Phillies Nation

Schierhotlz will not return to the Phillies in 2013.

According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, the Phillies have non-tendered outfielder Nate Schierholtz and let him become a free agent. Schierholtz hit .273/.319/.379 in just 73 plate appearances last year after being acquired in the Hunter Pence trade. Schierholtz, 28, is a career .270/.319/.409 hitter with a plus arm in right field and has been worth about a Win Above Replacement level per year according to FanGraphs. Schierholtz made $1.3 million last year and likely would have seen a raise had the Phillies tendered an offer.

The move leaves the Phillies with 37 players on their 40 man roster which includes four outfielders who have played in the Majors (Domonic Brown, John Mayberry Jr., Laynce Nix, and Darin Ruf) and two that have not (Zach Collier and Tyson Gillies).

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.

I love the Phillies because they are so down to earth and just very warm-hearted guys and I think Charlie Manuel is a great coach. I dont really hear anything negative about the players and when I went to the Ryan Howard Celebrities Servers event, all the players that were there treated me and my family so nice. Ryan Howard even let my son say a few words at his event, which I thought was really cool and John Mayberry gave me a hug like we were family. Also, Hunter Pence, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley were so nice to my son that he still talks about his experience with meeting them all.

The Phillies are just genuinely nice guys and they contribute a lot to the community and that’s what I love about the Philles.

- Vanessa

Read more “Why I Love the Phillies” stories from Phillies Nation readers here.

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.

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

Rosters for the Arizona Fall League’s All-Star type showcase were announced on Wednesday with two Phillies prospects among the talents involved.  Third baseman Cody Asche (pictured) and catcher Tommy Joseph will represent their Javelinas club in the seventh annual Rising Stars Game, which will be televised on MLB Network this coming Saturday, November 3rd at 8 PM eastern time.

Asche, the Phillies’ 4th round draft selection in 2011, was a fast mover upward in the developmental ranks this year. After beginning his first full pro season with Class A Advanced Clearwater, Asche was promoted to Double-A Reading in June.

Altogether in 130 regular season games at the two levels, Asche, who recently offered his thoughts on his time in the AFL, launched 12 home runs with 72 RBI and an .849 OPS.  In 15 games with Peoria in the AFL, Asche, a University of Nebraska product, has tallied a .259 average with one home run and seven RBI.

Joseph, who was acquired from San Francisco in the Hunter Pence trade this past summer, has struggled a bit in AFL play, batting .172 with no home runs and one RBI in nine games played. Continue reading Minor League Notebook: AFL Rising Stars, R-Phils’ Rebranding & More

Josh Lindblom has limited righties to a .191 batting average in two seasons.

The Phillies’ bullpen was a disaster in 2012, placing 21st in ERA (3.94) and 29th in eighth-inning ERA (4.89). The ‘pen blew 19 saves — 11 more than their 2011 total. And it lost 27 games after losing just 18 in 2011.

So it made sense that when the Phillies were set to unload Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence at the trade deadline, they would look for at least one young reliever who could come in to help a beleaguered unit. Victorino was dealt to the Dodgers for 25-year-old right-hander Josh Lindblom and 23-year-old starting pitching prospect Ethan Martin.

While Martin flourished at Reading, going 5-0 with a 3.18 ERA in seven starts, Lindblom didn’t have much success in a Phillies uniform. He had a 4.63 ERA for the Phillies, and while he struck out 27 batters in 23.1 innings, he also walked 17.

Lindblom has heat — his fastball ranges from 92-96 mph, but he has trouble keeping the ball in the park. He allowed 13 home runs in 71 innings this season, nine of which came on the first or second pitch of an at-bat. It’s a trend that makes you nervous going forward at Citizens Bank Park.

The 6-foot-4 Lindblom does have potential, though, and he’ll be cheap for a few more years since he has less than two years of major-league service time.

