The Phillies are fun again?
By Sean Lerman
– WBCB 1490 Sports Director
I’m a little surprised that the answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes!”
Going into the all-star break, the team was a paltry 29-62. It was very definitely not fun to watch the team. Personally, I still tuned in for the delightful commentary of Scott Franzke and Larry Anderson, but that, along with the development of rookie-of-the-year candidate Maikel Franco, was just about the only thing worth paying attention to.
Now, the team is 17-7 since the all-star break and the roster looks quite a bit different. With the Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon trades, a new era of Phillies baseball can finally begin. Yes, it’s probably about three years late, but it’s still a relatively exciting time to be a Phillies fan. Since Papelbon was shipped out of town, Ken Giles has been outstanding as the new closer. The 24-year-old has picked up seven saves in as many appearances and allowed just one run in 7.2 innings pitched with 14 strikeouts.
Not that Papelbon was bad in the role by any stretch of the imagination. By just about any metric you want to use to judge his play on the field, he was lights-out. It was his mouth that ran him out of town, and it’s refreshing to have a young guy in the role. While Giles certainly seems to have the confidence and slight levels of insanity it takes to be a successful closer in the league, he doesn’t appear to have the same anti-fan mentality that ultimately spelled Papelbon’s demise in city.
As far as the Cole Hamels trade, that hasn’t had quite the impact at the Major League level, but I now have more confidence in the Phillies’ minor league system to produce quality players than I have since Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard made their way to the majors.
Here are a few of the players that came over in the trade and what they’ve been up to:
Outfielder Nick Williams reported to the AA Reading Fightin’ Phils and in nine games has hit .415 with three home runs.
Starter pitcher Jake Thompson has made two starts at the AA level and is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA with a .200 Batting-Average-Against in 14 innings pitched.
Another starting pitcher, Alec Asher, went straight to AAA Lehigh Valley and has pitched to a 1-0 record with a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings of work.
Also at the AAA level, starter Jerad Eickhoff has pitched two games going 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched.
Now, none of this is to say that the rebuild is done and the Phillies are going to compete for a World Series next year.
They probably won’t be competitive the year after next either.
But the nice thing about the team now is that there is hope. I can watch or listen to a game and think, “Hey, the future may not be that far away after all”.
The past won’t completely be in the rearview until Ryan Howard is wearing another uniform and Chase Utley either goes somewhere else or retires, but with the replenished minor league system in addition to Franco, Giles, César Hernandez, and Odubel Herrerra at the major league level.
I can’t tell you that the Phillies are going to keep up their hot play. In all likelihood, they’ll hit a plateau and go through some more rough patches.
What I can tell you is that I’m going to be a lot more interested in the team the rest of this season than I was for the first half and that yes, the Phillies are definitely fun again.
By Sean Lerman
– WBCB 1490 Sports Director
