Isn't he on record as saying he wants to spend the rest of his career here?

yes, but will we have him back? he still needs to be good

Even if he struggles I could see him back on a smaller deal and the Phils replacing Lannan with a Lohse type. Or, if a young pitcher ascends, shifting that money to hitting

current ideal phillies lineup, based on meaningless spring training stats:

ave/obp/slg name handedness
200/385/300 rollins s (better walk rate and obp gets nod over faster revere)
273/333/500 mayberry r ; platoon with 500/500/1167 mitchell (nix nix!!)
400/538/500 utley l (baserunning smarts has him here instead of brown)
364/391/727 fransden r
417/444/917 howard l
333/400/583 ruiz r; rest/suspension backup 375/375/875 joseph (chooch gets the nod because the pitchers love him; let joseph learn directly from chooch/halladay)
350/519/850 brown l ; (keep pressure low, let his speed/power keep bases clear for revere)
304/333/348 revere l (exactly the guy you want on base for the pitcher to bunt over)

m.young (211/286/421) gives howard, utley, and fransden one day off per week and is the first rh bat off the bench. let asche perfect his defense in aaa.
galvis (286/286/524) is the backup for rollins/utley/fransden, gives rollins a weekly day off, and defensive sub for young as often as possible.
inciarte (500/700/500) is the defensive sub for brown and pinchrunner.

lol if you think young is going to be a bench player

And Fransden hitting cleanup

JFLNYC wrote:The thing that jumped out at me was how poorly Papelbon did vs. the middle of the order.

I fucking hate Papelbon. Miserable to watch, what with the taking forever to throw a pitch and the straight fastballs etc.

i did some thinking about the phillies this weekend, as i havent thought a lot about baseball in the last few months. i expect that we're going to finish 3rd in the division, and that we're going to have another disappointing year. at this time last season, i thought we were going to win 95 games and head right back to the playoffs. it was a season of massive disappointment in every way. this year, for the first time in 6 or so years, i have no expectations for this team. we have a ton of question marks and need a lot to go right. if it does, it will be a very rewarding season. if it doesnt, then i wasn't massively let down. i think this will be beneficial for my general health as well.

im still on the fence about buying the extra innings package this year. i found an awesome free streaming site and can probably get every game there with minimal issues.

FTN wrote:lol if you think young is going to be a bench player

you did see my "meaningless spring stats" line, right? that was supposed to be a hint that the lineup was a joke.
fransden near the top of the order was the part that entertained me the most while writing the list.

young may not be on the bench, but the dl is a distinct possibility. in that case some combo of asche/fransden/galvis could actually be an improvement over what i was expecting from 3b this year. fransden's numbers in the minors up through age 25 look pretty darn good.
i see him ranked in the top 5 or 6 in the giants organization around that time. reports of overthetop baseball iq. struggled in his 1st big league experience, then ruptured an achillies and lost a ton of time. worked his way back then got a ped suspension, perhaps related to drugs he used while rehabbing. got to spend last summer with sandberg, who thought highly of him. so is at least plausible that he isn´t a total fluke. 2b is his natural position, so he may get enough time giving utley rest that he impresses again. defense at 3b may well suck, but not likely to be worse than young, so if the bat keeps looking good and young goes down, they could well start him instead of galvis at 3rd, with the latter serving as late inning defensive caddy.

phorever wrote:

FTN wrote:lol if you think young is going to be a bench player

you did see my "meaningless spring stats" line, right? that was supposed to be a hint that the lineup was a joke.
fransden near the top of the order was the part that entertained me the most while writing the list.

young may not be on the bench, but the dl is a distinct possibility. in that case some combo of asche/fransden/galvis could actually be an improvement over what i was expecting from 3b this year. fransden's numbers in the minors up through age 25 look pretty darn good.
i see him ranked in the top 5 or 6 in the giants organization around that time. reports of overthetop baseball iq. struggled in his 1st big league experience, then ruptured an achillies and lost a ton of time. worked his way back then got a ped suspension, perhaps related to drugs he used while rehabbing. got to spend last summer with sandberg, who thought highly of him. so is at least plausible that he isn´t a total fluke. 2b is his natural position, so he may get enough time giving utley rest that he impresses again. defense at 3b may well suck, but not likely to be worse than young, so if the bat keeps looking good and young goes down, they could well start him instead of galvis at 3rd, with the latter serving as late inning defensive caddy.

Yeah. I have thought for a while that Frandsen has a chance to be a bit better than the normal utility guy with the bat. I liked the pickup when the Phils got him.

Betancourt really needs to start sucking soon

Anyone see the MLBN show last night where they discussed the top 9 starting pitchers in MLB right now? The Shredder one had all 3 of the Phils aces on it, including CLIFF at #2 overall. (Verlander was #1 on all three lists.) The closer list had Pap on it but he was in the lower half of everyone's list (Kimbrel was #1 on all three)

Eem wrote:Betancourt really needs to start sucking soon

He made all kinds of bonehead mistakes in the game yesterday. But also had some good plays.

Watched goosebumps yesterday. If that team could beat the mets for the division title anything is possible this year.

still wish the lopez trade went through. been doing very well for Colorado so far

very excited to see Adams getting back on track however

Kheri with his semiannual Blow Up the Phils piece

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/901 ... eir-roster

Was just a out to post that. The Phillies should be more like the Astros.

The Yankees, who were nearly two years on average older than the Phillies last year, were not mentioned.

phdave wrote:Was just a out to post that. The Phillies should be more like the Astros.

The Yankees, who were nearly two years on average older than the Phillies last year, were not mentioned.

I specifically asked him about the Yankees on Twitter. Or for examples of max-payroll teams (other than the Sox which were a complete mess) "blowing it up." Especially ones with two or three stud starting pitchers through 2016. Phils are either gonna re-sign Halladay or get a stud pitcher or hitter to replace him.

And that's not even getting into the business/financial short-sightedness of a blow up.

He responded with "I don't write the headlines"

smh

Grotewold wrote:He responded with "I don't write the headlines"

smh

The headline he would have preferred was, "Blow up the Phillies (But not the Yankees)!