I don't even know who you mean but maybe I've blocked out memories of last August and September.
There are a lot of divergent views here on exactly what (who?) the problem is in the Phillies baseball-side managers and professional staff, but the common view, which I share, is that something is very seriously wrong.
I think it not coincidence or simply bad luck that the Phillies have started strong two seasons in a row and then SERIOUDSLY collapsed both seasons.
It seems to me that the new Phillies management is chasing baseball trends, without really understanding why the trendsetters are doing what they do. I had that feeling to a greater extent last season than this year because of the awful results from the shift and OF positioning and deciding that just about any player could play just about anywhere
The launch angle focus seems not to have increased our offensive output in general or HR production in particular
I think the team misjudges and gets down on players when they don't succeed in pushing a square peg into a round hole and then blame the player
I don't think they evaluate players particularly well. The Segura trade is looking worse and worse as it appears Crawford was stifled by the ways he was treated by the Phillies and what they asked him to do
It seems Klentak wants to trade youth for talent to hold salary cost down, while Middleton is willing to spend on FA.
Klentak and his reports seem allergic to devoting the big bonuses to pitchers in the draft and international signings, while MacPhail says grow your own pitchers.
I don't think the above comment on the Phillies bullpen not pitching a lot of innings is convincing. I think the short appearances and frequent warmups have as much to do with wear and tear as absolute IP
Too many of our hitters and pitchers have regressed after the organization changed coaches and their approach to hitting.
The last two drafts do impress me as being very professionally conducted, with the team knowing who is signable and following a plan. Absolute talent level remains to be seen, but I like our last two first rounders. Still, the farm is weak. It's well below the Braves and although middle third, I think below mid-point.
Enough is wrong and the end results are bad enough that it is impossible to have confidence in Klentak/Kapler. Kapler seems more and more like Chip Kelly. I liked Andy Reid's post-game perpetual comment after losses that he had to put the players in a better position to succeed. I felt much of last season that Kapler/Klentak consistently put players in position to fail: Hoskins in LF, Kingery at SS, Crawford at 3B, counter-productive OF repositioning and too many shifts in the If, which left Maikel Franco trying to man the SS position. I didn't like the way the team talked down Alfaro or the way over several years they have talked down Hernandez and Odubel as space cadets. I still don't think the Phillies treat minority players especially well in either the minors or majors.
I want a GM who is willing to follow Middleton's lead to sign impact FA, rather than needing to be dragged to that.
I liked the Arrietta signing. I don't like that the bone spur in his elbow wasn't dealt with at the end of last season. The team may not have even known about the problem, but surgery, sign Corbin, get Arrietta back sometime in-season.
The mood surrounding the Phillies seems grim. It's clear MacPhail and, I suppose, Middleton bot see the problem.
I just don't get MacPhail. He preaches grow your own pitchers, yet leads an organization which refuses to spend to accomplish that.
I don't think MacPhail really preaches grow your own pitchers. That is something he said years ago, possibly with the Twins, that the media really picked up on. What he preached was basically the same as Gillick, don't sign FA pitchers for more than three years, so I suspect he's as much responsible as Klentak for avoiding Corbin (as if 6 years is that much worse than 5, which is what they offered).
Beyond that, if MacPhail believes you should grow pitchers but the team isn't drafting them that merely serves to remind that he is not running baseball operations, it is merely one thing he oversees. He may actually have less influence on Klentak than Monty did on Amaro (but Amaro only got the job because he was an organization man).
These are supposed to be competent new school people, Kapler even more than Klentak given his Rays/Maddon/Friedman/Dodgers pedigree. Perhaps MacPhail believed in Klentak, his guy from Baltimore, who really didn't do anything else of distinction except watch Jerrry DiPoto get fired, too much. I think a lot of the problems still trace back to the extremely slow timeline, both in hiring a GM (Milwaukee got theirs from Houston months before the Phillies even started doing interviews) and overhauling the organization.
I'm not willing to draw too many conclusions from two different seasons of collapse, circumstances were very different. Last year the team caught up to its actual talent level, I'd say. this year its talent level has cratered (both due to injury and performance).
Hey, what can we get for Neris now?
Rosenthal article says we were interested in Cashner before he was dealt but declined because of his makeup. So it is reasonable we are looking a veteran that can be acquired largely for salary to shore up the back of the rotation.
