Phillies 2018 Season News/Notes/Discussion

[BostonRoss]

It would be unfortunate if the Phillies and Nationals had they same record at the end of the season except for their games against their "natural" AL rivals. The Phillies get four against the Orioles and four against the Red Sox. The Nationals get six against the Orioles and three against the Sox. (The Braves get the Red Sox six times, though, and the Orioles only three.)

[zambonir]

let's hope it's something to worry about. better yet let's just beat the Nats often. hard for me to begrudge that Baltimore rivalry, it's just a reality that the Phillies don't have a true equivalent.

[LoneStarPhan]

The MLB schedule is unbalanced and unfair, but over a long season, the unfairness is somewhat minimized. Still, it is often likely to see cases of playoff spots being won or lost due to the difference in schedule of teams competing for the same post season spot. So all any team can do is go out and win games against the teams they have to play.

I remain cautiously optimistic for the season. I'd love to see a series win in Atlanta.

[rkeden]

The Pirates just lost their 2nd baseman, Josh Harrison, with a broken bone in his hand. He is expected to miss 6 weeks. might this be an opportunity to help the franchise by dealing one of our infielders for a quality player in return? Florimon? Valentin? Pittsburgh is off to a good start and might feel the need to plug the hole.

[allentown]

might this be an opportunity to help the franchise by dealing one of our infielders for a quality player in return? Florimon? Valentin? Pittsburgh is off to a good start and might feel the need to plug the hole.

Valentin is off to a horrible start on the season and I can't imagine the Pirates are drooling to have Florimon. I thought you were going to say they might be willing to give us a worthwhile return for Hernandez. I don't believe in magic. If you want to acquire a quality player in trade, you are either going to have to trade a quality player or save the other team a ton of money in bad contract(s) they can't afford. We might well get a quality prospect, can't see them giving us a quality major leaguer.

[zambonir]

I don't know that Florimon or Valentin provide much value there, nor would a team give up much for a six-week patch. You can find 10 Pedro Florimons out there for free (where's Adam Rosales?)

I thought you were going to suggest Hernandez too but again, I don't think they could pay the price the Phillies want, nor would they necessarily have things the Phillies want. He needs to go to a contender or a bigger-budget team I suspect..

[rkeden]

I thought about that and decided that the plus or minus 6 weeks of delay in getting Harrison back on the field might not constitute the emergency they would need to face to extract what we would need in return for Cesar. I do think that some team will face that quandary this Spring and we will have what they desperately need but I don't think It is the Pirates.

[bigegypt0417]

Steve Givarz on Twitter

[andyb]

Carlos Santana I believe is the only regular to not have received a day off this season. I was really surprised that he did not even DH in the Tampa series. Yes he has had some bad BABIP luck in the early going, but one would have to think that the guy hitting .143 who is also the oldest starter in the lineup should get his days off like everyone else.

[VoteForKalas]

I think the Phillies care most about playing their big FA signing. Young guys can battle for starts and positions, I mean we're not trying to develop anyone, right? The golden goose, however, will play regardless of performance.

[allentown]

I think it's a few factors. First, they are in love with his defense and placing too much value on that to protect the young IFs. Second, the Phillies have always had a very strong sense of veteran entitlement and vets being guaranteed to bounce back to their norm. Finally, I think they are being extra nice and cognizant of Santana's wishes, because they want next winters FAs to see them as a great place to be a vet star.

I think BABIP and SSS can be overdone. Poor BABIP is often the result of not hitting the ball well and becoming more predictable in where you hit the ball, so that defenders can position to take away hits. When this was done with Howard, his BABIP got worse -- permanently. It is still small sample size and Santana's numbers will improve as the season progresses, but I'll be surprised if his numbers aren't down from 2017. He's 33 and both 2016 and 2017 were both better than his MLB career average.

[LoneStarPhan]

Not long ago there was an article that showed that Santana was 5th of all big leaguers in hitting the ball the hardest. I don't remember how or what that was based on, but evidently, he has been really hitting the ball very well. If so, and if he continues that way, we should soon see some real production from him.

[zambonir]

The fact that Santana hasn't had a day off is hardly meaningful when Hernandez also hadn't had one until yesterday. Giving someone one or two days off this early in the season because they aren't hitting isn't meaningful either, despite all the attention that was paid to Crawford doing extra work.I think they like his defense and aren't actually eager to reduce Hoskins' time in the OF, even though it would create playing time for Williams or Kingery (but even that would also equal more playing time for Altherr and if we're talking merit he's no more deserving than Santana).

