2024 Phillies Season Discussion

[bkeich]

Honestly, he deserved better. I would have done the combo start with Walker until someone gets hurt, which will happen eventually. One goes 5, one goes 4.

Turnbull earned those set innings. The long reliever is the guy at the end of your staff. Maybe Thomson can come up with a different version, but making him a mop up / blow out reliever is a terrible use of a red hot pitcher.

[zambonir]

I think they are very clearly not planning to use him that way. Ruiz is the low man. They want Turnbull to be the right-handed Strahm or another Hoffman, and he comes in already ahead of Seranthony and probably Kerkering so long as he adjusts to relief pitching in general.

Walker has done nothing to deserve to lose his spot either.

No real point in combo starting them because they are both RH, and it would never end up being a 5/4 straight-up, relievers and match-ups would interfere.

Turnbull's likely innings limits is also real, even if it can be more like 120 than 80.

[BostonRoss]

I wonder how long a leash Sanchez has. He certainly doesn't deserve to lose his spot yet, but he's really only been good in three of his six starts.

[zambonir]

yup, there is that. Or he's the guy Turnbull comes in for. Though they have said they don't want him to being the first reliever, so he can be told he's coming in and have more time to prepare. (Technically a pure piggyback role would be pretty well-defined, but only if the script holds.)

[Austinfan]

They need to have Rojas see a doctor, when he starts struggling to track multiple balls, I'd be worried either eyesight or balance - it's just not normal for him.

[jimbomill]

I wonder how long a leash Sanchez has

As a lefty on a predominantly right-handed starting staff, I imagine the leash has some length to it.

[Austinfan]

Given how well he pitched last season, and that he's added 2 MPH to his FB, a lot of leash.

He's lost his feel for his changeup, but get it back and he could be a dominant 3 pitch pitcher, though I'd like to see them teach him to throw a 2 seamer to move eyes off his 4 seamer, which lacks movement.

The way some people are talking, you'd think he was awful this season, ERA 3.68, FIP 2.95, 0.8 WAR in 6 starts.
Most teams would kill for a 4th starter who posted those numbers.

[Callison]

"He said he's comfortable with anything, really," Thomson said.

Absolutely. Positively. He's totally prepared to accept this decision based on prior commitments and psychic messages rather than performance.

[Aquapong]

It seems like both of them he kind of over ran. We’ll see. Harper had some hiccups in RF a few year back and we were questioning his abilities. Maybe he just had an off night.

[Austinfan]

He also lost track of another ball a couple games ago, for Rojas, that's really unusual.

[bkox]

Rojas is -1 DRS according to fangraphs. Thats not gonna cut it when you have a .574OPS

[zambonir]

They have Suarez, and they had a rotation with zero lefties for years (of course, they also stunk). I don't think there's any weight on the scale for him over Walker or Turnbull due to that. If anything the fact that he's a lefty makes him the best person to piggyback with Turnbull, if they did take that approach.

Nobody's saying Sanchez is awful, just stating the simple fact that Turnbull is better, separately from the Turnbull vs. Walker debate.

But Walker has also looked just fine. Ironically Turnbull probably would have never given up as many runs as Walker because Thomson wouldn't have ever let him go 7. Walker's more of an innings-eater (good bad or otherwise).

[BostonRoss]

Before this season, I had felt that Marsh was overrated defensively (though compared to anyone else we had in 2022, he was Garry Maddox). While Marsh has upped his game both ways, I'm beginning to feel the same way about Rojas. Clearly Rojas has a lot more speed and range than anyone else. But these aren't the first two plays he's failed to make. He does seem to break the wrong way sometimes, which makes plays more difficult. (Shane Victorino did that, too, but he always seemed to recover and was a plus defensive outfielder.)

[andyb]

Stott at SS today for all you fantasy league managers....

[zambonir]

Rojas is still basically a rookie (and a kid). They were awarding him 10 Gold Gloves last year based on a ten-week sample, it's okay if there are some struggles too. And even so, for every play he doesn't make I suspect we can think of one he's made that no one else would (I certainly remember a few in the playoffs).

We really do have the ultimate luxury right now, to complain about any struggling or flawed player, since there's nothing to complain about with the team's overall performance. Whereas the previous shortcomings of Schwarber or Turner or Castellanos or (god help us) Matt Vierling and Odubel Herrera in CF) were accompanied by losing records the past two Mays.

[Callison]

How does the Phils' starting pitching look? Getting dominant, I'd say. Walker's first outing he looked like he needed another month at AAA. Yesterday he was dominant. Stott might have made the play called 1B preceding the HR that followed to spoil a dominant performance. Today we got Wheeler vs. a RH rook. Expect more dominance from Wheeler and the rook will be lucky to last 3. (Giants down to their #3 catcher!)

Still some problems to address: 1. making the rotation right for Wheeler - seems like his down time needs to be just right to get his best game and 2. Fine tuning Nola - here's hoping the Phils come up with something to get this guy consistent.

Is there a better rotation in MLB?

[BostonRoss]

I am not complaining, just noting my observations and my feeling (and admitting the same feeling may have been wrong about Marsh). Rojas's performance so far is a small sample size; we'll learn what he is eventually. Just not ready to anoint him as the next Secretary of Defense yet.

[andyb]

Marsh was a gold glove finalist in LF the year they traded for him. More average in CF. But if the DRS formulas are runs saved versus the average left fielder he probably scores really well there.

[Dirk41]

He doesn't just need ABs, but a complete overhaul to his offensive game. He doesn't hit balls out of the infield. It's wild how he can be so one sided

[BostonRoss]

I don't want to be all negative, but I can't help but notice that none of the Phillies opponents this season have a winning record other than the Braves. They are 15-2 against teams that are under .450. They have an easy schedule the rest of this month, with 19 of 22 games against teams under .500.

July will be the big test, when they have to play the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers, Twins, Guardians, and Yankees.