2023 Phillies Regular Season Discussion

[julio]

It's time!

Play Ball!

[zambonir]

Woo-hoo!

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Woo-hoo!

… everybody hits!

[Aquapong]

Marchan to the 60 Day DL for Song.

[andyb]

Here is the Phillies’ opening day lineup:

Turner 6
Schwarber DH
Realmuto 2
Hall 3
Castellanos 9
Stott 4
Bohm 5
Cave 7
Marsh 8

Nola RHP

— Alex Coffey ( @byalexcoffey ) March 30, 2023

More transactions. Harper, Nelson, Sanchez, Suarez, Song all to the 10/15 day IL. Pache is listed as activated though Guthrie is still on the active roster for now. Only 4 more pitchers on the 40 in the minors that are not hurt. Plassmeyer, McArthur, Ortiz, and Uelmen.

And on Pache he will not be activated until Saturday. Guthrie still on the team:

Cristian Pache is expected to join the #Phillies tomorrow, so they’ll have to make a roster move before Saturday’s game.

— Scott Lauber ( @ScottLauber ) March 30, 2023

[LoneStarPhan]

I expect Guthrie will be optioned to AAA and Pache added to the roster prior to the game Saturday.

[zambonir]

It seems the Phillies approach a player on the open-market differently from a player that they might extend. Understandably. But equally understandable why the player would want to reach the open market!

Dombrowski found an ideal partner in Middleton. As the Phillies put together their offer for Turner, Middleton pointed out why companies price items at $99.99 instead of $100. It just sounds so much lower. The reverse is also true. Middleton encouraged Dombrowski, who was negotiating in the high-$200 millions, to just round up to $300 million because that would sound so much better. Then the deal could be lengthened to a decade to reduce the contract’s average annual value, a key factor when accounting for MLB’s luxury tax.

Why the pursuit of last winter’s Billion Dollar Shortstop Class could change the...

[bkox]

#Phillies signed reliever Jeff Hoffman to a minor-league contract and added him to the roster at triple-A Lehigh Valley. Hoffman, 30, was released by Twins at the end of spring training. He has a 5.68 ERA in 134 major-league games. More pitching depth.

— Scott Lauber ( @ScottLauber ) April 2, 2023

[andyb]

Lefty starter for Texas tonight in Perez. Imagine we'll see Sosa at 3B (for Hall with Bohm playing 1B) and Harrison somewhere (for Cave but possibly at DH). Curious if we'll see Pache but Marsh is playing well (even with the couple of bad K calls against him yesterday). Stubbs probably gets his first start next week against some right-handed starter.

[Aquapong]

The guys know the season started already, right?

[bkeich]

So, after 3 games the Phillies have 6 players with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title.

5 of them have an OPS above 1.000 which would be MVP level by the end of the season. (Schwarber is off to s slow start).

Pitching. Well, Harrison has been good

[zambonir]

Pretty sure everyone was ready to bench Schwarber or bat him 6th for most of April last season.

(heck, he was under the Mendoza Line for both April and May! And July was actually his worst month in terms of OPS+ and OPS. I'm amazed his overall production wound up as good as it did... and also funny Hoskins is the one we thought of as streaky).

[andyb]

Schwarber did hit a ball last night that would have been out of 20+ parks. He is not really the problem.

Not sure I really want Pache to bat again in any close game of course. He made a nice play on that fly ball directly over his head but he is such a zero on offense. I suspect they will have to try to get him through waivers in a month or two. Small positive is that he probably is at least 50-50 to make it through. I like his acquisition, but he really needs a couple of solid months in AAA.

Pitching has been the big concern here. Obviously starters not going deep, but the bullpen is not crisp and there is really not a good 2-inning option out there. We really need Ranger back in a hurry to push Strahm into that role.

Edit - And Pache sits tonight. Stott is the LH bat that gets the day off with Hall in the lineup and Bohm at DH. Looks like Sosa and Harrison will be permanent starters against LHP but Pache will have to earn his future starts.

[andyb]

Lineup for tonight just changed with Stott back in and Harrison out.

[andyb]

Hello James McArthur? Apparently the Phillies cannot recall the 3 40-man pitchers they optioned to the minors on 3/27 yet which seems to be a really stupid rule at the beginning of the season. It should apply to in-season options.

Marte clearly has lost his command and assume he is the one going out. Still a pitcher worth acquiring and hopefully they can smooth out some of the movement in that delivery.

Winless Phillies look to patch pitching staff, but options are few and busy...

[zambonir]

Has this always been the case and just hasn't come up before?

To be clear, per the link andy posted, Marte was "in the processs" of being demoted, and McArthur is the only guy they can recall unless they add someone else to the 40. Though you would think Marte might have a sore arm right?

(Shouldn't they, as a paper move, be able to recall someone to replace one of the pitchers who is actually injured? Like for all intents and purposes they need someone to replace Nick Nelson or Cristopher Sanchez.)

[andyb]

The other side of course is McArthur really can't do much worse than the rest of the staff and he can give them innings if Strahm only goes 3 tonight.

I know they have added a couple of AAA arms in the last week, but it does look like Dombrowski should have brought in one or two more AAAA type starters this Spring in case of injury. I suspect they will add somebody in AAA who had a Spring opt out with another team.

[zambonir]

Well, that's still less than half, but it's something.

Four reasons the Phillies shouldn’t panic at 0-4

[julio]

Marte being "in the process" of being demoted implies, to me, that they want to outright him, as opposed to optioning him. Outrighting him requires waivers, but they can DFA him, pending waiver clearance (or claim). The DFA filing might have to wait for "business hours," which could explain why they were "in the process" at 6 am this morning when Gelb's article was posted.

That suggests that McArthur may not be the guy they want to add.

[andyb]

That suggests that McArthur may not be the guy they want to add.

I think that is clearly true given that he has not pitched above AA and really was not all that successful in AA even though he showed decent stuff.

I would not give up on Marte though. Hoping they can do something like finesse Song onto the 60-day IL. That might be a "process" too. But really they should just be able to recall Plassmeyer or Ortiz or Uelmen. It is stupid that they cannot.

Edit - Looking at Lehigh Valley the guy I would want is probably McKinley Moore. This is his first AAA season and he was also very average in AA last year, but he seemed to take a pretty big leap forward in training camp. Big stuff and the command seemed to be coming together. Maybe we'll actually win the Adam Haseley trade! Of course after completely losing the Adam Haseley draft pick.

One more thought - Darin Ruf's DFA period ended yesterday and he was released. A right-handed power bat for the bench might be a good idea. Not sure we have the patience to wait for Pache, especially if Harrison is banged up.

Lessons From 11 Years of Darin Ruf