Summon an Exorcist

The Phillies need to find an exorcist, shaman, medicine man, or some kind of spiritual presence to get rid of all the suck that's in the bullpen. 

Get one of those forest fire planes and fill it with holy water and dump into the Phillies bullpen at Citizens Bank Park. I'm all for sacrificing the Phanatic if it will put an end to this bullshit. 

It Keeps Getting Worse

The Phillies defense gave the Mets the lead, and then the bullpen gave them the win. It keeps happening and there's really no reason to think they'll be able to turn things around. The Phils are now 10.5 games out of first and have lost 10 of their last 14. At least they only play the Mets six more times. 

I've been thinking of ways to improve baseball's worst defense, and all I can come up with is trading Rhys Hoskins and moving Kyle Schwarber to first. The defense at first has to be a wash and maybe they can somehow get a decent outfielder in return for the streaky Hoskins. I like Hoskins a lot; he seems like a really good guy. But since the Phils owe Schwarber and Nick Castellanos $150 million for the next five years, Hoskins is expendable. They can't expect to win with defensive liabilities in the outfield.

Or, if they want to get really creative (which will never happen), they'll move JT Realmuto to left and promote Logan O'Hoppe, baseball's hottest hitting catching prospect to take his place behind the plate. Schwarber moves to first.

If they want to target big league outfielders in trades, I'd reach out to Kansas City and see what the Royals want for Andrew Benintendi, who's hitting .327 with an .821 OPS. Benintendi makes $8.5 million this year and is a free agent after the season. The Royals will probably ask for O'Hoppe or pitching prospects Andrew Painter or Mick Abel, but that price is way too high. Maybe prospect Francisco Morales and Odubel Herrera and one more minor leaguer gets it done. 

But something has to happen. They can't wait for Bryce Harper's elbow to improve enough for him to return to the outfield. It's Memorial Day and there are 114 games left. There's time to turn things around, but only by doing something instead of hoping that all the bats get hot at the same time. 

Another Day, Another Shitshow

At least something good came of Friday's defensively challenged loss to the Mets. The Phils called up Bailey Falter to start the game to give the starters an extra day of rest. More on that later. To make room for Falter, the Phils optioned reliever Jose Alvarado to triple A. 

It was a well-earned demotion. Alvarado has been horrific this year, posting a 7.62 ERA in 13 innings of work. In those 13 innings, he's given up 16 hits and 12 walks (2 intentional). He's been really bad for a really bad bullpen. 

The Falter move backfired spectacularly. Sure the starters will get an extra day, but the relievers had plenty of extra work since Falter only lasted 3 innings and gave up 5 runs, 4 hits, and 2 walks. And it took him 81 pitches to do it. Oof. Nick Nelson was next and gave up 3 more runs.

It's time for Joe Girardi to end the Rhys Hoskins at leadoff fiasco and replace him with Jean Segura. Sure Hoskins got on base twice, but he also struck out 3 times. Segura's OPS is 53 points higher than Hoskins'. Or bring up Mickey Moniak, who's hitting .375 with a 1.054 OPS in six games as he comes back from a broken hand. 

And speaking of fiascos, rookie shortstop Bryson Stott continues to struggle. His first-inning error led to 3 Mets runs and he was hitless again, dropping his average to comatose .114. He needs to go back to the minors to find his stroke and Johan Camargo needs to play short until Didi Gregorius is healthy. Or maybe Nick Mason can come back up from triple A and recapture some of the magic he had last year. I can't believe I'm actually anxious for Didi to return. 

This team has too many guys struggling and has to play almost perfect baseball to win games. That hasn't been the case, as the Phils have lost 8 of 12 and are 8.5 games behind the first-place Mets. They've lost 7 of 10 to the Mets already this year. Make it stop. 

Something Has to Happen

Since winning four straight on the West Coast last week, the Phillies have done squat. They've lost 5 of 6 and have been outscored 27-12. It's time to do something drastic. 

They're already 8 games behind the first-place Mets, who keep winning without Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. This was the time to make up ground on the Mets, but they keep falling in the standings. 

Something has to happen. I suggest getting rid of Odubel Herrera. His ridiculous attempt to score on a medium-distance line drive last night is typical of his base-running history. He was out by 20 feet. Just because a guy is fast doesn't mean he's a good baserunner. And he's not. He's terrible. 

