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Aug 2019

I was looking on youtube just now, too, and couldn't find it. [Great minds...] The twitter video has the slowmo, too, which is even more incredible.

He was supposed to have a big time arm (the thing that really separated him from Kingery when they both could have played SS last year). That was also the 3rd out in the 9th inning of a 2-2 game, so a bit of pressure.

Not surprising. I'm puzzled that any team thought he would be valuable in the majors. 44 OPS+ last year in Texas, 59 in AAA this season.

I'm just relieved that nobody here lobbied for the Phils to claim Tocci!

K rate is down this year. Maybe he figured out how to shorten his swing? Stranger things have happened to players with big league tools who don't put it together.

Source confirms: Red Sox have signed first baseman Tommy Joseph to a minor-league deal.

Joseph played for Phillies in 2016-17, spent last year in Rangers' system. Signed $1M deal to play in Korea over the winter and was released in mid-July.

— Chris Cotillo ( @ChrisCotillo ) August 3, 2019

OF Carlos Tocci has been released from his minor league contract at Nashville.

— John Blake ( @RangerBlake ) August 3, 2019

Ben Lively signs with the Samsung Lions in Korea. I remember thinking we stole him for Byrd.

We did, but he just did not pan out. I liked what I saw of him in the minors before we traded for him. His strikeouts went down in the upper minors.

A minor-league deal. And I assume one of the years is this year, so they are just making an early mutual commitment for next season. Good for him though.

I guess the Reds plan on picking up Freddy's option year. Otherwise a strange move.

They seem determined to at least finish with a winning record and stay in the race. And sure, they might well need/want him next year too.

J.P Crawford has hit a rough patch and his OPS has fallen from .800 to .720.

Still not that far behind Segura WAR-wise. But him hitting some bumps was to be expected. We win the trade for the next two years but after that?

There is the small matter of Carlos Santana's 3.7 WAR in judging who won that trade.

Yeah but take away McCutchen's WAR, plus consider Hoskins' reduced WAR last year, plus the assumption (at least from me) that Santana has a comfort zone in Cleveland/the AL that wouldn't have happened here.

Last year, Santana + Hoskins was 2.2 WAR total; this year Hoskins alone is already at 2.1 and will exceed that.

Plus we'd owe him $20 million next year, can he do it again?

As it turns out we needed every inning of Nicasio too, even if he's bottomed out.

The reasons behind a trade really have nothing to do with judging the results of the trade. Now one can consider the money saved in the trade ($40 million) but that is actually balanced somewhat by the money paid to Segura ($60 million over 4 years).

Bottom line is you just can't judge the trade on shortstops. Plus 4 years of Segura at $60 million is probably not going to be as valuable as 6 years of Crawford at maybe $20 million total (if it is more than that the Seattle is winning the deal big time).

If we had Crawford and Santana we would have had many options as well. Other places to trade Santana. Play Santana at 3B and live with the defense. Flip him for a $20 million starter. Sign McCutchen and play them both (hey we know we don't care about defense).

Bottom line is when all is said and done it is very unlikely that the Phillies win this trade. We are definitely not winning it this year with Santana. Next year might be 50-50 on the shortstops alone. Basically this was going to be a good trade for the Phillies only if Segura helped them win now (which he isn't) or if Crawford failed (which he does not appear to be doing). It probably will end up as a truly awful trade for the franchise.

I am still not a believer in Crawford. He is hitting .179 with 0 HRs since the all-star break. A 0.0 WAR on defense, although I do believe he'll be better than that on defense long term. His bat concerns me. He had a very long swing.

16 days later

Bad news about a former Phillies draftee/farmhand:

I wonder what kind of gig Ruben will pursue next, field or office.

Also, are we going to hire Lee MacPhail?

If we were still talking about Montgomery's Phillies, it wouldn't surprise me if they hired the younger McPhail. However, this front office has taken pains to prove that it is not your father's Phillies' front office. Amaro? Maybe a minor league manager gig somewhere. Otherwise, see him next to Michael Barkann sometimes on the post-game show.

The Phillies also released a statement.

One thing that jumps out at me is that he died in a skateboarding accident. I guess contractual restrictions on engaging in dangerous activities or ones which could cause career-disrupting injuries are typically not given to career minor leaguers.

Regardless, RIP.

I was surprised to see Dylan Cozens start in RF for the Durham Bulls tonight in their first playoff game. He had rally-killing 3 pitch K in the 1st, a walk, another K and a double off the wall in the 8th after which he was replaced by a PR. I didn't think he was going to be able to play at all after having foot surgery earlier this seaons.

The opposing team (SWB RailRiders) scored their first run on a HR from phormer Phil Erik Kratz.

Bulls won, 9-3.

It's OT, but if you didn't see how the RailRiders won their final game to get into the playoffs, it's worth looking at the box score drama.