Thursday, July 11, 2019

All Star Break Report Card

The Phils All-Star catcher JT Realmuto - that's pronounced Jay Tee Reel Moo Toe



When I last wrote to you the whole town had been lit on fire by Bryce Harper and the Phils shiny new offense after a week of monster bombs and wins at the Bank. I stated the Harper signing had already been justified. I’m standing by that at the his first All-Star Break of what should be 13 seasons in red pinstripes. It is the first season he is not an All-Star since 2014, though he made it last year hitting 214 at the Break. The honeymoon period ended quickly enough, the dust has settled to an extent, and the Phils weaknesses are glaring and evident through 90 tumultuous games that have left them right in the thick of the playoff hunt.

Sitting in 3rd place in the NL East at 47-73 the Phils would play the Nats in a one game wild card playoff if the season were to end at the Break. We’d all take that if that’s how the season ends. The Phils are a half game back of Harper’s former ballclub, and they will welcome those Washington Nationals to town this  weekend in an immediate showdown to begin the second half. The young free-swingin’ Atlanta Braves are in first place (Dansby Swanson is a leading candidate for who you can hate on to replace Chipper Jones). All of these teams can be had it would appear, so it will be fun to see what they do in the dog days coming up. With that brief synopsis of where things stand, let’s see how we got here.

If I had more time or talent I’d really like to reel off a We Didn’t Start the Fire synopsis of the antics we’ve been witness to the past three months.

Harper, Kapler, Arietta, Nola, Eflin, and Pivetta…

Something like that.

The team has been erratic in every sense of the word. But what I must start with, and dwell on, and belabor more than anything is that Matt Klentak did not address the starting staff and placed way too much faith in an unproven rotation. When you couple that with a  farm system that does not seem to produce any Major League capable starters with any kind of regularity then you find yourself with a 4.64 staff ERA. These _____ing guys, and now I’m including the bullpen, have completely forgotten how to keep the ball in the yard. The 2016 Cincinnati Reds gave up a record 258 long balls. The Phils are on pace to give up 275, and I’ll be damned if the Orioles haven’t given up 17 more home runs than the Phillies to date. My god the O’s must they be a fun team to watch. Ha!

Anyway, 1.7 homers a game the Phils are giving up. It is the worst in the NL. For some fun perspective, the 2019 Phils have given up 153 round trippers. The vaunted 2011 squad gave up 120 the whole season. Suuuure, these balls aren’t juiced per the commissioner. Give me a break, it’s insulting to make fans believe something isn’t different about the game now compared to then.

So, I’m giving out a report card grade and sharing anywhere from a few paragraphs to a few words based on my observations during the first half. Please note you can click on the stat lines to enlarge them.

Bryce Harper B-




Let’s start by concentrating at least some of your Ts and Ps on Bryce having a hot second half like last year.

Here’s his 2018 split



Harper will be inextricably linked to his massive contact the entire time he is here so the microscope will never really let down its glare. Kind of hot, I’ll bet. I have two main beefs, but overall I’ve been happy with his first 90 games here. The biggest beef is this strikeout rate, and he seems to be coming back to more career average levels of late. He’s whiffed 105 times in 395 plate appearances or once every 3.76 trips to the plate. The way he strikes out scares me more than anything though. Ryan Howard was a big fan of the Pedro Cerrano strikeout, he missed the breaking balls. Bryce can’ t seem to catch up to a fastball. Kind of freaks me out since he’s 26. Hopefully It’s just timing.

The second beef is the lack of power. I suppose 16 home runs at the break doesn’t sound awful but the 470 slugging percentage would be the 3rd worst in his 8 seasons of at least 100 games played. The average or the power need to go up. Preferably both.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with his arm from the outfield. His defense has been a bit better than I expected, but I was not expecting much. He needs to get his head out of his ass while running the bases as he is constantly TOOBPLAN (Thrown out on base paths like a nincompoop). I like the aggression but his instincts are not on par with say a Scott Rolen when looking for the extra base.

