2012 Phillies Season Thread

[Ben Grimm]

I'd have to say Kendrick's pretty much untradeable, unless some small-market team with bad pitching feels his experience would be a bonus. But he's clearly been exposed as a pitcher and makes too much money to simply be a mid-inning reliever.

I'd like to see Howard sit the rest of the way. His recovery isn't helped by the daily wear and tear on the ankle. Utley, on the other hand, I'd let play as long as he's feeling okay. Since his issue is basically degenerative or chronic, it can flare up at any time - even if not active. Polanco will get his time in with Frandsen getting the occasional start. Unfortunately, many of these decisions are money-driven. The Phils are trying to get what they can out of the money spent on the likes of Kendrick and Polanco. As long as backups keep getting multi-year deals (Kendrick, Nix - Schneider in the past), they'll play. It's a lot easier for management to sit a player making the minimum than it is to sit a player he had his bosses give the greenlight to sign.

And look at this - see anything that stands out?

Laynce Nix OF

■ re-signed by Milwaukee (minor-league contract) 1/4/08

■ signed as a free agent by Cincinnati 12/08 (minor-league contract)

■ re-signed as a free agent by Cincinnati 12/18/09 (minor-league contract)

■ signed as a free agent by Washington 2/3/11 (minor-league contract)

■ signed by Philadelphia as a free agent 12/9/11
■ 12:$1.15M, 13:$1.35M

Doesn't look like much. But I never once heard any team knocking down Laynce's door to sign with them. He's a replacement level player basically that should have gotten what he has in the past - a minor league deal. But Ruben likes to outbid himself - like he did with Ibanez and Papelbon. Even these smaller players are killers when you're so close to the tax limit.

How about Kyle?

Kyle Kendrick RHP

■ signed extension with Philadelphia 2/19/12
■ 12:$3M, 13:$4.5M

■ replaced 1 year/$3.585M deal signed 1/13/12 (avoided arbitration)

How about that. Had the Phils simply kept his one year deal in tact, he'd have counted for $3.58 against the tax. In reworking the deal, he actually costs more this year ($3.75M) and if the Phillies try to unload him after the season, teams are going to see that gaudy $4.5M salary and bail. The problem with this whole deal is what Ruben did earlier on. During the '10 season, Kyle was making league minimum and heading into arbitration with a .500 record and an ERA near 5.00. Estimates were that the Phillies would come in at $1.25-$1.5M and Kendrick would be in the area of $1.75-$2.0M. What did Ruben do? He jumped in and gave him $2.5M. What? All that did was re-establish the low number and set a higher ceiling with which Kyle would use in his next year's arb case. They've screwed up with his salary for the past three years now.

It's these types of moves IMO that have a trickle-down effect on what can be done for the team. We always hear about the big "albatross" contracts like Ryan's and Papelbon's. But like the steroid scandal, the smaller, less-noteworthy people seem to go under the radar.

[philliesfiend55]

Absolutely. It's one of Amaro's faults. We've seen these retread 30+ year old on a too-often basis. These guys, for the most part, are either on their downsides of their careers, never were really good enough for MLB in the first place, or are simply playing out the string biding their time to retirement. For every one Juan Pierre that actually shows some energy, you see 3-4 others who leave you wondering how they ever made it to the majors in the first place........
....Good call with Luna. He really offers nothing of value and should have no future in the Phillies long-term plans. He's a AAAA player and it makes no sense not to even bring up anybody younger - even if that player has a lower ceiling. Darin Ruf's been killing the ball in Reading this year. The Phils even slid him out to LF lately. Granted, he's old for his league (25) and has holes in his game, but he at least can be a player who'd be ecstatic with being called up and maybe some of the energy would allow him to stay up.
I do think Cloyd will be up in a month. I have a feeling Ruben wants to leave him down there so Ryne Sandberg doesn't lose his best starter for the AAA postseason........
....Ruben said two things last November. One was that Dom Brown was going to spend the entire season in AAA - and he probably would have if Amaro didn't overspend and find himself needing to trade off two OFers....... it's clear by his mid-season moves - even in a lost season - that he's hesitant to bring up anybody with any sort of upside, and would rather call out for the "Philadelphia-Allentown Shuttle" as you call it hoping for stability over possibility......
....The one thing Ruben had going for him, was that he could point to the continual rise of regular season wins - which showed improvement each year. But with this falloff, and not being much better once the full team returned will leave him in a bit of a spot IMO.

