That Balls Outta Here
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Phillies: The All-2010s “Forgotten Phillies” Lineup

By Travis Strominger

PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 24: Odubel Herrera #37, Jeff Francoeur #3, Darin Ruf #18, Ryan Howard #6, Andres Blanco #4 and Ben Revere #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrate their win against the Atlanta Braves on April 24, 2015 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - APRIL 24: Odubel Herrera #37, Jeff Francoeur #3, Darin Ruf #18, Ryan Howard #6, Andres Blanco #4 and Ben Revere #2 of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrate their win against the Atlanta Braves on April 24, 2015 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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MIAMI, FL – SEPTEMBER 02: Andres Blanco #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies is congratulated by teammates after scoring in the eighth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on September 2, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images) /

Shortstop: Andres Blanco

Andres Blanco was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Kansas City Royals in 2000 and first appeared in the majors in 2004. He had two three-year stints with some gaps on either side before coming to the Phillies organization. I remember Blanco from his days in AAA with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs more than I do from his time in the majors.

He played 120 games for Lehigh Valley in 2012 before reappearing in 2014. After 55 games with the Pigs, the Phillies decided to call him up because, hey, why not? The Phillies were on their way to a 73-89 record and Jimmy Rollins couldn’t play every single game in his swan-song year in Philadelphia.

Blanco wound up playing for parts of four seasons with the Phillies. He played all four infield positions, plus a bonus inning at left field in 2016 and at pitcher in 2017. He was a good utility player for a rebuilding team, with an fWAR (FanGraphs WAR) of 1.8 in his 301 career games with the team. His final stand in Philadelphia was in 2017, when he received a $3 million contract and followed it up by hitting .192 with an OPS of .549 as the Phillies paved the way for Maikel Franco, Scott Kingery, and J.P. Crawford.

Blanco is still around – he spent 2018 in AAA playing for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and 2019 as a member of the Gwinnett Stripers.

Third Baseman: Michael Young

As the Phillies clang on to a glimmer of hope with the Ruben Amaro, Jr.-esque view that you could still try to win with a core of washed-up older players, the Phillies turned around and traded for a past-his-prime 7-time All-Star coming off a mediocre age-35 season who was owed $16 million.

Michael Young was a nice hitter in his time with Texas. He had 200 hits in 6 different seasons. His career average was .300 and played at least 140 games in 10 of the previous 11 seasons.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – AUGUST 23: Michael Young #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies plays the field during the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park on August 23, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 4-3. (Photo by Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA – AUGUST 23: Michael Young #10 of the Philadelphia Phillies plays the field during the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park on August 23, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Phillies won 4-3. (Photo by Brian Garfinkel/Getty Images) /

But despite a 2008 Gold Glove, Young was never a good fielder. And that likely hurt his chances of becoming a great player. Since Baseball Reference doesn’t have any stats for Young’s DRS before 2003, we’d likely imagine that his totals would suffer a little more. In just 99 games at third base for the Phillies in 2013, Young had a DRS of -19. Add in another -4 at first base in an additional 26 games.

His career DRS? -155.

That’s probably something that Ruben should have checked before trading for him. While the Rangers ended up paying half of the $16 million he was owed on the deal, you couldn’t try a prospect?

Young was traded to the Dodgers at the August 31 waiver deadline in exchange for Rob Rasmussen, who never played a major-league game for the Phillies. Rasmussen had a big-league career of 30 games for the Blue Jays and Mariners.

Young retired after the 2013 season and has since spent time in the Rangers front office as a special assistant to the GM.

Did you remember those guys? Yeah, I didn’t really either. But that’s the fun of it! Now, for the outfield:

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