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22 Comments for this entry

• Jim
  October 10th, 2012 on 10:27 am

  I thought Mayberry was bad in CF until I saw Nix’s number.. holy moly. The Phils have nobody on their roster that should be anywhere near center field. And the numbers show that Wiggy shouldn’t be anywhere near a baseball diamond, period. Yikes.

  Outside of that, it’s hard to glean much value. Rollins is officially an average defensive SS. Galvis is much better than that, but for the moment he’d be better in the kind of lineup where you both have a designated hitter and let the pitcher hit.

  It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what the Phils come up with this winter. Primarily I think they need to decide what kind of team they are. The ’08 team was an offense powerhouse, but outside of Hamels and Lidge they couldn’t pitch. If they want to seriously build around pitching, they need to value defense higher than offense. Which might mean putting Galvis out there somewhere, much to the chagrin of some regular readers & authors here. Guys like Wiggy can’t be anywhere near this team.
• egrissom
  October 10th, 2012 on 10:51 am

  I agree that Mayberry and Nix can’t be in center field. I think there’s little chance the Phillies are really considering Nix as an option in center. I think they might think that Mayberry can be. He can’t.

  Martinez’s defensive numbers in the outfield were unbelievably fantastic in 2012 in very limited time. They were really bad in about the same number of innings in 2011. So I think we might conclude there are so few innings they should be ignored.

  Wigginton had the worst year of his career in 2012. He was clearly terrible, but I think there’s still a chance he will be non-terrible for someone before he’s done.
• DaMannse
  October 10th, 2012 on 3:58 pm

  Pretty sobering numbers. Main message seems to be that this team needs some serious help. What kind and for how much will be the interesting part of our winter, I guess.

  That we need help is likely no surprise to anyone.

  I was thinking that Howard’s numbers were an anomaly because of his ankle, but then you lifted up his numbers for the two previous years. It’s hard to think that he will be the guy he’s being paid to be given the arc of the last three years.
• egrissom
  October 10th, 2012 on 4:20 pm

  Howard has pretty much always been bad at defense, at least since the end of 2005. It’s pretty tough for me to imagine he’s going to start improving dramatically at age 33.

  Clearly his offense took a huge tumble last year as he put up an OPS+ under 120 for the first time at 91. Hopefully the bat comes back next year, but I don’t think the defense has anything to come back to.
• DaMannse
  October 10th, 2012 on 6:17 pm

  Don’t we have a kid at third in the minors? Is he as good a choice as anyone available at the major league level?
• egrissom
  October 11th, 2012 on 9:12 am

  I don’t think the Phillies have any 3B prospects we should be excited about helping the team in the next two years. Maikel Franco might be great someday, but he’s just 20 and hit 280/336/439 at Lakewood in 2012. Some people are hopeful about Mitch Walding, but he’s also just turned 20 and hit 233/326/308 in the New York-Penn League in 2012.

  I think the young position players in the organization right now that are going to impact the 2013 Phillies are Brown, Galvis and Ruf. I think there’s a chance all three of them could get a lot of chances next year.
• Jim
  October 11th, 2012 on 11:45 am

  I wouldn’t quite leave Gillies off that list. I bet he gets at least a few cups of coffee himself next year.
• egrissom
  October 11th, 2012 on 11:53 am

  I definitely don’t know, but I will be surprised if Gillies gets more than 100 plate appearances with the Phils in 2013. Part of it for me is that the Phillies almost definitely have to bring in someone who can play center field. It seems like that person is going to get almost all of the time there.

  Let’s hope so at least.

  He also hasn’t appeared above Double-A yet. Hopefully even if I’m wrong and he does show up with the Phils in 2013, it’s not till near the end of the year.
• Jim
  October 11th, 2012 on 12:07 pm

  Huh. I thought he actually made it to AAA last year.

  Anyway the situation where I see him being used is where [Center Fielder to be named later] gets hurt. I’m sure he starts the year at AAA, but if we assume with have an outfield that goes (LF: [New Guy], CF: [New Guy], RF: Brown, Bench: Schierholz, Mayberry) then we have a strong case for not using anyone on the bench in CF for more than a day or so at time. If we trade/cut Mayberry and put Ruf on the bench, that makes the situation even worse for CF depth.
• egrissom
  October 11th, 2012 on 12:19 pm

  I think Mayberry starts the year on the team in ’13. Let’s hope it’s as part of platoon in left or right and not as the starting CF.

  I don’t know what the Phillies do in CF if they don’t add one. I don’t think it’s pretty, whatever it is.