The Phils should use him as a righty specialist in 2013. Right-handed hitters are batting .191 with a .576 OPS off Lindblom in a career sample of 248 plate appearances. Lefties, though, are hitting .282/.396/.500.

Lindblom can still be a quality bullpen piece for the next two or three years if the home run trend changes, but he should not be the eighth-inning answer in 2013, whether it’s just him or a combination of he, Antonio Bastardo and possibly Phillippe Aumont. Lindblom’s propensity to hit the sweet spot of the bat and the control problems of Bastardo and Aumont would set the Phils up for another season of late meltdowns.

If the Phillies sign a veteran reliever with a track record of setup success — a Mike Adams, Ryan Madson or Brandon League — Lindblom can move into the complementary role he is better suited for at this point.

John Mayberry received more playing time this year, playing in 149 games with Domonic Brown in the minors, the mid-season trades of Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard‘s injury. His overall production was below average. He hit for power but didn’t reach base all that much and struck out 23% of the time.

His defense was solid at first base and in the corner outfield spots, but his athleticism didn’t translate into solid routes or range in center. All told, he tallied just 0.4 WAR this year, down from the very impressive 2.5 WAR he produced in 2011.

His 2012 campaign can be viewed one of two ways: it was an overall failure or it was an experiment that cemented the notion that he is only useful as a platoon player. The two are mutually exclusive, because buying into the latter means that this season was useful in determining his future role, which prevents it from being a total outright failure.

Maybe I’m a glass half-full kind of guy, but I choose to evaluate his production the second way. This was a largely disappointing season, but his lack of production against righties means the Phillies can use him strictly against the lefties he crushes moving forward. They don’t need to waste any more time giving him work against righties and can instead eke out more outfield production through the use of platoons. All along, we said that the one benefit to this waste of a Phillies season was that the team would get to try different players in various spots and really see what it had.

While that comment was primarily directed towards the bullpen, it was also true of Mayberry. Over the last two seasons, he embodied the common expression “He’s great as an extra man but if he’s a starter you’re not a very good team.” That expression comes in many shapes and forms, but it describes Mayberry and the Phillies. As a part-time platoon player that isn’t yet arbitration-eligible, he is a perfect fit for this Phillies roster. As an everyday starter, not so much, and the 2012 season helped prove that point.

Continue reading Phillies Player Review: John Mayberry

Kung Fu Panda became a legend. (Mercurynews.com)

This morning, a twitter follower of mine sent me a seemingly innocuous tweet: “why can’t the Phillies be like the Giants?” Seems like a simple question, right?

Three things get a team through the postseason: luck, timely hitting/pitching, and getting hot at the right time. Seems like a simple equation for winning, right?

The San Francisco Giants are putting all three of those important ingredients into the stew at the same time and getting great results. As we’ve come to find out, it’s not always the most talented team that wins, but the team that can best figure out how to get a couple of large hits and big innings from pitchers, stay rolling, and get some luck to go your way.

Continue reading Jealous of the Giants?

The outfield situation was messy in 2012. (AP)

The two outfielders spent the first half of the season with the Phillies, then both were sent packing to the west coast in separate pre-deadline deals. For that, we put Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence together as they were key cogs in an underachieving first half; not only personally, but for the entire team.

After a solid 2011 season, Victorino seemed primed for a big contract following the 2012 season as he hit free agency. The issue was that he let the contract talk follow him wherever he went. Victorino, as we’ve come to learn, moves and talks a mile a minute. There’s a lot going on in his head already, and the thoughts of millions of dollars were too much to overcome – he said so himself.

As for Pence, no one really knows what’s happening there. So much kinetic energy was not always a good thing with Pence. When he came here from Houston, it was his all-out hustle that was so endearing to the fans. That quickly got old as the dude struggled big time with runners in scoring position during the first half of the year and couldn’t slow himself down at the plate no matter the circumstance.

Continue reading Phillies Player Review: Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence