2023 Phillies Regular Season Discussion

[andyb]

No sliding, Bryce!

Bryce is going to slide. I might mandate no head first slides for a month though. It is going to be hard to stop him though.

[RolenRules]

Cristian Pache will miss 4 to 6 weeks following knee surgery:

Cristian Pache Undergoes Knee Surgery, Expected To Miss 4-6 Weeks

[Austinfan]

This team is jinxed this season.
At least the pitchers are holding up so far.
Hoskins, Hall, Pasche . . .

[tom81]

At least the pitchers are holding up so far.
Hoskins, Hall, Pasche . . .

40% of the projected starting rotation haven’t thrown pitch yet this year! Suarez & Painter.

[gmwannabe]

yes, and hopefully that 40% can join the rotation soon. I know ranger is close but painter is probably months away. The Bailer Falter experiment will be over pretty soon and Walker is throwing a lot of meatballs up there. if he isn't hurting, then he is really going to be a disappointment. Can they rely on strahm to start the whole year?
gm

[andyb]

That is good news on Pache. Thought it would end up more serious. And we'll be able to get him a good week or two of rehab before deciding whether to recall him after the rehab.

Now today's question is who goes for Bryce. Clemens plays 1B which might be more helpful than Cave playing OF (because we can't DH Schwarber and Castellanos). Cave is probably the better hitter, but who would he actually pinch hit for?

[zambonir]

Every fan thinks their team is jinxed when there are injuries. I guess there are always going to be 10 teams with the most injuries in MLB, and not all injuries are equal, but I still kind of doubt there is anything extraordinary about the Phillies this year. Astros definitely have just as many (of course those two teams have something in common too). And Mets pitching completely strifed (as usual).

[Austinfan]

Painter wasn't really projected, he was more a "hope and a prayer."
Falter was projected as #5, with a number of candidates now in Lehigh (and Strahm) as options.
Painter was like, boy he looks good off a two inning stint.

[andyb]

Falter was the placeholder for Painter or another of the minor league kids. Yes they "hoped" Painter would win the job. Yes there was probably a good chance that Falter would be in the rotation anyway with injuries.

But let's be honest. I doubt the Phillies consider Falter to be more than a below average major league starter. His stuff just is not that good and deception will only take him so far as he gets more exposure. Inexpensive depth is nice to have, but that is far different than saying the team was really counting on Falter for much. Falter really is a lesser version of Cole Irvin who is really a major league starter only when he plays on a bad team in a big park.

Starting depth is a problem if one of the kids does not step up. There is just no indication that Falter or Sanchez or Plassmeyer are really good enough. Frankly I might bet on Skirrow giving them better innings by the end of the year. Abel looks to be putting things together at AA but doubt he is someone they would jump from AA to the majors. McGarry is nowhere to be found now.

We really need the Ranger we saw in the postseason to be the Ranger that pitches in a couple of weeks.

[zambonir]

A healthy Painter in April was still a longshot but a healthy Painter in Mid-May was not. Even Strahm wasn't seriously in the mix until Ranger got hurt. If Walker does end up on IL they are very thin. They can win some games scoring six runs but not with too many starts like last night

[andyb]

I guess it is possible they might keep Strahm in the rotation on something like a 70-80 pitch count and bring Nelson back as his caddy. That just limits what you can do with the bullpen though. It is great that they are getting innings from Wheeler and Nola now at least. I wonder if they should space them out in the rotation to spread that depth out some (i.e. don't have the heavy bullpen days back to back like they now do with Falter and Strahm).

[David_Criss]

Strahm right now is the third starter on this team. There is something off with Walker and Falter is hot or cold. When Suarez returns he can be a dominant bullpen piece or a decent starter. If he goes to the rotation then Falter or Walker should be the odd man out whether its an IL stint (Walker) or a move to the bullpen or to AAA (Falter).

With Harper, guessing it is Cave who gets sent down unless they are serious about Harper playing some 1B, then its Clemens.

[andyb]

I think they are serious about Harper playing 1B. Just not now.

If he does then Cave is a better fit. Hall is a wild card in this too though we could have this weird situation where Bryce is approved by the doctors to play 1B a couple of months before he is approved to play the OF.

[zambonir]

Suarez is starting. They are even building him up to 90 pitches (though I bet they just skip his last rehab start if Walker is out).

[zambonir]

It's actually a pretty logical progression. Cave hasn't hit especially well and now there's no playing time for him in LF (not probably not RF either unless they want to give Nick an off-day against RHP). There's also none for him in CF, nor have they ever tried him there. And if you keep Clemens you can just replace him with Hall straight-up if you want.

I didn't get the impression that Harper was planning to play RF this year at all. When he starts playing 1B and/or Hall comes back they can shufffle things again.

[schillingfan]

That is good news on Pache. Thought it would end up more serious. And we'll be able to get him a good week or two of rehab before deciding whether to recall him after the rehab.

Meniscus is a muscle tear. Muscles heal faster than ligaments. They will sometimes heal themselves with rest. It only seems that tears always lead to surgery.

[zambonir]

Meniscus is cartilage, no? Easier to treat (or heal on their own) than a ligament or tendon but not exactly like a muscle either.

If he wasn't a pro athlete he might not have needed surgery.

[schillingfan]

Ahh. I was going by what I remembered when I went to Penn for my knees. I knew Meniscus was not ligament, so assumed it was muscle.

[bkox]

The Phillies reinstated Bryce Harper from the 10-day injured list prior to tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. To make room for Harper on the 26-man roster, outfielder Jake Cave was optioned to triple-A Lehigh Valley following last night’s game.

— Philadelphia Phillies ( @Phillies ) May 2, 2023

[zambonir]

I confused it with the MCL myself.

At least Jake Cave has that sweet inflated AAA salary, whatever it might be.