The MacPhaillies - 2015 Show Phillies - philliesfan136's Dynasty

philliesfan136's Dynasty Blog

The MacPhaillies - 2015 Show Phillies

Posted on July 10, 2015 at 12:47 AM.

(0)

Darkness, our Friend

It's May now in 2016, and I thought we'd take the next step after going above .500 last season. That is not the case, to be blunt. We've fallen into the depths at 9-20, conceivably because of the formation of a younger, less-experienced roster. The mid-20 year-olds are having a arduous time as an ensemble. The tumble back down to obscurity should set into motion the final tread of the rebuild - only Cole Hamels, Ben Revere, and Jaime Garcia strike me as unlikely to be in our plans going forward. Devin Mesoraco is a free agent-to-be but I'm not entertaining that thought until he slows down (.292/4/14) at the plate.

True enough, the experiment to run with first and second-year players like Christian Walker (.206/6/15), Joe Panik (.212/2/12), Maikel Franco (.228/6/17), J.P. Crawford (.244/1/7), and Steven Souza (.250/2/9) has fired against the club. It's a work in progress, naturally, so I aim to let it ride for the whole season if possible.

I might not be as lenient with the hurlers because of the sheer fact that there is an abundance of them from MLB to Single-A. Aaron Nola (30.2 IP, 0-2, 6.46) and Jesse Biddle (30.2 IP, 3-2, 3.82) have Ben Lively, Mike Lorenzen, Zach Lee, Mark Appel, Kyle Freeland, et al. on their trail.

I scanned across the 29 teams and would have inquired into rather many trade targets, had we been anywhere in the vicinity of contention. More explicitly: 2B/SS Josh Rutledge and SP Shelby Miller. Rutledge was left in the cold after Colorado signed Daniel Murphy and he would give Panik a run for his money. Miller is one of copious arms in St. Louis' workforce, who will be deemed of high value in spite of that positional scope. It would appear trades for them are out of the question.

Cole has made himself a tough sell in month one, winning no decisions (0-3) and averaging 5 runs a start over 36 innings pitched. I'm pinning my hopes on the 32 year-old lefty's vindication this summer, so that we may at last get a package from a winning team that can get him another ring.

The bullpen is a weak suit comparable to 2014, in the face of a revamp. I stationed Blake Treinen, Oliver Drake, and Shane Watson as fresh faces in the 'pen but as an entity they have been inefficient. There's further relievers coveting those spots including Pedro Baez, Vinnie Pestano, Nick Wittgren, Nick Burdi, and Lisalverto Bonilla.