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...

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 ...

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. ...

Watching the game last night, one couldn't help but think that Yu Darvish, who becomes a free agent at the end of the season, was putting on an audition for the 2018 Phillies. By the time Darvish left in the sixth inning, he had allowed only four hits, one walk and one unearned run. He struck out seven, including his 200th of the season.  Despite his short outing, he looked good.  A pitcher like Darvish just may be what the Phillies need in 2018.  For the 2015 and 2016 seasons, and the first half of the 2017 season, a major weakness for the Phillies was a lack of offense. But the second half of 2017 saw the promotion of young hitters, such as Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro and Rhys Hoskins. Joining players such as Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr, the Phillies have shown that their young guns can hit and score runs. So much so that the conventional wisdom among Phillies fans is that the team should look for quality pitching in this off-season. The injection of one o...

Speculation about the 2018 Phillies starting rotation has so far focused on familiar names. Aaron Nola, Jared Eickhoff, Vince Velasquez, Nick Pivetta, Mark Leiter, Jr., Zach Eflin, Ben Lively and Jake Thompson have all made starts for the Phils this year, and all figure to be in the fight for major league roster spots in the Spring. One name that hadn't been mention so far is right hander Henderson Alvarez.  Alvarez made his first start for the Phillies last night, after being absent from the major leagues for over a year. Originally signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an international free agent, Alvarez pitched a no-hitter for the Marlins on the last game of the season in 2013 and was an All-Star in 2014.  However, his career had been plagued by shoulder injuries.  After being named the Marlins' Opening Day pitcher in 2015, Alvarez's season ended early when he underwent shoulder surgery in July of that year. The Marlins did not tender him a contract at the end of...