Phillies: Five reasons to be excited about the stretch run
The Phillies currently sit in second place, by a tiny fraction, in the NL East with a record of 64-51. This is the best baseball that has been played in Philadelphia since 2011. It’s time to get excited and tune in.
Listen, we understand that your time is about to be stretched thin with the return of the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles and what not. It is fantasy draft season, preseason, and ultimate bad take season on your favorite major network.
As football begins its yearly takeover, there is something brewing across the parking lot from Lincoln Financial Field. A little Philly Special of a different brand, if you can stomach one more reference.
The Phillies are second in the National League East eleven days days into August despite having one more win than the first-place Braves. They still lead the Nationals by 5.5 games. There are 46 remaining games on the schedule, so there’s plenty of baseball left to play.
Every team has its flaws, and this team is no different. Prior to the trade deadline, the Phillies fielded the youngest roster in the National League. They can be really tough to watch on offense at times and their defense continues to be a detriment, but we can save that for another day.
Today, let’s focus on the reasons to be optimistic about the stretch run for this Phillies team. Who would have thought that they would be buyers at the trade deadline and in the thick of the pennant race this deep into the season? Here are five reasons to look forward to the next seven weeks of Phils baseball.
The Trades
After watching the bigger names on the market, such as Manny Machado and a slew of relievers, get traded to places not called Philadelphia, fans started to get anxious as Matt Klentak stood his ground and trade reports began to quiet down. Much to everyone’s relief, the Phillies brass went out and made some impressive moves that both help them in the short-term and do them no harm in the long-term.
On July 27, SNY reported that the club was able to acquire Asdrubal Cabrera from the Mets in exchange for the 10th overall prospect Franklyn Kilome. Cabrera is likely a rental player, but is in the midst of one of his best seasons at 32 years old. On the season, he is hitting .272/.324/.482 with 20 home runs and 64 RBI.
The returns on the Cabrera trade have already been tangible, as he has come through with a couple of big hits.
The new guy!
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) August 5, 2018
Asdrúbal Cabrera gives the Phillies the lead in the eighth! pic.twitter.com/EkfHw2o1ul
He is a bat that the lineup badly needed.
On the day of the July 31 trade deadline, the Phils acquired 31-year-old catcher Wilson Ramos from the Rays and LHP Aaron Loup from the Blue Jays for, essentially, a bag of peanuts and Crackerjacks. No disrespect to the “player-to-be-named” or the cash, if that ends up being the outcome. They were able to get Ramos at such a discounted price because he is on the last year of his contract and he was on the DL with a hamstring injury. Loup should help bolster a surprisingly hot Phillies bullpen.
Philadelphia Phillies
Ramos should return in mid-August from his injury, which is great news for this team. Plain and simple, his addition to the lineup should make a big difference. He is hitting a slash line of .297/.346/.488 with 14 home runs and 53 RBI in 293 at-bats. The Phillies catchers, this season, have hit .237/.311/.374 with 11 home runs and 42 RBI in 439 at-bats. We can move on.
Yesterday, the Phillies traded for 1B Justin Bour from the Marlins. It is not a move that will provide much fanfare and it is not an alternative for all of the Carlos Santana haters out there, but he will provide some additional pop off the bench with the ability to spot-start.
Bour is hitting just .227 on the season, only a couple of points higher than Santana’s .219 average, but he does have 19 home runs and 54 RBI in 374 at-bats this year.
The difference between the trade for Bour and those of Cabrera and Ramos is team control. If they so choose, the Phillies have Bour under contract for two more seasons. Considering they acquired him for only a minor league pitcher, it seems like a big win for the Phils.
The lineup
If you have watched the Phillies at all this season, you may have noticed that the offensive lineup can go completely cold for stretches. They also seem to struggle against inferior, or what you would perceive as inferior, pitching. But when this team is on a roll, it can be a lot of fun to watch.
One of the major positives of the Asdrubal Cabrera trade has been the ability for the Phillies to put Scott Kingery on the bench. Hopefully, the kid can put it together and become the solid player that the organization thought they were getting when they paid him legitimate money before he ever took a major league at-bat. He has been an absolute nightmare in his rookie season, there is no longer any way to sugar coat his performance.
Cabrera has made a difference in the lineup already, and NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Corey Seidman pointed out that he just provides more of what the Phillies offense needs. You can quickly tell when you watch them play that the veteran infielder swings a legitimate bat.
When Ramos returns from the DL and can take starts from Andrew Knapp and Jorge Alfaro, get ready for an even more dangerous lineup. Replacing the underwhelming production, to put it mildly, of the Phils’ catchers with the offensive prowess of Ramos is extremely exciting.
