GDT 10/6/25 Los Angeles Dodgers (Snell) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Luzardo)

[EDmuch]

Z I agree with you. This is going to be a veryinteresting offseason. The Schwarber saga has taken a new turn. JT ??? The “Big 3” approach has not worked in the post season. Something has to give. Crawford will be up next year and he seems to be a lead off hitter. Bader in CF? Miller for Bohm. Going for more speed? DD is going to have a full plate.

[zambonir]

In our eagerness to dump both the winningest Phillies manager of all-time and rip on or dump several future Wall of Famers, let's not leave out DD!

Not that I think he is going anywhere.

What about Kevin Long? I tend not to put much stock in that either but his deal is up.

[julio]

Disappointment, I understand. Frustration, I understand. Sadness. Upset.

But anger? Lashing out? Anger implies that the angry fan feels entitled to something that has not happened. Anger implies that the fan thinks they are "owed" a championship, and that the Phillies have somehow wronged the fan.

[Philsmania]

Disappointment, I understand. Frustration, I understand. Sadness. Upset.

But anger? Lashing out? Anger implies that the angry fan feels entitled to something that has not happened. Anger implies that the fan thinks they are "owed" a championship, and that the Phillies have somehow wronged the fan.

Sorry. Julio. Not going to lie. I feel owed a championship.

[EDmuch]

Put me down for sad.

[mdougherty12]

They get paid to come through at the biggest time of year so i will kick them with every fiber of my being for failing now..

To be fair, the Dodgers' pitchers also get paid a lot of money to come through at the biggest time of year.

[zambonir]

I'm more numb I guess. And still less disappointed than in the previous two years. This doesn't feel like a playoff crapshoot type deal as much as losing to the better team, however slightly. They have the starting to pitching to match us, and let's face it, in a vacuum would you rather have our 1B, DH and SS or theirs?

And I know which front office I'd rather have. Manager is a toss-up really, they are very similar Roberts has had a better boss, a better roster and more money. And still had to save his job a few times.

[flyers19rw]

My feeling for several seasons has been that there is a tone of arrogance with these guys. They play as if the fundamentals of the game don’t matter and working on them is beneath them. It shows in the field and at the plate. Then when it matters, they fail.
-Ground ball near the pitcher’s mound fielded by the SS who throws home for an out at the plate but puts the throw to the catcher on the first base side of the plate instead of the third. Run scores.
-Runners on first and second with one out. Top two hitters coming up and they fail to move the runners along. Too interested in bashing the ball instead of making contact. No runs scored.
I’d wager that the Brewers would have had success in both of these situations. Just saying. Fundamentals matter.

[Philsmania]

My feeling for several seasons has been that there is a tone of arrogance with these guys. They play as if the fundamentals of the game don’t matter and working on them is beneath them. It shows in the field and at the plate. Then when it matters, they fail.
-Ground ball near the pitcher’s mound fielded by the SS who throws home for an out at the plate but puts the throw to the catcher on the first base side of the plate instead of the third. Run scores.
-Runners on first and second with one out. Top two hitters coming up and they fail to move the runners along. Too interested in bashing the ball instead of making contact. No runs scored.
I’d wager that the Brewers would have had success in both of these situations. Just saying. Fundamentals matter.

These guys play dumb baseball. The 1976-1983 and 2007-11 Phillies would wipe their backsides with these guys.

[zambonir]

So how we feeling about Game 3 starter Aaron Nola

[Philsmania]

So how we feeling about Game 3 starter Aaron Nola

Just forfeit

[Lucky_Beagle]

Bryson Stott

Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter Bryson Stott replaces Edmundo Sosa.
Ball (97.3 mph four-seam fastball)
Swinging strike (96.6 mph four-seam fastball)
In play, out(s) (97.7 mph four-seam fastball)

Bryson Stott grounds out, second baseman Tommy Edman to first baseman Freddie Freeman.

Did this meaningless pinch hit at bat cost the team? 2 outs and no one on base and a pinch hitter is called to bat ....was there any thought of who will be on the mound if the slot gets to the plate again in the game? What % of increased odds did Stott have to get on base in this at bat than Sosa. What would the Dodgers have done if 3 lefties in a row weren't scheduled to bat?

Of course I am sure LA fans are asking why did they start the 9th with the reliever they choose.

[andyb]

I have no problem with Stott pinch hitting. He is the long side of the platoon and has been hitting relatively well lately. I really would not have bunted though with nobody out. There are other ways to move the runner and I just don't like giving up outs unless the hitter is terrible or it is the last inning (ideally in a tie game). Dodgers made a nice play but everything the Phillies did was telegraphed.