So if you release or demote Herrera, who takes his place? Might I suggest reaching out to the Pittsburgh Pirates and seeing what it will take to get Brian Reynolds, a former all-star center fielder? It would probably take a pretty big package to get Reynolds–something along the lines of either of the Phillies' top pitching prospects (Mick Abel or Andrew Painter), hot catching prospect Logan O'Hoppe, another prospect like outfielder Simon Muzziotti, and Rhys Hoskins. Reynolds fills the void in center and Alec Bohm moves to first, with Bryson Stott and Johan Camargo taking over at third.

Or you promote Mickey Moniak, who is recovering from a broken wrist on a rehab assignment in Clearwater. Moniak was going to make the team out of spring training, but was hurt in the last game of the spring. Moniak is 3 for 7 with Clearwater, trying to prove he's ready for MLB action. He's ready. You can keep Roman Quinn as the other outfielder, since he's a switch-hitter, or bring up Dalton Guthrie from triple A, who's hitting .280 and playing center. 

But the thing that usually happens when a team that was expected to contend is underperforming is that the manager gets fired. Phillies president Dave Dombrowski inherited Joe Girardi, so he's not really invested in him. And Girard's contract is up after this season. He's the lamest of ducks, leading a team that's 4 games under .500 and 8 games out of first. 

Maybe a new voice in the clubhouse will work. But I think having a better option in center would have a bigger impact. Herrera is a loser, and everybody knows what kind of player and person he is. Replacing him with a rookie who was poised to break out or a former all-star might be enough to get this team going. There are still 122 games left, but it's getting late early. 

Bats Wake Up While Most of Us Slept

I hate West Coast road trips. I can't stay up late enough to watch and I have to wait until the morning to find out what happened. But that's been a good thing this weekend, so far. 

The Phillies have been wearing their hitting shoes, winning the first three games against the Dodgers by a a combined score of 29-20. Bryce Harper has been on an absolute tear this past week, going 14 for 23 with  six doubles, three homers, and eight RBI. That's good for a .609 batting average and an absolutely insane OPS of 1.904. If those aren't player of the week numbers, I don't know what are. His batting average has climbed from .241 to .305, and he's doing all this with a tear in his elbow. 

The best thing about this is that it's against a really good team, one picked to win the World Series. I'd still be happy if it was against the Pirates or Reds, but putting a beating on the Dodgers has been pretty nice to watch. 

The Phils are now 6-2 in their last eight games and have climbed back to .500. They're still 5.5 games behind the Mets, but the team is showing a lot more life than they did a week ago. They're second in the National League in batting average and runs scored and first in OPS and OPS+. And the pitching has been good enough through this stretch. 

The Phils go for the sweep today with Aaron Nola facing Michael Grove, a 25-year-old righty making his MLB debut. He hasn't gone more than 4 innings in any of his starts but is holding AA hitters to a .180 batting average. But like I said up above, this Phillies team isn't some AA squad. They should be able to pound this kid early and often. 

Mind-Numbing Loss

This year was supposed to different. They added Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber to add some thump to the offense. They brought in Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, and Jeurys Familia to shore up the bullpen. 

But it's not different. It's the same crap we've seen for the last 10 years of playoff-less baseball. On nights when the starting pitching is great, the bullpen bombs. Or the offense is anemic. 

It's been more than 10 hours since the end of last night's debacle against the Mets and I'm still pissed off. I know it's not normal and healthy to be affected by the outcome of a regular season game. But when you blow a 7-1 lead in the ninth inning against your biggest rival with the most obnoxious fan base, you get angry. 

When you're up 7-1 against the first-place team in the ninth inning, you don't bring in a guy with a 5.40 ERA who gave up three runs in a third of an inning to the same team earlier in the week. But Joe Girardi did. James Norwood, who has no business pitching in the ninth inning, came in and did James Norwood things. He gave up four runs on four hits. On came Knebel, who usually starts innings, came into to try and close things down. Nope. 

They've wasted back to back brilliant starts from Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. They've lost four in a row and have three more games against the Mets this weekend. The weather is supposed to be awful tonight and tomorrow, so maybe they'll get lucky and get rained out. 

The schedule for the rest of the month is an absolute nightmare. They have seven games against the Dodgers, three against the Padres, four against the Braves, two against the Giants, and after this weekend, three more at the end of the month against the Mets. 

This team is in big trouble and needs to get its shit together in a hurry. Otherwise, it's going to look a lot like the last 10 seasons.