Phils & Covid

[LoneStarPhan]

It is now looking like another major national crisis from COVID. People's personal choice to not get the vaccine when it was free and easily available are now costing all of us. And yes, it is costing people their lives. It is past time to stop defending their right to not get the vaccine and call them out for what they are.

[bkox]

Former MLB player Aubrey Huff continues to show hes an awful human being by implying Daniel Brito's condition is somehow related to the vaccine:

23 year old @Phillies minor leaguer Daniel Brito suffered a stroke on the field I’m told by multiple sources. He’s out of surgery and still being evaluated. Oh and FYI he was fully vaccinated.

— Aubrey Huff ( @aubrey_huff )

[Mod's note: I deleted the links in Huff's tweet. We don't need to provide traffic to the sites he links. - J]

[zambonir]

He's truly the worst and also I bet he doesn't even know that.

The low vaccination rate is a lot more complicated than "personal choice" unfortunately. Not for the Phillies, and not for large chunks in certain states, but for rural communities, impoverished communities and communities of color, it's not as simple as being anti-vax or swayed by bad information on social media (a thing many people in those communities don't even have).

[bkox]

“We were close to putting Falter in the rotation at one time, then he got the COVID,” president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “We had felt that we were ready to do that.”

“It really hurt us,” a Phillies official said last weekend.

“Changed so much,” another said this week.

How COVID-19 derailed Bailey Falter's season and disrupted the Phillies'...

“I just don’t know really too much about the vaccine,” Falter said. “So, not really too comfortable with it yet. It looks like it’s going to have to be something I do because, I mean, I can’t afford one of these setbacks again. Especially in the position that I’m in right now with this team. So it’s definitely being talked about, but I’m not 100 percent on that point yet.”

[Patchmk88]

What an ignorant clown. Do some fing research buddy. You can find a bunch of reliable sources that will tell you what you need to know about the vaccine.

[andyb]

Forgetting the COVID stupidity for the moment, it seems pretty aggressive that the Phillies are really seriously considering making him a high leverage reliever when he is back. He still has never been a reliever regularly and also has never pitched with less than two days rest (not zero or one, but two).

I think Falter can be in a shorter relief role but they should still shoot for 2 inning outings with 2-3 days of rest. That is what he knows. Expecting more than that seems foolish. Maybe they should ease him in and see how he does, but I might also do the same with Moore (who at least in 2018 did pitch most of the year out of the bullpen).

No great options if Alvarado remains inconsistent (which is likely), but I worry they mess up Falter as well. What worked with a smart, polished pitcher like Ranger Suarez is not guaranteed to work with any young starter.

[zambonir]

What worked with a smart, polished pitcher like Ranger Suarez is not guaranteed to work with any young starter.

Or with Vince. How bad do you suppose that blister is?

[andyb]

Vince is always on the edge of losing control so I could actually see the blister as a real reaction to a change in routine post sticky stuff.

My bigger concern is he is only throwing 92. That is more of an injury red flag for me than the spin rate. Until that corrects itself I don't think he sees the majors again this season.

[zambonir]

Well, I was sarcastically suggesting that the Phillies probably prefer to just leave him stashed on the IL, at least for August. But (since this is the COVID thread) they are still trying to stockpile even pitchers they'd rather never see again.

[LoneStarPhan]

Falter's "personal choice" may have altered the course of his ML career. Of course, he might turn out to have a very good ML career, but then again, he may never again have the chance he might have gotten this season.

It is very clear that every player, major or minor leaguer, who did not get the available and free vaccine has hurt themselves, their team, and the organization. For the low level teams in Florida, they are in danger of essentially losing another season of development. The consequences of their actions are significant.

[flyers19rw]

A lost season is still a season that counts going forward towards rule 5 eligibility. More possible damage to the organization due to a player’s foolish decision making.

