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.