2023 Phillies Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Good win today. Lorenzen will help a lot. Now if Turner & Castellanos can straighten out, then things will look a lot better. 10 home games vs weak teams.
Cole Hamels is done stealing money.
One of the great baseball story tellers is Andy Strasburg who was a long time employee of the Padres. You could listen to his stories for hours and the stories might involve marginal players to baseball royalty. He told a great story. Long story short, Andy introduced a guy and gal who eventually got married. After awhile they had a kid and Andy took an interest in the kid since he took an interest in baseball. He had some talent and in high school he started to say he wanted to play professionally. He told Andy his goal was to be drafted and signed for $1m bonus. Andy told him that the chances of playing professionally were remote at best and to never lose track of his studies. The kid continued to get better. One day Andy visited the family and asked the youngster what would happen if a team offered him $900,000+ but not the $1m. The kid said he wouldn’t sign since it was $1m or bust. Andy told the kid that this was the right answer and showed his determination.
By now you know who the kid of the couple he introduced is. It was Cole.
He pitched 3.1 innings in one outing and gave up 3 earned for the Braves in 2020 while collecting $15mm. Bank robbery.
Everyone talks about those two but what about Schwarbs? He’s battin’ stinkin’ .180 as a lead off hitter yet no one is talking about him - he needs to move down !
Nola not helping himself for his 2024 contract. He's certainly not going to get top-of-the-rotation money.
Nola = Just A Guy. No way does a team offer him top money (ex: $20 million a year). The Phillies saved SO much money by sticking to their negotiating guns.
It’s not so much AAV, it’s totals $$ committed. Rodon got a 6 year deal for over $160m I think. I’m sure Nola camp thinks he’s worth more than that, this year regardless. If it was $20m a year, the Phillies would have ponied that up in a heartbeat. I’m thinking they were looking for closer to $30m a year. You have to remember that’s Wheeler is coming up as well so that losing both Nola and Wheeler shorter term is weighing on them. You assume slotting in Painter, McGarry, and Abel but that’s a stretch thinking all pan out. I think Lorenzen might be someone they evaluate beyond this year.
They have some big decisions coming.
Wheeler is an obvious candidate for an extension. I think Nola has played himself out of that contract range. My hunch is he’ll have to settle for a one-year, prove-it extension if he still wants that kind of long term deal.
He’s been extremely average by almost every measure this year.
After varying levels of injury and ineffectiveness, Eflin got $40m for 3 years. Eflin never had a year close to what Nola has done. I’m not arguing but I think you will still see a strong market for Nola. Rodon strung together two decent years but his career is not nearly as robust as Nola’s and he got a lot of money.
I do agree with you that the Phillies have the luxury of now determining what they are comfortable with as opposed to already being in at a stupid number. If Nola wants Rodon+ money, the Phillies can make that call. The Phillies normally never let a guy get to their walk year without locking them up. Recently they did the dance with JT and now possibly Nola and Rhys. I’d be shocked if any Nola deal is less than $20m annually if it’s less than 5 years in length.
Rhys might be a show me one year deal in that I think Rhys feels it’s unfinished business in Philly. Take a one year deal, chase a ring, and let everyone see you’re back healthy. Here is the question though. How does the puzzle work in the OF. Schwarber has to be your DH. If Rhys is your 1b, your OF then has Bryce, Nick, Rojas, and Marsh. I guess the obvious is that Marsh and Rojas split some AB’s with Rojas being the 4th and seeing tough LHP’s but is that what you want?
They have decisions and they aren’t easy. Nola, yes or no at a number and Rhys will ultimately make the decision for them. If it’s a show me 1 year deal hard to believe he isn’t back.
Fun game, and nice to see Turner play well on O and on D.
The Giants lost their second straight in Oakland today, so the top wild card spot is a tie right now.
That second game was frustrating. They blasted the ball around the park in game 1 and then failed multiple times to put it away in game 2. Oh well.
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