Free Agent Targets

Now that the World Series is over (and congratulations to the Boston Red Sox and all of their Masshole fans), it's time to focus on the most wonderful shopping time of the year–MLB free agency.

Teams can begin signing players this Saturday. While all the focus will be on Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, the Phillies have other needs. Lots of other needs.

I've already pushed here for the Phils to sign left-handed starter Patrick Corbin, who pitched this past season with Arizona. The Phils can't afford to wait for one of Vince Velasquez, Zack Eflin, or Nick Pivetta to become consistent. Corbin struck out 246 hitters in 200 innings this past season, while posting an ERA of 3.15 and a WHIP of 1.050. Sign him ASAP. He's just what the Phillies need.

Another area is catcher. As much as I'd love to see Wilson Ramos return, he's probably going to get big money to catch and DH somewhere in the American League. So my candidate to share catching duties with Jorge Alfaro is Kurt Suzuki.

Suzuki hit .271 with a .332 OBP for the Braves this season in 388 plate appearances. He hit 12 homers and handled a very good and very young pitching staff. And he killed the Phillies when the two teams met. Yes, he's 35 years old, but you're not signing him to play every day. And if the Phils sign him, it takes a valuable asset away from the Braves. Addition by subtraction.

38 Years Ago Tonight

1⃣0⃣ / 2⃣1⃣ / 8⃣0⃣ pic.twitter.com/GT13N0gn4Q

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 22, 2018

Manny Machado is Kind of a Dick

Free-agent-to-be and possible future Phillie Manny Machado was fined $10,000 by MLB today for kicking the foot of Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar as Machado was attempting to beat a throw in the 10th inning.

This comes after Machado hit a ground ball to short and Machado didn't exactly run all-out to try and beat the throw. After the game, Machado said he's not exactly "Johnny Hustle" when it comes to busting it down the line.

And then there's his hard slide into second, which in years past would have been legal, but because of the Utley Rule, was reviewed and ruled OK.

For a guy approaching the payday of a lifetime, he's acting like quite the douchebag. You'd think he'd go all-out in every at-bat and turn into the second coming of Ozzie Smith while playing short. But this series gives you pause. Do you really want the Phillies to pay this guy more than $300 million and not get maximum effort? You'd think after languishing with the Orioles for the last few years, Machado would be thrilled to be in the spotlight and want to show everyone why he's worth a huge contract.

Instead, he's just being a dick. And it might cost him.

RIP, Marlins Derp Fish HR Sculpture

Derek Jeter, president of the Miami Marlins and a man devoid of personality, has gotten his wish and as a result, the ridiculous fish-themed Art Deco home run monstrosity will be removed from Marlins Park. 

I’m not a big fan of the sculpture but that’s not the point. The marlins are bad and not entertaining the home rub sculpture is bad but entertaining. It looks like it was purchased at Liberace's garage sale. It was loud and garish and tacky. But at least it was entertaining. 

Nobody comes to see the Marlins anyway. They were dead last in MLB in attendance this past season, drawing 811,000 fans to their glorified airline terminal of a ballpark.  

Derek Jeter hates fun. He was a Yankee. The Yankees are not fun. They’re evil and bad.  Jeter continues the Marlins tradition of trading away good players in pursuit of eternal suckitude. Christian Yelich was dealt to the Brewers and he has his new team 2 games from the World Series and will probably win national league MVP. 

What’s next? Will Jeter order the fish tanks behind home plate emptied because the colors are too bright? Is he trying to remake the Marlins in his own boring vanilla image? 

Losing the derp fish home run sculpture would be like losing the bell at Citizens Bank Park. It’s the first thing you think of when the ballpark comes to mind. But Mr. Generic hates fun. We hate generic. The derp fish was about all the Marlins had doing for them. And now that’s gone too, courtesy of Jeter.  

So Much for Machado

With news that Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius will need Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow, the friggin' Yankees have instantly become the front-runners to sign soon-to-be free agent Manny Machado.

