Phillies Nation

Aumont and teammates Gillies and Orr were named to Team Canada's 23-man roster.

Canada was among the first countries to submit their provisional 23-man World Baseball Classic rosters and it has a distinctly Phillies’ flavor. Reliever Phillippe Aumont will look to recreate the magic of his 2009 appearance on Team Canada and is joined by Phillies OF prospect Tyson Gillies and second baseman Pete Orr. Orr will compete for the starting second base job with Taylor Green while Gillies will see time in an outfield that also contain Blue Jay pitcher-turned-outfielder Adam Loewen and Mariner Michael Saunders.

Former Phillie Scott Mathieson was also selected for Team Canada, reuniting with former IronPig teammates Aumont and Orr.

A lot of the Phillies’ offseason discussion has boiled down to one question: how does Player X compare to Player Y, whom he is replacing? It is a valid and particularly useful tool when projecting wins and predicting improvement for a club. The Phillies have a particularly strong canon of historically popular players that most of the city’s fans rally around. This canon definitively includes, but is not limited to, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Richie Ashburn, and Robin Roberts and may soon make room for Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley.

There are a few articles out there about how teams fared once their golden geese proverbially went South. Most teams, like the Phillies and Schmidt, struggled to find even league-average play at times to replace their superstar, even as their superstar is declining. The Phillies mixed and matched Charlie Hayes and Steve Jeltz after Schmidt retired after 172 plate appearances into 1989 before stumbling upon Dave Hollins in that offseason’s Rule 5 draft to shore up the Hot Corner for a sizable chunk of the next five seasons.

What I have not seen a whole lot of are a lot of words written about who these superstars replaced. (Note: Being a baseball reading junkie, please correct me if I am wrong because I would love to read more). Yes, the Lou Gehrig for Wally Pipp change is well documented and Mickey Mantle famously took the reigns in center field at Yankee Stadium from Joe DiMaggio after sharing time there in 1951, but there is little else, particularly about our favorite red pin-striped ballplayers.
Continue reading Replaced by a Franchise Hero: Don Money

Polanco is headed to Miami. Photo: AP

Former Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco agreed to a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Marlins, reported by CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler. Polanco played in just 90 games last season while nursing various back injuries. Polanco hit career-lows .257/.302/.327 for the Phillies but still provided positive fielding value in the field. Polanco, 37, leaves Philadelphia after earning a Gold Glove and All-Star appearance with the club. He is entering his 17th Major League season.

Former Phillies infielder Brian Bocock signed a Minor League deal with the Washington Nationals according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America. Bocock last appeared in the Majors as a member of the Phillies in 2010, seeing time in six games primarily as a defensive replacement. Bocock spent last year with the Blue Jays’ Double-A New Hampshire club and their Triple-A Las Vegas affiliate.

Pitcher Andrew Carpenter has also found a new home according to Eddy. Carpenter is entering his age 28 season and has signed a Minor League deal with the Cubs. Carpenter has pitched in 65 games over parts of five Major League seasons with a 7.56 ERA. No word on what his former Cal-State Long Beach teammate John Bowker is up to these days.

Reliever Nelson Figueroa signed a Minor League deal with the Diamondbacks per Eddy. Figueroa spent 2012 with the Triple-A affiliates of the Red Sox and Yankees. Figueroa saw time with the Phillies in 2010, pitching in 26 games before being traded to the Astros.

Utility infielder Cody Ransom signed a Minor League deal with the San Diego Padres according to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman. Ransom hit .220/.312/.411 with 11 HRs for Arizona last season, playing all four infield positions. Ransom was a Phillie in 2010 and provided a pair of memorable home runs in 22 games for the club.

2012 Lehigh Valley IronPig Dave Bush has signed a Minor League deal with the Blue Jays, the team that drafted him in 2002, also reported by Eddy. Bush posted a 3.16 ERA in 11 starts last year for the ‘Pigs and also spent part of 2012 pitching in Korea.

Sometimes, I am amazingly impressed by the Phillies Nation community with their knowledge. The one-off-references and jabs provided on here and on Twitter are shining examples of how Philadelphia has among the most dedicated fans in baseball. An off-handed Don Money comment on Twitter resulted in several responses. Money was the starting third baseman for the Phillies in 1972 that Mike Schmidt ended up replacing despite the fact that Money was a pretty decent hitter and excellent defender. There will be more on that one in the future.

