News of Former Phillies 2019/2020

[xogfog]

Pedro only had 219, but that's my point, dominance. Kershaw and Scherzer likely get in, probably Sabathia too, can't think of anyone else. Bumgarner was on track, but he leveled off, same with Grienke. Kluber hasn't done enough, Felix Hernandez was dominant, but his window of dominance was not long enough IMHO. Cole was never dominant except for the 2008 playoff run. He never finished higher than 5th in Cy Young voting, never won 20 games (won 17 once)

[mdougherty12]

Justin Verlander seems like a safe bet for the HOF.

[xogfog]

Yep, forgot about him!

[bkox]

10 years ago, as we were watching the best 1B, 2B, SS and 2nd or 3rd greatest LHSP in team history go to 2 straight world series, if you would have told me that, that team might have 0 Hall of famers. I would have thought you were nuts.

[phillychuck]

Utley and Rollins both have pretty good chances.

[Lawman]

I think Felix gets in as well.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Royals designate Ben Lively for assignment.

Ben Lively - Kansas City Royals - MLB

[BostonRoss]

I don't see Hamels as a Hall of Famer even if he gets to 200 wins. Greinke is much more likely (same age as Hamels but a much better resume, and pitching as well as Hamels now).

[phillychuck]

Hamels has the post-season performance and no-hitter to boost his resume. Might have been the best lefty in the league for a few years. He's got a good shot.

[andyb]

Crawford 4-4 with a HR today to get the average up to .300, OPS of 827.

This is why I was nervous about that trade. There were other ways to move Hoskins back to 1B. It was a great trade value-wise. It just may not have been the right move for the Phillies to make, especially since they value high OBP guys.

Frankly if Williams keeps hitting for a week or two in AAA I'd give him the LF job and bump Bruce down to the bench. At some point Bruce's sub-300 OBP was going to cause problems when he was not hitting 5 HRs a week. Williams is probably the better hitter now. He just has not been given a fair chance this year.

[flyers19rw]

If Williams is hitting in a week or two, I’d move him for a useful pitcher.

[andyb]

Hitting seems to be the bigger problem now and we are getting some arms back. Hunter next most likely.

[flyers19rw]

This lineup is going to hit; especially when it is put in a proper order unlike today. Williams in LF is more of an adventure out there than Bruce is. When Hasely comes back there’s no room for Williams as long as Quinn stays healthy. If another club would offer a decent pitcher back for Williams, IMO, it would be silly to turn it down. In the future, at best Williams is a bat off of the bench.

[julio]

If another club would offer a decent pitcher back for Williams, IMO, it would be silly to turn it down.

That's a pretty big "if," IMHO. Saying "Move Williams for a useful pitcher." may be a pipe dream.

[BostonRoss]

Since he got here, Jay Bruce has been the Phillies’ best hitter. He had more homers and RBIs in his second game as a Phillie than Nick Williams has had in 50 games. It would take a lot more than a couple of weeks of AAA hitting for me replace Bruce with Williams.

[mdougherty12]

Write up on J.P. Crawford's 2019:

J.P. Crawford is making this fun

[julio]

Write up on J.P. Crawford's 2019:

J.P. Crawford is making this fun

Couple of rather sharp barbs hidden in that piece. The subtitle:

Injuries and stunted opportunities behind him, J.P. Crawford looks like guy he was always supposed to be.

"stunted opportunities" - a comment on Crawford's up-down, in-out of lineup handling in Philadelphia?

This year, one IL stint and service time manipulation behind him, J.P. Crawford is available and delivering.

"service time manipulation" - noting the Phils were playing some games here.

Are these digs fair? I'm not prepared to argue they're not.

[zambonir]

I don't recall Crawford's service time being an issue. He did not force his way into the big leagues. Of course many of us would have preferred they'd traded Galvis sooner.

Beyond that it's huge mystery. I mean, they seemed perfectly willing (even eager) to play him at 3B over Maikel but equally unwilling to prefer him at SS over Kingery. If we take things at face value, they did not rate him defensively, and did not believe he was going to bring what he showed in the minors to the big leagues. They seem to have been wrong. The injuries did not help, and to some extent it was also about the timetable and the ability to shed Santana's salary. They did not exactly dump Crawford though, he was a once-valuable player coming off a down year whom they turned into an affordable all-star while also opening up 1B for Hoskins. Just like they didn't dump Realmuto.

This is why the next two seasons are so high-stakes though. If the Phillies miss the playoffs this year and aren't a championship contender next year not having Alfaro and Crawford (and Sanchez) in 2021 while still carrying Segura, McCutchen and even possibly Herrera's salary could be a bad look.

[kmc1019]

I am happy to see Crawford thriving. However, he did very little during his time in Philly or even Lehigh Valley to indicate his bat would ever be sufficient., let alone good.

[Patchmk88]

This has turned off topic a bit but my worry is guys seem to regress when they come here (Segura and Realmuto) and take off when they leave (Crawford and Santana). Is it a system at bat approach issue?