Also Santana is a switch-hitter, the Phillies are in the middle of a long run of righty starters, and there are no LH hitters to play 1B. Given his age and that they've said the off-days are planned a week or more advance I can't imagine he ends up leading the team in starts down the line.

[California_Dreamin]

I was reading that Jayson Stark article in The Athletic today and it talked about how revolutionary the idea was about switching outfielders from left to right in the middle of the inning. Not to us long time Phillie phollowers, Gene Mauch did it all the time.

In fact, I remember a game in Milwaukee in late July '64 where he did it and it won him a ballgame. Wes Covington, a guy with a bad arm and limited range, was playing left field and Johnny Callison, a guy with a fantastic arm and range, was playing right field. Phils trailed big early but came back to a 10-10 tie late with Milwaukee threatening to win the game.

Mauch moved Callison to LF and Covington to right field with the winning run at 3rd base and a right handed hitter up. Sure enough, the batter hit a fly ball to LF, Callison threw him out at the plate, and the Phils went on to a 13-10 win in extra innings.

It was that game, and road trip [Phils swept the Braves], that convinced the fans that this team truly had a chance to win the pennant as they came home with a 1.5 game lead and a huge crowd to greet them at the airport.

A few days later Sports Illustrated had Callison on its cover and a story about the Phillies with a picture of Cookie Rojas tossing popcorn into the air...and into his mouth.

The Summer of '64 was one of the best summers I ever had and the Phils were a large part of it.

[bkeich]

The Summer of '64 was one of the best summers I ever had and the Phils were a large part of it

Odd, my father, a life long Phillies Fan at that point, swore he would never follow baseball again after that summer. He didnt really come through with that statement, but he didnt follow it for 20 years until he came back as a "GULP" "SHAME" Mets fan during the heyday of Gooden, Strawberry, etc. He had moved to Long Island by then.

I guess he didnt take the end of the summer quite as well as you did.

He did join me in rooting HARD for the Phils in 2008, but he still stayed a Mets fan (yes, I know, I felt shame).

[California_Dreamin]

bkeich...please don't think I took it well, I still consider it one of the greatest disappointments in my life and 1980 and 2008 never dulled the anguish I felt about that team's collapse the final 12 games of the season.

But the Summer of '64...magical!!! Bunning's perfect game [right after school had ended in mid June], Callison winning the All-Star game with a 9th inning home run, the acquisition of Frank Thomas in early August, the team stretching their lead from .5 game to 6.5 with a scintillating 19-10 August run, it was such a wonderful summer.

Then....we went back to school in mid September and I still recall standing in the middle of the playground as some of my friends tried to console me as the Phils lost game after game...and summer suddenly seemed like it was all just a dream.

I remember EVERY one of the first 7 losses, where I was when I heard the score, how I felt, everything! I remember nothing of the final 3 losses in St. Louis, the team was no longer in first place and I remember thinking they probably wouldn't win another game that year.

Then they went to Cincinnati, won their final two games, Cards lost their first two that weekend and there was still a chance. But it ended on the final day and the best description I ever heard about that year came from Cookie Rojas..."it was like swimming a long river, and right when you get to the shore you drown."

That said it all.

[California_Dreamin]

I wrote a book about that season called "The Days of Wine and Rojas" but couldn't find a publisher since a few other people had already written books about that year.

[xogfog]

CD, you can self publish your book for free on Amazon Kindle. You should!

KDP Sign in

[HopeSpringsEternal]

The Days of Wine and Rojas

The title alone would sell a bunch of copies!

[California_Dreamin]

I enjoyed writing it...got to interview Stan Hockman, got some quotes from Mauch and wrote it as I remembered it, not as an elite old timer writing but from the memories of a kid whose first love as a youth turned out to be the 1964 Phillies.

It also helped that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and in 1964 it was the Giants, and not the Reds or Cards, who battled the Phils for most of the year for first place.

I still recall my first game that year...dad took me to a Phils/Giants game on July 4 with the Giants .5 game ahead of the Phils and it was said in those days that whoever lead the league on the 4th of July would win the pennant.

I remember getting there early and seeing Mays, Cepeda, Marichal, McCovey, Perry and Jim Ray Hart for the Giants and then seeing Briggs, Wise, Herrnstein, Cater and Dalrymple warming up for the Phillies. It boggled my mind that these were the top two teams in the NL, the Giants seemed so much more talented.

Long story short...Bunning was brilliant, Allen tripled in the winning run in the 11th and Covington followed with a HR, Phils won 5-2.

And I was left to wonder as I came home if being in first place at the end, or the beginning of July 4th, was the barometer.

I decided it was the end...and I was almost correct.