Good examination of the plusses and minuses of fielding a lineup with the current Phillies. Velasquez is a fly ball pitcher so we went with the good defensive outfield (Altherr, Quinn, Herrera) on purpose. Then we also went with the bad defensive infield (Santana, Cabrera, Hernandez, Hoskins) where only Cesar is at least average.
I get that these are choices, though one wonders why Kapler did this when he was also seemingly intending to pull Velasquez early. Yes Velasquez gave up 3 runs, but it could easily have been less and he had decent command. I probably stick with him longer if you have explicitly gone for the outfield defense behind him.
The soft conclusion in the article that I agree with is that we need more well-rounded players that can play both offense and defense. Stop any conversation now about re-signing Bour and Cabrera. They fit on a 40-man roster. Not on a 25-man roster that also has Hoskins and Santana and Franco on it. Machado solves lots of problems. Either he or Harper would also create interesting trade options if they wanted to pursue a piece like a left-handed starter through a trade.
The roster is not Kapler's fault. It actually plays into his managerial style and sometimes the results are not that good. Here is hoping this is a lesson learned and they tweak the roster to play better defense over the winter.