The Yankees have the deepest pockets in all of baseball, and will do whatever it takes to catch the Red Sox. And without Didi, they'll need a shortstop. Machado is a shortstop. The Phillies have been rumored to be smitten with Machado, and who can blame them? He's 26, and has averaged 31 home runs and 90 RBIs per season in his young career. He's a big bat the Phillies sorely need to go along with Rhys Hoskins.

So the Phils will have to outbid the Yankees for Machado this winter. Good luck with that. Dammit.

Future Former Phillie of the Day - Part 5

Maikel Franco's fate was all but sealed when team president Andy McPhail said this about this third baseman in his season post-mortem: “I mean, the other team, you know, maybe they’ll find the key, or maybe it is a function of just experience and learning yourself and what you have to do to stay focused and energetic the entire season.”

Yeah, Franco is as good as gone. And it's kind of a shame because the guy shows so much promise. But you never know which Franco you're gonna get. For a guy with power, going 14 straight games without a home run and 11 straight games without an RBI is inexcusable.

He's not a high on-base percentage player, but he doesn't strike out a ton, at least compared to his teammates. He's just maddeningly inconsistent. After 533 games over 5 seasons with the Phils, they seems to think they know what they have. Which isn't anything extra special. So it's time to move on.

Thursday Night Money Grab

Thursday Night Football is stupid.

I know it's all about the money and getting millions of extra eyeballs on an NFL game on a weeknight. But the NFL also claims to be concerned about player safety. Which explains the absolutely incredible quarterback protection rules in place this season. After carefully studying the rulebook, it seems as if you look at a quarterback cross-eyed, you're flagged for a 15-yard personal foul. And don't even think about saying something mean to the QB. Just don't go there. You'll get suspended.

But if the league was so concerned about the players, they wouldn't force them onto the field with just 3 days of rest and recovery from their last game. There's no way in hell players can get anywhere near to game ready in that amount of time.

The result is sloppy football, lots of penalties, and probably lots of injuries. But hey, at the least the league and owners are cashing in. There's plenty of players around.

Thursday Night Football prediction - Eagles 15, Giants 11. It's gonna be ugly and messy and stupid and the weather will suck and I'll go to bed at halftime because I'm old and can't stay up late enough.

Flying Low

The Philadelphia Flyers started out the 2018-2019 season in great shape, beating the Western Conference champion Las Vegas Golden Knights 5-2. Since then, the Flyers have dropped 2 straight and have been outscored 13-4.

They got booed in their home opener last night, after getting absolutely destroyed by the San Jose Sharks, 8-2. And they deserved it. Even team captain Claude Giroux admitted the team played like shit last night.

The only highlights were Wayne Simmonds third goal in 3 games and the official regular season debut of Gritty, America's mascot.

The defense was suspect going into the season, with only Shane Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov providing stability on the blue line. The offense is essentially the same as last season, except free agent James Van Riemsdyk was supposed to add some scoring. But, he's out of action for about 6 weeks with the dreaded lower body injury.

Then there's the goaltending situation. Brian Elliott is the epitome of league average. The team continues to search for a franchise goalie, and they probably have one they just sent to the AHL in Carter Hart. I would have loved to see the Flyers make Hart the starter with the big club this season. But if the Flyers continue to lose and lose big, we'll probably see Hart a lot sooner than people expected.

But early on, it looks like the same old, same old from the Flyers. They'll struggle to make the playoffs and if they do, it'll probably be another early exit.

Defensive Savior

There's only one individual that can save the Eagles defense this season.

He's not the cornerback we deserve. He's the cornerback we need.

Is There a Plan B?

It's assumed that the Phillies will sign at least one of the two top free agents available this off-season, either Manny Machado or Bryce Harper.

But what happens if Machado is having so much fun in his playoff run with the Dodgers he decides to sign with them, no matter what anyone else offers? Or if Harper signs with the Cubs to be with his BFF and fellow Las Vegan, Kris Bryant?

