Uncustomed Heroes of 2024: Phillies

 

This is the thing about the modern playoff schematic. The Philadelphia Phillies put together an incredible team this year, one that was way better than either of the teams that made the NLCS. They were finally the alphas of the NL East, they had great seasons out of multiple starters, and they clinched a key playoff spot. But, of course, because they were in a position to lose momentum during a first round bye for the first time, they weren't able to advance past the NLDS round. A lot like the 2011 team, they had the better team, but not the luck.

That is Phillies baseball. You're rewarded every year except the one where you honestly deserve it. And even after this year, we're probably gonna make some major upgrades in the infield and outfield.

Edmundo Sosa is one of those guys we were lucky to hold onto, as after Trea Turner got hurt, Sosa plugged right into the infield and had a phenomenal year. Sosa's great because he's an above-average defender with some occasional hitting perks. So even as he was honestly a step up from Turner at short, Sosa also hit .257 with 31 RBIs and 7 homers, plus a postseason hit, which seemed hard to come by for this team.

2025 Prediction: A similar backup role with moments at the forefront, one that'll improve his trade case around the league. 

For as long as I can remember, the Phillies' bullpens have been a punchline, where despite all the attention put in it turns into a bottomless pit where great relief seasons go to die. So to have two of the single best relief seasons of 2024 come from two Phillies relievers is an excellent change of pace. Matt Strahm, who I honestly hope retires as a Phillie at this rate, was wonderful in a full season of relief, with a 1.87 ERA, a 6-2 record and a 0.750 WHIP in 66 appearances. Jeff Hoffman was the real surprise, as he was healthy all year and was truly incredible, with a 2.17 ERA, 89 Ks and 10 saves in 66 innings. Unfortunately both got lit up during the postseason, but they were both All-Stars, and they both had 2.0+ WAR seasons.

2025 Prediction: Strahm has another impressive year, even picking up more saves, while Hoffman is gonna make a lot of money thanks to this season that he may not completely deserve over the course of the forthcoming contract.

I never would have thought that for a portion of the season, the fans would be crying out 'why isn't Spencer Turnbull starting games over Taijuan Walker?'. Walker has been the more consistent pitcher over the last few years, and Turnbull's only consistency with the Tigers has been getting injured. But miraculously, Turnbull became a surprisingly awesome fifth option for us early, going 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA and 38 Ks in 7 starts. His bullpen work wasn't quite as good but I saw him do some amazing long mop-up work after Ranger Suarez left a start. Then, of course, as this is Spencer Turnbull after all, he got hurt and missed the rest of the season.

2025 Prediction: 12 very good starts somewhere, and a lot of missed time.

After Johan Rojas's debut last year, most fans were saying that Rojas would really be a help to this team once he figured out how to hit at the MLB level. A year later that still hasn't happened. Rojas's excellent defensive play keeps him in the lineup consistently for us, but at the plate he hit .243 with 3 homers and 32 RBIs. To his credit, he did steal 25 bases this year, and he is only 23. Something could develop, it's just not happening as quickly as the fans would like.

2025 Prediction: An improvement, but something tells me he won't be starting as often.

Weston Wilson was the real surprise this year, a super-ute bench bat that could show up without warning and provide some much needed help. In 40 games, he hit .284 with 25 hits, 10 RBIs and 3 homers. The word for Wilson is 'handy', because we've needed a fun bench guy like him for a while.

2025 Prediction: Becomes even more of a fan favorite and does something insane to end a game at some point.

Because of our lack of outfield pop, the Phils went and got Austin Hays from Baltimore in exchange for Seranthony Dominguez. I'm not sure if either side truly WON the trade, but Hays...did what he could, I guess. In 22 games he hit .256 with 6 RBIs, limited by injuries. He was hitless during the playoffs. The Phils have since cut him.

2025 Prediction: Clearly this season was the problem. Someone's gonna pick him up for cheap and he's gonna hit .300 and be a regular. 