[zambonir]

I still blame the team more than the players. Their hands were tied in terms of not being able to mandate it, but so were the 23 teams that managed to get above 85%. And it doesn't seem like any other team has failed so profoundly at the complex level. A failure of leadership.

[LoneStarPhan]

I think management did a poor job selling the vaccine. First, someone needed to sit down with the leaders at the big league level and convince them to get on board and to actively talk up the advantages. Second, bring in some medical experts to talk to the players in the big league camp and in the minor league complex at the start of the spring training. Convince them of the safety of the vaccine and of the advantages of getting over 85% vaccinated. Really, they should have gotten 95% vaccinated by the start of the season.

Of course, I don't know what the organization did, but the results are a failure. No other way to describe the disaster the organization has had with COVID this season. So unnecessary and brought on by short sighted, selfish people (players, coaches, support staff) in the organization. I am very disappointed in the Phillies.

[zambonir]

I'm pretty sure they did most if not all of those things. They probably didn't realize it was a problem that they had to get ahead of, in terms of the leaders. They might have tried do that and immediately hit the wall with the star players (can only say Nola for sure, but...)

Also during spring training the vaccine was not generally available, so the education campaign hadn't really started yet, nor was it possible for most players to get their first shot. Plus the 85% rule wasn't instituted until right after the season started.

They still botched it, in any case. The manager can't get the players to listen to him, and not enough players are able to hold their own teammates accountable. Imagine if the five best players on the roster routinely didn't run out balls, ignored red lights at the plate and third base (the latter of which happens a lot already!) or ignored a bunt instruction.

And yet this team seems to have some resilience and chemistry. United in ignorance.

[LoneStarPhan]

Yes, the vaccination situation was still a little iffy in March but I remember thinking that there was vaccine pouring into the states by late March and the rules were opening up. I had six grandchildren ages 18-24 all get two shots of the vaccine by the end of April. These were in New York and Texas.

I hope the organization tried to get everyone to get the vaccine but I almost get the feeling that they took a laid back, we can't force anyone approach that come across as it up to you to the people who they needed to get vaccinated. It doesn't really matter now. The season has already been negatively impacted at both the ML and the minor league levels.

[zambonir]

I am hard on football coaches, who are all overpaid and complain too much. But the ones who have teams that are 80 or 90 or 100 percent vaxxed up have helped do something incredible. That's not the national rate for that age set, and it's leadership where it actually matters

— Alex Kirshner ( @alex_kirshner ) August 4, 2021

[bkox]

We might just lose the entire state of Florida soon:

South Korea Reports Two Cases of ‘Delta Plus’ Variant

[schillingfan]

Looking at the mess that is the Theshers makes be think that the Phillies problem was not in properly informing players about the need to get the vaccine to stay on the field.. Young guys are risk takers and believe they won’t be seriously ill from Covid. They need to know how badly it could affect the team and it’s not just about themselves. The big club appears to have the same kind of attitude as it is the younger players affected. This was probably a messaging problem, particularly once the Delta variant hit. Just get exposed and get quarantined for several days and then no negative test. Get infected and you are gone for fourteen days, even if you are asymptomatic. You either hurt your team by not playing or hurt yourself by losing a chance to play when a spot opens up. I imagine Bailey Falter realizes he screwed up.

[zambonir]

I hope the Phillies system doesn't end up being a test case/object lesson in lingering consequences of mild/asymptomatic cases. Falter already drew the short end of the straw compared to Bohm. Every immune system and viral load is different. Still kind of baffling that people looked at what Kingery and Suarez and Eduardo Rodriguez went though and just think, "well, that won't happen to me."

[schillingfan]

If you read Judge Kennedy’s opinion in the Supreme Court decision that outlawed the death penalty for minors, he quoted neuroscientists findings that the last part of the human brain to fully develop and that doesn’t happen until mid twenties is the part that analyzes risk consequences. add peer pressure to that and you have a lot of men who think they won’t catch Covid, so they don’t need to vaccinate.