Phillies Nation

Early last week, Ruben Amaro signed Delmon Young to a one-year contract, seemingly putting a cap on his offseason moves.

In the time that has passed since, the public has chastised Amaro for his re-structuring of the team. On social media and talk radio, people have spouted off about how he has failed to address the Phillies needs and turn them back into a contender this offseason.

To be perfectly honest, the frustration is understandable. While the Braves got the Upton brothers, the Phillies got the Youngs, who I believe are of no relation. The Nationals reeled in Dan Haren, while Amaro signed John Lannan.

The acquisition of talent hasn’t really stacked up. On paper, it seems the Phillies will once again be unable to contend with the two teams they finished behind in the standings last season. While the Braves and Nationals got better, it’s hard to argue that the Phils did the same.

So, in grading Amaro on how he has set the team up for the 2013 season, it’s fair to suggest he deserves no better than a C, and maybe an even worse grade. Continue reading Viewing Amaro’s Offseason Moves Through A Larger Scope

Michael Young is coming to Philadelphia.

After two days weighing his options, the 36-year old lifetime Texas Ranger has decided to leave the only organization he has ever played for, waiving his no-trade option for a chance to play third base everyday with the Phillies.

In exchange for Young, the Phillies will send back 25-year old right-handed reliever, Josh Lindblom, and Lisalverto Bonilla, a 22-year old right-handed pitcher who split time between Single-A Clearwater and Double-A Reading last season.

Texas has also agreed to pay $10 million of Young’s $16 million 2013 salary in the deal. Young will also reportedly make $1.2 million in benefits in the trade, though who will be paying that amount is still unclear. The deal is still pending a physical.

Young, a career .301 hitter, is coming off his worst season ever in the big leagues. In 2012, he hit .277/.312/.370, while hitting a career-low eight home runs, and 67 RBI. His .682 OPS and -1.4 WAR were also the lowest marks of his career.

Continue reading Michael Young Approves Trade To Phillies

Think back to last offseason. Armed with a sizable budget, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. couldn’t contain himself. He just had to spend. Jonathan Papelbon was the fortunate benefactor of Amaro’s generosity.

At the time, the deal was met with much criticism. Papelbon was, no doubt, a very talented closer with an established record of success. But the $50M deal Amaro gave him was the largest in guaranteed money ever given to a closer. Instead of waiting out the market, Amaro, in a fit of imprudence, had set it. As effective closers with a lesser pedigree signed much smaller deals, it became clear that the Papelbon deal was an overpay.

Now think back to April 2010, when an overzealous Amaro gave Ryan Howard a massive contract more than two years before he would hit the open market. Once again, instead of waiting out the market for a player, Amaro had established it.

Continue reading Amaro’s Patience This Offseason Should Be Praised

Nate Schierholtz was the one player the Phillies got in return for Hunter Pence who was not only big league-ready, but had already accrued a fair amount of major league service time. A kind of enigma in San Francisco, Schierholtz came to Philly with the promise of consistent playing time and an opportunity to prove himself to his new manager as an everyday player. It was a new start for Schierholtz, who had seemingly fallen out of favor with his former manager, Bruce Bochy. When the trade was made, Schierholtz claimed to relish the opportunity, feeling excitement over the possibility of starting anew.

The excitement and energy Schierholtz was feeling shown through in his Phillies debut on August 1. After singling in his first at-bat, Schierholtz gave the Phillies the lead over Washington when he hit a solo shot to make it 3-2 in the fifth. That would be the final score. Suddenly–and very briefly–Philadelphia was enamored with Schierholtz, whose home run made him the game’s hero.

It’d be all downhill from there.

Over his next ten games (eight starts), Schierholtz would hit just .185 with a paltry .480 OPS. He’d have just one extra base hit–a double–in that time. He seemed to be struggling to adjust to his new surroundings and his play exhibited as much. Still, Manuel was playing him regularly and seemed intent on giving him every opportunity to succeed. That opportunity would vanish when Schierholtz, in typical 2012 Phillies fashion, landed on the DL with a broken toe just twelve days after making his debut with the team.

He’d end up missing about three weeks of time before returning to action. His toe was still broken, but he opted to play through the pain. However, the injury hindered Manuel’s ability to play him regularly, and, while he appeared in 26 games, he’d make just six starts the rest of the way.

