MattFoley wrote:Fine. But it has to happen if the Phils are going to contend. There is no one else to fill that role.

And, for the guy laughing about a walk not being an out, a TEAM needs different things from different positions. If the best offensive quality from your slow footed, middle of the order first baseman is he walks a lot it's not much of a plus.

Shore wrote:

MattFoley wrote:Fine. But it has to happen if the Phils are going to contend. There is no one else to fill that role.

And, for the guy laughing about a walk not being an out, a TEAM needs different things from different positions. If the best offensive quality from your slow footed, middle of the order first baseman is he walks a lot it's not much of a plus.

1) Has there ever been a player who was 30-40% better than league average for the first 1200+ PA of his career, and stopped hitting at age 27, aside from an injury? I mean, it has to be an anomaly, right? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing you should worry about.

2) Jay Bruce probably could fill that role... he hit 26 homers in 310 AB, and aside from a disaster of a 2018 with the Mets, has been a consistent power source for a decade. As a bonus, he doesn't walk.

3) All baserunners are a plus. All of them. Hoskins isn't some historically bad baserunner.

MoBettle wrote:Pretty similar to Burrell's arc, actually. Pat obviously recovered, granted never quite matched his age 25 season again.

I think this team needs him to be better than Burrell though, unless some other guys step up.

BigEd76 wrote:Christian Bethancourt is a Phillies. Minor league deal + ST invite

JFLNYC wrote:It’s actually not unheard of for a hitter to have his best years (30-40% or more over league average) in his mid-20’s but then struggle to reach those levels thereafter. Off the top of my head I’d guess John Mayberry, Sr., Jeff Burroughs, Jim Ray Hart, Eric Chavez, Evan Longoria, Vernon Wells. I’m sure there are others.

BigEd76 wrote:The Phils put out a "Thank you Maikel" thing on all their socials

Shore wrote:

MattFoley wrote:In the discussion of how to improve one item that wouldn't cost money or prospects is Hoskins not being the worst middle of the order hitter in baseball for half of the season. I'm not talking MVP or even All Star production, but you can't have your first baseman be an automatic out unless he walks.

Sure, but there's no reason to think he will be. He had 2+ seasons of mashing the shit out of the ball, then a bad half. I think someone got in his head about pulling the ball too much, and it screwed him up.

His hard-hit % was consistent, even better, than his career number, and pretty consistent half to half (46.9% first, 45.3% 2nd). But he had a .931 OPS in the 1st half and .679 in the 2nd. The one glaring thing I see is that 1st half his pull / center / oppo splits were 54% / 31% / 15%, but in the 2nd half they were 39% / 36% / 25%. This is a guy who had a 1.345 OPS when he pulled the ball, and a .496 OPS going oppo. He pulled the ball around 50% of the time every month of his career, then in August it was 35% and Sep/Oct was 38%.

Whatever he was trying to do those last 2+ months, he just needs to stop.

ReadingPhilly wrote:i agree with everyone who has posited that the players will need to play well for the phillies to contend.

Monkeyboy wrote:

Shore wrote:

MattFoley wrote:In the discussion of how to improve one item that wouldn't cost money or prospects is Hoskins not being the worst middle of the order hitter in baseball for half of the season. I'm not talking MVP or even All Star production, but you can't have your first baseman be an automatic out unless he walks.

Sure, but there's no reason to think he will be. He had 2+ seasons of mashing the #$!&@ out of the ball, then a bad half. I think someone got in his head about pulling the ball too much, and it screwed him up.

His hard-hit % was consistent, even better, than his career number, and pretty consistent half to half (46.9% first, 45.3% 2nd). But he had a .931 OPS in the 1st half and .679 in the 2nd. The one glaring thing I see is that 1st half his pull / center / oppo splits were 54% / 31% / 15%, but in the 2nd half they were 39% / 36% / 25%. This is a guy who had a 1.345 OPS when he pulled the ball, and a .496 OPS going oppo. He pulled the ball around 50% of the time every month of his career, then in August it was 35% and Sep/Oct was 38%.

Whatever he was trying to do those last 2+ months, he just needs to stop.

Maybe they started pitching him differently? I didn't watch as many games as most of you but it sure seemed like they were pitching him differently.

Shore wrote:Oddly, Hoskins went opposite field nearly twice as oftenX and pulled far less in the 2nd half.

Monkeyboy wrote:dang, I was hoping dickerson would come back here.

MattFoley wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:dang, I was hoping dickerson would come back here.

Or to the American League. It seems his skill set fits better with the DH as a way to get him more at bats.