GDT 3/31/25 Colorado Rockies (Márquez) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Sánchez, C)

[bkox]

Scott Alexander (L, 0-1)(H, 2)

Didnt know it was possible to get a hold and a loss...

[andyb]

Kepler hits the ball really hard. If the defense is still good he looks to be a decent pickup. Ross looked pretty good as well. Hope he can do this in 2-inning stints once the season gets going.

[andyb]

Didnt know it was possible to get a hold and a loss...

I guess he got outs in a save situation then left the game before the runs scored that were charged to him.

We definitely seem to beat up mediocre bullpen pitchers. If we could hit starters this team could be something special.

[Callison]

Add German to the list of tough starters. No sun/shade problems to explain the domination.

Thankful for the W, but expect the Phils to dominate the Rocks.

Nice to finally have a LF that isn't a hole in the lineup. Nice hitting from Sosa who looks comfy at SS.

[EastFallowfield]

Had 'em all the way, Harry!

Kinda feels like if you score 6 times as many runs as the opposition you dominated, even if those runs came later in the game, they still count.

[EastFallowfield]

One of the Good Phight's staffers on twitter:

The Phillies are going to lead the league in lopsided wins in which the fans were (ticked) off about their lack of hitting for most of the game.

[zambonir]

If Nola's start had gone as well as the other three guys it would have been a lot less noticeable. Which is to say, the other teams aren't hitting either.

Another LHP on Wednesday and it's also supposed to be Kepler's off-day (they switched him with Marsh after Marsh had a hot game but now Kepler's hot).

[VoteForKalas]

The point is not that the Phillies are a bad team or that they can't win games.

The point is what is being done to be better, to improve on the flaws of the team and thus maximize our chances of success in achieving the end goal everyone - fans, players, coaches, management - wants to achieve.

Their offensive issues have been clear since at least 2022 yet all I've seen is them doubling down on making it worse not better. The pitching is terrific. The pen, albeit a little less known this season, should be fine. But the offense is the same.

Hoping they do better after seasons of evidence to the contrary and that the ball bounces our way one of these times is.not a worthy plan. It requires decisive action after fully understanding the problems and acknowledging they are problems.

DD has rearranged the deck chairs for the third straight season. Should we be surprised this same group may continue to struggle when it matters most? Meanwhile, they have boxed themselves into a corner payroll wise amd refuse to take steps to admit the mistakes and clean up with better choices..

Again, I'll state if the Harper era ends without one ring, it is a failure. Winning is great, but winning rings is what the real goal should be always.

The Eagles know it after being fine with winning for many years, but never getting the parade. You think the Dodgers believe falling shortl is acceptable? Not by their actions. They already won it last season and they worked extra hard this off-season to get even better..

[zambonir]

There's plenty of truth in what you are saying but I still think October results are mostly flukish - and that includes the success the Phillies had in '22 and for the first half of the '23 postseason just as surely as '24. The 95-win team DD built last year was still his best team.

And you can't say he rearranged the deck chairs for three off-seasons. He signed Turner and Walker and Kimbrel and Strahm and acquired Soto in off-season 1 (we may not like any of those moves but for Strahm, but they were aggressive moves, and it's not like Turner is bad) and he re-signed Nola and extended Wheeler in Off-season Two (those aren't deck chairs, those are the whole boat).

Sure, I don't love that they are stuck with Casty and Walker's $ and didn't want to bust the last cap threshold but I'm also pretty glad they didn't sign Profar or Bregman or trade for Tucker.

I hear you on the Dodgers but they are better-run, better-owned, richer and had a 20-year foundation of homegrown talent and success to build from. The Phillies had to take shortcuts to get from the Amaro/Klentak years to here. And The Dodgers could still lose in the NLDS again this year just like they did in '22 and '23.

Of course the Harper era is a failure if they don't win. How they actually make the Harper era last past this season is really the next big question.

[andyb]

We were 5th in runs scored last year and added Kepler. He seems better than Hays although they are a little too left-handed.

I just don't see how running it back is "rearranging the deck chairs". And they improved the rotation though perhaps at the expense of the bullpen.

Sometimes a GM should not do radical things. I am sure we would have made room for Soto and clearly wanted Sasaki. I am just NOT sure I would have traded their best prospects for much else given that what we had was already pretty good. I am realistic enough to say we should not spend $400 million. Spending money is not our problem. I am critical with the GM when warranted (I was not a fan generally of Wade, Amaro, and especially Klentak). But DD seems to know what he is doing.

[zambonir]

You mean Soto of course. And they also took their shot at Yamamoto and Ohtani, however futile.