Bowden article suggest we should try to obtain BOTH Matt Boyd and Shane Green from Detroit to shore up our rotation and our bullpen at the same time ......... I don't study our farm teams as intently as some of you do. So I will ask:Is it possible that we could meet Detroit's demands for both of those pitchers while still preserving a semblance of a decent farm system?
No, not really. The farm is OK, but thin in the kind of prospects that appeal to other teams in trade.
And those few we have are vital to our future. It simply isn't possible to make the payroll work under lux tax without having at least a handful of young players who are contributing. Guys like Bohm, Stott, Haseley, Grullon, Medina, Moniak already penciled onto 25-man in next few years. Unfortunately, many won't be position starters/rotation guys; cheap bench guys and relievers still a plus.
Boyd is 28 years old and signed through 2023 so I'd have no problem giving up assets for him regardless of current playoff hope, but it would be hard to out-bid a deeper team with more realistic World Series aspirations.
To me the trade deadline starting pitcher scenario required more success from the pitching we already have, not just because of the standings but because of the trade value. You can't do a Cliff Lee or Roy Oswalt type deal if you don't actually have a Carrasco in AAA or a Happ in the big leagues. The latter situation is what I'd hoped for - that our 5th starter would be just competent enough - and young and cheap - to get things started with a rebuilding team looking to shed a veteran salary.
I would not put Grullon, Haseley, and Moniak on any sort of hard to trade list. Scouts are not sold on Grullon and the criticisms have been more defensive of late. And with Haseley and Moniak, they mainly play the same position and since neither is seen as likely to be an above average regular, one has to think that trading one of them is easy.
I could also see them trading either Medina or Howard (more likely Medina) as a way to include a high-ceiling but risky player in a high end deal. Most teams will want Morales too as much as those other two guys even though he is pretty far away and even riskier.
I think they need to have a shot at the division though to justify trading top prospects and I just don't see that now. Wild card is more of a "tweak but not reinvent" strategy of smaller band-aid deals largely picking up salary. Like a Cashner deal would have been.
Bowden was pretty much suggesting that the Phils go all in on Boyd and Green because they are both controllable (especially Boyd) beyong this year.
I would imagine at this Point Grullon has performed at a level where he can be considered a legitimate ML prospect. Offensively he's ready to contribute to a team and I would imagine he would hold value for a team looking for a catcher.
At this point we have a season and a half of offensive production that doesn't grow on trees.
Trading Moniak and Haseley is selling low especially with Moniak starting to look like an actual prospect.
Players who have trade value at AA or above that we would consider trading for value:
Hernandez
Franco
Eflin/Velasquez/Pivetta (one of these)
Williams
Grullon
Listi?
Haseley/Moniak (one of these)
Irvin/De Los Santos (one of these)
Hall
Parkinson/Medina/Llovera (one of these)
I just don't know if there is enough talent in this list to acquire a strong pitcher or two and to outbid other interested teams.
Yeah a rebuilding team won't want the major league positions players and Williams and the major league pitchers just aren't that exciting right now, even if they still have potential. Sometimes these trades are cheaper than we expect them to be but I would think Moniak and Medina are the starting point for Boyd and Green, +2 (whether higher or lower in the system).
I think the big attraction is Boyd being under team control until 2023. Does that make it worth going all out to get him?
I think Haseley, Medina and Williams gets you a seat at the table for Boyd. I really like Boyd, but he's got a homer problem too. How much could that problem amplify in Philly?
I suspect many of us, myself included, believe the Phillies will avoid the luxury tax. What if that is not true? If they are willing to go into the tax, everything changes. Teams looking to move money often settle for way less in the way of prospects. Zack Greinke?
We could actually add Grienke this year and stay under if it was all we did.
Next year is another story of course.
Middleton has promised Boras and Harper that the phillies would be in the top 5 in payroll on a regular basis...I don't think there is an issue about spending.
Being in the Top 5 and busting the tax are two different things. Only Boston and Washington were in it last year, and I didn't see the Yankees or Dodgers or Cubs attempt to change that (at least not yet).
Greinke is an interesting one. The age is more concerning than the money, if he can actually keep pitching this way the money (assuming some pick-up by AZ and a low trade price) would be worth it.
Of course Arizona is only a game behind us in the standings. And Texas, for all the Mike Minor talk, is ahead of us.