I don't know how Dombrowski does it, but the man has the magic touch.
It helps to have an owner willing to open the pocket book, but he inherited a mess and turned it around in short order.
Picking up Marsh, Sosa, Robertson and Thor got them over the hump, gave up some assets we'd like to keep, but winning makes all moves palatable. And they finally got help from the farm system this year. Veirling, Maton, Stubbs, Falter, Brogdon. We'll just quietly ignore Didi, Familia and Knebel.
I am not a Fighting Irish fan but...
1980 Phillies had Notre Dame guy Ron Reed on the roster
2008 Phillies had Notre Dame guy Brad Lidge on the roster
2022 Phillies have Notre Dame guy Matt Vierling on the roster
Luck o' the Irish? 
Not going to lie...this has been the most fun I've ever had during a post season run...I really enjoy this team...warts and all.
Thinking about the last winter and the debates about building a 85ish win team and seeing what happens seems so long ago but here we are.
This team is playing about 3 weeks longer than I thought it would and I'm loving it!
I figured Wheeler was the best choice other than Bryce. Hoskins still would have been a good one, yeah, he wasn't great overall (or in the field) but had the big hits and home runs. Harper just got the bigger one.
I would say Dombrowski didn't inherit a "mess" per se. Klentak built much of this team as it turns out. But finishing a team that can't get over the top is something he's very good at it (as was Gillick). And there was a lot of luck involved in terms of Stott and Bohm becoming key pieces. Obviously the biggest move, and credit to his power as President, was changing managers, with exceeding the CBT second. Being in the tax really changed his ability to do little things a million different times (all the 60-Day moves, taking on Thor's contract), even more than the impact of actually going over it for Castellanos (obviously).
If it ain't broke don't fix it? I certainly see the argument for giving up on Hand. I mean, there's also an argument for giving up on Falter. Bringing back an ice-cold Coonrod seems risky. My guess is Thomson still has faith in Hand the same way he did in Robertson and Gibson. They need the lefties. And even though he's barely been used they probably want Guthrie as a PR and defensive sub more than Hall still.
Whatta GAME!
I really dislike baseball in the rain - everybody who ever played grew up having to play on wet fields with soggy baseballs that were slippery and very heavy - like a shotput - the feeling in your arms and hands after hitting a soggy baseball can't be forgotten. But as we grew up, we had to take the time available to us. MLB has all the time it wants, but chooses to play games in the rain anyway now and again. It compromises the game and can be dangerous. The players' union should be all over this.
But hey, the Phils won the rainy game anyway and they're going to the WS!!! So I guess I'm overlooking it this time.
You gotta love the 'tude, too - though the huge win made them NL champs, they know there are four more games to win, Can't wait for Friday. I admire Dusty Baker. He's surely paid his dues and a formidable opponent. But I want these Phils to take him out! GO PHILS!
(When I was 5, my neighbor taught me to score a game and I quickly learned The Whiz Kids' order.)
What an incredible run. And I don't think it's over. Yes, the Astros have breezed through the playoffs, but the Phillies have the best pitching of the teams the Astros have faced. They also have hitters that are hot at the right time (unlike the Yankees whose best hitter went cold), I think these are pretty evenly matched teams, the Astros do have a great bullpen, but the Phillies feast on bullpen arms, so that is where the rubber hits the road is can the Philies hitters overtake the Astros bullpen. I don't see any reason that the Phillies can't win 4 games when 6 of them could be started by Wheeler, Nola and Suarez.
Falter can't be labeled a failure in my opinion since it had been three-weeks since he had last pitched. Eflin, Thor and Falter could be the three arms used in a "bullpen game"
It is probably a legit question about whether Falter or someone like Coonrod would be more helpful at the back end of the bullpen. Rust will be a problem for both. I might be tempted to have Thor go a bit longer too if he is the opener for game 4.
Well, they were clearly keeping Falter as a back-up plan if he was needed to start (and then he finally was). Now I think the question is more would they consider replacing Hand with Coonrod, and using Falter to actually get a key LHB out in the late middle innings (or late in a bullpen game).
It's remarkable to me how the 1983 and 1993 World Serieses were seemingly polar opposites of each other. 1983 was a matchup of strong pitching for both sides with only the deciding Game 5 being something of a one-sided affair. Neither team was particularly prolific offensively but, unfortunately, the Phillies bats were the more quiet ones. 1993, on the other hand, was a slugfest which Game 5 being the only well-pitched game. Otherwise, neither team got particularly good pitching though the Phillies pitching, unfortunately, was worse.
I would, if the board would do that cleanly, but it won't. I can move a block of posts, if no unrelated posts have intervened in the target thread. But when there's other "traffic," things get very muddled; one of the few things I miss from our prior software is that we can't just cleanly make these adjustments.
I think what you've done (locking game threads) is probably a good solution to that in general! Maybe always within 12 hours of the game ending, or at the moment the next game starts (approximately)? I realize there are still lingering granular things to talk about potentially but we could easily still be discussin the magic of Ranger, for instance, in this thread.
Yeah, I struggle with this - because there are game-related discussions that might continue, and I really don't want to squelch that.
If I were here more constantly, I could probably pick times when the conversation has died down (most of us do tend to sleep at night!), and thus not interrupt live discussions. It's been a hectic few days, though - there was one instance where I peeked in (iPad at the dinner table, while hosting family gathering) and thought, "I should redirect that." It was five or six hours later when I actually got back to the board, and posts that went up in the meantime made that effectively impossible.
Last evening... My spouse is getting ready for a solo exhibition of her artwork - about 50 pieces, at an assisted living venue in Gwynned. We spent the evening gathering work, preparing an inventory, checking tagging, packaging, some framing and wiring, etc. Real life. Today she's teaching a couple classes, so I have some downtime! Tomorrow morning we deliver. I would encourage you all to go see her work, but... It's an assisted living facility, and they still have some COVID restrictions, so it's not clear that visitors (other than those visiting residents) would be able to get in.
