Werthless wrote:

ReadingPhilly wrote:the phillies lost in the nlds with the greatest pitching staff ever assembled.

What you mean to say is that anything can happen in the playoffs. We won the WS with Hamels plus a bunch of mediocre options. There is no single formula.

Philly the Kid wrote:I really enjoy the wonderful posts by the SABR experts of BSG - and the minor league experts - and general high level of discourse on perception versus reality.

What does it take though, to create a WS viable team?

It always seems like it comes down to pitching. To get through playoffs and all the way to November.

Maybe Kingery and Crawford are an amazing future - but aren't Cesar and Freddie competent? Freddie is often GG caliber according to many - and hits a few hrs. Cesar maybe is having an outlier season - but are these the guys that need to go?

If Altherr and Williams are for-real, and by that I mean .285-.290 OPS of .850+ most years with some power, and whether it's Joseph or Hoskins or whomever - what are the missing lynchpins.

I watched the Phils dominate 2009-2010-2011 and then I watched the SF Giants in my backyard locally win 3 times with Buster Posey the biggest bat? It was Lincecum, Cain, Baumgarner and a great pen - they got key hits from the Cody Ross's and Hunter Pence's.

I"m not saying that this configuration with Herrera, Franco, Cesar, and Freddy is quite right - but what if they did add a Trout or a Harper - and then had picked up a Sonny Gray or a Verlander or a couple of true aces and a couple of reliable consistent pen arms? Do we go from worst to first?

I'm all for all these prospects panning out - but is that reality? Alfaro, Crawford, Kingery, Moniak, and all the rest? How far away are we really? And if we had real quality top 3 SP and a lights out dedicated lefty in pen, and then a 7th-8th guy and 9th shut-down closer - couldn't we be the 10-12-14 Giants with just 1 mega-star bat?

How prolific were those teams offensively with Roles, Burrell, Abreu, THome, Rollins -- but they never had pitching. Are we going to have a farm that gives us the next 5 studs in the lineup?

I don't get to see many games because I'm so far away. But I see a lot of box score we just get no one on base. Overall, stats are not terrible in some cases, but the lack of walks I think is an issue. Anyway - if WIlliams and Altherr are legitimate - and Freddy Cesar Oduebl and Maikal are solid enough - then why not just get a Trout and some pitching ??

mozartpc27 wrote:

Philly the Kid wrote:I really enjoy the wonderful posts by the SABR experts of BSG - and the minor league experts - and general high level of discourse on perception versus reality.

What does it take though, to create a WS viable team?

It always seems like it comes down to pitching. To get through playoffs and all the way to November.

Maybe Kingery and Crawford are an amazing future - but aren't Cesar and Freddie competent? Freddie is often GG caliber according to many - and hits a few hrs. Cesar maybe is having an outlier season - but are these the guys that need to go?

If Altherr and Williams are for-real, and by that I mean .285-.290 OPS of .850+ most years with some power, and whether it's Joseph or Hoskins or whomever - what are the missing lynchpins.

I watched the Phils dominate 2009-2010-2011 and then I watched the SF Giants in my backyard locally win 3 times with Buster Posey the biggest bat? It was Lincecum, Cain, Baumgarner and a great pen - they got key hits from the Cody Ross's and Hunter Pence's.

I"m not saying that this configuration with Herrera, Franco, Cesar, and Freddy is quite right - but what if they did add a Trout or a Harper - and then had picked up a Sonny Gray or a Verlander or a couple of true aces and a couple of reliable consistent pen arms? Do we go from worst to first?

I'm all for all these prospects panning out - but is that reality? Alfaro, Crawford, Kingery, Moniak, and all the rest? How far away are we really? And if we had real quality top 3 SP and a lights out dedicated lefty in pen, and then a 7th-8th guy and 9th shut-down closer - couldn't we be the 10-12-14 Giants with just 1 mega-star bat?

How prolific were those teams offensively with Roles, Burrell, Abreu, THome, Rollins -- but they never had pitching. Are we going to have a farm that gives us the next 5 studs in the lineup?

I don't get to see many games because I'm so far away. But I see a lot of box score we just get no one on base. Overall, stats are not terrible in some cases, but the lack of walks I think is an issue. Anyway - if WIlliams and Altherr are legitimate - and Freddy Cesar Oduebl and Maikal are solid enough - then why not just get a Trout and some pitching ??

I was thinking about this the other day - sort of - at least on this point: I was thinking that the one constant across World Series winners in the last decade or so is an elite bullpen, with maybe excepting the 2014 Giants, who substituted one superhuman performance from one guy for the elite bullpen.

And the way postseason games are getting managed now, with starters getting pulled almost the instant the team has a lead in favor of short relievers who bring a different look each half inning with high velocity, etc., I am wondering if switch hitting will really start to be something teams put a premium on. Some effort to at least neutralize the idea of using the bullpen to go almost batter by batter in matchups in the postseason. If you have an elite bullpen, this plus the exponentially increased use of shifts really does seem to dominate play.

Daniel Nava is eligible to be activated from the disabled list Wednesday, and all signs point to that happening. “It’s feeling good,” Nava said of his strained left hamstring. Nava, 34, is a good bet to find a new home in August through a waiver trade.

“I’m happy that some of my teammates in triple A have earned the opportunity to be here as well,” Ramos said through a team translator. “But what I really want to do here is gain the confidence of the manager back and do my job.”

“The No. 1 thing was to change my attitude,” Ramos said. “The last week I was here in the big leagues, I didn’t have a good attitude. Things weren’t working for me. My attitude wasn’t helping.”

“I feel really good. I gained a lot of confidence. What I wanted to do in triple A was work hard and get my confidence back. I feel like I did it.”

Roman Quinn remains sidelined with a ligament injury to his left (non-throwing) arm. He has not played since May 28 and there is no timetable for his return to minor-league action. Quinn has good days and bad days in his recovery, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said. “We’re running out of time,” Klentak said. “There’s about a month left in the minor-league season. That is the hope; we’d love to get him on the field by the end of the season.”

pacino wrote:

Roman Quinn remains sidelined with a ligament injury to his left (non-throwing) arm. He has not played since May 28 and there is no timetable for his return to minor-league action. Quinn has good days and bad days in his recovery, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said. “We’re running out of time,” Klentak said. “There’s about a month left in the minor-league season. That is the hope; we’d love to get him on the field by the end of the season.”

laf837 wrote:I've really liked the way Nola has bounced back so in a good rotation I see him as a ok 2 and a great 3. i like Pivetta the best of the rest but they are all 4-5 back-end rotation starters. VV is too inconsistent to be a reliable starter but I think he could be a pretty electric late-inning reliever.
They need at least two top of the rotation starters to be contenders in the near future. Maybe Sixto can be one but I think they are outside the org.

Warszawa wrote:

laf837 wrote:I've really liked the way Nola has bounced back so in a good rotation I see him as a ok 2 and a great 3. i like Pivetta the best of the rest but they are all 4-5 back-end rotation starters. VV is too inconsistent to be a reliable starter but I think he could be a pretty electric late-inning reliever.
They need at least two top of the rotation starters to be contenders in the near future. Maybe Sixto can be one but I think they are outside the org.

If Nola is healthy he is at least a solid #2 if not a borderline #1. From what I've seen of Pivetta I think he could be a solid #3 eventually. I'm not sure VV will stay healthy so I wouldn't count on him