I officially hate this Phillies team

[zambonir]

Stott actually put up 4.3 in 2023.

[allentown]

Wow! That shows how far he has fallen at a relatively young age. I didn't even think to look him up, given my current view of him.

[Philsmania]

Familiarity still breeding contempt.

[Philsmania]

Bump.

[Austinfan]

The problem with this team is simple, an old team that has been treading water for a couple years.
Aging curves can't be denied, a bounceback year here or there can't reverse that trend.
JT (33), Harper (32), Stott (27), Turner (32), Bohm (29), Castellanos (33), Bader (31), Marsh (27), Kepler (32), Schwarber (32), Sosa (29)

Wheeler (35), Sanchez (28), Luzardo (27), Suarez (30), Nola (32), Walker (33)
Duran (27), Kerkering (24), Strahm (33), Robertson (40), Alvarado (30), Banks (33)

Anyone under 30 on this team is "young." THere is no one 25 or under other than Kerkering

[zambonir]

I mean, we all know that, but that's still more of a future problem. The current team is still one of the three best teams in the National League, and these creaky guys "treading water" are going to win more games this year and last year than they did when they were younger in '22 and '23. It's a team, not a list of birthdays. The Mets didn't just beat us because they are younger.

Whatever happens from here there are a lot of interesting choices to make. If they blow the division and/or lose in the WC round Rob presumably goes but I'm not sure I really like Dombrowski as the guy to remake the roster over the next two years either. But, little chance of any big change there (or of anyone other than Mattingly being the next PBO, even if things go completely bad). Win or lose this year they still have a lot of crossroads-type decisions. And still no other avenue but trades or free agency for middle-of-the-order bats and catcher.

[andyb]

The problem is overreacting to what by now is a satirical post designed to get the baseball gods in line for this team.

[zambonir]

Heh, I'm not sure Philsmania was ever doing satire or reverse jinx. But it has generally worked!

[Austinfan]

The only older players performing at their peak are Schwarber and Turner, which is what you'd expect, a couple outliers but most players declining, some slowly, some rapidly.

And that's what we're seeing from this team, they had a lucky run to get to the WS with a 87 win team, peaked last year at 95, probably end up with 90 wins this year.
Without Wheeler, they're a long shot to go deep into the playoffs.

I don't think they're one of the three best teams anymore, 41-38 over their last 79 games, that's a long stretch of mediocrity, most before they lost Wheeler. A rebound in August, but it doesn't look sustainable.

They're not a bad team, but I'd probably have them between 6th and 10th right now.

[schillingfan]

Harper and J.T are playing pretty well right now. The hitters are streaky. They hit with a vengeance tonight.

[Austinfan]

They're very streaky, hot against Seattle, ice cold against the Mets, hot tonight but to be fair, Quantrill was basically batting practice, he was that bad.

[EastFallowfield]

What's groovy is that the Mets have been streakier in losing (2 7 gm losing streaks vs the Phils 2 5 gm losing streaks) and the Phils have had a better winning streak (9 gms vs Mets 7 gms).

[phillychuck]

All but the very, very best and the very, very worst teams in baseball history have been streaky--it’s the nature of the game. 0.600 teams don’t win 3 and lose 2 every 5 games, due to travel, opponents, health, and just randomness streaks happen. The 2011 Phils were probably our best regular season team, 102 wins, featuring a 7 game and 9 game win steak, but an 8-game losing streak, too. Baseball is a game of streaks due to its nature. Not enough ‘events’ in a single game or even a week’s games for luck to even out.

[Austinfan]

There's luck and there's luck.
Injury luck is hard to control (trainers, motivated players, but still you're at the mercy of the Baseball Gods).
Hitting luck, high velocity outs, no problem, that evens out.

On the other hand, looking bad is not luck, and blowing out a bad pitcher is not luck (nor is failing to blow out a bad pitcher).

Bad luck doesn't worry me, bad play does.

[zambonir]

Bump

[Philsmania]

Every time I post or bump this the Phillies go on a tear! Don't worry, I dust it off when we start each Postseason series. I just may have created the 2025 Phillies talisman. You're welcome.

[Austinfan]

Well, hand it to DD, after bad offseason moves (Kepler, Romano eating close to $20M) he lands Bader for peanuts, Duran (hate the cost, love the player) and Robertson.

And Thompson finally listened to us and started platooning Casty, turning two bad OFs into one passable platoon.

The amazing thing is they lost a top 3 ML starter, their hottest hitter (Turner), Bohm, Nola struggling, and they go on a tear.

[EastFallowfield]

What's groovy is that the Mets have been streakier in losing (2 7 gm losing streaks vs the Phils 2 5 gm losing streaks) and the Phils have had a better winning streak (9 gms vs Mets 7 gms).

Mets went ahead and got even streakier, added an 8 game (and counting?) losing streak to their 2 7 game losing streaks.

[zambonir]

[EastFallowfield]

I'm warming up to them a bit