It’s November in Philadelphia. That means it’s a low time for baseball talk, and hey, every other team is battling hard for a postseason berth. So no need to talk Phillies!
(Looks at Sixers.)
Well, we kind of knew that would be terrible.
(Looks at Flyers.)
Oh, more of this crap, huh?
(Looks at Eagles)
Oh come on!
Alright, time to talk Phillies! They’re still here, the lovable boys of summer who didn’t lose 100 games last year. They did, however, fire a general manager, bring in a new general manager, retain a halfway decent skipper and begin an earnest rebuilding campaign centered on athletic and versatile talent and pitching depth.
Arguably – to completely destroy a famous Princess Leia quote – the Phillies are our greatest hope.
Seriously, there is plenty to be excited about for 2016. At the very least – most likely – we’ll see the continued development of Aaron Nola, Maikel Franco, Aaron Altherr, Odubel Herrera and Jerad Eickhoff. We’ll possibly see J.P. Crawford’s debut, as well as the potential debuts of Nick Williams, Jake Thompson, Zach Eflin and Roman Quinn. There may be more to come, too.
For the next two weeks – until baseball’s winter meetings (Dec. 7-10 in Nashville, Tenn.) – I’ll highlight some of the more important pieces of the 2016 puzzle, including what General Manager Matt Klentak may be looking to do with the roster.
We’ll start tomorrow with a look at Franco (currently getting some reps in the Dominican Winter League) and an outlook at third base and first base. Over the weekend we’ll look at pitching, and next week we’ll dive into catcher, middle infield and outfield, before adding thoughts on the roster building strategy.
And then we can get back to regularly scheduled programming, like the Sixers … no … maybe the Flyers … nah … well the Eagles … forget it.
We’ll talk more Phillies!
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