Phillies News and Discussion 2025 Season

[mdougherty12]

Marsh has only started 2 games (out of 4) since coming off the IL, and he's raised his OPS nearly 100 points. It seems to me that we have to wait for a bit more data at this point.

[flyers19rw]

Marsh's failings just didn't appear over night. He has been on a downward trend since the AS game last season. His slash line is poor and has only gone worse this season. His K rate is over 30%. That''s unacceptable for a player at a key position. He's been given multiple chances to seize the job in CF and has flubbed them all.
Marsh isn't a starting major league OF. He washed out in Anaheim at a time when they were begging for decent OF play. Perhaps others don't mind platooning a CFer but I don't think that it's a good idea when other spots are also seeing such play. The lineup needs to be solidified.
Perhaps the PTB can let it ride for the rest of the month but come June 1, if Marsh is still spinning his wheels and Crawford is continuing to play as he is at LHV, he deserves a chance to take the CF job. I doubt that he would do worse than Marsh.

[allentown]

Marsh's failings just didn't appear over night. He has been on a downward trend since the AS game last season.

And yet in his time in Philly, including the brutal first month of this season, he has given the Phillies 6.5 rWAR. Most players have slumps over the course of a season. Despite poor 2nd halfs last season, we still got 3,1 WAR from Marsh and 3.0 from Bohm. Thus far Caastellanos 2.2 rWAR for his whole time in Philly. He has 0.1 rWAR this season, which puts him pretty much on-pace for what he has done his whole time in Philly.

I don't think it essential for Marsh to hit LHP. Most ABs for our team will be against RHP. OF platoons can be very effective and cheaper than a plus guy against pitchers of all handedness.

[zambonir]

Marsh did seize CF, impeccably. He was a Gold Glove finalist LF who was still better than all the dross the Phillies had at the position in 2022 (Vierling being the best of them but he couldn't field there either), and he had an OPS over .800 in 2023 as the everyday CF. They moved him to LF last year to make room for Rojas and then only moved him back because Rojas (and Merrifield, and Hays) all were even worse than Marsh. Perhaps their curious decision to not address CF or add a stronger RHB will still be vindicated by Kepler, but he's probably still a platoon player too. We'd be lucky if Crawford gives the Phillies as much WAR in 2025 as Marsh has any of the last 2 1/2 years, but he comes up it will be more an indictment of Rojas than Marsh, is my guess.

[zambonir]

Marsh now hitting .455 with a 1.136 OPS since coming off the IL but tell me again that he hasn't done anything since coming off the IL. SSS obviously but exactly what they need.

And Stott doesn't play against LHP either. Only three starts all season, same as Marsh. Kepler only has two. The reason it doesn't matter is there just aren't that many of them. So much so that Sosa isn't getting enough playing time either.

[phillychuck]

I actually found it very much fun to watch the games versus TB in the smaller stadium. It seems like that is the way baseball should be played, in front of about 5-10K people who really get to be close to the game. Adding decks to the stadiums reduces the intimacy and somehow, even on TV, makes the game more of a “show” than a sporting event. I’m not advocating tearing down stadiums, but it was really fun for one series!

At least for Tampa Bay, it’s better in the full, small stadium than it is in the empty large one...

[Austinfan]

As long as they hit 3 run HRs, according to Earl Weaver (showing my age).

[phillychuck]

Both teams had a 3-run HR yesterday...

[zambonir]

It would be fun to see a game there, or in Sacramento, though I'm not sure I'd plan a trip to either for that reason. Obviously not sustainable for season ticket and group sales, even if the Rays and A's weren't exactly killing it in those departments at their current spots. The proposed Portland MLB stadium would only be 32,000, which is probably all about half the teams in MLB need.

[zambonir]

It's nice to have Stubbs down there to mentor Painter.

At Triple A, Phillies’ Andrew Painter enters new stage: ‘Think like a big-league...

OTOH, Marchan has a .350 OPS and the Phillies are 1-5 in his starts, where's the noise about that?

[EastFallowfield]

Needed better lighting.

I was curious and looked at ticket prices for those games and you could get really cheap tickets, but with the drawback of having to be in Florida.

[zambonir]

It was sad but not surprising to hear so many Phillies fans. Florida's always going to be like that anyway with all the transplants and I believe that ballpark is closer to Clearwater than St. Pete (if only by a hair). I wonder what it was like in the regular stadium when the Rays played the Yankeee.

[EastFallowfield]

John Oliver show did another montage of John Kruk saying funny/odd things during our games.

[EastFallowfield]

Has everyone seen or heard this:

Harper has seen the lowest percentage of pitches in the strike zone — 42.9% through Friday night — of 282 major-league hitters with at least 50 plate appearances this season. By contrast, leadoff-hitting Bryson Stott leads Phillies regulars with 55.4% of pitches in the zone.

And when Harper does get a pitch over the plate, it’s often a breaking ball. Entering the weekend, he faced more curveballs — by total pitches (107) and percentage (16.4%) — than any hitter with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.

Bryce Harper’s struggles at the plate for Phillies stems from the types of...

[VoteForKalas]

That is smart on their part. Harper mashes fastball.

They should (and may) do the same to Casty and Turner

[Austinfan]

They definitely pound Casty with breaking balls on the outer edge of the plate.

[phillychuck]

They pitched Luzinski the same way. Some seasons he just didn’t chase, and he was an MVP candidate. It seemed like he never learned not to chase as a permanent skill. Casty seems to lay off the outside sliders for a few weeks, then revert.

[Austinfan]

That's why to me, plate discipline is the key to aging gracefully, see Schmidt, Thome, etc.
Knowing what you can hit and what you can't, and spitting on the latter.

[andyb]

Batspeed is really the key to aging gracefully offensively. Plate discipline always helps, but if you cannot hit velocity you really can't wait to decide if a pitch is a ball or strike. It is kind of what worries me about Bryce aging. He goes through periods where he loses batspeed (like now). So his approach works less well without being overly aggressive.

Hitting is much more complicated than plate discipline.

[bkeich]

Do you think Schwarber would take 3 year, $70M? Should the Phillies offer that.

It would be nice to have the DH spot open, but he has turned into our best hitter. I can see him having 3 years of good production, but worry after that.