2023 Phillies Regular Season Discussion

[zambonir]

Losing him for a month would suck. Losing him for the season would be (censored)

[el-pietro]

A weekend in London is more interesting to me (and honestly cheaper at this point). But I bet there'd be a tonne of interest from Phillies phans if there was a series in Ireland

[Callison]

Falter looked OK last season, and he's a lefty, so the Phils are gonna cut him slack. The pitching coach must see something he really likes...

[andyb]

Falter looked OK last season, and he's a lefty, so the Phils are gonna cut him slack.

I was just pointing out though that they spotted him against bad teams last year and gave him extra rest because of that. He got really favorable matchups.

He'll get more chances. He is just very hittable, especially against good right handed hitters. He just does not have much swing and miss against them.

[zambonir]

The Athletic summed it up

The Phillies were sometimes able to find more favorable spots for Falter because he was the sixth starter. Almost half of his innings (40 1/3) last season came against the Nationals, Marlins and Pirates. Falter had a 3.12 ERA in those situations. He had a 4.53 ERA in his other 43 2/3 innings. That’s still respectable enough for a back-of-the-rotation pitcher.

But 5.75: not respectable. And it's actually worse than that. He was decent his first couple of starts and the Phillies even won one of them, but since then, 0-5, 7.01.

He does have a 4.71 FIP. And Phillies have little choice but to use him, hopefully the offense can pick him up a little over the next bunch of starts, and fifth starters are never especially great. But given the flaws in the rest of the rotation so far (even if ERA is also up leaguewide) and the increasing unlikeliness of Painter coming to the rescue, they will need a starting pitcher in July.

Bailey Falter thought about his bad NLCS start all winter. Time for a change(up)

[Aquapong]

I really don’t like the pitch clock. I get the pace of play needs to be sped up, but they should add 2 or 3 seconds.

[bkox]

Thomson said it is only elbow inflammation for José Alvarado. He'll be shut down for a bit. Alvarado says he'll need a couple of days of rest and should return soon. He said he didn't have much of an offseason, between pitching in the World Series and getting ready for the WBC.

— Alex Coffey ( @byalexcoffey ) May 11, 2023

[zambonir]

That tweet was a little confusing inasmuch as he was already put on the IL. So he's gonna get more than a couple of days rest. Unless they decide to rehab him in AAA while the team is on the road. Move was retroactive to May 8.

[andyb]

I really don’t like the pitch clock. I get the pace of play needs to be sped up, but they should add 2 or 3 seconds.

I think I am fine with the clock. If they added a little bit I'd be fine also, though I think I just want the umps to give players more time for things like Bryce's brace or fouling off pitches. If we had 40 seconds between batters instead of 30 seconds it would eliminate calling that timeout before the at bat which seems to happen a lot. And if there were no equipment issues it will just take the same 25-30 seconds it takes now between hitters.

[Austinfan]

I think once players get comfortable with the clock we won't even notice it.
It certainly has eliminated a lot of dead time.

[zambonir]

In the long run we will barely notice it, just bound to be some bumps for a while. A creative solution, once the new media landscape is set, would be to actually have more of those short in-game type commercials between batters instead of long between-inning commercial breaks. Then MLB gets both its advertising lucre and a quicker pace, while hitters and pitchers get a little more time.

[zambonir]

Phillies plan to pitch Bailey Falter on this trip out west. But he won’t throw...

[bkox]

Ranger activated. Luis Ortiz sent to AAA

[Aquapong]

Damn what does Ortiz have to do to stay in the big leagues? Are they that enamored with Hoffman?

[zambonir]

I'd almost forgotten!

I wonder who will be the opener for Falter. I guess Bellatti or possibly Brogdon, both of whom could also go more than three outs if they want. Too big a spot for Hoffman, and while there are certainly analytical arguments to be made for using one of your top arms they will surely save Kimbrel and Seranthony still.

Hoffman can't be cut without being DFAed, so that buys him some auditions. Vasquez has been the same (but with better results). If you're the 7th or 8th reliever with options the yo-yo is just part of the job.

[Austinfan]

Plus it's a way to protect arms, we send you down to sit in the bullpen and eat cracker jack, then bring you back up a week later.

[Aquapong]

I get the Ortiz has options, but he’s pitched well…something Hoffman has yet to do.

I wonder if we’ll see Skirrow if Falter keeps struggling. None of the other guys seem to be worth more than doing emergency starts. Abel’s first month hasn’t been great apparently. They would have to either move someone to the 60 day DL (Pache, Hall, or Song) or Dfa Marte, Uelmen, or Moore.

[zambonir]

Plus it's a way to protect arms, we send you down to sit in the bullpen and eat cracker jack, then bring you back up a week later.

They can't really do that anymore now that it's 15 days instead of 10. Also harder to do when you're stuck with non-optionable arms. Injuries create exceptions of course but we certainly don't want that.

[bkeich]

I am really curious what they are going to do with Song. I suspect they are trying to setup the perfect 45 day periods for him to sit at the bottom of the roster, maybe pitch in 10 games, then try and sneak him back in to the DL.

[kmc1019]

Hard to believe it, at least for me, but fact: if this season ended today, the Phillies would be in the playoffs.