News of Phormer Phillies 2017

LoneStarPhan 2017-04-01 05:27:02 UTC #81

Left-hander Cole Hamels was solid in his final tuneup, tossing six scoreless innings in the Rangers' 3-0 victory over the Royals on Friday night in an exhibition contest at Globe Life Park.
Hamels threw just 69 pitches, allowing two hits and striking out four. Over his final 11 spring innings, Hamels yielded one run, five hits and walked just two.

scorcher 2017-04-01 18:20:20 UTC #82

Cody Asche makes White Sox opening day roster.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/

bkeich 2017-04-01 19:33:50 UTC #83

The sad part is that we would be happy if we got the mediocre value of a guy like Asche out of Nava. My expectation is we won't even get that much out of him.

Philsmania 2017-04-01 19:51:36 UTC #84

Are you saying you would rather have Asche than Nava? I don't think I would agree.

bkeich 2017-04-01 20:07:00 UTC #85

Yes, actually I am. While Asche is certainly not going to be a great player he may have a future as a bench or role player.

Nava is a 34 year old player with back to back .560 and .590 OPS seasons. He was better before that, but that is getting to be a while ago and he is on the downside of his career. If he has one more season like that he will be out of baseball.

Asche is 26 and has been a slightly below average hitter, ,.684 OPS for 4 seasons, with last season being his worst at .635. He will probably get a few more chances, even if he has to go to the minors.

Basically, we would be lucky to get a guy with Asche's history for Nava in my opinion.

andyb 2017-04-01 20:17:12 UTC #86

I could easily see Asche putting up a 750+ OPS year in his age 26-28 seasons. He was better than Stassi at LHV last year for example (and better when he was 23 years old). Now a 750 OPS LF with below average defense is not a good player and not a good enough reason for us to have carried him on the 40-man roster. But it could easily be better than both Stassi and Nava. We also had no playing time at 3B so were not a good fit for him.

bkeich 2017-04-01 20:26:38 UTC #87

Unless of course our 3B gets hurt. That is, to some degree, the point of backups. We certainly could just as easily say as Nava is at best the 7th of 8th guy I would like to see starting in the OF. If Asche was on the team he would be the best option to play 3B if Franco was out for an extended time. (despite the fact that MacKinnon didn't do it last year)

andyb 2017-04-01 20:31:02 UTC #88

Agree with that on 3B. I suppose you could make a case that Valentin with a 670 OPS with better speed and defense might be equivalent (or Galvis after Crawford comes up), but we really have no decent 3B prospects who are anywhere near ready. I think we had just moved on from Asche at 3B for whatever reason. I am not disappointed he is not on their bench. He was going to have to pass through waivers at some point anyway. Just hoping we keep Goeddel because there is still a sliver of prospect status lying there.

bkeich 2017-04-01 20:45:26 UTC #89

I thought of Valentin also, but frankly I really want to see him playing multiple positions in AAA this year. I think the way things are lining up he makes a strong case for being a super sub. Some may think that means he is not "good enough" to be the starter anywhere, but I think that is just looking at the game in a way that has past. A true super sub is a guy that you will start 120+ games, basically as a 9th starter, he allows the likelyhood of having 1 injured starter not cause a big drop off in quality of play. Additionally, he often allows a manager the ability to substitute in against a particularly strong RHP or LHP. I think, at the moment, Valentin looks like a great candidate for that type of job if he can become proficient at a few positions.

I think players like this are going to become more and more prevalent, just as situational pitchers have become. Joe Maddon, in particular, his employed this model for a few years now, and you may have noticed he keeps ending up coaching in the playoffs (which makes me sad since he went to Lafayette )

andyb 2017-04-01 20:52:22 UTC #90

I still think Valentin will gain some power too as he ages. Now it is just a feeling based upon his dad hitting 20+ HRs a year, but his dad did not hit 20 until he was 26 years old.

Kingery is the better athlete which gives him the higher ceiling if one thought they were in competition, but that does not mean we dismiss Valentin. His relative polish was a reason I thought he would be fine as a reserve this year even if it cost him some developmental at bats. I am also fine with him getting more experience in AAA. I just wanted a way to save Goeddel. Maybe he passes through waivers and all is good. Most teams have a pretty full 40-man at this time and it is not like Goeddel is THAT good.

flyers19rw 2017-04-01 21:19:00 UTC #91

If Franco were to go down, Blanco would probably take over the position. Not a great substitution but there could be worse.
As for Asche, he had his shots and as a 3B, his defense was less than stellar. I'd rather have Blanco's entire game at 3B than Asche's.
Its nice for Asche to have made the WS. Good for him. Best of luck to him in the future but it wasn't going to work for him here.

julio 2017-04-04 21:59:59 UTC #92

Former Phils' minor leaguer - traded to the Astros with Ken Giles for Velasquez, Appel, Eshelman, Harold Arauz and Oberholtzer.

allentown 2017-04-04 23:02:18 UTC #93

I wonder if he's a guy like Ruiz, who just needs to get official Adderall approval and didn't do so. At least his body isn't better muscles through chemistry. I don't write him off for this.

julio 2017-04-05 00:42:21 UTC #94

julio 2017-04-05 00:44:13 UTC #95

Well, not "better muscles through chemistry." Just "better reaction time through chemistry" or "better concentration through chemistry."

andyb 2017-04-05 01:09:34 UTC #96

Given that Arauz is still young and from a smaller country/baseball market I would suspect he likely used some over the counter supplement that was legal in Panama but not in MLB. There is a reason that a huge share of these suspensions are younger Latin American players.

Lawman 2017-04-06 16:42:31 UTC #97

Oh wow:

allentown 2017-04-06 16:46:57 UTC #98

I guess that was a round about way of saying I think a suspension for Adderall is better than a suspension for steroids, because if he had muscled up with steroids that makes everything he has accomplished to date very questionable going forward, since the effects of steroids will fade away by the time he reaches MLB, whereas baseball seems to hand out Adderall exemptions as freely as Tylenol.

zambonir 2017-04-06 20:22:19 UTC #99

Well, Freddy certainly bounced back from his PED suspension.

I do wonder if any teams factor suspensions into their thinking. Even the Phillies with Asher (and Stumpf for that matter). Do you downgrade their projection slightly because of the possibility that they could miss an entire season with one slip-up?

julio 2017-04-06 20:58:56 UTC #100

Some things never change? In the 1970s-80s, baseball handed out the greenies directly. Now they hand out prescriptions/exemptions for Adderall, which is effectively the same thing (e.g., amphetamine stimulants).

One has to wonder whether MLB has ever really cared about any kind of substance abuse by players - except for the public relations implications thereof.