These are close games and not having Bader on defense is hurting them. I actually feel OK about Nola starting. Not sure we would get 6-7 out of Ranger and the middle of our bullpen is pretty soft right now. Nola and Suarez should be able to do 7 or 8 innings. We just need the big boys to start hitting. Schwarber and Harper have been late on fastballs they usually hit.

[zambonir]

At that point they were hoping for anything - two-out double, home run. I would still say the decision to bunt (esp. with Casty as runner) and the Dodgers' wheel play were the two bigger factors. You can ask the same question about increased odds in both situations. Stott's .287 OBP versus the odds of a good bunt; Sosa's .339 vs Sosa's .262 in this AB.

You could also say the team running a platoon at 3 of 8 spots finally caught up with them, especially with an injury.

I'm still gonna look back on Game 1 as the killer I think. Not surprising our lefty stars and weak righty line-up came up small against Snell.

And we sure got the full Nick Castellanos show. For the second straight post-season one of our top hitters, but also impacted the game negatively with both his fielding and running limitations.

I still think the flaw of this team is the same as ever. When the two big LHBs don't show up none of the RHBs hitting 4-6 are big enough, and that hole has existed since Rhys got hurt. Any one of them might have it for a month or a series, including Bader, but there is no 4th guy on the scouting report. We largely shut down the Dodgers Big Three but Teoscar showed up and LA had one starter-caliber guy and one injured starter coming off the bench who are both having better offensive seasons than Harper (however slightly).

[andyb]

I guess they could have saved Stott to pinch run for Bader if necessary. That just seems a waste before the final inning.

In hindsight it would have been nice to have Stubbs as backup catcher to pinch run late instead of Marchan, but there was no way to know that Bader was going to be a hit only guy. Not sure we would have run for Catellanos. His speed is still average. It is just his decisions on the basepaths that tend to be questionable.

[allentown]

His speed is still average.

I'm not convinced of that.

So far we are replaying the cycle of the 2008 WS team era. Team that shouldn't get to WS does. Even wins it in 2008. Then the team adds a lot of expensive talent, trades kids and loses draft picks while expanding budget. Although succeeding teams win more games, each year they do worse in post-season than they did the season before. In 2008 sequence, the next step was a crash in 2012 starting roughly a decade of prolonged dismal, due to weak minor leagu.es and drafts and not aggressive budgets. Basically a rebuild not managed at all well.

Is that the next step for this team. The current team has a big budget, an aging core - some with long/high $ contracts, and a relatively deep farm which just traded two key prospects (yes, the trade made sense, but unless you use the new guys to progress farther in the playoffs, you lose the trade. We still have Duran for next year so ledger is still open, but this year was the key goal, next year is a tougher situation).. This is like the Pence trade. He helped at the end of a regular season, where we had the top seed all but sewn up before acquiring him, then did nothing in the post-season, then started off the next season poorly and was traded for little.

What happens next year is the really big question. Do we enter a new dark age as we did in 2012? Do the Middleton bucks allow a rebuild on the fly?

[zambonir]

What happens next year is the really big question. Do we enter a new dark age as we did in 2012? Do the Middleton bucks allow a rebuild on the fly?

I think that is the big difference. In 2012 they would not have had to trade Pence, and if they didn't keep Vic they could have done better than the guys they brought in for that next year. Same with replacing Lee and Halladay (though Burnett wasn't cheap, just bad. That was actually John Middleton's first hands-on move).

[andyb]

I'm not convinced of that.

Phillies sprint speed:

Statcast Sprint Speed Leaderboard

Castellanos at 27.7. ML average is around 27.0. The TV announcers were just flat out wrong about him having below average speed. Clearly he is aggressive and sometimes not smart, but his speed is actually average.

The Phillies as a team are pretty fast.
Elite speed: Turner, Rojas
Very good: Kemp, Sosa
Above average: Bader, Marsh, Realmuto, Stott, Wilson
Average: Castellanos, Harper, Kepler
Below average: Bohm
Just plain slow: Schwarber, Marchan

The only ones we pinch hit for to run in the regular lineup are Bohm and Schwarber along with the injured Bader. And we really don't want to do that before the 9th inning.

I get you hate Castellanos. He is not a good player any more. I disliked the signing from the beginning too. But he is also a sunk cost that is only tradeable picking up most of his salary so replacing him is more costly than just using him most likely. BUT THE DATA SAYS HE IS NOT SLOW. That is the only point I made in that post.

[Lucky_Beagle]

Is sprint speed the whole issue. secondary lead, getting a good jump because of reading the ball etc also played a role in this one situation.

[Sabin]

That is the only point I made in that post

That's one more than some of mine contain..