Aaron Nola  - C




 Until about two weeks ago I would have told you Nola was easily the biggest disappointment of the first half. Now it's just a close with a couple other guys. After a brilliant 2018 campaign, where we were finally at a point with a starter that felt something like what we had with Halladay/Hamels/Lee, Nola said so much for that. In  his 15th start of the season where he almost blew a large lead against Atlanta he saw his ERA balloon to a season high 4.89. Man oh man, he was hit by the can’t keep the ball in the ballpark bug that somehow hasn’t infected pitching coach Chris Young enough to get fired. I had to look up who the pitching coach is just now and I watch a lot of Phillies baseball, I got him not making it to 2020 spring training. Back to Nola, he seems to have righted the ship. He completely dominated a red hot Braves lineup last week with 8 shutout innings and followed it up by not blowing it against the hapless Mets on the last game before the break. Cross young fingers we’ll see more of this Nola, but just know it is shitty he was even capable of that kind of first 15 starts.

Jake Arrieta - D



 This guy is up there on the all-time prick list. What a total Jack Parkman without the stats. Somebody tell Arrieta this aint Chicago and he didn’t win a World Series or a Cy Young here and we don’t give a shit about any of that. How bout taking some accountability for yourself and, I don’t know, keeping the goddamn ball in the ballpark. Perhaps if I said this to Jake’s face he would put a dent in my skull. Grow up Jake. Or have surgery and miss the rest of the season. Choice is yours.



Zach Eflin - B




Eflin has 17 starts here are the earned run results:

Zero – 2 starts
1 earned – 5 starts
2 earned – 3 starts
3 earned – 3 starts
4 earned – 1 start
6 earned – 3 starts

When it goes good for Zach, it goes good. He has two complete games which leads the NL. LOL. When it goes bad, it goes real bad as you can see he’s stayed in long enough to give up 6 runs on 3 separate occasions. If he can, stop me if you’ve heard this before, keep the ball in the ballpark he could possibly be a starter on a playoff team.



Nick Pivetta - D





Pivetta is a poor man's Eflin. See above, but worse, much worse.

Vince Velasquez - C -






If you take a look at the line for that night's game and you see the Phils are +240 against the Reds you know Vince Velasquez is starting. Bullpen or bust for Vince.


The Bullpen - D +

The D+ is mostly accounted for by their durability. Dave Robertson was the big signing. Who?! Adam Morgan was good then he hit the IL. Pat Neshek sidewinded his way to a decent start then he started bitching about coming in to games on 3 days rest and couldn't stop giving up home runs on his way back to the IL. Ramos? Nicasio? Dominguez? Hunter? Arano, De Los Santos? All hurt or ineffective, some both. Hector Neris has been solid and he gets them the + in the D +. Sure he's blown his fair share, but he doesn't instill fear in fans like the rest of them do.

Rhys Hoskins - B +




Rhys hits for extra bases, his 530 slugging is second to only Scott Kingery who has played 30 fewer games. He walks a ton, leading the NL with 68. He appears to be a capable leader with Harper. His defense at first base isn't as bad as his defense in the outfield so it's nice that he's found a spot there. He is not on the Rico Brogna level of picking bad throws clean but I've seen him grab his share of short hops. I like that.

Unfortunately I just don't find myself getting behind Rhys with my usual vigor for a player of his caliber. I am reminded of the line from Ace Ventura when he rebuffs Lois Einhorn / Ray Finkle when she comes on to him in the police station. She asks him if it's another woman as to why Ace won't pursue relations and he replies, "No, you just don't do it for me." This is not exactly a direct comparison on my feelings for Rhys, but that line is apt because at this point he just doesn't do it for me. The way he spells his name honestly doesn't help matters, but that's just me.



Jean Segura - C




Jean is up to 278, which is 22 points lower than his lowest batting average in the past 3 years. He started off gangbusters and then he didn't bust it down the line on an infield fly in San Diego and the whole goddamn season unraveled. Ian Kinsler let the pop fly drop so he could double up Andrew McCuctchen who was on first base. Cutch got caught in a rundown and there went his ACL. Jean said he lost sleep over the incident. His batting average certainly lost some steam. A few weeks later Jean failed to bust it on a leadoff base hit in the first inning against Max Scherzer that led to a run not being scored. 

