Comments on: 2013 Preview: Philadelphia Phillies

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:32:30 +0000

On my keyboard, the N and the A are very far apart. You were sloppy and made a mistake. A typo is when a person types msitake, like I did BEFORE PROOF-READING.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:04:06 +0000

Ancient history. Young teams tend to get better, old teams tend to get worse. Everything didn’t go right for the Nats, just not as much went wrong for them as for Philly….but again, old players get hurt more and take longer to recover.

There is no such thing as “knowing how to win”, you are either good enough to win, or you are not.

By: evanwins

evanwins — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 03:54:36 +0000

Well paperlions, you are not taking into account that everything went right for the Nats and the Braves, are you?

How’s this for logic and/or reasoning: The Phillies won the most games in baseball one injury plagued season ago.

How about this: No team except the Yankees have won more games than the Phillies over the past 6 years.

Want more? If the Phillies won half of the 12 games they lost in the eight inning (winning in the 7th, then losing in the ninth) they would have made the playoffs.

Stat and logic not enough for you? How about the fact that this team knows how to win and has proven it when they are together for the last 6 years? They. Know. How. To. Win. (That’s just an extra intangible for ya).

By: gmfw7

gmfw7 — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:20:37 +0000

i think the phillies finish 2nd and secure one of the two wild card spots. now don’t get me wrong, the nationals are the most talented team in the division and should win it as long as they don’t have any major injuries. i see the same things other people see, and i have just as many concerns about age and health, but people are focusing a lot on negatives and refusing to see some very positive things this team has going for them.
1. people keep talking about the team’s lack of run production. after the all-star break last year the phillies got howard and utley back, and even though neither was anywhere near 100% the team was among league leaders in runs and win/loss record. having the two start the season fully healthy will be huge.
2. adding michael young will also be an upgrade over polanco who completely lost the abaility to hit for average last year and had absolutely 0 power.
3. dominic brown finally seems to be coming into his own this spring. and although you can’t depend too much on ST numbers to predict the type of season he’ll have, if he is able to produce offensively and defensively the way he is right now, he will be a major upgrade in right field as well. ben revere is basically the same as victorino defensively, with a weaker arm. but he also will hit for about 40 points higher in average and still more bases than shane. left field will admitately be a weak spot with a mayberry/nix platoon, but when delmon gets healthy he can easily hit .270-.280 with 25 homeruns in CBP.
4. the phillies were among the worst teams last year as far as giving up leads in the 7th and 8th innings. adding mike adams, getting stutes back healthy, having phillipe aumont finally show why we traded cliff lee for a package that he highlighted and having bastardo return to form towards the end of last season almost guarantees the bull-pen will be much better, and a strangth instead of a weakness. 5. we won’t have chooch the first month, but krats hit very well last season, and threw out base-runners at an extremely high rate. and something that people haven’t mentioned yet is that the phillies schedule the 1st month is extremely weak. with a hot start, i wouldn’t be surprised to see the phillies in 1st place in the division at the beginning of may.
now with all that said, Doc’s struggles scare me a lot. at this point if you told me he would go 14-7 with a 3.6 ERA (numbers which are a pretty bad season for him) i would be thrilled. let’s hope he can be somehwere near that effective. also, there’s no denying the braves added some talent, but they lost prado and chipper jones, which will hurt. they added 150-170 strike outs in bj upton, who is probably the most over rated OF in baseball. if he hits .250 that’ll be a surprise. and there’s no guarantee chris young will stick as an every day 3rd baseman. add that to the fact that other than kris medlen (who is a horse) and a declining tim hudson, the braves rotation isn’t anything to fear. that kid tehran is a prospect with a lot of hope, but the phillies ripped his head off when he made his first start againts us, and he didn’t really show anything to wow me. i can easily see the braves finishing behind the nats and phillies. anyway i look forward to talking baseball with all of you throughout the season. should be an exciting year and the NL East should once again prove to be one of the toughest divisions in baseball.

