2023 Phillies Regular Season Discussion

[zambonir]

Nice to have a true home opener, and against a strong opponent too (okay, maybe that's not so nice).

[andyb]

Looks like the London games are 1 home and 1 away, which makes sense. Neither team would want to lose 2 home dates. 2 days off before and 1 after for the travel.

[BostonRoss]

Just bring up Cave. If Harrison is out longer, or he is DFAed after his IL stint is over, then consider another infielder (Wilson, Kingery, Clemens).

It is the left-handedness that is the problem. Unless Harper is at 1B, Schwarber is in LF and Marsh is in CF and Hall is at 1B.

Against LH pitching we are forced to play Marsh in LF and sacrifice offense. Sosa can play 3B to let Hall sit, but we also should probably be sitting Schwarber against the occasional tough lefty. The lineup really needs a right-handed bat and Ellis forces you to play an infielder in LF. I know we did that some with Harrison, but that is also the point.

If they are not going to bring Ellis up now you might as well go to Kingery for the short term because he can play the defense they need.

I was thinking in the short term, Cave would be a more valuable bench piece than Ellis and wouldn't require a 40-man move like Kingery (or Wilson) would. I could see opportunities for Cave to pinch hit (say, for Sosa), and he might also come in for Schwarber on defense. It's a short term thing anyway, even if they don't reinstate Harrison after is IL stint is over (do I sound too hopeful about that? ). And Cave is a likely recall whenever Harper does start playing 1B.

I was going to look up how Cave hits lefties, but you did it for me!

[zambonir]

I reckon Cave's .589 career OPS against lefties in MLB means more than what he's doing in the SSS of one-half of AAA season, but then, I think that's probably true in general too. He tore up spring training and it didn't translate to MLB; the same is still possible with his AAA performance. Admittedly he could be .300 OPS points worse than what he's doing there and still be playable, but he also has a much greater sample of career numbers that says he's a good minor league hitter (.800) and an adequate major leaguer (.700).

I've also seen people wonder if the Phillies are reluctant to call anyone up that they might include in a trade two weeks from now, less they spoil their good AAA performances with a quick 2-30 major league stint.

[BostonRoss]

Hard to imagine anybody the Phillies call up getting close to 30 at bats.

[zambonir]

Ha okay, 1 for 15 then.

But if it's a LF they will play almost every day for a week to 10 days, just not right away. Or so we're hoping/thinking.

[phillychuck]

Agree, Scotland is awesome pretty much everywhere. However, St. Andrews is holy ground for a golfer. Would be my #1 place to stop. I'd play (badly), and rent clubs.

[bkox]

take this with a grain of salt. No idea how connected this guy is

According to my source: #Philadelphia #Phillies prospect Johan Rojas A 22-year-old outfielder who hits .308 with 9 HR, 45 RBIs and 30 stolen bases from #Readingfightin AA is called up to the Majors #MLB #Licey pic.twitter.com/cY1Gvvx0o1

— Mike Rodriguez ( @mikedeportes ) July 14, 2023

Others are doubting it:

For the same reasons others have said it, I’d be really surprised if Johan Rojas is coming to Philly. It’s just not a roster fit with Harrison going to the IL. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rojas went to Lehigh, but one of Ellis/Wilson/Kingery makes more sense.

— Mitch Rupert ( @Mitch_Rupert ) July 14, 2023

Lots of folks tagging me in this. I would pump the breaks and wait for the official announcement tomorrow. Rojas makes little sense given the teams current composition.

I’d believe he’s getting the call to Triple-A… but stripping him of every day playing time feels silly. https://t.co/4Bqrmj2zif

— Alex Carr ( @AlexCarrMLB ) July 14, 2023

A couple of people passed me this. I am going to wait for better sourcing. It isn’t really a fit that makes sense, but he is on the 40, so you can quickly bring him up and down like they did with Altherr back in 2014. https://t.co/UUuCnC4xTR

— Matt Winkelman ( @Matt_Winkelman ) July 14, 2023

[el-pietro]

https://twitter.com/Matt_Winkelman/status/1679820418176147456?t=TM2U4RS_tdWzVle8LN1T_g&s=19
Matt is now saying Rojas is getting promoted to the bigs.

