News of Former Phillies 2019/2020

andyb 2020-05-18 16:52:06 UTC #402

The one catcher who had Rickey Henderson's number? Bob Boone (though later in his career with the Angels):

phillychuck 2020-05-18 17:41:15 UTC #403

Great article. Boone was an underrated cog in the 1980 championship team. Even though he had to split some ABs with Keith Moreland...

Philsmania 2020-05-18 17:59:37 UTC #404

Pope was largely right about the 1974-80 core guys in terms of when they were getting older and likely to decline and probably moved them at the right time (Bull, Bowa, McBride, Trillo). Boone, however, was one where he misjudged. He was still good with the Angels after the guys who replaced him with the Phillies--Diaz and later Virgil--had come and gone. And, ironically, he was replaced on the Angels with Lance Parrish when the Phillies moved on from him.

andyb 2020-05-18 18:06:51 UTC #405

It is hard to count on a catcher to play 150 games at age 37 and still be decent. Part of the equation as we decide on the length of the contract we will offer Realmuto. While his athleticism might let him catch longer than others, should we expect that?

bkeich 2020-05-18 19:39:20 UTC #406

Boone had a pretty good arm, but it wasnt like a Molina arm, but he might have been one of the smartest players to ever play the game. My guess is that many of his CSs were just a matter of him outsmarting the baserunner, they didnt keep track of pitch outs then but I bet he got alot of guys on those. The pitch out is now a dead concept, but back when he played it was still pretty common.

Boone has to be on the short list of guys that were sons of ML players and had multiple sons that were multiple ML players. He knew (knows) the game like very few.

He also had a freakish lack of decline as he aged. He put up a 1.9dWAR at 41 and never had a bad dWAR season. He was a pretty steady 1.0 - 2.5dWAR every year.

andyb 2020-05-18 19:57:31 UTC #407

Boone had really good throwing mechanics. Very compact with little wasted motion. That is not unlike Realmuto though the one thing JT does better is shift his body into throwing position on pitches that are not perfect.

zambonir 2020-05-19 01:58:20 UTC #408

I mean, you're gonna be right 9 times out of 10 if you give up on a 33 year-old player 10 times, whether he's a catcher or starting pitcher or position player (except maybe DH). And Boone was pretty much done as an offensive tool at 31. But impressively durable overall.

He actually set his Phillies career highs for starts and ABs in 1980, Moreland made just 39 starts. In '81 it was more of a platoon (in a shortened season) and then both were gone.

BostonRoss 2020-05-19 14:25:44 UTC #409

That accurately describes Boone's career as an Angel. His dWAR averaged over 2 as an Angel.

But as a Phillie, Boone averaged about 1 dWAR per year. His last two years as a Phillie were 0.9 and -0.5. Combined with oWAR of 0.3 and -0.2 those years, it's not surprising why the Phillies let him go.

The only other sons of ML players who had multiple sons who were ML players that I can think of are Buddy Bell and Jerry Hairston Sr.

zambonir 2020-05-19 17:55:49 UTC #410

Seeing as how we can't even seem to nail down defensive statistics and analytics for current players I would think the retroactive assessments are variable to say the least, and that catcher is the hardest position to assess. Some of the core catching funtions, especially how we view it now, aren't in the formula. But, you can only really compare catchers to other catchers and Boone remains an all-timer.

BostonRoss 2020-05-19 23:42:03 UTC #411

All good points about dWAR, past and present, and especially for catchers.

It’s unfortunate that Boone had two bad years at an age where many catchers are declining. Good for him to have so many good years after that.

Lawman 2020-06-01 20:08:40 UTC #412

This is hilarious.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/judge-len-dykstra-reputation-bad-131243871.html

> this Court finds that, as a matter of law, the reference cannot “induce an evil opinion of [Dykstra] in the minds of right-thinking persons” or “deprive him of their friendly intercourse in society,” as that “evil opinion” has long existed.

So, basically, a court of law has ruled that Dykstra is, legally, a piece of human trash.

bkeich 2020-06-02 13:06:53 UTC #413

This is hilarious is absolutely correct. If the legal profession doesnt work out for this judge, he has a real future as a satirical comedy writer. Basically he said "nothing can be said to lower anyone's opinion of Dykstra" and "I have better things to do than worry about this peice of... ".

Did the judge drop the microphone when he left the room and give Lenny "the Bird" on the way out also?

Philsmania 2020-06-25 02:03:38 UTC #414

Just when you think Schilling is getting closer to a successful Hall vote.

zambonir 2020-06-30 01:58:57 UTC #415

Marlins sign Sean Rodriguez as well as Vincent. (Ironically Vincent had previously rejoined Kapler in SF.)

David_Criss 2020-06-30 13:42:13 UTC #416

Pirates outright Yacksel Rios.

zambonir 2020-06-30 19:06:37 UTC #417

Off the 40, still on their 60. It's funny that you still get "assigned" to minor league teams right now. He couldn't refuse the assignment.

schillingfan 2020-06-30 20:33:22 UTC #418

He still has his Facebook account. Facebook doesn’t lend itself to the same kind of fights, since only friends can post and you can only have 500 friend.

zambonir 2020-06-30 21:40:24 UTC #419

5000 friends is the limit. Plus he has 33,000 "followers." His posts are all public too.

schillingfan 2020-06-30 22:13:20 UTC #420

Typo, meant 5000. Yes. Posts are public, and anyone can follow but only friend, like me lol, can post back.

zambonir 2020-06-30 22:25:02 UTC #421

Haha. I wouldn't be able to deal at this point (like, if he was still posting on the listserv or a board like this, as he did in Sox days).