Philadelphia Baseball History

Last week, Phillies fans acting in disbelief upon hearing a report that the team was considering Ruben Amaro, Jr. for the open Manager's position.  Amaro, currently serving at the First Base Coach of the Boston Red Sox, was drummed out of Philadelphia which much fanfare towards the end of the 2015.  During Amaro's reign with the Phillies as General Manager, the team saw itself go from a feared powerhouse in the National League East, to a perennial last place team.  Amaro largely shouldered the blame. Certainly, during his tenure Amaro was responsible for a number of transactions which were either unpopular at the time, or in retrospect were not beneficial to the team.  For example, Amaro was responsible for tying the Phillies' hands financially with a number of high-priced, long-term contracts, such as those for Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon.  Amaro traded away popular players at questionable times, raising the ire of many fans.  Amaro trade Cli...

10.  Pat Neshek’s 18 Inning Scoreless Streak Let’s face it. There wasn’t much to cheer about in the beginning of the season. The Phillies were just plain awful. But one thing that did stand out was the pitching of reliever Pat Neshek. While the rest of the bullpen faltered, Neshek was solid. When the Phils needed a hold, they could count on Neshek to keep the score from getting worse. At one point, Neshek had an 18 Inning scoreless streak, that was broken on July 2nd. By the All-Star break, Neshek had an amazing 1.27 ERA. Alas, by the end of July, Neshek was no longer a Phillie, netting three prospects in a trade with the Rockies.  9. Odubel Herrera Robs . . . Odubel Herrera is an odd bird. His fans argue that his statistics prove he is a Gold Glove center fielder. His critics say that the statistics fail to account for some fundamental mistakes he makes while covering the outfield. Take, for example, Herrera’s misplay of a line drive on September 8th in Washi...

The Phillies ended the 2017 season with a bang, defeating the Mets 11-0. In winning their final game, the Phillies have given their fans several storylines to follow going into 2018.  One of the biggest questions for 2017 was whether Maikel Franco would step up his game, living up to his potential and the fans' expectations. For most of the season, that question was answered in the negative. But General Manager Matt Klentak refused to give up on Franco, asserting that he has too much talent.  Franco's late season surge may have proven Klentak right. After hovering at a little over .200 for most of the season, Franco increased his average to .275 for the month of September. In his last five games, he hit 4 home runs and drove in 7 runs, which included a three-run blast in the last game of the season. Franco ended the season leading the team in home runs, with 24.  If nothing else, Franco's late season performance has made a statement that he is not ready to fade ...

Bucking a trend for the 2017 season, the Phillies beat the Mets last night in a resounding way, posting 6 runs to the Mets' 2. With two games left in the season, both of them at home against the Mets, the Phils have gone a total of 6-11 against New York. Up until yesterday, only one of those wins had come at Citizens Bank Park, due to the Mets sweeping the Phillies in a CBP series in April, and taking 3 out of 4 in August. While in general, the Phillies have a better record at home than on the road, the Mets just seemed to have the Phillies number.  Many Phillies contributed to last night's win. Ben Lively pitched six innings, giving up six hits, including two solo home runs which accounted for the only runs the Mets scored. Lively showed good control, walking no one. Maikel Franco got the Phillies offense off to its start in the second inning, hitting a two-run blast that scored Odubel Herrera. Herrera joined the offensive punch, with a sacrifice fly in the third, sc...

Going into the last month of the season, it looked as though the Phillies had a difficult task ahead of them. At 50-83, in order to avoid 100 losses on the season, the team had to win 13 of their final 29 games. That would be a winning percentage of .448 for a team who came into the month with a .375 winning percentage for the season. Plus, the Phillies faced the division leading Nationals seven times, the league leading Dodgers four times, and the Mets, who seemed to have the Phillies' number this year, six times.  Yet here we are, just three games left for the season, and the Phillies are winning. Not only are they winning, but winning against teams that matter. When the Dodgers came to town, they had yet to clinch their division. The Phillies took three of four from them. When the Nationals came to town, they were playing for a 100 win season. The Phils won two of three from them, and ensured that there would not be a 100 wins in Washington. In fact, the Phillies have a win...

A somewhat unlikely hero emerged from the Phillies' shut-out of the Braves yesterday: Maikel Franco. After showing promise in the 2015 season, and being the recipient of praise from Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt during the 2016 preseason, Franco's performance at the plate has been disappointing.  With 304 at-bats in 2015, Franco hit .280, with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs.  In 2016, with 581 at-bats, his average fell to .255.  Despite his 25 home runs and 88 RBIs, Manager Pete Mackanin exclaimed that he wanted to see improvement in Franco in 2017.  Instead, Franco's average fell to .231.  With six games left in the season, his home run total is 21 and his RBI total is 70. Franco's sub-par offensive performance, and Freddy Galvis' impressive play at shortstop, caused the Phillies to experiment with rookie J.P Crawford.  Known for being a shortstop for most of his minor league career, Crawford played a few games near the end of the AAA season at third base. ...

How quickly things can change in just three days. Three days ago, Phillies fans were celebrating. The Phils had taken three in a row from the Dodgers, the team with the best record in baseball. The Phillies needed only two more wins, out of ten games remaining, to avoid a one hundred loss season.  But now the Phillies have lost three in a row. Twice, the team has blown a lead after five innings and eventually lost by one run. This is a familiar refrain for Phillies fans, because the team has lost a league-leading thirty-six one run games. Worse, in one game, pitching prospect Ben Lively was blown out with five runs in the first inning, demonstrating that consistency remains a problem for the young pitching staff.  Still, there have been signs of hope in those last three games. Henderson Alvarez, whom the Phillies are giving an end of the season try out after two shoulder surgeries, pitched five scoreless innings last night. The Phillies' rookies continued to shine. Nic...

While understandably, most of the attention has been on the incredible feats of Rhys Hoskins in the last two months of the Phillies' season, it has, to a degree, overshadowed the accomplishments of his teammates.  Take Aaron Altherr, for instance. In the first half of the season, Altherr was the Phillies offense, with speculation as to whether he would be the team's All-Star representative. Injuries cooled down his season, and forced him to the disabled list. Now that Altherr has returned, he has added to the explosive potential of the young Phillies line-up.  Last night, Altherr ripped Clayton Kershaw for the first ever grand slam against the Dodgers' ace, made possible, in part, by a Hoskins walk. It was the second grand slam in Altherr's career. Both have been historic; the first being a rare inside-the-park slam against the Nationals in 2015. Altherr's blast gave the Phillies all the runs they needed to give Nick Pivetta his sixth win of the season. The ...

After going 71-91 in the 2016, the Phillies were hoping that they were on the road to improvement. The team finished better than its 63-99 record in 2015, and were not even in last place in its division. The fans got an opportunity to see some of its promised young talent during the season.  Surely, the Phillies could show that they were on their way to rebuilding a contending team. In the off season, Manager Peter Mackanin expressed his hope that the Phillies could finish at .500 in the 2017 season.  He pushed General Manager Matt Klentak to go after more hitters, and shore up what had been a dismal offense in 2016.  Klentak seemed to respond, signing professional hitter Howie Kendrick and left handed hitter Michael Saunders. In addition to trying to strengthen the offense, Klentak went after veteran pitching, re-signing Jeremy Hellickson, who posted fairly solid numbers on a losing team in 2016, and obtaining Clay Buchholz, who had had some good years with Boston. ...