[andyb]

Maybe they figure the IL stay for Harrison will be the absolute minimum and this would be a good experience for Rojas. 5 games where he can pinch run and be a defensive sub and learn what a big league clubhouse is like.

I probably would have gone with Kingery and let Ellis pass through waivers. If we are not calling him up now we probably won't for the rest of the year and we'll still have other bats if there are injuries (like Kingery and Wilson).

[Jazzhead]

Maybe they figure the IL stay for Harrison will be the absolute minimum and this would be a good experience for Rojas. 5 games where he can pinch run and be a defensive sub and learn what a big league clubhouse is like.

I probably would have gone with Kingery and let Ellis pass through waivers. If we are not calling him up now we probably won't for the rest of the year and we'll still have other bats if there are injuries (like Kingery and Wilson).

This makes sense, and also indicates that Harrison will be back in just a few days. 5 games or so on the big league roster will get him some practical experience with life in the Show, and won't hold back his development because he'll soon be back at Reading and playing every day.

[zambonir]

Yeah, Rojas as a really short-term thing makes sense but couldn't he also stick once Harper moves to 1B?

This could also be some combination of showcasing/evaluation.

None of us guessed that one!

[julio]

Rojas’ promotion could also be a “placeholder,” intended to address the short term roster spot, pending acquisition of an outfielder in trade before the end of the month.

[BostonRoss]

Unless someone is hurting that we don’t know about, this makes no sense to me. Other than an emergency type situation (in-game injury, long extra inning game), Rojas won’t get any playing time except at Pache’s expense, and Pache is doing well! Why mess with that? Cave or Clemens wouldn’t play much either but might be useful.

[zambonir]

With Hill and Snell as the Padres' next two starters and a doubleheader on Saturday I'd say it's possible Rojas gets two starts this weekend, and without replacing Pache either. But certainly one.

If he's a placeholder, it's probably just for Harrison, who is eligible to return in just five days. If Harper is ready for 1B by then they may keep Rojas or they may swap Hall for Cave. Trades and a bigger roster shakeout would come a little later.

[BostonRoss]

They could have called up Rojas for the doubleheader. Though I guess everyone always calls up an extra pitcher, the Phillies have trouble using the pitchers they have, and everyone is rested.

[zambonir]

I think it's as simple as replacing a lightly used RHB with another one. Rojas is actually more useful than Harrison given they already had two RH 3B and Harrison wasn't very good in the OF. He'll play less than Harrison but Thomson loves to play as many RHBs as possible against LHP so he really could start two of the next three games (for Marsh not Pache).

It may also tell us that Cave has not ever really been a consideration to return to LF regularly, partly because they already know what he can('t) do in MLB and and partly because they need a RHB (especially if they want Hall to stay on the bench).

Either way he's probably only up for between 6 and 16 days. Unless he thrives (and isn't traded).

[JaxBill]

they're saying Pache to IL. Rojas for Pache and Ellis for Harrison.

https://twitter.com/MattGelb/status/1679847114040279040?t=2fD-gvuJ72hGGsqDhJwWJw&s=19

[LegoDoom]

I think it's as simple as replacing a lightly used RHB with another one. Rojas is actually more useful than Harrison given they already had two RH 3B and Harrison wasn't very good in the OF. He'll play less than Harrison but Thomson loves to play as many RHBs as possible against LHP so he really could start two of the next three games (for Marsh not Pache).

I guess the Pache news kind of makes this moot, but Rojas has good splits against RHP.

[BostonRoss]

Unless someone is hurting that we don’t know about,

I guess that answers that!