Another wild season from those lovable Philadelphia Phils, or at least lovable if you're a fan of underdogs. For the second year running, the Phillies wormed their way into the NLCS as a wild card team, though this year was the superior version of this scrappy team, with great performances from Bryson Stott, Ranger Suarez, Jeff Hoffman and, of course, Bryce Harper. Unfortunately, the incredible run ended in Phoenix, as it tends to these friggin days for Philly. Most of the people I wanted to make customs of this year I already did, so it only left three for December. Three relatively strong choices, though.
Edmundo Sosa, after coming over the previous year in a sneaky deal from St. Louis, has become our go-to utility infielder. In 104 games, Sosa hit .251 with 30 RBIs and 10 homers, not a bad shake at all for your backup guy. Unlike last year, he didn't get much postseason action, and was hitless during the Arizona series.
2024 Prediction: Plays an even bigger role, perhaps even becoming an able starter in the event of an injury.
Meanwhile, Cristopher Sanchez, after Bailey Falter didn't exactly work out, was tapped into the 5th starter role, a role he'd been preparing for since early 2022. Sanchez, now healthy enough to deliver strong work, was a pleasant surprise in 19 games, hitting a 3.44 ERA and 96 Ks, and adding to the ironclad quality of the rotation during the heat of the season.
2024 Prediction: Moves up a rung, as he's only gonna get more confident as people like Walker and Sanchez falter, heh, a bit.
And then when the Phils were worried about the stability of the rotation given an injury to Ranger Suarez, they went out and got Michael Lorenzen from Detroit. In his first start in Philly, Lorenzen went 9 innings without giving up any runs. Then things kinda went downhill. It's believed that the no-no wore out his arm for the rest of the year, as he finished the season with a 5.11 ERA in Philly, despite a 4-2 record. Tellingly, he only struck out 28 batters in 11 games, meaning he was relying more on outthinking batters rather than whiffing them. The good news is that he was scoreless in 2.2 postseason innings, only allowing 2 hits.
2024 Prediction: Seeing as the Tigers have already brought back Andrew Chafin, maybe they reunite with Lorenzen as well. And hopefully he's used the offseason to recover.
Coming Tomorrow- The Pirates had an incredible start. What happened?
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