Minor League Games - Monday, May 29, 2017

allentown 2017-05-30 00:56:26 UTC #21

Agreed. Moniak is fine.

allentown 2017-05-30 00:58:37 UTC #22

What you say makes sense, but... Crawford has been really bad with the bat and now is hitting, there is no vaguely remote prospect-status IFs in today's lineup apart from Hoskins. Whatever Wathan feels he must do with the OFs, Crawford has to be in that game.

flyers19rw 2017-05-30 02:18:37 UTC #23

Moniak does lead the team in hitting.

Philsmania 2017-05-30 02:38:09 UTC #24

Fightin' Phils snap a nine game losing streak.

California_Dreamin 2017-05-30 19:02:44 UTC #25

I will not play pop psychologist here but I will say that I am going to be watching Williams performance "post" day off carefully. In my mind there is NO reason he and Crawford should have had the day off when they were hitting so well, especially in Williams case.

When you are hot you can't wait to get into the batter's box, the ball literally looks like a watermelon. I have had good hitters I knew say they could almost see the seams when they were hitting well. And after what Williams went through last year with all those benchings for what I considered minor infractions, he is the last guy I would dare play mind games with this year.

Because in my way of thinking, Williams is the guy who will ultimately tilt the Hamels scale one way or the other. Eichoff is likely a middle of the rotation workhorse [a valuable thing] and Alfaro seems to be a catcher the Phils will count on for the next 5-6 years [another good thing.] But Harrison and Asher are gone and Thompson looks very pedestrian right now.

Nick Williams looks to be the great decider. And given that he was hitting as well as he has since he joined the organization I think sitting him yesterday was strange. And ill-conceived.

bkeich 2017-05-30 20:09:14 UTC #26

California_Dreamin:

I will not play pop psychologist here but I will say that I am going to be watching Williams performance "post" day off carefully. In my mind there is NO reason he and Crawford should have had the day off when they were hitting so well, especially in Williams case.

When you are hot you can't wait to get into the batter's box, the ball literally looks like a watermelon. I have had good hitters I knew say they could almost see the seams when they were hitting well. And after what Williams went through last year with all those benchings for what I considered minor infractions, he is the last guy I would dare play mind games with this year.

Because in my way of thinking, Williams is the guy who will ultimately tilt the Hamels scale one way or the other. Eichoff is likely a middle of the rotation workhorse [a valuable thing] and Alfaro seems to be a catcher the Phils will count on for the next 5-6 years [another good thing.] But Harrison and Asher are gone and Thompson looks very pedestrian right now.

Nick Williams looks to be the great decider. And given that he was hitting as well as he has since he joined the organization I think sitting him yesterday was strange. And ill-conceived.

I agree CD, it was odd. I can only guess it was planned before he got hot.

I dont think Williams is "the guy" from that trade. His plate discipline is awful, I have very little hope he is ever going to be any type of player in MLB. He may get some shots, but unless he suddenly figures out where the strike zone is he is going to be exposed and exploited in the majors on a regular basis. He isnt Vlad Guerrero, he is an OK AAA player.

I think it will be both Thompson and Alfaro that tip the scales on this trade. Eichoff is what he is, and he has value. Thompson was a strong prospect and seems to have lost traction by being sent back down this year and buried in the depth chart. I wouldnt be surprised if it all got in the guys head, he was in the majors, pitching fairly well and now he gets demoted due to nothing he did and may have just lost focus a little. He may bounce back.

Alfaro has the same cluelessness about what a strike looks like when at bat, but he is a catcher and it is much easier to take from that position. If he can show his power in the majors and his plus plus arm he can have a 12 year career, even if a fair amount of it might be as a backup. He really does have an elite arm and some real power, if he only walks 4% of the time and strikes out 25-30% that is awful, but with the other things and his arm he still is a ML player. We will see.

zambonir 2017-05-30 20:14:43 UTC #27

I think you are reading far too much into it to call it "mind games." It was a day game after a night game on a four-day weekend, and the team doesn't have day off until June 12. The fact that there was no real reason to play both Nava and Perkins (Nava had to play if he's not going on the LV road trip) and they did anyway (while also sitting Crawford) tells me it was just meant to be a normal and very deliberate day off... a perk even.

I know players want to play, but being told at 10:30 on Saturday night that you don't have to be ready the next morning at 9am on a day when you're also going to be riding the bus, and to enjoy a rest because you are one of our most important players and we're going to need you every night on the road this week, is no big deal. Hoskins and Cozens were probably jealous.

bigegypt0417 2017-05-30 20:36:20 UTC #28

Cozens had a couple of days out of the line-up in the recent run of games as well.

If you really slump after a day off there is more wrong than we thought...