GDT 7/10/18 Philadelphia Phillies (De Los Santos) @ New York Mets (Gagnon, D)

[LoneStarPhan]

De Los Santos wins his first ML start and pitched a strong 6 innings. I was expecting that he would be pulled at that point but Kapler sent him back out for the 7th. I have mixed feelings on that since I do like to see starters go deep into games and he had pitched a strong six innings. Having a nice lead may also been a factor in the decision to let him start the 7th. As it turns out, De Los Santos did have trouble and ended up getting only one out and being charged with two more runs. Still a quality start but his ERA jumped from 1.50 to 4.26 with those 7th inning runs. Regardless, he and the Phillies get the win. I expect he has earned more starts when there is an opening in the rotation.

Phillies' offense scores 7 on 13 hits. Franco's early 3 run homer set the pace. Hoskins and Williams each had 3 hits and Herrera two including his 16th home run.

Final game in the Mets series tomorrow looks to be a challenge as the Phillies will have Velasquez coming back off the DL to face the ever tough Jacob deGrom.

At 51-39, the Phillies have a one game lead over second place Atlanta and and 5.5 games over third place Washington.

[LoneStarPhan]

More roster moves coming before Wednesday's game.

[Austinfan]

De Los Santos is the real deal, he's not ready for prime-time, a better hitting team than the Mets might have given him trouble, but the stuff is there. He struggled with command, some was obviously nerves, but his mechanics were a bit shaky and his breaking stuff up and down. His change was definitely not as advertised. FB started at 91-93, but built up to 95-97.

This is where depth makes a difference, last year we were rushing young starters, this year he goes back to AAA, and maybe starts there next year. But at some point he's going to be a SP for the Phillies.

[tom81]

Or a starting pitcher for someone else if we trade him

He has real trade value and we have some nice depth at SP we can use to fill other needs.

I think Gabe did the right thing sending him out for the seventh. His pitch count wasn’t that high, he looked strong in the sixth, and he had thrown over 100 pitches in AAA games earlier this year and we had a big lead. Why not thy to get an extra inning out of him and save the bullpen some work?

[bkeich]

Watching him yesterday I had a few thoughts:

I think he might be better than Pivetta and VV right now. Obviously just 1 game, and he has been "hot" this year, but truth is his last few games in AAA were not as good as early in the season (still good). He has great stuff and his command seems pretty good. I think I might send down one of the other guys.

I also think he is probably our best bunter right now. One could say that doesnt matter, but if a pitcher can advance hitters it does help. He actually seems very comfortable, so comfortable in fact he tried to bunt with no one on, and then strangely enough thought it was foul and/or got caught up with the catcher and didnt run.

The Mets starting pitcher was an oddity to me. He has a wicked, wicked curve ball, but he makes huge mistakes with his changeup. He fooled a few guys with the change up but then he also left a few changeups belt high (or higher) and they went rocketing forward (the one Franco hit out was almost a HR derby pitch it was that nice). This guy might be for real, but they really need to work on his control, he would have dominated without a few awful pitches, instead he got crushed.

[Lawman]

David Murphy opined on twitter for keeping EDLS in the rotation and sending VV to the bullpen. I don't know if you do that now, but it may be a play down the stretch.

[tom81]

None of our SP threw a lot of innings last year so we probably want to keep all of their innings in check the second half with the 10 day DL. There will be ample times when we have De Los Santos in the MLB rotation in the second half as we keep the other guys innings in down.

[bkeich]

None of our SP threw a lot of innings last year so we probably want to keep all of their innings in check the second half with the 10 day DL. There will be ample times when we have De Los Santos in the MLB rotation in the second half as we keep the other guys innings in down.

If that is the plan, then they need to limit EDLS's (is that going to be his nickname?) innings now in AAA. He will probably hit his limit before any of the other guys I suspect.

I doubt anyone but Pivetta has a limit. VV is getting a little long in the tooth for that gentle of handling, maybe Eflin also has a limit. Certainly Arrieta and Nola are not limited.

[julio]

they need to limit EDLS's (is that going to be his nickname?)

I certainly hope not. Gibberish makes some sense on Twitter, where you're character-limited, but not when you have the option of using the man's name.

I note that you chose to use initials - in response to a post in which Tom81 used De Los Santos' name. Should I infer that you want us to use initials in this case?

If it's too much to type out, just call him Enyel. It's one character more - and it's his name.

[EastFallowfield]

The Mets have the 26th worst offense, supposedly, and presumably that includes when they had Cespedes and Bruce and Frazier and whomever else is on the disabled list that's more like a major leaguer than Ty Kelly etc. Kind of like a AAAA test last night.

[Austinfan]

De Los Santos needs to stay in AAA ball this year, He's had one full A ball season and one AA season.
He needs to work on his secondary pitches and improve command of his fastball.
We rushed Eflin and Pivetta, no need to rush De Los Santos.

Anderson and Irvin are older with more experience if we need a spot starter, and when Lively and Eickhoff are healthy, they have ML experience.

Let the kid develop at his own pace, there is no need to force feed him.
However, he's another example why those unheralded LA signings have value, $15K signing bonus in 2014.

[zambonir]

I'd go with just DLS, if you insist. What confuses me is that his last name is capitalized.

How is Kapler going to find a nickname? "Santy"? "Yelly"?