Carlos Estevez joining the Phils was great for me because I specifically said 'we need to get this guy'. He was a consistent, fun closer in Anaheim, he looked like a great fit for the Phillies, I said 'go get 'im, and they did. While not quite as incredible as he was with the Angels, Estevez still did well in a closing role, with a 2.57 ERA, 18 strikeouts and 6 saves. He also struck out 4 in the postseason. Also, really cool that we had a guy this year whose closing celebration is doing a kamehameha from DBZ. 

2025 Prediction: I think someone will pick him up, but I don't think he'll be doing the bulk of the closing. 

Coming Tomorrow- For a team that didn't make the playoffs, the Pirates took a surprising amount of steps forward. 

Phillies v. Cardinals 6/1/24: Turnbull in a China Shop

 

Sometimes you buy something at a supermarket, open it up and realize it's completely different than what you thought you bought. And it's still good, and it does the trick, but the whole time you're still going 'well I wanted this.' That is how I'd describe Saturday night's Phils game. Not that it was bad--in fact, it was actually a really nice game. But it was not at all what I expected to see.

For a couple weeks, I was excited for the pitching matchup we were gonna see. The Cardinals were putting up Sonny Gray, who's in the midst of another great season, and the Phillies would be starting Ranger Suarez, in the midst of one of the single best pitching performances of 2024. Being at CBP for a Ranger start would be really cool, and I was excited to be a part of it. 

Yet in the back of my mind, I'm always skeptical that something like this could end up not happening. I go back to attending a Nats-O's game in 2016, and being prepared to see Stephen Strasburg start against Dylan Bundy, only for the news to come in as we're in the damned stadium that Strasburg was hurt, and they were starting A.J. Cole. And while, again, it didn't ruin the game, it just felt disappointing. So I was aware that something like this could always happen, but I hoped it wouldn't.

Still, a Phils-Cardinals matchup in the midst of a hot streak for Philly would definitely be a great game. I've been vocal about not being a Cardinals fan, they always find a way to infuriate me, and while I've lessened that over the years, they've been recently doing the thing where they start awful and then decide midway through that they're a good team. I hate when they do that. Just pick a direction and stick with it.

These were our seats. Third base line, all the way back. Under cover, we got enough of a breeze. On a beautiful night like this it was just what we needed. This game was making a ton of noise about the Phils' forthcoming London Series, as the giveaway was a little toy double-decker bus for the under-14ers. 

Okay, so...Ranger Suarez. What did I think of him? Well...the guy clearly is unstoppable this year. Through the first 6 batters of the game, there were whiffs, easily tracked balls and zero Cardinal progress. I've seen him pitch before, and his control was always there, but he's just on another level this year. 

On the inverse, Sonny Gray was slightly less dominant. He let some balls get away, and soon enough Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos were cracking doubles and sending runners home. By the end of the first it was 3-0. I had figured it would be like 6 innings til we'd get to the Cardinals pitching, but it happened immediately, and off one of the best pitchers in the game.

Then, the mood shifted. In the second inning, Alec Burleson knocked a liner right at Ranger Suarez, and it hit him directly on his pitching hand. He made the out, and ended the inning, but exited for the dugout whilst screaming into his glove, clearly in pain. 

In that moment, I saw the rest of the season flash before my eyes. If we didn't have Ranger, we'd make it work, we had enough pitching, but he was our best player. And without him, it would level things significantly. 

The good news was that the x-rays came back negative, it missed bone, and barring some rehab, Suarez will probably only need to miss a start or so, without needing the IL. The bad news was this game I'd gone to with the expectation of seeing Ranger Suarez pitch was now getting another pitcher by inning three. 

As you might expect, the combined no-hitter got broken up not too soon after Jose Ruiz hit the mound. He gave up 2 hits and then a sac-fly to Masyn Wynn in order to get a runner home and make it a 3-1 game. A Brandon Marsh RBI single would make it 4-1 shortly thereafter, but with this level of pitching after the exit of Suarez, I was worried.

There was, however, a silver lining. See, since Taijuan Walker's been back, the Phillies have had the best long-man in the majors, solely because they never should have taken him out of the rotation in the first place.

So we got three innings of Spencer Turnbull. And oh my, were they exactly what we needed or what.

