Phillies 2018 Season News/Notes/Discussion - Part Deux

[LoneStarPhan]

What is the record for most players used in a single game? Kapler may have it in his sights.

[Philsmania]

Having said that, Franco and Cabrera are out with injuries so it's uncertain as to whether or not Kapler will ever have the full forty at his disposal.

[flyers19rw]

BA named three Phillies for breakthrough seasons in '19-Adam Hasely, Cole Irvin and Will Stewart. The first two might make it to the big club next season. It would be tough for Stewart to do that jumping from low A to the show.

[LoneStarPhan]

Back to back losses on days the Braves also lost pretty much finish off any chances the Phillies had this season. It is now in a situation where the Braves have the lead the Phillies had in 1964 with I think one more game left to play. For the Braves to not win the NL East, it will take a collapse on their part similar to the one the Phillies took in 1964. Of course, the way the Phillies have played since August 7th, it would likely be the Nationals that would catch the Braves if they collapsed in that manner.

[EastFallowfield]

Of course, if the Braves are to lose almost every day to let the Nats win that means the Phillies would win a few times too since 7 of the remaining 12 Braves games are against the Phils.

[Philsmania]

It's not like the Braves are playing terribly well. They really seem to be backing in to it.

[andyb]

Haseley and Irvin are pretty obvious choices to make the big club if they do well next year. Stewart seems more of a lower level prospect that maybe they think can advance to the next tier of prospects next year. Contrast that with the way they always thought about Fanti (nice story, but not really the stuff to play at upper levels) and one might think that Stewart's stuff and mix of pitches does have more upper level potential.

[Philsmania]

This PhilliesNation writer makes the case that continued losing would be the better outcome for the 2018 Phillies. I don't agree but this is what he says.

Winning is the worst thing that could happen to Phillies over final two weeks –...

[flyers19rw]

I was hoping that Sixto Sanchez would have been in that trio but I guess that his health issues are a question mark right now. Supposedly he is throwing well right now in camp. If he has a good stretch in the FIL and possibly the AZL he might be back on track.

[andyb]

Don't agree either with that article. I don't think how they finish will impact what the team does at all in the offseason. They have been building to 2019 as the year to contend for a few years and winning 78 or 86 games is not going to change how management thinks of this roster. Obviously individual players (like Crawford or Herrera) can change the perceptions about themselves, but the reason we hired an analytics-friendly regime was so that they could theoretically value their own players correctly.

And of course the author loses credibility when he uses field percentage as one of his 4 ways to evaluate the roster. He might get the same answer as the advanced analytics on fielding (that we are bad at it), but the far bigger problem is we have a bunch of players with below average range where they are currently playing.

[andyb]

I think Sanchez is not on the list (along with Medina) because he is a prospect that is already talked about. This seems the type of article where they highlight players that they don't think people are talking about enough. Even Haseley fits that category because he got off to a slow start and fell off top 100 lists. Haseley's approach does play in the majors with the bigger question being whether he is a solid starter or more of a 4th OF. He will probably be ready mid-season next year either way but needing trades or injuries to create some playing time as his value is complicated by not really being better than Herrera or Williams at the moment.

[Austinfan]

I still contend that 2020 has always been the target year, you want to show progress, and certainly I think they'd like to win 85+ next year, but I think it's obvious they have too many young players who may be more than a year away.

Alfaro and Williams are good examples, while they've shown flashes, I wouldn't depend on either one next year, they might surprise, they might struggle, same with the three young SPs, the young bullpen, Crawford & Kingery, and so on.

By 2020 these players will either have established themselves or be replaced. Once you have a solid, dependable core in place, then you're ready for a stretch of numerous runs to the playoffs.

[phillychuck]

I'd love to make a run back at the Braves this September even if we fall short solely for the psychological impact it has on our players. The draft-pick difference between 78 wins and 85 wins is not that significant.

[andyb]

Would love to at least make the last week meaningful. Ideally that would be winning 3 of 4 from the Braves this weekend and hopefully picking up another game in the 2 games before that.

Going into next week down 3.5 or 4.5 is probably the best to hope for. Game to game if they get to that point.

[zambonir]

My guess from this article is that they will move on from more players than we realize.

What happened to the Phillies' bats this year?

Are the Phillies really that great at lifting the ball, or do Carlos Santana and Rhys Hoskins — the two who hit the most fly balls on the team — just live in an extreme space, while everyone else hits a fair amount of ground balls? Take those two out, and the average GB/FB by regulars on the team would rank 11th in the National League, not third.

Relative to the league, the Phillies are hitting their balls at a lower launch angle and at a softer exit velocity than they did last year.

Back to the distribution of outcomes. Are the Phillies really that great at taking walks, or is it mostly just Santana (16 percent this year), Hoskins (13.6 percent) and Hernández (13.8 percent) who are driving the overall numbers? There are five regulars who don’t even walk 7 percent of the time!

It goes on to analyze their poor swinging stats.

So the question does become: is the approach, or the coaching wrong, or do they not have the players to execute it?

[Philsmania]

I can't say that I am impressed with Mallee as hitting coach. I suspect there's a reason the Cubs let him go.

[andyb]

The Phillies' lineup is a strange aggregation of relatively low average players that draw lots of walks combined with free swingers that have some power but again, not a really high average.

I would not be shocked if the team concludes they need more .280 hitters with an average number of walks than .240 hitters with an above average number.

We have been auditioning for a number 3 hitter all season. We just don't have an 800 OPS guy that hits for a decent average in our lineup. So we don't knock in the high OBP players as often as we should.

This might be a lineup that needs a Machado or Arenado rather than a lineup where one concludes that the team's approach is wrong. The parts just don't fit together the way they should. Maybe Haseley is actually a better fit than Williams or Herrera since his strength will be a relatively high batting average (rather than walks or power).

[Austinfan]

Klentak inherited a bunch of players from RA who don't fit the new philosophy:
Alfaro, Franco, Williams, Herrera, even Quinn. And there are plenty more in the minors.
Kingery is the only one added by the new group.

They may lack the patience to implement the new philosophy, but I think it's "sink or swim" next year, they'll determine who is amenable to coaching and either can't or won't change. One year is too short a period to jump to this conclusion with most young players, however, some players will be on a short leash next season.

The same throughout the minor league system, won't surprise me if they trade/release a number of prospects.
It's not about walks, it's about the patience to work a count and get a pitch you can handle, this is more important to teach in the minors because talented players can get away with a lack of discipline, but in the Show, too many pitchers will do what we saw with Kingery, identify your weak areas and pound them every PA.

I think Klentak needed a year or two to assess the organization, and now he's being more aggressive putting his fingerprints on everything.

[allentown]

I think Klentak needed a year or two to assess the organization, and now he's being more aggressive putting his fingerprints on everything.

The world, even the baseball world, moves too fast for a new executive to spend two years assessing the situation and deciding what to do.

[andyb]

Not sure it is really apparent that Klentak has any sort of "philosophy" like you think he has. His job is to add wins. In any shape or form. For position players his biggest consistent choice seems to have been to go for offense at the expense of defense. His acquisitions though are a mix of high walk guys (Santana, Bour) and lower walk guys (Ramos, Cabrera).

If Klentak is any good at this GM thing he will not have any overriding philosophy other than to add wins and be efficient with his resources while he does that. Your whole theory about Klentak wanting players to work a count and get a pitch to handle is not exactly rocket science. It is how they have taught hitting for 50 years. The biggest changes now are on things like swing path and loft. Not working the count. That is something everybody teaches.