Yes the Philadelphia-Allentown shuttle is at full operating capacity this season.

I really never thought that Ruben Amaro Junior (aka: Ruin Tomorrow Sooner) would keep Dom Brown down in Allentown for two-thirds of a season. I thought they'd keep him down for about the first month of the season so that even with about 150 days in the majors this year he'd still be under 2.00 years service time. - two full years of major league service, so that the Phillies could delay his free agency and control him for one extra year (through 2017/age 30). For once Amaro actually meant what he said and Brown remained in the minors nearly all season.

I've had my suspicions that Cloyd was kept in AAA and Ruf was kept in AA largely for the benefit of their teams' playoff pursuits. That hasn't exactly worked out, however, as Lehigh Valley is currently 2.5 games out of the Wild Card slot and 3.5 games out of their division lead. Reading is about five games out of their division lead and IS TIED FOR THE ONLY WILD CARD SPOT. So if Lehigh Valley is out of it at the end of August the Phillies might call up Cloyd and some other Iron Pigs players on Sept 1, if not by Sept.4, after the L.V regular season ends. Usually the Phils don't recall players directly from AA-Reading but in this crazy season, who knows?

Actually I think that by your "regress one level per year under Amaro timetable" this should have been the year the Phillies made the playoffs as a Wild Card, but they've skipped right over that speed bump straight to mediocrity. How long did Montgomery and the board of directors extend Amaro's contract - until 2015, I think. They've got to be regretting that rash decision now.

Kendrick is becoming Junior Gilliam-like, or to use a Phillie as an example, Bob Miller-like. Kendrick is now in his sixth year with the Phils (although he's been sent back to the minors some years for brief stretches) and his contract is so high for a #5 starter or long reliever, that as you pointed out, he may be untradeable during 2013. He remains a Phillie despite okay, but unspectacular numbers much like Gilliam who was with the Dodgers for about 1900 games from the early 50's until the mid-60s and the Phillies ' Bob Miller who was a bottom of the rotation or spot starter from 1949 to 1958 with the Phillies and whose final won-lost record stood at exactly .500. Both Gilliam and Miller faced yearly challenges of some hot prospect who was going to take their job...yet somehow each survived and both played their entire careers for their respective teams. We may now have a modern example of this phenomenon in Kendrick's current tenure with the Phillies.

= philliesfiend55-

[Ben Grimm]

Rollins taking alot of heat today for not hustling as he's prone to do. Ground ball deep in the hole to Reyes. When the ball got to first, Jimmy wasn't even in the picture. A couple years ago he did this and Charlie immediately benched him. Don't be surprised to see him given the day off tomorrow.

Somebody sent him a message via twitter saying something along the lines of lack of hustle and being a bad expample for the young kids on the team.

Jimmy's response was - well you tell them them how to play. Nice.

BTW - even though it ended up a blowout, the Phils were only down 2-1 when the play happened in the 6th inning. They actually scored a run a few batters later to tie it up, so there's no telling what would have happened had Rollins ran the ball out.

[philliesfiend55]

Another brutal performance by Rosenberg out of the 'pen a couple of nights ago and Worley just isn't pitching with the same success and holding down his slot in the starting rotation like he did last year with that bone chip problem - better to shut him down for the season. It seems like Amaro is resisting making some obvious moves: Rosenberg back to AAA and Worley to the DL, with the two replaced by Aumont in the bullpen and Cloyd in the rotation..

[Ben Grimm]

Another brutal performance by Rosenberg out of the 'pen a couple of nights ago and Worley just isn't pitching with the same success and holding down his slot in the starting rotation like he did last year with that bone chip problem - better to shut him down for the season. It seems like Amaro is resisting making some obvious moves: Rosenberg back to AAA and Worley to the DL, with the two replaced by Aumont in the bullpen and Cloyd in the rotation..

