Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Lackadaisically Defending the NL

 


THE DEFENDING NL CHAMPIONS, EVERYBODY. No 1st baseman, barely a rotation, with the marquee guy still out and his place being taken by frigging Cristian Pache.

Quite clearly this isn't the Phillies team we thought we'd be going in with. Yes, Harper we knew would be a factor, but having no 1st baseman and making people like Bohm and Kody Clemens cover the position, then planning on having HARPER play first when he comes back...and then on top of that, Nola, Wheeler and Walker can't keep runs down as well anymore so it's up to, like Matt Strahm? This is too much. Not that this team was particularly tidy before the WS run last year, but so much more feels like it's in disarray, and now the Mariners, a particularly good team, are in town and I don't see us matching very well against them at all.

How the hell are the Phillies supposed to compare to a team that has Julio, Kelenic, France and Castillo all playing well right now? Our best assets are Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott, two guys that played towards the end of the lineup in October. 

The single most reassuring element of this frosty start is that finally, FINALLY, Nick Castellanos has figured out how to hit well in Philly. Dude's hitting .315 with 13 RBIs and 29 hits, and he's getting very close to where he was in Cincinnati. The fans are, thankfully, rewarding him for it, and giving him the props he deserves in the center of that lineup with Realmuto and Turner. And even with my gripes against Marsh and Stott having to carry the load, once Harper gets back and Schwarber starts hitting again, it'll be all forgiven. We haven't even hit June yet, that's Schwarber's time.

It just sucks that the starting pitching has been such an issue. Yes, batters getting the better of Aaron Nola is not a new development, but this is his worst start since 2016, his 'maybe we put him back in Reading' season. I am beginning to worry that Nola's one of those guys who begins to trail off after reaching 30, which...look, if he ends up sucking this year, maybe letting him test free agency is a good thing? Wheeler's accuracy is off but he's still striking people out, same with Walker really. I don't like that Strahm is our most successful starter so far, but at least he's doing well. And Falter is the Phils' version of Clarke Schmidt: occasionally he strikes gold, mostly he doesn't. It's not ideal. Hopefully the activations of Ranger Suarez and, eventually, Andrew Painter will do something, but as evidenced by Cristopher Sanchez's, it's not a foregone conclusion that this will work.

Until mid-May, the Phils have to play either competitive teams or teams that know how to exploit weak pitching [like the Red Sox, ft. Masataka Yoshida and his hot bat]. Maybe around then they'll start getting people back, but as so many other NL East teams have the majority of their core healthy and rolling, they're gonna need new sources of energy to really stand out in the coming weeks.

Coming Tomorrow- Just like how in 2020 the MLB gave MVP awards to strong veterans that had been great for a while, in 2020 the AL gave the Cy Young to just...a really strong pitcher. And that's what he's been ever since. 

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