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Closer

Eenie meenie miney mo, pick a closer and hope they show. Following Hector Neris’s dreadful game against the Dodgers on Saturday, that seems to be what Pete Mackanin is left with. The Phillies now have five blown saves through 23 games this season and no real closer in sight. This isn’t a new problem. (For some perspective, Toronto has 8 blown saves, Tampa Bay has 6 and seven other teams have 5)

As the saying goes, it’s better to be lucky than good. When the 2016 season started, Mackanin and the Phillies got lucky that Jeanmar Gomez was good. Gomez emerged as the one pitcher who could consistently locate the ball and, equally as important, was mentally able to handle the role. Gomez became the feel good story of the season. But, by mid-August, on his way to 37 saves, the wheels started shaking and they officially fell off in September.

The Phillies hoped Gomez’s struggles were just the effects of a long season and a tired arm, so they changed his throwing program in 2017 and are now limiting how much he throws on flat ground before games (they’ve done the same with Hector Neris and Aaron Nola). The idea is to prepare him for a six-month season, not five.

Following a 3-2 extra-inning loss to the Nationals on April 14th, Mackanin had seen enough of Gomez. Mackanin didn’t name a new closer, rather said that veteran Joaquin Benoit and Hector Neris would both get opportunities. Benoit saved one game and blew the save a day later. So it was on to Neris.

The cries could be heard for Hector Neris to take over the roll dating back to last season, but in limited ninth inning opportunities, Neris had yet to show that he had the composure needed to handle the 9th inning job. This year, the pitcher with the flashy, closer stuff was getting the opportunity he’d been hoping for: “Everybody wants (the closer roll). If you’re in the bullpen, you feel you can do something, so you push for that, you work for that. It’s a great opportunity and everybody wants it. When you finish, you feel good about what you do because you finish the game.”

Neris didn’t finish the game on Saturday night against the Dodgers. Instead he got just one out and gave up back-to-back-to-back home runs en route to a blown save and a Phillies loss. The numbers, both from this year and combined with last year, support the fact that Neris is an ideal set up guy:

2017

8th inning – 7.1 IP, 0.00 ERA and .095 BA, 9 SO, 1 BB – averaging 13 pitches per inning

9th inning – 5.1 IP, 11.81 ERA and .407 BA, 5 SO, 2 BB – averaging 22 pitches per inning

2017 and last two games of 2016

9th inning – 7.1 IP, 8 ER, 10.10 ERA, 7 SO, 4 BB – averaging 23 pitches per inning

2016 and 2017 combined

8th inning – 80.1 IP, 2.35 ERA, 21 ER, 102 SO, 28 BB.

While pointing the finger at Mackanin seems to be the easy way out, the reality is, had Mackanin had an “other” option, he would have used “other” from the onset. There doesn’t appear to be anyone perfectly suited for the role at this point.

I personally think Gomez needs to reset mentally to be effective in the bullpen, and that his closer experience should be over. For those of you calling for Velasquez to close, the Phillies are not giving up on him as a starter at this point, and like Neris, economy of pitches is not his strong suit.

It’s closer by committee for Mackanin right now.  He wants to see Neris stop throwing so many fastballs and go back to using his splitter more often.  He’s also prepared to turn to Benoit, veteran Pat Neshek or Edubray Ramos.  In classic sports terms, it’s day to day.

 

Major League catching

There seems to be an absence of depth at the catcher position. Offensively, there are currently only seven catchers in the majors who are hitting .225 or higher, three in the National League. Defensively, you’re seeing a delay in learning how to call games.

Marlins manager Don Mattingly pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago how catchers who go to college aren’t, by in large, calling their own games anymore, rather the coaches are. This creates a developmental delay for those taking the college route.

This conversation carried over to the Phillies clubhouse last week. Andrew Knapp said his coach at Cal Berkeley called his games, so Knapp valued his experience in the Cape Cod league the summer before his junior year where he was given the chance to start calling games on his own. Cameron Rupp played three years at University of Texas and said his coach called the pitches his first year, but he was given more of that responsibility over the next two years. This doesn’t mean the maturation stops at the big league level. As Bullpen coach John McLaren pointed out in Spring Training, one of the goals for Cameron this year is to work on spotting adjustments the hitters are making during the game. The Phillies, as an organization, have the catchers call games from the second they put on the uniform.

Meanwhile, if you hear someone knocking, that’s Jorge Alfaro. Alfaro is hitting .333 with 3 home runs, 12 RBI, a .368 OBP, .528 SLG and .896 SLG. If he keeps this up, one would hope the Phillies have some decisions to make sooner rather than later.

 

Down on the farm

Phillies Minor League Operations Director Steve Noworyta was a guest on “Inside Corner”, the weekly Phillies-centric podcast I host with Glen Macnow, and we talked to him about a wide range of topics, including players who, beyond the top prospects, are worth watching. He said there are a number of players in Clearwater and Lakewood who have a big upside. Among them:

Daniel Brito – 2B – Lakewood.  (Currently hitting .327, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .377 OBP, .449 SLG and .826 OPS)

Mark Laird – CF – Clearwater (Played at LSU with Aaron Nola)

Zach Coppola – RF – Clearwater (Currently hitting .284, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .380 OBP, .358 SLG, and .738 OPS)

Drew Stankiewicz – 2B/UP – Clearwater (Currently hitting .306, 1 HR, 6 RBI, .353 OBP, .435 SLG and .788 OPS)

We also asked Noworyta if there were any players in the system who had the chance at climbing through the ranks as quickly as Aaron Nola did (1 ½ years) and he was pretty quick to say Mickey Moniak. Like Nola, Moniak is a considered a smart player who plays beyond his years (he’ll be 19 on May 13th). Moniak won’t get there quite as fast, but he is currently in his second year and playing for the Lakewood Blue Claws, the Phillies’ Single A affiliate in New Jersey:

“You talk to him… back when he had his press conferences here, you walked away and said, ‘Wow, this guy’s just out of high school? He looked like he was well schooled already.’ And he’s doing well already at this level. I mean, who’s to say that two, three years, that he’s already starting to make his name at the big league level. But, just because of how he handles himself – again a smart player, knows how to play the game, nothing affects him – that I can see him as a fast-tracker.”

Remembering Bobby

Noworyta has been with the Phillies since 1999. He helped in the rebuilding of the farm system, which eventually led to a World Championship. He spoke of a major turning point in the club’s evolution – the hiring of Pat Gillick. Once Pat arrived, the team got to work on a plan and the first move they made was to trade Bobby Abreu.  Noworyta recalled the conversation the meeting that led to that trade:

“We were in the draft room and that was one of the questions, ‘What is the first thing that we need to do?’ and everybody to a tee around that table said, ‘Trade Bobby’ and from that point, we knew it was going to start everything over, get us to where we needed to be. One guy was not going to make a difference for us.  We had to get multiple people and change the face of the Phillies a little bit. We felt that he was the guy, but we needed more than that. We felt we needed to make a change to take us to that next level.”

The Phillies went on to trade Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yankees for two minor league catchers who never made it to the big leagues, but it started the ball rolling and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

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