And if they could have traded Bohm, we'd probably be watching Tucker or Bregman, maybe both. The fact that they were actively shopping him (even Bryce says so) and would have also surely traded Marsh in the right deal doesn't shout "stasis" to me. And Painter, Crawford and Miller are still here (which they wouldn't be if they'd gotten Tucker, not all of them anyway).

[allentown]

DD has rearranged the deck chairs for the third straight season. Should we be surprised this same group may continue to struggle when it matters most? Meanwhile, they have boxed themselves into a corner payroll wise amd refuse to take steps to admit the mistakes and clean up with better choices..

DD spent a ton of money in recent years on stars and not-really-stars, or stars who are now approaching no longer being stars. He has spent his budget. There was no budget for a position player better than Kepler. The Phillies have added so many high-priced players that the supporting cast must be inexpensive. It is by far best if the are young, plus players, from own system, Rule 5, or waiver wire who are good and cheap. Our homegrown are at least a year away, as far as position players go. What good does publicly admitting mistakes possibly do? The expensive mistakes will remain here, because nobody else wants them, unless we send so much money with them that we won't really have added $ to upgrade until soe bad contracts are behind us. I'm notat all what, specifically you would havr had DD do this past offseason,

[EastFallowfield]

Playoffs are always a crapshoot. That's why we don't celebrate our World Series title from 2011.

If you look at the 1976-83 era, the Pythagorean W/L record rankings match the chronology, 1976 the best of the bunch, 1983 the worst.

1976 (swept in NLCS) .644 (better than the Reds that year, by the way)
1977 (lost 3-1 in NLCS) .607 (actually worse than LA)
1978 (lost 3-1 in NLCS) .586 (again, worse than LA)
1980 (Champs!) .559 (not as good as the KC Royals)
1983 (NL Champs) .542 (yet again, worse than LA, and worse than Baltimore)

Then look at the other championship era, not a match for the chronology this time:

2011 (lost in 1st round) .633 (much better than StL)
2010 (lost in NLCS) .585 (a smidge higher than SF)
2008 (Champs!) .573 (higher than all the teams they beat, not as good as Boston that year though)
2009 (NL Champs) .566 (worse than LA and NYY)
2007 (lost in 1st round) .538 (worse than COL)

And the current era, this one goes from best to least best in reverse chronological order.

2024 (lost in 1st round) .571 (better than the NYM)
2023 (lost in NLCS) .549 (far better than AZ)
2022 (NL Champs) .540 (worse than all the teams they played in postseason except SD)

(just for fun, the 1993 pythagW/L for that NL Championship team would fit in between 1978 and 1980 on the first list, between 2010 and 2008 on the Utley era list, and between 2024 and 2023 on the current list).

[zambonir]

And baseball is also funny, isn't it? While '08 and '80 are the high points that they should be, the '07 team making the playoffs at the Mets expense is probably my second favorite part of that era (more than '09 which really just repeated '08 w/o the happy ending), and the current group's dominance of the Braves for two straight Octobers was just as thrilling as the joy and pain of the accompanying two NLCS runs.

Last year really was the equivalent of the Cardinals 2011 series. Except unlike then, there's more to come. This not a team of Marlon Byrds and Ben Reveres and AJ Burnetts and Delmon Young Jrs. (I know I am conflating years now but you get the point).

[EastFallowfield]

[schillingfan]

Welcome to the last 3 seasons, my friend.

You need to just not watch until the Phillies get to the bullpen. It will help with the anxiety.

[zambonir]

it's not even hittin' season yet!

[Callison]

Though the offense looks the same in many ways, the addition of a LF that can hit is a huge improvement. Early in the season, but Kepler looks like a shrewd signing for the moment. The Phils are due to get one right. Marchan will likely hit a level better than Stubbs, too. Those look like the two biggest problems with the O and the Phils went after them. Plenty of other Phils problems to be impatient about.

[allentown]

I'm a fan of the Kepler signing, but I absolutely am not buying that. The Phillies have had a plus LF for the past 3 seasons. In a not small sample size of 1100 PA, Marsh has an average OPS+ of 118 during his time in Philly. In that time, he contributed 7.3 rWAR and never had an OPS+ lower than 109. LF was not our problem.

[zambonir]

And neither was back-up catcher. Signing Kepler and moving Marsh to CF does make the offense better (at the expense of CF defense) but I doubt the added production from either is going to turn the fifth highest-scoring offense into fourth or third.

The bench is still looking like real a strength this year though. Clemens might not be a good fit, but having three bench guys who really could start for a lot of teams (I'm including Marchan certainly) is a luxury that pays off when the need arises.

And the biggest threat to Wilson's job might not be Clemens, but rather, if Kepler and Marsh actually succeed as everyday players, especially since you know Sosa will deliver a few big PHs here and there if he's not in the line-up for an injured guy.