Phillies Hot Stove 2022-23

[phillychuck]

I think, after watching Marsh in CF, he is far from a gold glove. Average at best. I think the gold glove talk was about him as a LF. Not that he's not a valuable player, he is. I think I would also like to see him in some sort of rotation where he gets about 400 PA in a season.

[flyers19rw]

I definitely want to see what Long can do with Marsh. Hopefully he’ll start working with him throughout the winter. Marsh has the jitters at the plate. Because of that no two swings are ever the same.
The Angels system is a fiasco so I doubt if he ever had a hitting coach consistently working with him to develop a sensible approach to hitting and a consistent swing which would maximize his skills. Watching him now with all of his fidgeting around is painful. It’s as if he has a nervous disorder. There may be something there with him but it needs to be reined in.

[Aquapong]

Yeah Marsh is pretty twitchy up there. Like you said, hopefully Long can settle him down. Maybe he just needs to cut his hair.

Stott has made a living lately of fouling off fastballs in the upper right quadrant of the zone, but would be nice to see him start to hit those the other way instead. I’ve mentioned before that it was my impression that his swing is not in time with his hips. Hips lead, hands follow. But his hands seem too close behind his hips.

[bkeich]

Certainly something is "behind" Aqua, because Stott really cannot hit a fastball. Hopefully they can work with him to improve that, it is easy to believe, he essentially skipped his last year of development.

[zambonir]

I am not saying he is a gold glove but I see no reason to think he can't continue be a .725 guy who catches what he's supposed to catch. And he came here with significant defensive WAR (and no offense). To assume he would revert to the slow start of his early career, well, we can still fear the same about Stott and Bohm. In Marsh and Stott's case they don't have to do quite as much at the plate, especially not on this team.

[andyb]

I think, after watching Marsh in CF, he is far from a gold glove. Average at best. I think the gold glove talk was about him as a LF. Not that he's not a valuable player, he is. I think I would also like to see him in some sort of rotation where he gets about 400 PA in a season.

The AL Gold Glove was for LF and he is probably among the best there. Agree he is probably an average CF now. Pretty good instincts. His speed is good, though merely around average for a CF as there are very few CF with below average speed. I think he is fine there. He'll cut down the handful of mistakes like most young fielders do.

We just don't know if he can hit that well. There is so much movement in his setup that the coaches probably can settle that down and speed up his bat a bit. But will he ever have the batspeed to hit a good fastball? Not sure. There is probably more power in him though. Could easily see him hitting 20 HRs.

Long is a good coach, but he is also no miracle worker. Hopefully he can connect with Marsh and smooth out his issues a bit. But we also should not expect Long to make batters be something they are not. It is very possible that Marsh and Vierling are destined to be platoon partners. Like it or not we traded for Marsh to improve what we had (which he did), but there is no guarantee that Rojas won't take the job by the end of next year. Rojas offers even better defense and speed, though also a lower floor on offense.

[zambonir]

If Rojas takes the job and turns Marsh into a 4th OF that's just fine. There might also be a period where improved defense and an average bat makes him just as good a LF as anyone else the Phillies have as these bats get older and move around. But either way I think Marsh is clearly a work in progress. He was drafted the same year as Moniak and started his major league career a year later than Bohm. Because we traded for him at the deadline I think he's perceived differently (because deadline deals are usually prospects for veterans/finished products).

Jury's still out on Matt V too. He profiles the same as Marsh from the weak side of a platoon of course but I wonder if that's the one bench spot they could upgrade next year (especially if they still need a RF for several months, maybe more if Harper has to ease back into it). You'd still have Guthrie as the young depth and Maton behind Sosa. And there's still no spot for Hall in the long run.

[andyb]

And there's still no spot for Hall in the long run.

I think of him as cheap injury insurance for an injury to any one of Harper, Hoskins, Schwarber, or even Castellanos. If Harper can play the field next year then Hall could easily be up for half the season if any one of them is out. We don't have too much power on the bench or the upper minors so Hall does fill a need even if it is the 27th man on the roster.

[zambonir]

Oh for sure I wouldn't trade him. And the cheap young bench has been good/fun. But I'm still imagining a non-existent world where they could actually have better corner OF option to replace Bryce, and/or pair with Schwarber (if RH). Hall if he could actually play OF. Or a better-hitting version of Vierling who you'd actually want to play everyday while Bryce is out (instead of Castellanos).

[andyb]

I hope they go back to a shared DH next year. And that should include JT for 10-20 games. Would really like to keep his bat in the lineup while also lowering the number of innings he catches.

[zambonir]

I guess it could be Hall/Castellanos with a few turns for JT until Bryce comes back. But every time you have anyone other than Castellanos or Schwarber (or Hoskins) at DH you're worse in the field somewhere.

[mdougherty12]

But either way I think Marsh is clearly a work in progress. He was drafted the same year as Moniak and started his major league career a year later than Bohm. Because we traded for him at the deadline I think he's perceived differently (because deadline deals are usually prospects for veterans/finished products).

I suspect that many phans don't realize that Brandon Marsh is the youngest player on the Phils postseason roster, even ~2 months younger than Bryson Stott.

[zambonir]

Much younger than Guthrie, even!

We just need to wait for him to get better nutrition so his body can fill out.

[EastFallowfield]

I suspect that many phans don't realize that Brandon Marsh is the youngest player on the Phils postseason roster, even ~2 months younger than Bryson Stott.

My elder child was noting all the ages of the players on the Phanavision a week ago today as a fair amount of them are starting to be younger than my kid is in that rite of passage, and Marsh's age was noted as one of that group and one of the 'babies'.

[zambonir]

I still remember the day I realized the Penn State football players were my age (long, long ago).

[EastFallowfield]

Jamie Moyer being born (months later) the same year was a nice little aspect of the 2008 champions roster, not likely my kid will see someone born the same year as her on the 2039 World Series championship roster.

[BostonRoss]

I remember when I was older than all of the major league players. Then Julio Franco suddenly became three years older and passed me in age.

[Philsmania]

I am a born in 1969 Gen Xer and the Phillies weren't good for most of my mid twenties to early thirties (and their roster was something of a revolving door during those rebuild years of the late '90's), so I kind of missed them being my contemporaries. They pretty much went from guys who were all older than me to guys who were all younger than me.

As a St. Joe's basketball fan, I'm seeing the kids of guys who played when I was there now playing college ball (and Jameer Nelson, Jr. whose father stepped on to campus eight years after I graduated).

[zambonir]

I mean: Marvin Harrison Jr. yesterday! (for Ohio State). (And I'm about five years older than Rick Brunson, and Jalen's not even a kid anymore).

[Austinfan]

One thing to remember about the hitters 25 and under, most had two years of development disrupted by COVID, some more than others, but most missed as much as 500 PA and also dealt with other issues during that period.

So I'd expect more surprises from players (league wide) over the next couple years as they get into normal routines and catch up on lost development time. It's also a good reason to buy low on young players who may have been rushed and struggled (look for these kind of bargains to fill out your AAA roster).

After this season, I expect the "COVID effect" to gradually diminish, but this offseason provides both an opportunity to bargain hunt and a reason to be patient with your own players.