That Balls Outta Here
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Phillies…something, something…trade Odubel Herrera

By John Town

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 13: Odubel Herrera #37 of the Philadelphia Phillies walks off the field after being called out at third base after trying to tag up from second base on a fly ball in the fifth inning during a game against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park on August 13, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Mets won 6-2. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 13: Odubel Herrera #37 of the Philadelphia Phillies walks off the field after being called out at third base after trying to tag up from second base on a fly ball in the fifth inning during a game against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park on August 13, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Mets won 6-2. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /
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Odubel Herrera made another mental error in Sunday’s loss to the Mets so it’s clearly time for the Phillies to get rid of him because he is the worst.

Once again Odubel Herrera made another mental error, and it was one that hurt the Phillies. In the fifth inning, Philadelphia had the bases loaded with no outs. Nick Williams hit a fly ball to center field, but it wasn’t deep enough for Freddy Galvis to tag up and score. When Michael Conforto threw the ball in to Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, the ball skipped away from him several feet.

Herrera, seeing this error, figured Galvis would try and score and made a beeline for third base. He put his head down until he made it to third base, where he saw that Galvis hadn’t moved at all. Herrera was easily tagged out, much to the groaning and dismay of Phillies fans.

Mental errors like this come a dime a dozen with Herrera, as he has been punished for them several times before.

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This time around, manager Pete Mackanin actually supported Herrera in his error as he owned up to it. Mackanin said he wants to keep Herrera around, despite the continued errors: [quote via Ryan Lawrence of Philly Voice]

"“I’d prefer, instead of looking at all the positives and the negatives, I prefer to say that he’s more positive than negative and if you look back on the last six, seven weeks, he has not made many mistakes,” Mackanin said.“Today was an innocent mistake. He just didn’t keep his head up. That’s the only thing he did. So I’ll take him any day.”"

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In fact, since the All-Star Break, Herrera has been the best player in all of baseball according to Fangraphs’ WAR. His 2.1 fWAR in 28 games in the second half is better than Chris Taylor, Charlie Blackmon, Jose Altuve, and Mike Trout. Herrera’s 195 wRC+ is second among qualified hitters and his 1.148 OPS and .474 weighted on-base average are both good for third overall.

Herrera is well on his way to another four-WAR season, but that isn’t good enough for some people. Obviously he of all people is hurting the team far too much to be worth keeping around.

Trading Herrera will clearly help this team more than it will hurt them. Not the fact that they have the worst qualified first baseman and third baseman in WAR in all of baseball in Tommy Joseph and Maikel Franco. Or the inconsistent pitching and constant injuries to the pitching staff (outside Aaron Nola, of course). But no, it’s Herrera hurting this team and he’s the one this team needs to rid itself of.

Next: Adam Haseley promoted to Single-A Lakewood

Mental errors or not, Odubel Herrera is the team’s center fielder of the future and fans that don’t like him will just have to live with it.

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