2017: Mariners (Miranda) vs. Phillies (Eickhoff)

Lawman 2017-05-10 02:02:25 UTC #6

Going to bottom 7 we are tied at 9.

LoneStarPhan 2017-05-10 02:24:16 UTC #7

Neshek pitches a scoreless top of the 8th yielding only a one out single.

Going to the bottom of the 8th all tied up 9-9.

DurhamBull 2017-05-10 02:39:45 UTC #8

Ruiz came to the plate as a PH in the 8th and got a standing O from the crowd.

LoneStarPhan 2017-05-10 02:54:34 UTC #9

Phillies load bases with one out in 8th. Franco flies out and Nava out at plate to end inning.

Neris gives up single and double to give Mariners 10-9 lead going to bottom of the ninth.

LoneStarPhan 2017-05-10 02:58:43 UTC #10

Final

Mariners 10-16-2
Phillies. 9-11-2

Phillies blow 4-0 and 9-5 leads to lose another.

Pitching just not getting it done tonight.

DurhamBull 2017-05-10 03:15:27 UTC #11

The Phils are losing a lot of winnable games this season. It was an ugly game for both teams; the Phils were just a bit uglier.

Hernandez continues to get on base, Altherr continues to clobber the ball, Galvis continues to make sparkling defensive plays. Eventually all of this will come together and amount to victories.

bkeich 2017-05-10 03:45:39 UTC #12

Neshak now at 12 appeatances, 0 runs

donaldorc 2017-05-10 09:40:43 UTC #13

Glad I was peacefully asleep during all this. Another VERY disappointing loss.

gmwannabe 2017-05-10 10:58:18 UTC #14

Does Franco have any options left? his nonchalant boot at 3rd last night blew that game i would think. i will not even mention his at bats (or lack of). he is just flailing away at the plate. if so, i think a trip to LV might give him a wake up call and might be needed. or maybe not. i think i might have moved up on the Machado bandwagon after seeing last night. That loss was on par with the Dodgers last inning loss. terrible.
gm

DurhamBull 2017-05-10 12:48:47 UTC #15

On the positive side, the Phils banged out 11 hits (including 3HRs) and drew 7 walks.

kmc1019 2017-05-10 13:13:25 UTC #16

I was at the game last night, and definitely share the concern about Franco: his nonchalant error directly led to 2 runs and he looked horrible at the plate. If Hernandez and Altherr have given hope about them being every day regulars for a playoff caliber Phillies team in a few years, Franco has done nothing this year to prove he is the long-term third baseman, which is a pretty far fall from where it appeared his career would go a couple years back.

Lawman 2017-05-10 13:39:18 UTC #17

The echoes of the Manny Machado's footsteps are getting louder and, like you said, Franco's not making me move away from that view.

Austinfan 2017-05-10 13:52:09 UTC #18

I'm worried about Eickhoff's arm.
Warning sign with pitchers is when they start losing command because they're trying to overthrow to compensate for arm weakness.
He's really struggled his last two starts and should have been pulled after the 3rd inning.

Otherwise this team is losing because of the bullpen and Franco.
The bullpen is the easiest piece to find once the rest of the team is set.
Franco is another story, Stairs has been working with him but nothing seems to stick. Some players just aren't coachable.
He'll get the full season, but if he doesn't make a big turnaround, look for them to consider options this offseason.

Lawman 2017-05-10 14:24:42 UTC #19

Hopefully this is it and it's an easy fix. But, as we see when it comes to young pitchers, nothing is easy and take nothing for granted.

EastFallowfield 2017-05-10 15:02:54 UTC #20

Also annoying was how the broadcast I was able to catch downplayed the whole Chooch thing. Don't have ability to watch the pregame, so game opened with a look back at Sunday's game, then a little on Chooch, then onto the all important look at the Mariners and their star player. Sometimes it seems like the telecast is produced by people who aren't fans of our team.

tom81 2017-05-10 15:27:03 UTC #21

I will

Why is the regular with the lowest OPS, and the youngest player to boot, hitting cleanup? They need to move him lower in the order to take some stress off of him to give him a chance to turn it around. I'm really annoyed with the way the lineup stands when your guy with the third highest OPS is hitting 8th and the guy with the worst is hitting 4th.

gmwannabe 2017-05-10 16:07:02 UTC #22

Good Point Tom. i'd put Saunders in there against righties and Maybe Joseph (not much better ) against lefties.
gm

allentown 2017-05-10 17:15:28 UTC #23

I think it is time to worry that Franco might be a one-year flash ala Asche, Brown, Mayberry, Ruf. At over 130 PA the sample size is becoming not all that small and the trend is clear, after a very good 2015, he lost 100 OPS points in 2016 and has lost another 100 this year. BA, OBP, SLG are all down year-over-year-over-year and at present he is failing the eyeball test. Still possible Stairs can get him turned around and 130 PA isn't a large sample size, but he is starting to look like a classic case of pitchers adjusted and he can't and won't and now has reached the frustration point where the O woes are affecting the D. There isn't a substitute on the horizon, so he clearly gets the whole year to turn things around, but he is a legitimate cause for concern. His peak year was the 2013 minor league season. He walked less then than he does now, struck out a little less, and had a significantly higher extra base hit rate and BA. He had faced his hurdle of having to deal with good, off-speed bendy pitches in 2014 and it knocked his stats way down, by he seemed to adjust and come back strong in 2015. A further adjustment by pitchers or forgetting the changes he made in 2015.

Philsmania 2017-05-10 17:49:01 UTC #24

allentown:

I think it is time to worry that Franco might be a one-year flash ala Asche, Brown, Mayberry, Ruf. At over 130 PA the sample size is becoming not all that small and the trend is clear, after a very good 2015, he lost 100 OPS points in 2016 and has lost another 100 this year. BA, OBP, SLG are all down year-over-year-over-year and at present he is failing the eyeball test. Still possible Stairs can get him turned around and 130 PA isn't a large sample size, but he is starting to look like a classic case of pitchers adjusted and he can't and won't and now has reached the frustration point where the O woes are affecting the D. There isn't a substitute on the horizon, so he clearly gets the whole year to turn things around, but he is a legitimate cause for concern. His peak year was the 2013 minor league season. He walked less then than he does now, struck out a little less, and had a significantly higher extra base hit rate and BA. He had faced his hurdle of having to deal with good, off-speed bendy pitches in 2014 and it knocked his stats way down, by he seemed to adjust and come back strong in 2015. A further adjustment by pitchers or forgetting the changes he made in 2015.

Of course, it's too early to jump to conclusions but it's entirely possible that it's "what you see is what you get" with Franco. If Machado is going to be the man ultimately, we'll need to stick it out with Franco for another season until we can sign Machado and then either trade or unceremoniously non-tender Franco, a la Marlon Anderson after we signed Bell and moved Polanco to second.

bkeich 2017-05-10 19:47:42 UTC #25

Franco is going to be a streaky guy. His swing mechanics have so much motion and he just seems to forget that he is never going to hit a 1500 foot HR no matter how hard he tries that I suspect he is always going to be in and out of slumps. He really is better setup to be a #6 or #7 hitter, a guy who can clean up the guys on the base sometimes and not leave them for the weak hitters to have to drive in. On a better hitting team that is where he will be, I hope he is there in a couple years on this team.

As far as value, he is still a good value player. If he can get to a .780 OPS he is a solid, if unspectacular player especially for his pay.