Phillies Nation

It’s time for another edition of our off-season league updates. Each week, we’ll take a tour around the globe for a look at Phillies talents participating in various autumn and winter action.

Arizona Fall League (all Phillies talent plays for Peoria)-

Catching prospect Tommy Joseph (pictured left) is batting .152 with a double and an RBI in 10 games. The 21-year-old participated in Saturday’s AFL Rising Stars Game, and went 1-for-2 in the contest.  Joseph was acquired by the Phillies in the Hunter Pence trade last July.

Third baseman Cody Asche also played in the Rising Stars Game, going 0-for-2.  The 22-year-old has posted a .271 average with seven doubles, a homer and seven RBI through 17 games in the AFL. The University of Nebraska product was the Phils’ 4th round draft pick last year.

Outfielder Zach Collier has tallied a .295 batting average with three doubles, two triples and seven RBI through 13 games. The lefty hitting Collier was a supplemental round draft choice in 2008 out of high school. Collier, who began the regular season serving a suspension for banned substances, posted a .269/.333/.399 line in 78 games with Class A Advanced Clearwater in 2012.

Kyle Simon, has a 2-2 record with a 9.00 ERA through five starts. The righty, who was acquired in the Jim Thome trade from Baltimore, posted a 1.36 ERA through 20 regular season appearances after joining the Phillies organization in 2012. Continue reading Weekly Off-season League Updates, 11/4/12

The Phillies have a few glaring holes heading into the 2013 season, the most important of which is centerfield. After trading Shane Victorino this summer, the team permanently installed John Mayberry up the middle, and the experiment didn’t work out. Mayberry proved that he was a platoon player in a corner outfield spot, not a regular centerfielder. Unfortunately, he was the closest thing to a longer-term solution on the Phillies roster.

Juan Pierre and Laynce Nix could have faked it, but the former was only signed for one season and the latter is a pinch-hitter. Neither saw any time in centerfield and for good reason. Tyson Gillies just completed his first season at Double-A and is at least a year away from seeing the big leagues. The Phillies currently lack a solution. Fortunately, this year’s free agent class and trade market are flush with competent centerfielders.

It isn’t often that a position as important as centerfield sees so much turnover — teams usually tend to lock these players up before they hit the market — but the Phillies enter the offseason with selectivity at their disposal. There are a number of players they could acquire, but Peter Bourjos of the Angels makes too much sense to not seriously pursue. He would provide the team with elite defense and baserunning, offensive potential, cost-certainty and team-control, all of which are extremely important for a team in the Phillies position.

Continue reading Phillies Should Trade For Peter Bourjos

Cabrera's team may wrap-up a championship tonight but he is not on the roster. Would he fit with the 2013 Phillies? Photo: AP

As his Giants look to wrap up a World Series sweep tonight without him, many within baseball are already speculating where Melky Cabrera will end up. Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that the Giants, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies are among the likely destinations for the much-maligned center fielder. The big questions are: how much, how long, and which Cabrera will the winning bidder get.

Sherman speculates that Cabrera may be out of the Mets’ price range and may not receive as much playing time that he needs to enhance his value with the Yankees, leaving the Giants, who Sherman says officials have privately conceded their interest, and the Phillies as teams who would be among the most likely suitors.

One of the most frustrating aspects of possibly signing Cabrera, aside from him abandoning the Giants and creating a fake website to tout his innocence, even at a much discounted rate of between $2-8 million per year as cited in the Sherman piece, is that Cabrera has had wildly inconsistent seasons. Cabrera, a career .284/.338/.414 hitter, hit .346/.390/.516 this year with the assistance of performance enhancing drugs but as recently as 2010 was an overweight, out-of-shape outfielder who was replaced down the stretch in Atlanta, hitting .255/.317/.354.

Continue reading Phils Linked To Melky Cabrera

Polly is likely on his way out. Would Chavez be a better fit? (AP)

The Phillies will decline Placido Polanco‘s $5.5 million option for 2013, buying him out for $1 million. The formal decision hasn’t come down the pipeline, but it’s essentially a foregone conclusion. This opens up a spot at third base that the Phillies will need to fill internally, via trade or through the free agent market. Internal options exist, and the team may well choose to mix-and-match utility players and defensive specialists until the de facto 2014 starter — Cody Asche — is ready.

Kevin Frandsen played very well in Polanco’s absence this season and likely enters the season as the positional frontrunner. Freddy Galvis is a superlative defender at a tougher position and should also see time at third base.  Ty Wigginton is, well, just a human being currently on the roster, and we’ll simply leave it at that.

