he was pitching well. We probably want to get 5 innings at least out of the two of them.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Bailey Falter had a good second half. It’s a shame we haven’t been able to utilize him more during the playoffs. I too would like to see a scenario where he pitches more than one inning on Saturday. But I’m also worried about him being too rusty.

[Callison]

Sure was a tough loss for Nola, but like the team, at his best, he's dominant, but sometimes he can't summon his best like yesterday. Giving up back-to-back homers after getting ahead of the Pad's star makes that announcement to the Pads.

The house will be rocking in Philly on Friday.

Soul Phils phans will recall the LCS against Houston on their way to the WS - some of the best baseball ever. Love to see it again in the WS.

Peace on earth and kill the Pads!!!!

[andyb]

Realmuto nominated for Gold Glove against Nido and D'Arnaud. Should be the favorite. Suarez should be the pitching winner but did not have enough innings by the arbitrary date they had nominations. His DRS is better than any other pitcher (in a bit fewer innings). Marsh is actually nominated for LF in the American League.

Here are the 2022 Gold Glove finalists

[EDmuch]

I have to agree there may be an issue with rust if we pput Falter out there on Saturday. I would prefer him to Thor. But I have to amdit, "rust" could be a big problem.

[allentown]

I think they both pitch in game 3, so I don't care which one starts. Probably three innings for both of them, unless they implode.

[Aquapong]

On the prowl for a winter Phillies hat for tomorrow night. It seems no one carries winter hats for a summer sport.

[zambonir]

I've got one from 2008

[zambonir]

It's pretty insane that there is no off-day between Game 5 and 6 in a cross-country series. Obviously the Phillies aren't even here without an expanded playoff, but they really needed to trim the regular season with the addition of the extra round (and obviously desire not to play any deeper into later fall than they already will).

[HopeSpringsEternal]

I think the travel day between games 5 & 6 may have been lost due to the revised playoff schedule after the lockout.

[Patchmk88]

Don’t we think there would have been a day off in between games 5&6 if it wasn’t for the delayed start to the season?

[zambonir]

I am not so sure. I mean, yeah, the lockout changed the start and end date but I think the pace of the schedule would have been the same (i.e. a potential Game 7 of the World Series just would have been five days earlier, not that they would have used two or three of those days for more off time in earlier rounds).

How the lockout, rain and the new Wild Card Series messed with the MLB playoff...

[Aquapong]

Ticket prices have come down. I would’ve saved $150 if I waited to buy until today.

[bkeich]

....Or you wouldn't be able to find a ticket. I always figure to buy it when you can if you can stand the price and don't look back.

The price will always be lowner the day of an event, but your choices will be limited (or non-existent).

Have fun at the game.

[el-pietro]

I love to see our guys win awards, but I have so little respect for the Gold Glove. Utley never won one, Jeter won 5. Soto and Yelich are top 3 in their positions this year. I know theyve made steps to ground the result more in actual defensive metrics (which aren't perfect) but how can Soto be nominated when he has -2 DRS, has -15 Outs Above Average,-0.6 dWAR and -20.6 Fangraphs DEF
Yelich isn't much better, -2 DRS, -13 Outs Above Average and -0.9 dWAR and -12.9 DEF.

I don't claim to understand fully how any of these metrics are calculated but when they are all pointing in the same direction they are clearly telling the same story.

You also have guys nominated for the new utility position as well as a primary position. Which one is it? Surely if they did enough to qualify for a specific position then you shouldn't be able to qualify for a Utility position right?

And the way they determine eligibility is dumb. Ranger misses out becuase he didn't have 138 innings pitched by the 138th game. Thats the cut off. Someone who misses the first couple of months is ineligible, but someone who misses the same number of games at the end of season is eligible.

The worst thing is despite how ridiculous the Gold Glove has been historically, it gets held against players when the HoF voting comes around. Some voters look at their awards to determine if they are worthy of HoF consideration. So a player who was overlooked unfairly by voters at the time, is punished again. Chase Utley should probably have 4-6 Gold Gloves and some voters will overlook him for the HoF because Orlando Hudson and Brand Phillips were more flashy.

[Philsmania]

Then there was Abreu. He had a pretty good arm but I never saw him as a GG'er. His SS the season before was well-deserved but I never thought his defense was particularly special. Not sure that the statistics made him stand out either.

And, yes, Utley deserved at least one. He was rock steady out there but Orlando Hudson had all those webgems and Derek Jeter had "the spin". I don't remember it quite exactly but someone explained how Jeter's spin was to somehow make up for for a defensive deficiency kind of like Dykstra diving for balls because he was actually pretty slow for a centerfielder and had to dive for balls that other CF'ers would have settled under.

[bkeich]

I think Dykstra just liked to splash through the tobacco spit puddles he left I the OF.

At least one opponent referred to playing CF after him as "trying to play in a toxic waste site"