Phillies News and Discussion 2025 Season

[EastFallowfield]

This is a city with an entire generation of fans that has bullpen trust issues because a Phillies closer once surrendered a World Series-ending walk-off home run.

I don't remember being convinced the 93 team was winning that series after game 4.

And you can probably say that for many generations of many teams. I'm sure even some Yankee fans never quite trusted Rivera after he had that walkoff loss that ended a World Series.

[zambonir]

I do think the Mitch home run was particularly traumatizing for a lot of people tho. It was only the second time a World Series ended on a walk-off home run, and not only was the other time a 9-9 game [though, of course, a Game 7] but the Phillies weren't even losing at the time. I agree they might not have won the Series anyway and Game 4 was the dagger.

I seriously doubt any Yankees fan actually held that soft hit by the Dbacks against Mariano given the large body work otherwise. Versus Lidge in Houston for instance.

I'm sure it is also about the Internet. We all sweat every pitch and every base runner in real time now, and vent about it.

But "generation of fans" is also a narrow slice of the fan base. If that was the first Phillies team you ever saw in the World Series it probably affected you differently than if you saw '80. And of course if you lived through '64 nothing's ever been worse.

[owaistabish]

I was not sure where to ask this but can Phillies get a draft pick if they offer both Schwarber and Suarez are offered qualifying offers and they choose to sign elsewhere? How does that work? I can see Schwarber coming back but likely Painter replaces Suarez next year.

[andyb]

Yes. But it is only a pick after the 4th round because of our tax status. Players can get a QO if they have not been offered one in the past. Assume the Phillies would offer both. The players probably do not accept that 1 year deal, though signing teams would have to forfeit draft picks.

That is a mild incentive for each to stay with the Phillies.

[Austinfan]

Amen. I was 9 years old, listening to a transistor radio under my pillow that summer.

[zambonir]

The 2 and the 5 has certainly never stopped the Phillies, but it can't hurt. There might be some non-top tier teams looking to get Ranger, and the Reds would like to take a run at Schwarb [but not too worried about that].

[Jazzhead]

Many are tired of watching Stott's light hitting, but it seems like about every three games he makes an all-world defensive play. He's here to stay.

He's still working deep counts, which at least when I watch him makes me think good things will happen.

[Jazzhead]

But "generation of fans" is also a narrow slice of the fan base. If that was the first Phillies team you ever saw in the World Series it probably affected you differently than if you saw '80. And of course if you lived through '64 nothing's ever been worse.

I was here in 1980 (newly arrived in town just the year before) and the win turned out to be a weird exorcism of a prior lifetime as an eternally frustrated Red Sox fan. I still follow the Sox, but the Phils have ever since been my team.

The Mitchiepoo homer in 1993 didn't traumatize me as much as it did some others because I was glad they won the pennant. I thought we were playing with house money in the World Series; the Braves had been winning for years and the '93 team caught lightning in a bottle (they never came close again). The pennant the Phils won that year remains my favorite single Phils season.

[zambonir]

The pennant the Phils won that year remains my favorite single Phils season.

Yeah, funny that. I feel a little bit the same way about the '07 season. Those games against the Mets were as good as winning a playoff round. But unlike '93 that was also the start of something.

Now we're kind of in the same spot. '22 was amazing and winning the East was nice but they still gotta bring more home.

[andyb]

Pretty sure my brain thought there was no way Mitch could hold that lead when he entered the game. The ending was dramatic, but really not unexpected.

[Philsmania]

1993 was the lone winning season in a fourteen year period. Six losing seasons from 1987-92 followed by seven losing seasons from 1994-2000. Having that taste of glory in the middle made those last seven years afterward feel all the more painful and despair-inducing, far more difficult to endure than even the nine straight non-winning seasons from 2012-20 (at least the 2018-20 teams all finished close to or at .500, those 1994-2000 teams didn't come close to that mark). Lee Thomas did a masterful patchwork job that season. But, he wasn't a builder and hence, they needed to start a long rebuild after 1996 after three years of Thomas's patches failing. Ed Wade was a good builder GM but, alas, he couldn't finish.

[BostonRoss]

I was here in 1980 (newly arrived in town just the year before) and the win turned out to be a weird exorcism of a prior lifetime as an eternally frustrated Red Sox fan. I still follow the Sox, but the Phils have ever since been my team.

