17 Philadelphia Phillies (B Lively) @ Washington Nationals (S Strasburg)

flyers19rw 2017-09-10 21:30:16 UTC #81

Another decent outing by Lively. With Nola, a rebounding Eichkoff and Lively, the Phils have three guys that should be able to be good middle of the rotation SPs. Add a pitcher to front the rotation and the makings of a solid rotation is there.

Austinfan 2017-09-11 00:09:00 UTC #82

The only way they're going to get a pitcher better than Nola is for one of the young arms in the system to develop.
What they could get in a trade or FA is a #2/#3 type to go with Nola at the front of the rotation.
Lively, a healthy Eickhoff and maybe Thompson if he keeps improving would be a decent back of the rotation, Velasquez would be nice but I'm not holding my breath.
The key is to build a 5 man group that can provide quality starts on a regular basis.
This saves your bullpen and keeps you in games, which not only helps to garner wins, but for a rebuilding team, putting young players in competitive situations for evaluation.
Then you look to upgrade over time. Develop a Sanchez or Kilome and you move 2-3 pitchers down the food chain.

Lively is a strong boy, he was hitting 93-95 in the 8th inning, the hardest he threw all day.
Just has to sharpen that breaking ball, it has good break but he was leaving too many high in the K-zone and got burnt on a couple.

flyers19rw 2017-09-11 01:09:16 UTC #83

What I believe will happen over the next six months is that the Phillies will put together the lineup in the field that they feel will carry them for a while. All of this moving guys around that we've seen for the last month has been done in order to give the recently called up players the opportunity to prove that they're ready. Then some of them will be moved to upgrade certain positions.
MacPhail has been quoted as saying that you trade for bats and grow the arms. When you go out of the organization to acquire pitchers, you get players whose health history is not clear to you and other organizations are not going to divulge. CIPs-Velasquez and Eflin. Did the Phillies know the full extent of VV's arm issues or Eflin's knees? I doubt it. It's best to draft and cultivate your own.
Sanchez, Kilome, JoJo and the like, the pitchers who well could be the front of the rotation hurlers, are at least a season away. '18 will be the season that they move towards the show while their cast of bats gets consolidated.