While it’s sexier to discuss long-term solutions like Chase Headley or external stopgaps like Wilson Betemit or any of those Angels infielders, the Phillies can solve their third base dilemma by pairing their internal options with a talented and inexpensive free agent.

Eric Chavez cannot play everyday anymore, but he still hits righties. Formerly a gold glove defender, he remains passable at the position. The Yankees may make Alex Rodriguez available, and may offer to pick up most of the tab. In that case, he will surely be linked to the Phillies, a big-spending team with a clear need at third base. However, the Phillies are better off pursuing Chavez, A-Rod’s backup, as the righty meat in a platoon sandwich.

Continue reading Get A-Rod’s Backup Instead

Fans, off-season leagues are in full swing and each week we’ll take a tour to review the performances of your Phillies players that are in action all over the world.  Read ahead for the full rundown.

Venezuelan Winter League-

With the Lara Cardenales, outfielder Tyson Gillies, who has steadily concerned both the Phillies organization and its fans with his long list of injury troubles and his off-field issues, is currently sidelined with a right hamstring strain. In four contests, the British Columbia native who turns 24-year-old on Halloween, went 7-for-15 (.467 average) with a double and a triple while driving in two runs. Gillies knows his body well following a stream of hamstring and foot issues in recent years and proclaimed, via Twitter last week, that he would be okay. Right now, the lefty hitting prospect is day-to-day and is expected to return to action by mid-week.

As a member of the Zulia roster, shortstop Freddy Galvis posted a .405 average with two doubles, a triple and three homers and five RBI through nine games to begin the VWL season. A big league rookie in 2012, Galvis was suspended 50 games during the season after testing positive for banned substances. Continue reading Weekly Off-season League Review: 10/21/12

Charlie Manuel will return as the Phillies manager next season, but he will be without cohorts Greg Gross, Sam Perlozzo and Pete Mackanin, as all three were let go on Wednesday. Underperforming teams often shake up the coaching staff, even if there is no direct correlation between that and success achieved the following season.

Manuel’s contract expires after the 2013 season and all signs are pointing towards Hall-of-Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg taking over the following year. The removals of Gross, Perlozzo and Mackanin open the door for Sandberg, who managed the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs for the last two seasons, to coach third base for the Phillies.

It will be Sandberg’s first major foray into handling the major leagues from the other side and would serve as on-the-job training for his likely subsequent promotion the next year.

But is he really the right fit for this team, at that time?

Continue reading Is Sandberg Really the Answer?

The hot corner has been a hot topic for Phillies fans all season long. The organization lacks a major-league-ready prospect to take over, and hasn’t decided if they will try and fill the position internally, via trade, or through free agency.

Players like Kevin Frandsen aren’t exactly long-term solutions. Freddy Galvis broke his back earlier in the year and can’t hit: he remains a major question mark from standpoints both health- and performance-related. Placido Polanco has an affordable option for 2013 but proved once again that he can’t stay healthy and can’t hit much when health isn’t an issue. The Phillies could mix and match and eke out some production from these players next season, but it’s clear they are in need of a long-term solution.

Frandsen won’t sustain his current pace next season. Polanco’s hitting is unlikely to improve while his defense probably stands to worsen. Fontenot is gone, and players of that ilk can’t be counted on for much. All told, the pupu platter platoon the Phillies could utilize next season has a high probability of floundering. There may be another option.

Chase Utley approached Ruben Amaro on Wednesday to present an unconventional idea: potentially move Utley to third base next season if the keystone was easier to fill internally or externally. This type of creative problem-solving is exactly what the Phillies need. While it’s unclear if it would work, it is absolutely worth a shot as it could greatly benefit both sides.

Continue reading Utley Considering Third Base?

UPDATE, 6:13 am Friday: Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports that a source says the Phillies will make a “sizable offer” to Hamels to see if they can keep him around for now and the future.

Reports have mentioned previously that the Phillies know it will cost them upwards of $24 million per season, but the sticking point is in the guaranteed years. Hamels, and agent John Boggs, is seeking six or seven years while the Phillies seem to be in the four-to-five year range.

If anything, this is good news that the Phillies understand the importance of locking up their prized left arm. But at what point does it become too long a contract for a pitcher?

(update by Pat Gallen)

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Buster Olney filled in as host of Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio this morning and spoke at length about the Cole Hamels situation. Olney has written about Hamels frequently this year, as he is a homegrown ace on a team built around pitching who may prove too costly for the Phillies as a result of other expensive personnel decisions.

