An upbeat piece from Bob Ford is your recommended reading on this miserable, rainy and damp Friday before the holiday morning: [Philly.com]
The problem, however, is trying to figure out what might keep that gap from growing to 11 games after two-thirds of the season or 17 games by the end. There is nothing about what has happened so far that was really a shock – with the exception of the poor start by Cole Hamels and the unforeseeable good one by Kyle Kendrick.
If those two surprises balance out, then the rest – old guys getting injured, role players underachieving, age eroding production – is pretty much what might have been expected, barring the miracle the organization hoped to receive.
Third baseman Michael Young has a decent, if somewhat empty, batting average, but the other offseason position-player acquisitions, particularly Ben Revere and Delmon Young, have been disappointments. Among the organization players looking to build something, only Domonic Brown’s offense has been encouraging, and even that is faint praise when you consider how much congratulation is being heaped on a .248 hitter.
Yeah, go read that.
23 Comments
And yet even with all of the injuries (Doc, Utley, Chooch, Lannan, Adams . . .) the Phils are still hanging in there.
There is little doubt that when the weather heats up, so will Howard’s production. It has been that way every season.
My bigger concerns are Hamels & Rollins. Get those two players turned around & the whole season looks different.
I’m not giving up on the Phillies. Ya gotta believe!
Actually, they are not hanging in there.
IF anything, this team has been extremely luck they are not 5+ games under .500. There run differential is atrocious (i.e. allowing more runs then they have scored), one of the worst in baseball. Michael Young is starting to hit like he did last year (zero power, with a .280 batting avg.), Utley and Chooch are hurt, and Delmon Young is D. Young (a guy with a low OBP., who might hit a HR now and then). Also, even assuming Hamels regains his focus, expecting Kyle Kendrick to keep an ERA under 3.00, Pettibone to keep an ERA under 3.50, and Tyler Cloyd to keep an ERA under 4.00 is flat out ignorant. Assuming for a moment that Howard does “figure it out”, the regression of KK, Pettibone and Cloyd will offset anything Howard does.
This is a .500 baseball team. Baring a miracle, this team wins 81 games at most.
Am I the only one who is optimistic for this season?
We all knew this team wouldn’t run away with the division. They’re actually in a better position than I bet most of us thought they would be at this time (thanks to the Braves and Nats relative struggles).
Dom Brown is promising, he looks like he can at least play at the Major League level. Delmon Young hasn’t been amazing, but he hasn’t been atrocious.
Not much has gone really right for this team, and they’re still just one game under .500, with a chance to tie the Nats with a series win this weekend.
This is the best we could hope for; hang around and hang around, then hope to get hot in September and make a run. I don’t see anything that says that can’t happen. Is it likely? Who knows. But if Doc can have a good-case scenario recovery, come back towards the end of August and regain some form of himself, he could give this team a boost. If the typical hitters get hot when they normally do (Jimmy, Ryan), I could easily see a run in this team.
No need to give up on them now.
It won’t always be pretty, but I don’t see the wheels falling completely off, either.
Minus Dom Browns 8 or 9 HRs, he has been bad in every other category (low OBP, low Avg., no speed, avg. defense, no BB) with an OPS in the mid .700s. A mid .700 OPS for a corner OF batting 3-6 in the lineup with poor defensive skills and very little speed is not good. Read the 700 Levels article about Dom. As for Delmon Young, he hits two solo HRs against the Marlins and we forget his atrocious OBP, batting Avg., speed, etc. Is Delmon’s OPS even above .600? Again, a corner OF with an OPS around .600 who is poor defensively and has zero speed is atrocious.
It is one thing to be optimistic, its another to be ignorant. You my friend fall into the ignorant category.
Sorry, Delmon’s “hot streak” against the First Team in Baseball (i.e. the Marlins) has significantly raised his Slugging % and OBP. He is a mid .700 OPS now.
And thinking Greinke and Hamels are even on talent level and performance (like you claimed yesterday) isn’t ignorant?
You’re fucking retarded, Nick, and no one gives a shit what you say.
You’re the typical Negadelphian that “Negadelphia at it again” was talking about in their name. You should be ignored until the older generation, that spawned types like you, dies off. Then you’ll have no one that agrees with you and you’ll just be laughed out of any sports conversation you try to have.
Well I admire your optimism, even if you consider the loss of John Lannan to be a “loss”. And yes, Ryan Howard has always heated up along with the weather, but that’s before age and a hobbling injury had caught up with him.
But the bigger concern is the Nationals. Their team is stacked and they’re too good to be playing .500 ball. I would think the chances of the Nats breaking out of their slump at some point is pretty good. And oh by the way, the Braves are a pretty decent team too, even with B.J. Upton hitting about .100.
As for the Phillies, I don’t see them breaking out of their slump because I don’t think they’re in one.
They’re a .500 team playing .500 ball.
Well, we’re gonna see real quick over the next week or so. Should they get smoked by the nats and the sox it will be time to take a hard look for RAJ. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Bob Ford is a hack.
i agree 100% i cant stand his writing. you can tell that he is a pompous asshole!
Reds & Pirates are tied for the 2 WC spots. Both teams are ELEVEN games over .500. Phils can’t catch that with this team.
The Pirates have started well every season for the past few, then fall back to Earth in the second half. They aren’t going to remain 11 games over all season. Hell, I still doubt they finish the season at .500 or better.
Except Howard/Halladay/Lee: Phils are bunch of tools
Yea, a bunch of tools. Too bad 2/3 of the names you listed above have been playing poorly this year.
Whole team’s a bunch of condescending d’bags.
mmm hmmm, man tools, if you know what i mean….
So far, the Phils have been exactly what everyone thought they’d be: a third place team struggling to reach the rarified air of .500. This weekend’s matchup with the gNats who’ve fallen back to the pack after a hot start should help us learn just what the Phightins’ are made of, and if they can somehow find a way to stay competitive and give this city meaningful baseball as summer approaches. But I suspect Ruben’s already under a mandate from upstairs to blow up the team come July if it’s not contending. So let’s see if the boys can kick things up a notch and surprise us all.
The Nats aren’t our problem. The disgusting Braves are. We’re challenging the Nats for 2nd.
I’ll be really surprised if the Phillies kick things up a notch.
The Nats aren’t our problem. The disgusting Braves are. We’re in our normal 3rd place.
Howard’s a BUM every year. Our pitching is the worst In both leagues combined.
By the way, I’m a Phillies fan.
They can send Ben Revere and Delmon Young and Michael young back where they came from. They all suck. Bring up some young rookies that are hungry enough to play good solid baseball. Get rid of all the has beens Rollins, Howard, and Brown, Brown can’t even catch a ball that he has to go back on.