Schierholtz’s final line with the Phillies:  in 73 plate appearances, he hit .273 with a .698 OPS, one home run, five RBI and five runs scored. He struck out ten times and walked five times. His OPS+ was a lowly 88.

Final Grade: Incomplete It seems unfair to me to grade a player on less than 75 plate appearances. While he didn’t perform particularly well, he also wasn’t given the fullest opportunity to succeed. Part of that was, no doubt, due to his injury. It does bear mentioning that Schierholtz had a .303 BABIP during his time with the Phillies, so his results don’t appear to be the product of poor luck. In the end, it seems it could be a short stay in Philly for Schierholtz, as he could potentially be a non-tender candidate, depending on how the Phillies offseason plays out.

Figgins seemed to lose himself while playing in Seattle. Could relocating to Philadelphia get his career back on track? Photo: AP

With Chone Figgins being designated for assignment by the Mariners yesterday, all signs point to the once productive player hitting the free agent market. Ian Riccaboni and I sat down to discuss whether Figgins might be an option worth exploring for the Phillies.

I say yes.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Chone Figgins?! This guy can’t be serious! And that’s an understandable reaction. Because, let’s be honest, Figgins has been unequivocally bad the last two years–that’s why he got designated for assignment in the first place.

But, assuming he clears waivers–and all signs indicate that he will–I do believe Ruben Amaro, Jr. should at least put in a call to Tommy Tanzer, Figgins’s agent. Should that conversation go well, and there doesn’t seem to be any major interest from other teams for the services of the once highly-touted infielder, then Amaro should tender him an offer. Nothing huge. In fact, it should be a minor league deal with an invite to spring training at most.

At this point, you’re probably ready to pull your hair out. You’re asking questions like, ‘Why would the Phillies waste their time on this guy?’ and ‘What’s the point?’ Continue reading Should The Phillies Take A Chance On Chone Figgins?

Before the 2012 season, Ruben Amaro, Jr. signed Laynce Nix to fill the team’s need for a left-handed bat off the bench in the same vein as Ross Gload and Greg Dobbs before him. The deal was relatively cheap and also provided the roster with a player who had a superfluous “y” in their name, something the team was lacking after Jayson Werth skipped town in 2010 and left the Phillies in desperate need for a player of that ilk in 2011.

Nix also figured to help pitch in playing some time in left field, where it was wide open, and also at first base while the Phillies waited for the return of the injured Ryan Howard. On paper, it was a prudent move by the Phillies GM.

For awhile, the move seemed to translate from paper to the field, as well. Nix started off the season pretty well, hitting .326 through the first five weeks of the season with two dingers and eleven RBI in 46 total at-bats. At that time, his OPS was a very impressive .979. Things seemed to be going swimmingly for Nix. Then an event happened that would come to define his 2012 season: Nix got hurt.

On May 11, he was placed on the DL with a calf strain. By the time Nix returned to the big league roster on July 22, he was a forgotten man, a footnote on a season that seemed all but lost. Upon his return, he appeared to be a drastically different player than the one that was contributing the way he expected to at the start of the season. His first half/second half splits read like night and day:

First half: 51 PA, 7 R, 2 HR, 11 RBI, .326/.392/.587

Second half: 76 PA, 6 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .191/.263/.294

His OPS+ went from 168 in the first half to 55 in the second half. Yikes. That’s really the story when it comes to Nix. He started off well, but an injury caused him to miss a lot of time. When he returned, he just wasn’t the same player. Had he stayed healthy, could he have produced at the rate he was for the first five weeks of the season? There’s no way of knowing. But it’s not too outlandish to suggest he could’ve maintained some semblance of positive production had he kept getting regular at-bats.

Grade: D … Had Nix been able to maintain his production from the beginning of the season, he’d easily be a candidate for an A. Had he played the entire season the way he did after returning from injury, he’d surely get an F. I arrived at a D because the scale shifts slightly more to the failing grade when considering the larger sample size of Nix’s second half performance. All in all, it seems likely that it was a one-time hurrah for Nix in a Phillies uniform. With a bloated cast of potential back-up outfielders, and the Phillies clearly looking to add a couple more, Nix seems a likely candidate to be released.

Domonic Brown needs to step up.