  Gillies was at Lakewood and Clearwater both last year (both briefly). Spent most of the year at Reading, where he hit an impressive 304/369/453. I’m having trouble believing he’s an organizational favorite at this point, though.
• DaMannse
  October 11th, 2012 on 1:38 pm

  A passing thought: would we have been any wore of we’d kept Ibanez? For less money.
• Jim
  October 11th, 2012 on 1:41 pm

  He also can’t play center field.

  Given that he had one good half out of 3 years, I didn’t have any problem letting him go. Must be something in water in New York.
• egrissom
  October 11th, 2012 on 2:09 pm

  Kind of a tough day to complain about Ibanez given what he did last night. But I think the Phillies did the right thing getting rid of Ibanez when they did.
• Jim
  October 11th, 2012 on 3:17 pm

  I must say I starting getting physically ill listening to NY sports talk sing Raul’s praises this morning…
• egrissom
  October 11th, 2012 on 3:32 pm

  He did have a remarkable game, what with homering in the bottom of the ninth to send it to extra-innings and then doing it again in the 12th to win it.

  The homer to win it off of the lefty Matusz was kinda surprising given that he didn’t hit a homer off of a left-handed pitcher during the regular season.

  Kinda reminded me of when he almost hit one out against Carpenter in game five against the Cards in 2011. Just missed in the fourth as Berkman took it at the wall and the Phillies went on to lost 1-0.

  http://www.philliesflow.com/2011/10/11/post-season-exposes-the-achilles-heel-of-the-phillies-turns-out-its-the-post-season/

  He was a lot better with the bat for the Yanks this year than he was for the Phils in 2011, too.
• Greg
  October 11th, 2012 on 4:24 pm

  The 3B in the high minors that DeMannse may have been thinking of is Cody Asche. He tore it up average-wise last year between Clearwater and Reading and seems to have “it,” whatever that means. His numbers compare favorable to Utley’s at the same age/level which is getting some people excited. The thing I like to point out is that Utley’s jump in value from the minors to the majors is fairly unique. I’m hoping for the best with Asche, but the best we can hope for is a slightly above average 3B in 2014. Maybe in the middle of 2013. But if he starts the year in CBP, this team is in trouble.

  He’s playing in the Arizona Fall League, which started on Tuesday, if anybody wants to follow him.

  Maikel Franco is the one to be excited about. He really could be a star. He wasn’t allowed to “pull” the ball at the beginning of the season and was instructed to swing opposite field all the time. His stats reflected it (just another reason why minor league stats aren’t always reliable). At the All-Star break, they allowed him to use the whole field and from that point forward he hit .346/.395/.540 in one of the most pitcher friendly parks in a pitcher friendly league. Best case has him in Philly in 2015 though.

  I can also see Gillies making his way to the team at some point next year, but hopefully not at the start. He has the talent to be special if he can stay healthy and get his head on straight. I think he is more likely to be included as part of a trade this off-season just because the front office seems to be have soured on him and he is currently on the 40-man.
• DaMannse
  October 11th, 2012 on 6:08 pm

  Yup, Greg, I meant Asche. Just couldn’t remember his name. Kinda sorry for your report on him, ’cause I was hoping that maybe he was good and close enough to ready that he would be better than Galvis and Martinez (neither one of whom I expect to hit as well as we seriously need).

  BTW, don’t disappear again if you can help it, ok? Your stuff on prospects is really helpful.
• DaMannse
  October 11th, 2012 on 6:13 pm

  BTW, I know Raul is on the downside but you know, watching him against the Os brought back memories of Phillies who actually came through at the plate. In the clutch. When the game was on the line.

  Kinda miss that. He made me wistful. And reminded me why we screamed his name when he did his magic.
• DaMannse
  October 11th, 2012 on 7:14 pm

  Ibanez one night. Werth the next. And do we wonder why we are watching on TV?

  Thanks, Ruben.
• egrissom
  October 12th, 2012 on 3:05 pm

  Don’t forget Gio Gonzalez starting tonight. Cutting Ibanez and Werth loose when they got old and expensive made sense. Gavin Floyd and Gonzalez for Freddy Garcia was a disaster.
• DaMannse
  October 12th, 2012 on 5:41 pm

  Yeah. Awful trade even then.

  I just get misty looking back on a lineup that just used to rip games out of the clutches of the opposing team with their bats
• DaMannse
  October 14th, 2012 on 12:54 pm

  RAUL. RAUL. RAUL. AGAIN.

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