Anyhow, in wading through old Phillies data on FanGraphs, I stumbled upon something that nobody has seemed to point out, something so big, so important, that I am now disappointed as a Phillies fan. No Phillies fan, to my knowledge, has yet made the joke that Michael Young is not the same Mike Young that played with the Phillies. I could be wrong, after all, the internet is a pretty big place, but I am genuinely disappointed at the lack of recall of Mike Young #1.

Continue reading Know Thy Phillies History: Mike Young

Martinez was the Majors eleventh luckiest hitter in 2012 according to FanGraphs. Really. Photo: AP

Fangraphs posted an interesting article today combined with a pretty neat sortable spreadsheet regarding “luck”. The article, entitled “De-Lucker X: The Final 2012 Numbers“, took a look at how the Majors fared when comparing fielding independent wOBA and xBABIP (click on the links for some nice explanations). When comparing the two, the resulting number attempts to measure luck, positively or negatively. How did the Phillies fare?

Most Phillies Were Slightly Luckier Their Stats Indicate – But So Was the Entire MLB

Not adjusting for plate appearances, Michael Martinez, yes that Michael Martinez of .174/.208/.252 line, was the 11th luckiest hitter in the Majors in 2012. Ryan Howard was the 32nd luckiest hitter in baseball, which translated into a line of .219/.295/.423. Placido Polanco was 54th, John Mayberry was 63rd, Domonic Brown 105st, and Juan Pierre 121st. It is worth noting that over 73% of Major League hitters were “luckier” than their wOBA indicated, so it should not be a surprise that 80% of the Phillies who spent the entire year with the team were luckier than their stats indicated. Continue reading The 2012 Phillies and the De-Lucker X

MLB.com

Shortly after signing reliever Mike Adams the Phillies struck quickly on the free agent starting pitching market, inking former Washington National John Lannan to a one-year deal, according to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com.

Lannan, 28, will get $2.5 million guaranteed with performance bonuses that could push the total figure to $5 million, according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.

On Phillies Nation TV, Lannan made our list as one of the most hated rivals of the Phillies for all the times he plunked Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Now, he joins them on a cheap contract. Just a few days ago, Ruben Amaro said he wanted a low-risk, high-reward type of starting pitcher after losing Vance Worley to the Twins in the Ben Revere trade. This certainly constitutes as such a move.

Lannan is by no means a great pitcher, but has the ability to adequately fill out a rotation. Throughout his career, he’s had a penchant for walks and doesn’t strike many guys out. His 1.39 K/BB ratio is pretty bad, however, as our own Ryan Dinger pointed out on twitter, his ERA+ (103) is better than both Joe Blanton (96) and Kyle Kendrick (97). They’ll look for Lannan to be an innings eater as a fifth-starter.

(MLB.com)

Ben Revere or Asdrubal Cabrera? According to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Phillies were in talks to acquire Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to play third base. They offered the Indians Vance Worley and a prospect (seemingly Trevor May), but Cleveland asked for a little more and the Phillies backed out. From Hoynes:

Before the start of the winter meetings last week in Nashville, the two teams were talking about a trade that would have sent shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to Philadelphia for right-hander Vance Worley and prospects.

The Phillies were looking to improve their aging offense, but they didn’t want Cabrera to replace shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who is signed through 2014. They wanted the switch-hitting Cabrera to play third base.

Philadelphia offered Worley and two prospects. Worley made 23 starts last season, going 6-9 with a 4.20 ERA, before having right elbow surgery in September. He was 11-3 with a 3.01 in 2011 and reportedly will be ready for spring training. The Indians asked the Phillies to sweeten the deal, but they said no.

The question then is, who would you rather have seen become a Phillie; Revere or Cabrera? Cabrera’s has a pretty slick glove and a decent bat as well. Third base would have been taken care of, seemingly, for quite sometime. Ben Revere is very, very cheap and could be a Michael Bourn-type player in the future. Very interesting…

Could Young be a Phillie before the day is over?

When I hear the name Michael Young, it takes me back to summers in high school. There wasn’t a huge blogging community at the time and there wasn’t a whole lot even on official team websites – a lot of my information came from message boards, Beckett Baseball monthly to see who the newest prospects were (and their astronomical card values), and video games. MVP Baseball, at the time, was the first game to include Triple-A teams and more than 25 men per team. Each summer, as the All-Star teams were announced, I would pop in MVP into the Playstation and give some of the players I wasn’t able to see or see that often a test run. I had two favorites and they were both Texas Rangers: Hank Blalock and Young.

