Agreed.

Uncle Milty wrote:

Bucky wrote:

Uncle Milty wrote:

Ramon Gris wrote:Turned into a perfectly mediocre ballclub once the whole bullpen and McCutchen got hurt. Probably should've been good this year.

McCutchen's production was reasonably replaced by increased playing time for Kingery and the addition of Bruce DIckerson.

but if cutch wasn't hurt jetpax productions could've slotted in at the black hole we have at 3rd base

Objection! Calls for speculation.

The leadoff spot didn't have to suffer as it did. We have an experienced leadoff hitter on the roster but he received limited opportunity.

hard to fathom why they didn’t elect to put a guy having the worst offensive season of his career in the leadoff spot so that he could get more ABs

Just spitballing' here: Maybe because he has a lifetime .361 OBP in the leadoff spot, higher than anyone on the team not named McCutchen, Harper or Hoskins? Maybe because a guy with a career BB Rate of 10+% suddenly and inexplicably drops to 6.5% this year when put into a spot in the middle to bottom of the lineup? Maybe because being moved out of the leadoff spot is what caused his BB rate to decline when his average and SLG have actually both improved from last year?

mcare89 wrote:

Uncle Milty wrote:

Bucky wrote:

Uncle Milty wrote:

Ramon Gris wrote:Turned into a perfectly mediocre ballclub once the whole bullpen and McCutchen got hurt. Probably should've been good this year.

McCutchen's production was reasonably replaced by increased playing time for Kingery and the addition of Bruce DIckerson.

but if cutch wasn't hurt jetpax productions could've slotted in at the black hole we have at 3rd base

Objection! Calls for speculation.

The leadoff spot didn't have to suffer as it did. We have an experienced leadoff hitter on the roster but he received limited opportunity.

hard to fathom why they didn’t elect to put a guy having the worst offensive season of his career in the leadoff spot so that he could get more ABs

I know, right?

Considering at the time of Cutch's injury he was near his career high in OPS, he's enjoyed the most career success in the role, his offensive profile is well suited for it, he just lost the job in spring training and the team had a need. Handing him the leadoff position for an extended period kind of seems like a no-brainer to me.

Cesar's splits this year by batting order this year...
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... #all_lineu

it looks like he'd have like a .760 OPS if he never batted leadoff this year.

also career splits:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... #all_leado

.320 OBP with a .654 OPS in his career when leading off a game
.335 OBP with a .705 OPS when leading off an inning

compared to .352 OBP .730 OPS overall

.774 OPS with men on base
.707 OPS with bases empty

It seems more like they should avoid having him lead off as much as possible

Maybe, but the original point was not where in the lineup Cesar performs best. Rather the point was, once Cutch went down, did the team have a better alternative than Cesar as a leadoff hitter.

philliesphhan wrote:

MoBettle wrote:I’m sure some of Bryce’s success with runners on is luck but (I believe) he gets noticeably more fastballs in the zone in those situations. Teams throw him junk when no one is on base and he chases it.

I'd say it's much more the fact that they can't shift or can't shift the way they'd like to

Feel like there’s signs it’s not just that. .300 difference in slugging, higher home run rate and lower strikeout rate with runners on.

JFLNYC wrote:Maybe, but the original point was not where in the lineup Cesar performs best. Rather the point was, once Cutch went down, did the team have a better alternative than Cesar as a leadoff hitter.

He's literally who they tried there first though. He didn't do well, or maybe he asked to bat somewhere else. They tried several times later, too.

Sporadically. Anyway, no one seems to have come up with a better alternative.

Even though his numbers aren’t as good as his career numbers, leading off a game or inning. Other than the 7th spot, the 1st spot in the order is where he’s had the most success. He’s had an above average .361 obp there with better hitters behind him allowing that obp to show up in the actual score more often. I didn’t do the math, but I’m guessing he leads off an inning probably 1.3 times a game and how many other plate appearances does he get throughout the game?

I hope Charlie gets a chance to work with Maikel Franco some more before we discard him.

Real Ken a pretty sobering, long analysis of how maybe our leadership just DGAF...Athletic $

Perhaps the Phillies will come to view 2019 as an unlucky season, a transition season, a springboard to future success. Or perhaps the team had a better opportunity than club officials understood, given the likelihood that the division will remain quite competitive in the coming years.

pretty meh article i thought.

Yeah, just finished it. The headline made it seem like there was something more to it, but it was just some #analysis that essentially recapped all of the offseason moves and the lack of big moves at the deadline. Then says maybe it would have been better to do stuff differently, or maybe not because all the reliefers got hurt so maybe it wouldn't have mattered.

I thought the fact he took the time to turn over every transactional rock of the Klentak era was the sobering part. Along with the non-moves and half-measures of 2019 of course, compared to the Braves who did better in both areas. So our front office may have lost ground even without screwing anything up too badly.

Rockinghorse wrote:I thought the fact he took the time to turn over every transactional rock of the Klentak era was the sobering part. Along with the non-moves and half-measures of 2019 of course, compared to the Braves who did better in both areas. So our front office may have lost ground even without screwing anything up too badly.

The Braves had a better team coming into the off season, much better farm system, it is hard to make up that gap in one season.

what will the final record be?

Ramon Gris wrote:I hope Charlie gets a chance to work with Maikel Franco some more before we discard him.

Nine Lives Franco

BatFlipsFTW wrote:

Ramon Gris wrote:I hope Charlie gets a chance to work with Maikel Franco some more before we discard him.

Nine Lives Franco

More like build up his trade value, to make room for Bohm

bleh wrote:Cesar's splits this year by batting order this year...
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... #all_lineu

it looks like he'd have like a .760 OPS if he never batted leadoff this year.

also career splits:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... #all_leado

.320 OBP with a .654 OPS in his career when leading off a game
.335 OBP with a .705 OPS when leading off an inning

compared to .352 OBP .730 OPS overall

.774 OPS with men on base
.707 OPS with bases empty

It seems more like they should avoid having him lead off as much as possible

Good research.

Seems to me the OPS difference with men on/bases empty is nearly every player and team.

I don't remember if it was a Pete or Ryne thing but I remember some making a point about Cesar taking extra pitches (especially leading off a game) to help his teammates see the pitcher's "stuff". Running deep counts and hitting with 2 strikes could affect those splits.