Hey joey,

The scout is talking about the rest of the team, including position players.

LoneStar

Oh, ok, I thought he was talking about the rotation.

Well, the offense is going to be below avg the 1st two months with Chase & Ryan out injured. There will be plenty of games they resemble the Giants offense from last year(lol). The kid Galvis has a slick glove at 2b though and might surprise people with his offense.

The Phillies had the best record in baseball last year with Utley out the 1st two months and that was without having Pence in RF so they have already proven they can still win with a sub par offense.

They still have one of the better outfields in the league(two all-stars with Victorino/Pence and Mayberry/Dom Brown should be nice in LF when Dom gets the call back up)

Also defensively the Phillies had the best fielding % in baseball last year. That will be the case again, actually their defense will be better with Ibanez replaced by Mayberry & Howard out at 1b. Not enough people mention defense but it is one of the most important things in baseball.

Their bullpen if it stays healthy should also be a strength again.

Hey, it was my intention to talk about the future series, thus the April 16-18 title. It was Jaryl that got the Delorean out and brought this thread back to October 23rd, 2010.

Hey joey,

Age is a funny thing in sports, though, and the Phillies are getting old. You're right about the potential for the Phillies to resemble the 2011 Giants, offensively. Every team that suffers a cluster of injuries to position starters has to deal what what I call the Black Hole Effect.

When you have poor batters, Black Holes, at more than 3 starting positions...the Giants, at times, had as many as 5 at any one time in 2011, maybe more...they were bad...but when you get clusters of bad hitters in a line-up, opposing pitchers just refuse to give the small number of good hitters anything to hit.

That's what happens when injuries kick in, and that was a strong cause for what happened to the Giants. Bad juju. And it can happen to the Phillies.

The Phillies of 2012 look a lot like the Giants of 2011. And I thought the Giants were going to be good in 2011.

Sound familiar?..........;+)..................

LoneStar

The possibility is there especially if they were to sustain one or two more injuries to say Pence & Victorino that would be tough to overcome. I think as long as they stay reasonably healthy they should be fine until Chase & Ryan get back in there. They will struggle to score against other teams aces but their lineup isn't that bad especially since Thome has been playing in the field and has looked healthy this spring. Polanco is also healthy again(played with a hernia last year) and hitting like .400 this spring.

Rollins
Polanco
Thome/Wigginton
Pence
Victorino
Mayberry/Nix
Galvis
Ruiz

Not great but mostly veterans that know how to win that should be able to hold the fort for 2 months until the cavalry arrives(lol). In June they add Ryan & Chase and at the trade deadline they will probably upgrade 3b because Polanco is old and will never make it through the year healthy. Mets will be in firesale mode again at that point and David Wright will look good in the red pinstripes(hahaha).

Hey joey,

Very even-handed review of the Phillies. Thanks!

LoneStar

You guys get the 5 time NL East Champs early this year out in San Fran. No Utley or Big Ryan but if there are no rain outs Doc & Lee are scheduled to start the 1st 2 games of that series. Pray for rain boys, pray for rain !!

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Hey Joeykrap,

If you have ESPN insider, you can read this;

<http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9200731/philadelphia-phillies-need-rebuild-mlb