By: kunztown

kunztown — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:39:54 +0000

I think the phillies will win 90 games. They have some back up plans in place. If Michael Young gets injured, Kevin Frandsen is decent. If Rollins or Utley get injured, galvis is suitable. If Howard gets Injured, Ruf is suitable. The outfield is my concern… Mayberry is inconsistent, Brown is inconsistent, and we don’t know about Ben Revere, and Young will be the next Jim Thome, and who can step in? Ruf and Nix I suppose. Pitching will be challenging for Doc this year, but Cole and Lee will be fine. Kendrick has shades of being good, and Lannan pretty much sucks. At Least the Bullpen has Improved. Look for defratus to step up as bastardo is inconsistent. Stutes might step up too. I predict a 2nd Place Finish, and Wild Card Berth with a Run to the NL Championship.

By: fhuizar

fhuizar — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:22:29 +0000

Dude……

Obviously i made a typo….

Divisional police

By: misterj167

misterj167 — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:25:40 +0000

Both the Nats and the Braves are going to win 95+ games this year, and with everyone else in the NL East in a rebuilding mode these two YOUNG teams look to be fighting for the division for the next three or four years at least. The Phillies will need a lot of help from the baseball gods to win 85 games, hard to see that happening with one of the oldest teams in the game, no depth, and a depleted farm system.

By: thebadguyswon

thebadguyswon — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:13:34 +0000

Third seems right. Though I could see second if they get really strong seasons from Lee and Hamels and a Dom Brown breakout.

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 01:39:54 +0000

This article was not written to be an insult, it was an objective observation by a guy who rarely sugar coats anything he writes about HIS favorite team. As a matter of fact while it’s quite accurate and true what he wrote. I feel the Braves are a bit overrated maybe, and the Phills are being underrated ( for very good reason). Plus I feel we may not be looking at the entire OF for 2013 yet. I honestly think (hope) the Phillies can snag second place as long as Halladay, Lee, Utley, Howard, and Rollins can stay healthy. At their age it is exactly what Bill said, a question mark, too many of them. Add the question marks of Brown showing up or going home and whatever lands in left field. This could either be a big year for them or a complete bust. I tend to lean towards a big year for my guys. Maybe it’s because I’m a fanboy at heart? Maybe these guys still have plenty of life in their tanks and everyone is counting them out a bit prematurely? We won’t know for a bit and until then it’s ok to look at things objectively. I liked the preview myself.

By: dwdive

dwdive — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:50:26 +0000

oh yeah, and Ruf broke Howards HR records in the minors, I know he’s having a tough spring, but I think he will contribute to this team as an above average power hitter for the next 4-6 years as well.

By: dwdive

dwdive — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:47:27 +0000

Poorly written article. It seems like the writers and the media love to hate the Phillies at this point. “Doom and Gloom” for years to come? Not true at all. No mention of Rivere. Calling the farm system garbage with no quality whatsoever. I guess if Brown finally turns out to be the stud he’s been projected to be, added to Rivere, Stutes, Bastardo, Galvis, is not making the roster younger? They have 2 really good catchers in the minors (Joseph is hitting almost .500 in spring training), they have Ashe coming up soon, the still have some really good starting pitching in the minors (including Jesse Biddle), they will have a ton of money to spend after next season as well. I’m very optimistic going into this season, and they will have some tough decisions moving forward after this season depending on how everything works out. They will be fine in the long run just for the fact that they will still have a few stud starting pitchers (Hamels, Lee, and possibly Biddle coming in 2014), they have a really good defensive replacement for 3B in Galvis, Rivere will be here for years to come, it looks like Brown is finally coming around, they have 2 good catchers coming up to replace Ruiz, and a ton of money to spend in free agency. Come on Bill, do a little better for your home squad..

By: Jonny 5

Jonny 5 — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:15:54 +0000

By: fanofevilempire

fanofevilempire — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:52:10 +0000

Dude, that’s not the AL East, that’s the NL East.,

By: fhuizar

fhuizar — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:46:24 +0000

AL East

Nats
Braves
Phils
Mets
Miami

Deja Vu

By: kinggw

kinggw — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:42:50 +0000

I think your crazy for believing the Phillies could win 90 games.