With Hunter Pence now in San Francisco and no one stepping in to take the full-time left field job in 2012, the Phillies are now desperately in need of two corner outfielders. Add on top of that the fact that, through the last four seasons, Ruben Amaro Jr. has traded away a boatload of offensive talent, all while refusing to budge on Brown, and the pressure on the young outfielder to become the player he was projected to be as a prospect is building fast.

The Phillies really need him to come through. To that end, they gave him his first true shot in the big leagues in 2012 (in 2010 he got a short look while Shane Victorino was on the DL and again as a September call-up and in 2011 he only had a month to prove himself before the plug was pulled).

For Brown, the results were mixed. He showed flashes of being the player everyone thinks he can be, but he was also plagued by long stretches of ineffectiveness, which leave his final numbers looking very bleak. He finished with a triple slash line of .235/.316/.396, while striking out 34 times and walking 21 times. He had five home runs and 26 RBI. Even more disheartening: he not only didn’t register a stolen base, he didn’t even make an attempt.

One plus for Brown was, of his 44 hits, 18 of them were for extra bases. He did show a fair amount of power, despite the anemic triple slash. He also got on base at a high rate, as the .316 OBP to a .235 batting average indicates.

However, what needs to be remembered about these numbers at the plate  is that they came over a very small sample size (212 plate appearances). He was also riddled by poor luck, posting a .260 BABIP. With an average BABIP of .300 (the league mean over the course of an entire season), Brown would’ve hit .272. Poor luck is not something to be ignored in this case, especially because the sample size was so small. Those things tend to even out and there are signs Brown can be a better hitter than the surface numbers this season showed. In the end, his .309 wOBA wasn’t atrocious.

In the field, it was more of the same from Brown. He exhibited fantastic athleticism and an amazing throwing arm (seven outfield assists in 51 games is a ridiculous number). But he also showed an inability to routinely track fly balls, coming up with more than a few misplays.

All and all, it seems like too short a viewing to truly evaluate Brown. Alas, that is what I have been tasked to do, so evaluate I must.

GRADE: C.  This grade probably should be lower. But I’m giving Brown a pass here because of the poor luck and the small sample. I think it’s also important to remember that, even though he seems older, Brown is still a very young player (This past season was his age 24 season). Many guys don’t get it figured out on the big league level until their mid-20s, and there’s enough here to suggest Brown will also reach a higher plateau of performance as he ages. That said, time is running out for him to become the player everyone expected.

Having just won his fourth Gold Glove award, this player review could not come at a better time for Jimmy Rollins, a man who could use a few positives in his corner. That’s because 2012 was one of the more contentious between Rollins and the fans. Rollins once again drew criticism when he became the focal point for a city-wide debate on if and when it’s ever appropriate for a player to not give 100% on a seemingly routine out.

The sour taste of Rollins’s perceived laziness, coupled with a brutally slow start to the season and a proclivity for popping the ball up on the infield (seriously, I must have heard the statistic that he leads all of baseball in infield pop-ups 1000 times this season), left many fans chomping at the bit to be extra critical of the long-time Phillies shortstop, jumping at the opportunity to call Ruben Amaro, Jr.’s decision to extend Rollins before the season a big mistake.

But should we allow those minor things–some bad outs and a few lackadaisical lapses in judgment–define Rollins’s season in general?

On the surface, it was a pretty pedestrian year for the man we’ve grown fond of calling J-Roll. His .250/.316./.427 triple slash line isn’t setting the world on fire, by any stretch of the imagination. But if you dig deeper and compare Rollins’s statistics to his major league counterparts, it was a really good, borderline stellar year for the 33-year old.

Take, for example, his .743 OPS. Standing alone, that’s nothing to write home about. But that number ranked him sixth among qualifying major league shortstops. He also ranked first in runs scored (102), was tied for third in doubles (33), was second in home runs (23, which also led the team), and was fifth in steals (30). He did all of this while playing in 156 games, which also led the team. That’s important to note because that now makes two straight seasons where J-Roll was able to avoid a long-term stint on the DL after having many questions asked about his health following the 2010 season.

Going further, Rollins posted a .322 wOBA, his highest mark since 2008. He did all of this despite the unfortunate BABIP of .262.

