Philadelphia Baseball History

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. ...

Original thinking is not necessarily the hallmark of sports reporting these days.   It’s more like a pack mentality.   Here we are at the beginning of Spring Training.   No games have been played, and the roster has not been set.   Indeed, for the Phillies, this is a year of major transitions.   Yet, before anyone truly knows who is going to be on the major league club, all of the major outlets are simply assuming that the Phils will be as bad, if not worse, than last year. Quite frankly, I find this nothing more than lazy reporting.   Certainly, the theme for the Phillies this year is that of change; long awaited change.   Thankfully, the new guard has chosen to build through youth.   What this means is that the major league roster will be full of players with a limited track record from which to judge.   For those who make a living off of prognostication, the Phillies present a particularly difficult problem, that of uncertainty. ...