Is there a Plan B? Does it involve offering the Angels everything under the sun for Mike Trout? The Angels were said to be trying to extend his deal to make him an Angel for life. Trout has a no-trade clause. Theoretically, he could squash trades to just about any team so he could play for his favorite team growing up, your Philadelphia Phillies. Would the Angels trade him rather than risk losing him for nothing in free agency? What would it cost to get him?



Trout as a Phillie isn't realistic. I sure as hell hope Matt Klentak and Co. have lots of contingency plans in place. Because Plans A and B feel pretty flimsy at best.

Future Former Phillie of the Day Part 4

For whatever reason, the Phillies decided to throw a 3-year, $60 million contract at Carlos Santana last winter. I still don't understand why, when they had a perfectly good first baseman in Rhys Hoskins.

I never wanted Santana here in the first place. In September 2017, I wanted JD Martinez to be the free agent target. All he did was turn in an MVP-caliber season for the Red Sox. But for whatever reason, GM Matt Klentak and Co. love Santana. And I don't get it.

He hit .229 with an OPS of .766. His WAR of 1.9 was 11th among all first basemen and would place him 17th among third basemen. Because for some reason, the Phils think Santana can play third base. With the defense being as porous as it was this past season, the last thing you want is a former catcher/first basemen with extremely limited reps being your everyday third baseman.

Santana's OPS and batting average have been sliding down since 2016. He'll be 33 in April. Surely there's another sucker (I mean GM) out there who finds Santana's skill set attractive. If the Phils do find a taker for him, they'll get next to nothing in return and probably have to pay 75 percent of his remaining salary.

Who am I kidding? Santana isn't going anywhere. Might as well get used to the idea of him being the new third baseman. Sigh.

In Memoriam

Before the season started, I predicted the Phillies would win 84 games. They won 80. They were actually in first place for about a month. Before the wheels fell off. And the bus crashed off a cliff. And exploded into a fireball. The last six weeks were not pretty.

In 2017, the Phils won 66 games. They improved by 14 games this season. But are they better? In 2017, they scored 4.26 runs per game and had an OPS of .723. The 2018 Phils scored 4.18 runs with an OPS of .707.

The pitching was better this season than in 2017. They were 1 of 9 teams in MLB without a complete game from a starter. How things have changed. In 1972, Steve Carlton (remember him?), had 30 complete games. 30!

Anyway, the 2018 pitching staff had an ERA of 4.14 and allowed 4.49 runs per game. In 2017, the ERA was 4.55 and allowed 4.83 runs per game. Most of the improvement can be attributed to Aaron Nola, who will finish in the top 3 for the Cy Young Award.

So many hitters under-perfomed this season–Cesar Hernandez, Odubel Herrera, Carlos Santana, Aaron Altherr, and Scott Kingery, ranged from disappointing to awful. When you look back, it's hard to believe this team was in first place at all, let alone for a month.

But you can't talk about this season without talking about the crash. After Aug. 5, they won 17 games and lost 34. What little hitting there was all but disappeared. The pitching vanished.

GM Matt Klentak said the young team got tired and that's the reason for the skid. Bullshit. They simply weren't good enough and somehow managed to play winning baseball for 4 months. And then there was Gabe Kapler, or as I like to call him, the Human Call to the Bullpen. The rookie manager was guilty of overmanaging through much of the season. I love baseball analytics. But I think Kapler & Co. relied on them too much.

This off-season will be the most interesting in quite some time. They absolutely cannot stand pat. Major changes are needed. They have mountains of cash to throw at free agents like Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. The big thing will be convincing one or both of them to play here. And it'll be interesting to see what kind of return they can get in the trade market for guys like Herrera and Hernandez.

And speaking of trades, please, for the love of God, get rid of Carlos Santana. Pay 80 percent of his contract to whoever will take him. Or get Gritty to drag him into the sewer system. I still don't understand why they signed him in the first place when JD Martinez was available.

Nobody expected this team to make the playoffs. An 80-82 record would have been a lot easier to deal with had they hovered around .500 all season. But the fact that they teased us with all those days in first place and then crashed so pathetically makes this so much harder to deal with.

Oh well. Only 178 days until Opening Day.