Turnbull was having a phenomenal year after making the rotation out of camp. He's one of those guys who's great when he's healthy but gets hurt a lot, the Tigers found this out. So we're just relieved he's stayed healthy, and, yeah, he's a great pitcher. Because he was lowest on the depth chart, he went down when Walker came back, and...that's been seen as an unpopular decision, as Walker's our spottiest starter and Turnbull's been excellent in relief. 

The good news was that Turnbull could pitch in this game, and he could go for as long as we needed him to. And so that's how we got six strikeouts and no runs from Spencer Turnbull in 3 innings. 

It's a two-part thing. One part of that is Turnbull being really on, really steady, and barely giving them anything to get behind. The other part is the Cardinals' lineup doesn't have much going on right now. Arenado and Goldschmidt are past their primes, Gorman and Burleson aren't much, Wynn's great but he's just a speedy contact guy. So Turnbull really had no trouble with this lineup.

One other piece is that the Phils were excellent defensively in this game. Alec Bohm was making great plays at third all night. Johan Rojas was responsible for MULTIPLE awesome catches in center. Even with Edmundo Sosa this is a pretty sturdy, very impressive defensive team, and everybody did well. 

So we were rolling. And the funny thing was barring the 4 runs, Sonny Gray had a pretty strong night himself. He struck out 10 batters that night, which is a nice stat for a losing pitcher. Even if you get the better of him he doesn't let you out easy. So we kinda waited for him to leave in order to widen the gap. And wouldn't you know it, John King takes the mound, we get a man on, Bryce Harper gets up, and he absolutely annihilates a ball to the second deck in right field. I've seen Bryce bombs before, but this one was incredible. The whole place went wild as well. These things don't lose their novelty. 

So with a 6-1 lead, and the bullpen making it kind of a runaway, we packed it up and beat the traffic to get home. And look, regardless of the Ranger moment, we still got a Phils game with a Bryce Harper home run, some great plays, and it was a win. And I'm still pretty happy with that.

I'll be back at CBP in July. If you can believe it, an even more beatable opponent than St. Louis.

Here Comes Another No-No

 

I did not expect this 82 Highlights subsets to just be a running tally of every no-hitter we've had thus far, but I'm certainly not complaining.

I mean, you can attribute it to the deadened balls, you can attribute it to the swing-for-the-fences-or-nothing mentality in batters, but the rise in no-nos is definitely benefitting the pitchers you don't always think about. Spencer Turnbull is a nice pitcher who's had some good seasons for the Tigers, but he hasn't had a true legitimate star moment yet. Of course, that no-no might be it.

I was watching the last inning, and I got very worried when Kelenic got on base in a fielder's choice, mostly because I wasn't sure if that broke up the no-no technically or not [fielder's choice isn't a hit, so no]. But the last strikeout, and Turnbull's reaction, cemented it. No technicality was gonna stop him from bringing a no-hitter to Detroit for the first time since Verlander. I respect it.

Congrats to Turnbull and the Tigers. Once again, these are fun, so I'm not gonna be mad if we get another one soon.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2020: Tigers (Part One)

 

Before I go about the...surplus of Tigers customs I have for 2020, I should stress the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the Tigers were a bad team this year. They went 23-35, third-worst record in the bigs, will be getting a top-3 draft pick in 2021, and are still desperately trying to figure out how to rebuild.

Perhaps the biggest issue with this team is that the face of the franchise is still Miguel Cabrera and he hasn't had a WAR above 1 since 2016. All I know is that if he wasn't completely mailing in the last bit of his Tigers contract he'd have a career WAR over 70 right now. Yes, he's still a future Hall of Famer and a decent hitter, but his multi-dimensional ability is gone. He still hit .250, and led the club in both RBIs with 35 and homers with 10, but is still pulling too many negative figures in the WAR category. He has three more seasons left in Detroit. Let's hope they're dignified.

2021 Prediction: Improved offensive numbers, and less negatives, but nothing near his first 14 seasons.

With Matt Boyd's range going downward, Spencer Turnbull made a pretty nice ace pitch behind him. In 11 starts, Turnbull had a 3.97 ERA with 51 Ks and a 1.1 WAR, some of the more impressive numbers in the rotation in general. 