And I haven’t even touched upon the aforementioned gold glove award yet. No matter your opinion of that award and its merits, there’s no denying that Rollins is still a plus defender and arguably the best defensive shortstop in the game. He provides above average offensive production, and outstanding defense.

But perhaps most telling of the type of overall season Rollins had is his WAR: 4.9. That number was second among big league shortstops this season, behind only Ian Desmond, and was the highest he’s posted since his 5.6 mark in 2008, when he was still in his twenties. That made his play worth $22.2 on Fangraphs, more than double what the Phils actually paid him.

Final Grade: A I know there are people who will disagree with this grade. But when you consider the position he plays and how he stacks up to those positional counterparts, I’d be remiss to give Rollins anything short of an A. You can talk about the laziness and the infield pop-ups all you want. The fact is this guy can still play at a very high level, and he proved it this season.

PHOTO: AP

Kyle Kendrick is perhaps the most underrated player on the Phillies roster. You’ve heard the narrative surrounding him: year in and year out, he fills multiple roles for the pitching staff, usually doing a satisfactory job, and some nights doing a fantastic job, yet he still is the target of fan vitriol.

This season was perhaps the biggest indication of that, as Kendrick put together an above average year, appearing in 37 games and starting 25 of them. But he was still frequently made out to be a goat in the eyes of many fans. I believe the biggest reason Kendrick draws ire from the fans is his inconsistency. Sometimes he can look really, really bad. He was once again marred by an inability to achieve predictability in 2012.

Observe: Kendrick managed to put together two separate scoreless streaks of twenty innings or more during the season. They were number one and two for longest scoreless streaks by a Phillies pitcher in 2012. During those stretches, he was undeniably the team’s best pitcher. Furthermore, he posted ERAs of 2.89 and 2.95 during the months of May and August, respectively. At times, he looked elite. But–and with Kendrick there’s always a but–he also struggled down the stretch, when the team needed good starts as they fought to stay afloat in the race for the second wild card. His ERA from September 15 to the end of the season was a robust 6.59. On top of that, he posted an ERA near seven in both April and June. As usual, Kendrick played the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personified.

Despite his inability to churn out positive results on the regular, the final numbers aren’t too shabby for KK. Among pitchers with at least 30 innings of work, Kendrick’s ERA of 3.90 was sixth best on the team, ahead of the likes of Vance Worley, Roy Halladay and Antonio Bastardo (although two of those three dealt with injury). He also posted a career-high in strikeouts per nine innings with 6.55 mark. Despite a high ERA in the second half of September, he finished with an overall second-half ERA of 2.87, with most of those innings coming while Kendrick was in the rotation.

The advanced metrics aren’t quite as kind to Kendrick, however. Fangraphs lists his FIP at 4.32 and his xFIP at 4.31. According to their calculations, he was good for 1.2 WAR (it should be noted that that number is double the amount of WAR Kendrick posted in any year from 2008-2011).

I believe the biggest question, though, is whether Kendrick was worth the money he was being paid or not. These things are always magnified following a contract extension, which Kendrick received during the offseason. That extension paid Kendrick $3M this season. Fangraphs says his play was worth about $5.6M. All things considered, it was a shrewd move for Ruben Amaro and the front office, as Kendrick proved to be a cheap but effective member of the roster.

At the moment, KK is earmarked to be the number five starter next year. If he could repeat his 2012 performance, he would be arguably one of the best number fives in baseball.

Grade: B

Read the rest of the 2012 Phillies Player Reviews here.

Yesterday, our own Pat Gallen outlined for you why he didn’t think A-Rod would be a good fit in Philly. The influx of trade rumors now surrounding the former superstar third baseman who is currently having his feet held to the fire by just about everyone in Yankeeland got me to thinking: A-Rod is an aging player with a lot of money left on a long-term deal he’ll seemingly never be able to match the exorbitant value of with his play on the field. He’s fallen out of favor and his struggles seem to be at an all-time high.

If this scenario sounds vaguely familiar, it should. The Phillies are currently going through a similar situation with one of their corner infielders–first baseman Ryan Howard. Howard is also a player with a superstar’s capabilities who has been hampered by injury of late, and whose contract seems to be moving rapidly into albatross zone.

So, imagine you’re Ruben Amaro, Jr. and you get a call from Yankees GM Brian Cashman. Here’s what Cashman says:

Continue reading Howard For A-Rod? Forget About It