You and I are kind of opposites. I moved to New England from Philly in 1976. Right before the Phillies started making the playoffs and the Sox stopped. I was 27 years old before there were any playoff games where I lived.

But a big difference is that I didn’t switch allegiances. I followed the Sox more because it was hard to follow the Phillies except through box scores. But there was no conflict in rooting for both teams. When I first got here, the NL was the better league, and I would say I followed the Sox in the American League and the Phillies in the major league.

A couple of decades later there were a few interleague games between the Phillies and Sox most years, but I always rooted for the Phillies. One year, there was a Sox-Phillies game in September when the Phillies were out of it but the Sox were fighting for a playoff spot. I told myself I should root for the Sox, but I just couldn’t do it.

[zambonir]

Yeah I lived in Texas for a great deal of the '90s and aughts and was an original season ticket holder for the Astros AA team outside of Austin [which has since changed both levels and affiliation], where I saw several future Phillies as it turned out. Since I preferred NL baseball, was fine with them as my second team but it was never much of a conflict.

I have friends who moved from Boston to New York and became Yankees or Mets fans. Sometimes a spouse or kid was involved, sometimes not.

[BostonRoss]

I have friends who moved from Boston to New York and became Yankees or Mets fans. Sometimes a spouse or kid was involved, sometimes not.

I guess they can't go back to Boston ! My son lives in New York, and he married the daughter of a big Yankees fan, but he'll stay a Sox fan forever. Another son lives near Wrigley Field, but he's like me--he roots for the Cubs when it doesn't conflict with the Red Sox.

[zambonir]

Ross is already at CBP today and is expected to be active tomorrow

José Alvarado will be with Phillies on Tuesday for first time since suspension,...

[schillingfan]

But "generation of fans" is also a narrow slice of the fan base. If that was the first Phillies team you ever saw in the World Series it probably affected you differently than if you saw '80. And of course if you lived through '64 nothing's ever been worse.

I was here in 1980 (newly arrived in town just the year before) and the win turned out to be a weird exorcism of a prior lifetime as an eternally frustrated Red Sox fan. I still follow the Sox, but the Phils have ever since been my team.

The Mitchiepoo homer in 1993 didn't traumatize me as much as it did some others because I was glad they won the pennant. I thought in 1983, so my first we were playing with house money in the World Series; the Braves had been winning for years and the '93 team caught lightning in a bottle (they never came close again). The pennant the Phils won that year remains my favorite single Phils season.

I arrived in 1983, so the 1983 World Series was my first experience.with Phillies baseball. The 1993 season still is my fqvorite. It was a magical crazy ride. I remember praying that home run to be wide left, but no. As a point a lot of people don’t know, Curt Schilling begged Franconia to let him pitch instead of Mitch in game 6. He wasn’t cray, Randy Johnson closed game seven in 2001 after pitching game six.

[zambonir]

Fregosi.

At this point it's just as common as not for it to be a starting pitcher closing out the World Series. Roughly half in the last 12 years. Buehler last year. Julio Urias in 2020. Chris Sale in 2018. But Curt had just thrown a complete game in Game 5 and would have been needed in Game 7. Typical ego/selfishness from him including the way he behaved in the dugout, that was the beginning of his bad clubhouse rep even if the fans all felt as he did.

[zambonir]

The Phillies, from Opening Day through the end of June, ranked 16th with 89 home runs. Since the All-Star Break, the club leads the league in homers (33).

Kyle Schwarber hears MVP chants, hits slam to reach 40 homers: ‘The guy is...

[phillychuck]

An interesting sidelight of Schwarber’s season, from the perspective of a fan who enjoys analytics and finds that analysis useful, is what it says about lineup protection. The guys hitting 4th behind Schwarber this season have all pretty much been mediocre--Casty, Bohm, JT--yet Schwarber keeps seeing pitches he can smash.

The next time someone tells you how important it is to have a great hitter hitting behind another great hitter for “protection”, remind them of Schwarber’s 2025 season (or of Dale Murphy, with and without Bob Hoerner hitting behind him). Protection is almost a non-existent issue.

[andyb]

17 from Schwarber and Harper out of those 33. Harper (7) has joined the party where his power was largely absent in the first half. And Schwarber is hot. The rest of the team is a bit better, but this is still a top heavy power team.