2021 Prediction: A few more bad games, but the Tigers will still see Turnbull for 30 starts, and that alone will give him a step up once Boyd leaves in the next year or so.

C.J. Cron has been using little one year deals in new places to make a name for himself little by little as a decent middle of the lineup bat, and has been building on great years in Tampa and Minneapolis. This season in Detroit started out alright, with 8 RBIs and 4 homers in 13 games, and some early WAR leads, but...then an injury ends his season in early August, and he's out of the equation.

2021 Prediction: Another one-year deal. We seem to be alternating between competitive and non-competitive teams, so I predict Cron to land somewhere in the playoff race. 

Austin Romine is the latest former Yankee backup catcher to land a decent starting gig somewhere in need of stability. And after lots of little guys like Grayson Greiner and Jake Rogers failing to grasp the catching gig in Detroit, the Tigers chose Romine to start and he did rather well, hitting .238 with 17 RBIs in 37 games. Not quite exemplary, but better than Greiner and Erik Haase.

2021 Prediction: I think the Tigers want to re-sign him, so if the Molina deal falls through, they will.

Niko Goodrum continues to be a jack-of-all-trades, anywhere-you-put-him kinda guy. This year he was the Tigers' main choice at shortstop, and did fairly alright, not hitting for average but at least putting up 20 RBIs and 29 hits.

2021 Prediction: Loses some SS time to Willi Castro but embraces a utility role more than in 2019.

2016's AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer is still chasing the dragon of his rookie year. In his first healthy year in a bit, Fulmer started 10 games, and had an 8.78 ERA with 2 losses and a massive 2.060 WHIP. It a season that has the Tigers drastically rethinking Fulmer's future with the club, and with the rise in rookie starting options [see tonight], he may not make the rotation next year.

2021 Prediction: A month's worth of rotten starts lands him on the bullpen as Matt Manning takes his spot and runs with it.

Tyler Alexander made some headlines this season, after striking out 9 Reds in a row in early August and tying the AL record for consecutive strikeouts in a game. After a season of bottoming out of a starting role, succeeding greatly as a reliever, especially in that Reds game, was a major step up for Tyler Alexander. He finished the season with a 3.96 ERA in 14 games, including 34 strikeouts. Not bad at all.

2021 Prediction: A heftier bullpen role. Maybe he auditions for the ninth and gets it for a bit.

That's just the established players that made waves for the Tigers in 2020. There's still a whole post full of rookies and second years that's going up tonight.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2019: Tigers

I didn't think the Detroit Tigers could get worse than they did in 2018, but with 114 losses compared to 98, I guess my expectations took a hit this year.

This year was so bad that one of the leading candidates for a post-season custom from the Tigers was Spencer Turnbull. Turnbull had seventeen losses, and a 1.436 WHIP. This is our marquee guy, folks.
Why Him in 2019?: Started 30 games in his rookie year.
2020 Prediction: Similar K numbers, but better W/L ratio. So...the team has to be better.

 And for the team to be better, the Tigers need to put trust on durable homegrown people, and not...a backup second baseman from the 2018 Reds who they shoved to first base. In response, Brandon Dixon hit .248 with 136 strikeouts.
Why Him in 2019?: Led the Tigers in home runs with FIFTEEN. LORD.
2020 Prediction: Won't have to start many games cause the Tigers will be better? Please?

 Making me a little more optimistic about future Tigers teams are two mid-year call-ups. Harold Castro was the first, and he was a middle infielder who hit .291 in 97 games, and was one of 4 Tigers to hit more than 100 hits.
Why Him in 2019?: Hit .310 and .318 in July and September respectively
2020 Prediction: Will be a utility man after losing a starting spot to Jonathan Schoop

The other amusing rookie was utility outfielder Victor Reyes, who was phased in around May and hit .326 over the course of the last two months of gameplay. He did finish the season with a .304 average and 25 RBIs, which isn't bad.
Why Him in 2019?: His numbers in September saved the team from being completely eradicated from relevance.
2020 Prediction: Will usurp JaCoby Jones' outfield spot and become a new team hero.

Coming Tomorrow- The best-hitting AL team of the year, those Minnesota Twins.