I don't understand why Worley isn't simply shut down. He's carrying a 5.92 ERA thru July and August, so he's not really providing much for this team right now. Let him get his cleanout taken care of and get him ready for next year.

Interesting moves my Manuel with today's lineup... John Mayberry Jr's hitting 3rd while Chase Utley gets a day off and Ty Wigginton gets the start in LF.

Actually, after looking at the lineup - other than Frandsen, no other starter has a batting average over .241 o_O

[Ben Grimm]

I guess if today's experiment was to see whether or not Wigginton can play outfield - the answer was a resounding NO after just the first hitter.

[Ben Grimm]

Charlie's wacky lineup of rag-tag players worked like a charm. Best offensive output of the series.

Hitters 6-8 (Brown, Martinez & Schneider) combined to go 7-13, 4 runs, 8 RBI, 2 2Bs and a HR. Who'da thunk?

[Ben Grimm]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rollins sit tomorrow or Tuesday. He's hitting .200 since August 10th and is now at .239 with a .300 OB%. He'll drop his OB% to .299 if he makes an out with his next AB...

[Ben Grimm]

Hector Luna was just optioned back to Lehigh Valley. I assume it's to bring Polanco off the DL tomorrow.

[Ben Grimm]

Tonight's game vs Cincinnati marks the return of Wilson Valdez to CBP. Yes - he who holds a lower OPS than Michael Martinez.

Amaro took a lot of heat for this trade, though I never understood why. Of all the things I've been critical of with Ruben's moves, this wasn't even a blip on my radar. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but nobody knew at the time that Chase would miss two months - he was saying he was fine all the way into spring training. Nobody saw Martinez's injury coming or Galvis' for that matter. Guys like Valdez & Martinez grow on trees and should be nothing more than playing for the league minimum. With the team up against the cap, they had too many 2B during the winter and Valdez made the most sense since he was 33 or 34 and making twice the money that Martinez is.

I liked getting Horst and he's looked very solid so far. He's a player that this team can definitely use the next few years - unlike Exxon Valdez. Rube's had me scratch my head many times in player personell moves in the past, but this one I have to give him credit. Horst is a live arm with not too many miles on it and could be the late-inning guy this team so desperately needs without spending $3-$5M a year for.

[Ben Grimm]

Charlie going with Polanco (back from DL) at 3B and hitting 7th. Kind of surprised since Frandsen's had the hot stick lately in his absence. Not sure if this is Manuel once again being too loyal to his old vets or something else.

[philliesfiend55]

Phillippe Aumont has been recalled to take the place of Jeremy Horst who is on paternity leave tues. 8/21 throughThurs. 8/23.
Perhaps if Aumont gets into a game and impresses he'll be retained and a cetrain underperformer will be demoted when Horst returns Friday (BJ Rosenberg, who more aptly should be named BP "Batting Practice" Rosenberg).

[Ben Grimm]

People have been clamoring for Aumont, so now we'll get to see what he can do. He'll likely get into at least one (maybe two) games.

Phils put up big offense last night to help Roy Halladay get his W/L% back up to .500. It's often been said that for the Phils to produce at the plate, it all starts with Jimmy in the leadoff spot. Not so last night as Rollins only went 1-5. Also, since August 1st (first game with no Pence/Victorino), the Phils have gone 11-8 with a weaker lineup while Jimmy's only hit .169 in that span with 78 PAs.

[Ben Grimm]

Not a Phillie of course, but Aroldis Chapman can flat-out bring it. 102 on the gun a few times. 112 Ks in 61 IP now with a stingy ERA and rarely puts runners on. He'll be in the Cy Young mix for sure.

[Ben Grimm]

Antonio Bastardo doesn't make an appearance in 12 days, and now he's put in back to back games... [scratching head]

[philliesfiend55]

People have been clamoring for Aumont, so now we'll get to see what he can do. He'll likely get into at least one (maybe two) games.

I've just read that Jeremy Horst might return from the paternity leave list tonight, after just one game away. The three day paternity leave that MLB grants is the maximum number of days away from the team. Players may return earlier if they so desire. Since the Phillies are home he might return early and Horst has indicated he might return tonight (Wednesday). If the team was on the road he might have taken all three days off because part of the time would have been lost to travel. If Horst returns to the roster to tonight's game then Phillies fans will have to wait a little longer for Aumont's debut.