The Phils and Hamels may be closing in on an extension.

He has championed the idea of Hamels pitching for the Dodgers next year, as Magic Johnson and the new ownership group will look to make a splash.

However, according to Olney, the Phillies are in the process of making a big push on a lucrative extension that will keep Hamels in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future.

Olney believes that the Phillies are likely preparing a final extension offer to present to Hamels and agent John Boggs. Though Hamels has mentioned a desire to test free agency, he has made it clear that the Phillies are his first choice. He has stated in recent interviews that he would give the Phillies the last shot to sign him if he does reach free agency and receive other offers, and that the same would hold true even if he were traded this season.

If the Phillies and Hamels can’t reach an agreement in the next 72 hours, Olney believes that Amaro will pick up the phone and begin to pursue trade opportunities. We’ll know more about his future over the next few days. Tomorrow, we’ll take an in-depth look at what a long-term extension with Hamels would mean for the rest of the roster over the next few seasons.

So we’ve learned that Chase Utley probably won’t be ready for Opening Day, a reality many of us assumed but wanted badly not to hear this season.

In the last episode of Phillies Nation TV, Pat asked why Utley hadn’t yet seen an inning in the field or a plate appearance against live pitching. It was a valid question that offered more and more room for pessimism the longer you thought about it.

Sure, resting Utley was logical. But if he was going to be OK, why not give him an inning a week or a few at-bats just to catch him up to speed? Jimmy Rollins has dealt with plenty of injuries to his lower-half and he’s been out there regularly this Spring. It just didn’t bode well and on Monday, Phillies Nation (the collective, not the site), awoke to a nightmarish scenario that may turn out to be passable, but may usher in the end of the Chase Utley era in Philadelphia.

That’s the longer-term scenario we’re looking at here. Utley is 33 with a contract that expires after next season and knees that will never get better. The last part of that sentence has been stated both subtly and explicitly by Charlie Manuel and Ruben Amaro.

Utley is missing cartilage in his knee, and as Amaro put it Monday, “you just can’t grow back cartilage.” There is likely bone-on-bone friction in Utley’s knee(s), and all you have to do is imagine the feeling of moving laterally with bones rubbing each other to understand why such a cautious approach is necessary and why Utley is probably destined for DH-duty in his next deal.

This isn’t a curable condition, it’s one you attempt to manage, but the fact remains that nobody in the Phillies organization knows what is going to happen with Utley in 2012, much less 2013 and beyond. I can guarantee you that nobody in the front office is thinking about how to approach Utley’s next contract because no one knows what he’ll be 18 months from now.

It’s an incredibly sad situation. Utley was on a Hall-of-Fame pace through the end of 2009, when he was averaging a .301/.388/.535 slash-line with 32 homers and 43 doubles in full seasons while playing elite defense (top-1 or top-2 in the sport) at a premium position.

Utley was the player that separated the Phillies from other teams.

This was before Roy Halladay, and for half of 2009, before Cliff Lee. It was after Cole Hamels’ stellar postseason run but before he turned into a four-pitch demon. Utley was what was different about the Phillies. A patient hitter who could hit the ball anywhere, for power and average, reach balls to his left and right that 25 second basemen can’t glove and run the bases exceptionally.

Now, he’s a shell of that.

Continue reading The Utley Era Wasn’t Supposed to Go Like This

The Nix/Wigginton platoon might not struggle like Ryan Howard in early-May of 2011, but it won't flourish like Howard in mid-June.

I think we’re all getting a bit too comfortable with the idea of Ty Wigginton and Laynce Nix playing first base every day while Ryan Howard is out.

With Howard’s latest setback — which I’m glad we all realize now is a setback, even if the word “setback” isn’t used — the possibility exists that The Big Piece doesn’t return until late-June, early-July, perhaps even after the All-Star break. Just think about it… it’s an infection on an incision on his Achilles’. He’ll be in a walking boot for the next 10-or so days, and after that you’d imagine the rehab process either starts over or moves slower than it was in the opening days in Clearwater.

What it means is a whole lot more Wigginton and Nix than we originally anticipated.

Now, I for one have made it clear that I’m a believer in the first base platoon, that it’s a good idea to put two players in situations where they can succeed and refrain from playing them in scenarios where the degree of failure is high.

But what if Wigginton, who hasn’t truly had an above-average offensive season since the year the Phillies won the World Series, is just no longer effective at age 34? What if Nix, who had a .299 on-base percentage last season, doesn’t perform against right-handed pitching?

Continue reading What if the First Base Platoon Fails?