Jean is a tremendous addition to the ballclub and he has given my buddies and I the ability to constantly use the "Gene's Trash" Seinfeld reference, which has added a decent amount of enjoyment to my life. Still the fact remains he inadvertently cost Cutch the season and then didn't have the presence of mind to not make a similar mistake less than a month later. Come on bro, we need better than that.

JT Realmuto - B +




JT is better than I think he is and I'm taking him for granted but I'm not completely sold yet. His defense is without a doubt top notch but I believe we almost all expected more from the bat. We were sold a large bill of goods for him and he's filling it for the most part. I'm looking for a big second half from the Phils loan All-Star.

Jay Bruce - A




Jay has played 28 games for the Phillies. He has 29 RBI. Check out that slugging! This is a good one for Klentak if you're keeping track, which if you're reading this...


Andrew McCutchen - ACL

Cutch was leading the NL in walks when he went down. He seemed to be coming on a bit and the Phils took a complete nosedive when he went down. It took a while to figure out the leadoff spot and he really appeared to make them go considering what we saw when he left. 


Scott Kingery - A -


Kingery leads the team in slugging. He's got 11 bombs and has filled in everywhere he's been needed to fill in. Most notably the leadoff spot perhaps. He has stepped into the role and provided pop and speed. At what point do you think the brass gives up on Cesar and puts Kingery at second base where he could be for the next 8-10 years? 

He should have more than 5 steals with a nickname like Scotty JetPacks but that's probably my only beef.

Lastly, check out the highlighted section of his stat line. Catcher and first base are the only positions Kingery hasn't played this season. He's got a 13.50 ERA in 1 and a third, not shown in the stats.


Odubel Herrera - F Off

Turns out Odubel is a reprobate. Herrera had one home run on the season before he got arrested for allegedly roughing up his girlfriend at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City over MDW. She dropped the charges but regardless Odoobs is basically a scum bag per a police report that anybody could read if they wanted to and most likely will never play for the Phillies again after his 85 game suspension is up. So much for him being my favorite player huh. Rough year for Odoobs. Hope his woman is pulling a Steve Miller.

Gabe Kapler - B - 


Charlie Manuel

It's hard to manage when you have Jerad Eickhoff and Nick Pivetta combine to make 21 starts with ERAs both 5.50+. It's hard to manage when Pat Neshek refuses to go in, and Dave Robertson's arm fell off, and Juan Nicasio has to go on a 3rd straight night, or when you have to choose between Phil Gosselin or Sean Rodriguez to pinch hit because you have to pinch hit 3 times a game  because of all the other aforementioned reasons it's tough to manage. Gabe is keeping this ship together but could sprinkle a little more discipline in for the old-school guys. Segura should have been yanked and/or sat after his incidents. 

I love that line in Little Big League "How hard can it be to manage? You're in the AL!"

I've enjoyed the fire he has shown getting tossed from two games in quick succession when things were really going South for the Phils in their customary June swoon. I was at the Mets game where Joe West tossed him for doing nothing. One note on my trip to that Mets-Phils game. I have a feeling I'm going to really enjoy the Robinson Cano in Queens era.

Having said all that, Gabe still over manages and makes some decisions where I question what logic he is employing. He'll pinch hit a catcher in the 6th if it suits him. Don't ask no questions.

Matt Klentak - B -

He brought in Realmuto, Segura, and Harper in the offseason. He's allowed Eickhoff, Pivetta, and Velasquez to continue to be Major League starters. He drafted Mickey Moniak with the number one overall pick in 2016. What do you think?


I'll give the Phils overall a B -. They haven't played their way out of it but they certainly have the feel of an underachieving bunch right now. They've got 60 games to change that feeling.






** My apologies to Maikel Franco


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