AAA Lehigh Valley is currently one game out of the Wild Card spot and will fight for it with Red Sox affiliate, Pawtucket, although the two teams no longer have any head-to-head games against each other on the remaining schedule. Should Lehigh Valley get eliminated then you might see Aumont and a few other Iron Pigs' players as early as Sept. 1 or just after their regular season ends on September 3, Labor Day.

[Ben Grimm]

ZWR with an untouched photo of John Mayberry Jr taking swings in the tunnel cages

mayberry.gif

[philliesfiend55]

Steven Lerud could make his MLB debut at any time and who'd a thought that. - Good defensive catcher, but a very light hitter and the Phillies had to reach all the way down to AA to get him. Lerud must have ranked 7th on the organization's depth chart at Catcher during Spring Training behind Ruiz, Schneider, Kratz, Gosewich, Suomi & Valle. He wasn't even playing very much at Reading after the Phils acquired Tommy Joseph at the Trade Deadline. The Phillies Bad Luck Injury Bug turns out to be Lerud's lucky break.

The official 2013 schedule won't be out until around September 20, but someone leaked a few sketchy details on another website.
Supposedly a Sunday night ESPN game opens the season on Sun. March 31 with all MLB other teams debuting on April 1 & 2. The season ends on Sunday Sept. 29 according to this unconfirmed post. That means that Game 7 of the World Series will be played in the last few days of October and IMO it's always a good thing if the season doesn't stretch into November. Lehigh Valley's International League schedule is officially out and their starting date is April 4. The minors usually start 2 or 3 days after the majors, so this leaked info is consistent with usual scheduling practices.
According to this post the Phillies Season Opener will be on Tuesday, April 2 in Atlanta Vs. the Braves and their home opener will be Friday, April 5 against the Kansas City Royals. (Get used to the idea - with Houston moving to the American League next year resulting in two 15 team leagues, there's going to be 1 to 3 Interleague games just about every day).

Darin Ruf, is now at 34 HR & 93 RBI and to reach 35 HR and 100 RBI would be quite an accomplishment in Reading's 140 game schedule. The only player I know of who has reached those milestones at Reading is Ryan Howard in 2004 when he had 37 home runs and 102 RBI at Reading. As good as Ruf's season has been it's still not quite up in the class of Howard's 2004 season, because Howard wasn't done there. He added another 9 HRs and 29 RBI at AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre and 2 HRs and 5 RBI in a brief stint with the Phillies that September. Overall that's 48HR and 136 RBI, a truly awesome season. He actually didn't play much once he was bought up to Philadelphia, but if MGR. Larry Bowa had given him a little more playing time he could have easily reached a combined 50 home runs for those three levels of play.

Juan Pierre has moved into second place in Stolen Bases for the NL with 31. He trails only former Phillie Michael Bourn who has 35 steals to his credit. I'd like to see Pierre win the SB title, but even finishing as runner-up would be quite an accomplishment for Pierre, considering his limited playing time. At 585 career steals now, he could reach 600 lifetime SB in 2013.

[philliesfiend55]

Tyler Cloyd looked a little more mortal in a No-Decision start on Thursday. 7 IP, 3 ER, just 3H, but he allowed 2 HR. His 142 IP is a little high for the minors but I still expect to see him sometime this September pitching for the Phillies.

Things have turned around quickly in the Wild Card races for the Phillies top two affiliates
Lehigh Valley is now 0.5 games ahead in the race for the Wild Card in the International League (AAA).
Reading is now 2.0 games ahead in the race for it's division's Wild Card in the Eastern League (AA).
Less than a week ago both teams were trailing in their Wild Card races and appeared to be faltering.