By the time those games came out, Young had established himself as a .300 hitter with some power and it showed in the game. I would override the computer to trade for him on my team, and in between jumping in the pool or playing Legion ball, Young was my secret weapon to get the Phillies their first World Series since 1980. Well, that and me also acquiring the exploding-on-to-the-scene Albert Puljos.

Eight years later, the rumors and reports suggest the Phillies and Rangers have begun talking about a deal that would send a “young, Major League reliever and a prospect” for Young and some cash. I have learned a lot in the last eight years. I have graduated from high school, college, and then got an advanced degree. I proposed, got married, and got a job. For most of those eight years, Michael Young was still a fine MLB player. However, that is not the case anymore.

Continue reading Trading For Young is a Bad Move

The Phillies entered the offseason with a clear need at a premium position and a number of players to choose from. These weren’t just stopgaps or part-time players, either, as the list of free agent centerfielders included Josh Hamilton, Michael Bourn, B.J. Upton, Angel Pagan and Shane Victorino.

Including conceivable trade targets like Denard Span, Peter Bourjos, Dexter Fowler and Chris Young (prior to the Oakland deal) the Phillies had plenty of options. Their decision was going to boil down to available resources and the way in which they decided to allocate them among other perceived needs like third base, the corner outfield spots, and the bullpen. Everything was connected.

Signing Upton to a lucrative deal would likely rule out the additional signing of a corner outfielder. Signing Hamilton would help in the interim but would cost a pretty penny for an aging player who won’t play up the middle in two years. He would also cost a first-round pick and effectively rule out spending any money at third base or the bullpen.

Acquiring a centerfielder via trade would mean parting ways with prospects. That isn’t a big deal, but if one of those prospects is a starting pitcher close to major-league ready, the Phillies wouldn’t have them should one of the Big Three get hurt, should Kyle Kendrick turn into a pumpkin, or should the league catch up with Vance Worley.

Everything is connected, but the latter point is perhaps the most interesting. Despite the aforementioned uncertainties surrounding the starting rotation, none of myself, Corey, Pat or Ian discussed any related moves in our offseason plans. No starting pitchers were even mentioned, because the rotation is still quite strong, and there were more pressing needs elsewhere. We weren’t advocating a complete disregard of the rotation, but rather hoping that the front office solved the outfield issues, first and foremost.

Now that several players are off of the board, the entire landscape of the Phillies’ offseason has changed, and it seems that they may have missed out on some good opportunities as a result. The offseason is far from over, and the Phillies can still make improvements in various areas, but it’s hard to spin what has happened so far in a positive way.

Continue reading The Interesting Phillies Offseason That Has Been

We all thought this was the last start at CBP for Cole Hamels.

Cole Hamels came into 2012 in a contract year, and many, many people expected this to be his last year in Philadelphia. To start the season, Charlie Manuel even elected to skip a day for Hamels so that he could pitch in the home opener.

With the contract undoubtedly on his mind, Hamels still started the year great. Aside from his poor performance in the home opener that I and the rest of the PN Crew witnessed, he had an ERA under 3 up until June 7. And then, in June and July, he posted an ERA of 4.21. This was also a time when the trade rumors–with Hamels’ name being thrown around everywhere–were swirling. It was pretty clear that he was more than a little distracted by it all.

On July 21, he took the mound in what a lot of people thought would be his final start at Citizens Bank Park in a Phillies uniform. He hit his first career home run, gave up a home run to opposing pitcher Matt Cain, and, in 2012 Phillies fashion, blew an 8th inning lead after giving up a home run to Melky Cabrera.

When he walked off the mound, he was greeted with a standing ovation from the largest crowd in Citizens Bank Park history. We all thought it could be the end of the Hamels era.

Then, two days later, Jayson Stark reported that the Phillies would push hard for a Hamels extension that week. Joel Sherman then reported that the Phils’ offer to Hamels was around six years for $140 million. Then it happened. On July 25, Hamels signed a six year, $144 million contract extension to stay in Philadelphia. Phillies fans everywhere rejoiced, and didn’t even care that in his next start he gave up five runs in five innings. He would be a Phillie for six more years, and that’s all that mattered.

From that point on, his ERA for the rest of the year was again under 3 (2.58 to be exact), which brought his 2012 ERA to 3.05. He pitched the most innings, had the highest strikeout rate, and lowest ERA among Phillies starters.

Grade: A+ … Even if Hamels didn’t pitch well in 2012, he would have gotten a positive grade. The fact that he signed the extension was enough to make 2012 a huge success for Hamels.