"the reason we only won 48 games this year was because howard was hurt"

The Savior wrote:there's a few can't miss prodigies in this year's draft, right?

can we draft jameis and trade to chip?

I don't think there are any can't miss guys in baseball, ever. But the expectation should be that they'll get someone really good.

As for 85-88 wins... maybe it's something involuntary having to do with the calendar, but I've half convinced myself that if they signed Burnett or Jimenez, they'd be at least a .500-ish team and likely to hang around in the race. The depth seems considerably better than last year in the bullpen and among the position players, and the more I think about it the more I'm convinced Sandberg is a much better managerial match for this roster than Charlie was, in that he'll use the bench more and probably would be quicker to change roles based on performance.

The Savior wrote:"the reason we only won 48 games this year was because howard was hurt"

That's a foolish rationale not one single person would buy, not a conspiracy

Grotewold wrote:

Squire wrote:

Warszawa wrote:Fwiw some fan at clearwater just called wip and reported Ryan Howard was limping after bp the other day

The Howard is injured built in excuse conspiracy theory gains some mo.

What exactly would the conspiracy be? I'm pretty sure they'd rather him just being out there hitting home runs

Just that the Phillies brass is so consistently beating the "as long as Ryan Howard is healthy" line in their pre-season interview is because they know he's not and would like to have a quasi-I told you so built in. Not saying I believe it but they have hit that them harder than any other. I'm on record saying I'd like to see a straight Howard-Ruf platoon at 1B. So I won't be upset if they rest him a lot. Macnow made the comment today that he has never ever heard a GM run down any of his own players more than Amaro runs down/discounts Ruf. I thought that was interesting.

Squire wrote:Just that the Phillies brass is so consistently beating the "as long as Ryan Howard is healthy" line in their pre-season interview is because they know he's not and would like to have a quasi-I told you so built in.

I guess, but they could just as easily make that excuse in-season if/when he's hurt. And it's not like anyone wants to hear it, three years into this situation

I think they genuinely believe he would help a lot, because he would, especially if they mixed in Ruf or even Mayderp

Grotewold wrote:

The Savior wrote:"the reason we only won 48 games this year was because howard was hurt"

That's a foolish rationale not one single person would buy, not a conspiracy

it's been the offseason narrative!!

Speedster Mike Trout was 1st in MLB in ground ball BABIP last year with a .361 BABIP. The top ten includes such other hard-hitting, speedy bitches like Yasiel Puig and Andrew McCutcheon,

Guess who was 3rd with a .333 GB BABIP?

Trent Steele wrote:Speedster Mike Trout was 1st in MLB in ground ball BABIP last year with a .361 BABIP. The top ten includes such other hard-hitting, speedy bitches like Yasiel Puig and Andrew McCutcheon,

Guess who was 3rd with a .333 GB BABIP?

Yeah, but he got replaced by the free agent signing of a guy with a .316 GB BABIP, so it's not like we applied advanced metrics and realized Ruf was due to crash. Marlon Tyrd is just as likely.

Don't go full djbigpelf

i was just saying

my fullproof trent steele fantasy projections has Byrd at .264/18 HR/63 runs/72 rbis

Trent Steele wrote:i was just saying

my fullproof trent steele fantasy projections has Byrd at .264/18 HR/63 runs/72 rbis

Sweet! Now we're talking. Need more foolproof Trent Steele projections. And yours is very close to mine. Care to guess Rollins?

Shore wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:i was just saying

my fullproof trent steele fantasy projections has Byrd at .264/18 HR/63 runs/72 rbis

Sweet! Now we're talking. Need more foolproof Trent Steele projections. And yours is very close to mine. Care to guess Rollins?

.250/12 HR/75 R/60 RBI/20SB

modest bounceback in 628 PA, mostly out of the 2 hole. Runs go up a little if batting 1, RBIs go down

"I don't believe all of a sudden that these guys are so old that they've lost all of their bat speed, their quickness, and their abilities," Amaro said. "Has Jimmy Rollins lost a quarter of a step on his range? Maybe, but he's also smarter now. Do Chase's knees affect him? Well, he's still running pretty damn good, and, if he doesn't pull his oblique last year, he would have had 23 or 24 home runs. And did we have any idea Ryan was going to pull an Achilles tendon? Really, an Achilles? How do you account for that? You don't."

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phi ... Ue3E1tH.99

i thought that was a fake quote at first. that's hilarious.

guys, he's not going to come out and say "yeah, all of these old guys that i threw a bunch of money at actually blow, lol my bad". stop expecting him to.

We demand the truth and nothing but the truth from our spokesmen. Amaro should be open and honest and give us the truth. Just like politicians, corporate PR guys and salesmen.

GGSA.

Squire wrote:

Grotewold wrote:

Squire wrote:

Warszawa wrote:Fwiw some fan at clearwater just called wip and reported Ryan Howard was limping after bp the other day

The Howard is injured built in excuse conspiracy theory gains some mo.

What exactly would the conspiracy be? I'm pretty sure they'd rather him just being out there hitting home runs

Just that the Phillies brass is so consistently beating the "as long as Ryan Howard is healthy" line in their pre-season interview is because they know he's not and would like to have a quasi-I told you so built in. Not saying I believe it but they have hit that them harder than any other. I'm on record saying I'd like to see a straight Howard-Ruf platoon at 1B. So I won't be upset if they rest him a lot. Macnow made the comment today that he has never ever heard a GM run down any of his own players more than Amaro runs down/discounts Ruf. I thought that was interesting.

Doesn't matter if he is healthy if the 3-5 starters are Kendrick, Carmona and Pettibone.

It has nothing to do with truth or whatever, but they are completely random statements that don't even make sense. Especially the Howard one.

it's like he wants to keep his job or something. i've really been apathetic about talking about the phillies this offseason for reasons articulated by others in the Wiz whiners thread, but i really have a hard time not calling out this BS outrage every time amaro says something positive about the team. he's not going to come out and say it's a garbage team because he and the organization do not benefit at all from him doing so. amaro's job likely depends on the team not sucking; the phillies want people to come to the games and spend money, why the fuck would they come out and say that the team is terrible and old and will probably finish 3rd place at best.

we all know they're bad. amaro and the FO likely know that it's not a great team. who the fuck cares if they come out and say it?

yeah, that's not really my point.

i'm kinda not stupid and I understand that Amaro isn't going to shit on his team since it's his team

really just about done posting about the Phillies