[Ben Grimm]

The official 2013 schedule won't be out until around September 20, but someone leaked a few sketchy details on another website.
Supposedly a Sunday night ESPN game opens the season on Sun. March 31 with all MLB other teams debuting on April 1 & 2. The season ends on Sunday Sept. 29 according to this unconfirmed post. That means that Game 7 of the World Series will be played in the last few days of October and IMO it's always a good thing if the season doesn't stretch into November. Lehigh Valley's International League schedule is officially out and their starting date is April 4. The minors usually start 2 or 3 days after the majors, so this leaked info is consistent with usual scheduling practices.
According to this post the Phillies Season Opener will be on Tuesday, April 2 in Atlanta Vs. the Braves and their home opener will be Friday, April 5 against the Kansas City Royals. (Get used to the idea - with Houston moving to the American League next year resulting in two 15 team leagues, there's going to be 1 to 3 Interleague games just about every day).

It's Bud Selig's wet dream. Not only does IL play every day, but teams will be playing more of it than in the past. In 2012, no team played more than 18 IL games. The Phillies are set to play 21 next year (they played 15 this season going 5-10).

These are who the Phils face from the AL next season:

Series @ Minnesota, Cleveland & Detroit
Home vs Kansas City, Cleveland and the White Sox
Four-game home-and-Home series vs Boston (2 home - 2 away)

MLB has been trying desperately to make the Orioles or Red Sox "natural" rivalries with the Phillies and it looks like now it's down to one team. Personally, I'd rather see an annual interstate rivalry series between the Phils and Pirates - like back in the 70s.

[Ben Grimm]

Tonight for your baseball pleasure...

Right field will be manned by a player with this slash line .185/.245/.274

I wonder if there's ever been a weaker hitter in that position with 300 plate appearances under his belt.

[philliesfiend55]

It's Bud Selig's wet dream. Not only does IL play every day, but teams will be playing more of it than in the past. In 2012, no team played more than 18 IL games. The Phillies are set to play 21 next year (they played 15 this season going 5-10).

These are who the Phils face from the AL next season:

Series @ Minnesota, Cleveland & Detroit
Home vs Kansas City, Cleveland and the White Sox
Four-game home-and-Home series vs Boston (2 home - 2 away)

MLB has been trying desperately to make the Orioles or Red Sox "natural" rivalries with the Phillies and it looks like now it's down to one team. Personally, I'd rather see an annual interstate rivalry series between the Phils and Pirates - like back in the 70s.

Where did you get all those 2013 schedule details, Ben? Is there a website where i could look this info up?

It's an odd thing that they aren't scheduled against the Yankees. The Phillies haven't played the Yankees in the regular season since May 2009 and that was in New York. They haven't played regular season IL games against the Yankees in Philadelphia for several years before that.
Are any of those series with Amer. Lg. teams supposed to be only two game series? Otherwise I count six three game series, plus the four against Boston for a total of 22.

[Blue387]

It's an odd thing that they aren't scheduled against the Yankees. The Phillies haven't played the Yankees in the regular season since May 2009 and that was in New York. They haven't played regular season IL games against the Yankees in Philadelphia for several years before that.
Are any of those series with Amer. Lg. teams supposed to be only two game series? Otherwise I count six three game series, plus the four against Boston for a total of 22.

The Mets and the rest of the NL East play the AL Central teams next year.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/met...entral-in-2013

[philliesfiend55]

It's Bud Selig's wet dream. Not only does IL play every day, but teams will be playing more of it than in the past. In 2012, no team played more than 18 IL games. The Phillies are set to play 21 next year (they played 15 this season going 5-10).

These are who the Phils face from the AL next season:

Series @ Minnesota, Cleveland & Detroit
Home vs Kansas City, Cleveland and the White Sox
Four-game home-and-Home series vs Boston (2 home - 2 away)

MLB has been trying desperately to make the Orioles or Red Sox "natural" rivalries with the Phillies and it looks like now it's down to one team. Personally, I'd rather see an annual interstate rivalry series between the Phils and Pirates - like back in the 70s.

It would be great to see some AL stars in Philly next year under the new format: Choo of Cleveland and Konerko & Dunn of the White Sox (possibly Pierzynski too if he doesn't leave Chicago via Free Agency). Too bad the games against the Tigers will be on the road. Phils fans would have liked to see Fielder & Cabrera and 2013 might be Jim Leyland's final season managing.

[Blue387]

Cole Hamels scratched due to stomach ailment, Tyler Cloyd will start Wednesday's game n his place.