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This team is not going to wow anyone with their batting average, but in terms of pure offensive production they will stack up with just about anybody in the league. Per CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin, they are the only team in the league who has seven players with at least 14 home runs and 39 RBI. Coming from someone who watches almost every game, I can say that is both an impressive and surprisingly statistic.
Don’t look now, but the Phillies bench has become much deeper all-of-a-sudden. With the trade acquisitions, the roster has become infused with a veteran presence and offensive ability. Three days before Asdrubal Cabrera joined the club, NJ.com’s Bill Evans published an article pointing out the bench as a glaring weakness to the sustainability of the team’s success. Now, it looks as if Klentak may have put together a postseason-worthy roster and quelled some of that stress.
The pitching
The starting rotation of Aaron Nola, Jake Arrieta, Zach Eflin, Nick Pivetta, and Vince Velasquez has been great this year. There have been some stretches along the way where guys have struggled with command and the defense behind them has fallen apart, but it has been a truly incredible season for the Phillies starters.
They decided that, since they had already been dominant all year, there was no reason to slow down after the All-Star break. As Scott Lauber of Philly.com pointed out, the starters had a stretch of eight games where they went for 55.1 innings pitched with a 1.46 ERA and just nine earned runs. They have been a joy to watch and it would be great to see them maintain their stuff down the stretch.
The latest development has been even more encouraging. Now not only have the starters been taking care of business, the bullpen has been great.
Phillies pitching since July 1:
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) August 8, 2018
Bullpen 2.70 ERA -- Best in majors
Starters 3.26 ERA -- Third-best in majors
We have pointed out the bullpen struggles here, and it was hard to remain sane when Hector Neris took the mound with a one-run lead in the ninth. Now, the Phillies seem to have a slew of guys that can eat up innings. Tommy Hunter is bouncing back from his early-season woes and Victor Arano and Austin Davis have become rock-solid relievers for this team.
The Phillies do not have any one clear closer, as Prosportsnotes.com pointed out, but Pat Neshek and Seranthony Dominguez are their best relievers and tend to get the call in game-winning situations. It is time to find out if the bullpen can continue to impress, and possibly improve, down the stretch.
The manager
It is time to admit it, folks. Gabe Kapler is a good manager, and he might become a great one. He has a good front office behind him providing the talent and he seems to be a leader of men. We have reached a weird place where it feels like the criticisms are coming from people who do not watch the games, but get their Phillies information strictly from Twitter.
The shifts have been unconventional, but by all accounts they seem to be working. After pulling pitchers too early in the beginning of the season, Kapler learned and began to let them go later into games. The double-switches can be frustrating and head-scratching, and maybe those will prove to be a mistake over time. But, more often than not, whatever Gabe has done has worked. The clubhouse is much tighter than it has been in recent years, which is a testament to the culture that the first-year manager has fostered.
The guy is always positive, possibly to a fault. So much so that he is driving writers crazy. He would never throw a player under the bus in any circumstances. It seems genuine. Most of the time. I am beginning to believe that he does it on purpose when prodded for criticisms and flaws of the team, which kind of makes me like him even more. His skin is not too thin for Philadelphia.
We have a young manager leading a young team in the right direction. I think that I’m missing the problem here. Let’s embrace this guy, he could bring Philadelphia its next trophy.
The ballpark
The Phillies have been lights out at Citizen’s Bank Park this season, sporting a National League-best home record of 38-18. That is a reason to get very excited, because they will play 25 of the final 46 games of the season at home. If the Phils can maintain a pace close to that, their chances of winning the NL East will vastly improve.
There are still 33 remaining divisional games for the Phillies to close out the year, so the division is wide open. The Nationals sit just 5.5 games back, so they remain firmly within striking distance, and the Braves are on a roll. Luckily for the red and white pinstripes, 20 of those 33 games will be played at Citizen’s Bank Park.
Advantage: Phillies.
I truly believe that this team would thrive with the backing of the city. Rhys Hoskins agrees.
Rhys Hoskins: "The crowd last night was the first time I felt that kind of intensity at home. It's something that I never want to not feel again." pic.twitter.com/71np9wpzHJ
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) July 24, 2018
The home field advantage of the last squad to consistently make runs in Philadelphia has returned, but now we need fans to embrace it. With a team in the fight to win the division and return to the postseason for the first time in six years, the hope is that the attendance will rise.
It appears that people have begun to come out to the ballpark and the average attendance is up from 24,714 through June 25 to 33,782 per game. That is an encouraging increase that should continue down the playoff stretch. They’re, however, 11th among the 15 National League teams in attendance with 1,556,264 fans entering the gates this season.
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Either way, it is time to get out to the ballpark and help propel your Phillies into the postseason.