For that to happen everything would have to go right and then some. The Phillies have three quality starters, you might get 20 wins from one of them maybe two if your lucky. After those three, there is a big dropoff in the rotation. You mentioned that Howard and Utley were gone for a good part of the season, they are back but at 33 and 34 years old respectively, their production isnt going to be what it was. The Phillies are on the onset of decline, face it. They may duplicate what they did last season, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.

By: vicvega422

vicvega422 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:33:32 +0000

Bottom line last year anything that could happen did happen and they still finished .500… Let The season play out and we’ll see where they are in the end.

By: captainwisdom8888

captainwisdom8888 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:14:19 +0000

im a phils fan and i thought this article could not have been any more spot on. Looking at atlanta and washingtons rosters, they are poised for great years. If Halladay can hone in his inner greg maddux and compete with his reduced velocity, the only other question mark for the phillies is the run support.

This team has struggled mightily with “small ball” for quite some time now. The team needs to generate runs. If we can do that, then we will have an outside chance at the division title.

Howard/Utley/Rollins/Young….the old men need to get it done this year or its the basement of the NL East for the phils

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:11:13 +0000

Is it Friday night and I didn’t notice?

By: DelawarePhilliesFan

DelawarePhilliesFan — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:42:01 +0000

Though I am not dawglb’s spokesman, I believe you have his assertion backwards. Fluke has a positive contentation – I believe he is saying the fluke was Washington’s play

By: ryanrockzzz

ryanrockzzz — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:23:40 +0000

Well if your talking about Utely nothing. If your talking about Howard however, from 2006-2011 he has played in at least 143 games per year. The year before he played in 88 games splitting time with Thome.

Also another key piece that was hurt was Placido Polanco, and he’s no longer on the team.

By: ryanrockzzz

ryanrockzzz — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:18:50 +0000

The Nationals I would certainly agree, the question marks there are more about how they can follow up last season. Can they do it when everyone is gunning for them?

The Braves however have about the same amount of question marks. Who will play third base for the Braves at a high level this year? Can B.j./Juston both finally get it together? Medlen should be good again, but he’s had one string of success, can he find that again? The strength of the rotation as a whole is also a question mark for the Braves. Also, no one talks about Beachy still needing to rebound a bit from his injury and pitch an entire year and the No. 5 spot looks promising with the prospects the Braves have, but that to is up for grabs. If Medlen dosen’t perform at a high level this year, then that would certainly be a question mark.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:54:02 +0000

I’d bet they’re the second-place team and looking for a wild card spot, but people are just assuming because they made unpopular moves over the off-season that they’re going to perform poorly. Seems short-sighted

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:47:51 +0000

You are using the “some things went wrong last year but they won’t go wrong this year” logic. You could be right, but something nearly always goes wrong, especially with old teams….and the Phillies have no room for error as they have no one in the minors ready to step in and be MLB average or better for either the pitching staff or position players.

During a perfect season, Philly could win 90 games, but it probably won’t be a perfect season.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:36:59 +0000

With the Braves losing the 2012 versions Chipper, Bourn, and Prado, and adding the Uptons and a healthy Simmons….at best, they are the same team they were last year…and that is if all 3 “new” guys play very very well.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:34:22 +0000

I agree. I think AZ will be fine….they did make a bunch of questionable trades and clearly have less talent in the system (MLB and MiLB combined) now than before….but they had a LOT of talent to begin with…IMO there isn’t an elite team in the NL west, the Giants should still be the team to beat out there, the Dodgers are a nice list of names, but most haven’t played to their name in a while….SD is meh and CO is horrible….AZ should be in the hunt for the division/WC all year.

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:25:31 +0000

What exactly is fluky about a bunch of injury-prone guys getting injured at the same time?

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:24:15 +0000

You seem to think they’ll finish higher. Please take a minute to explain why rather than just bitching.

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:23:21 +0000

I’m with nolan…reading this post, then seeing it finish up with a 3rd place prediction, really drives home how awful most people think the Marlins and Mets are going to be.

By: chadjones27

chadjones27 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:01:34 +0000

It is trendy for a reason. The Phils have more question marks than the Braves or Nats.

By: dawglb

dawglb — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:32:01 +0000

The Phils will show Washington that last year was a fluke.