As we turn the page on the calendar to December, we move closer to spring training and real baseball.  During a slow week, the Phillies announced the signing of former all-star Josh Harrison to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training.  The 32-year-old infielder/outfielder was a teammate of the Phillies’ Andrew McCutchen. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of December 2nd →

The Phillies hired Joe Dillon as their new hitting coach.  He spent the last two seasons as the assistant hitting coach in Washington.  He had been the Nationals hitting coach at their AAA affilaite 2014-15, and the Miami Marlins minor league hitting coordinator 2016-17. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 25th →

The GM meetings are over.  Nothing much happened or was announced.  This should not be a surprise.  Baseball moves at its own pace.  It doesn’t move at the pace that the fans want.  Unless you all want three to four games.  Haha, couldn’t resist that shot.

Last season with three big name players available (Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Patrick Corbin), baseball’s signing of free agents moved at a snail’s pace.  Corbin signed a couple days before the Winter meetings and a lot of second and third tier free agents began signing in early December.  But, the Big Two didn’t sign until late February and early March. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 18th →

The GM meetings are being held this week in Scottsdale, AZ.

In Phillies’ baseball news this week, the Phillies hired Juan Castro as their new infield coach, replacing recently departed Bobby Dickerson who accepted the job as the Padres’ bench coach.  And, catcher J.T. Realmuto added the National League’s Silver Slugger Award fo catchers to his collection of post-season awards.  Not bad for a guy the fans left off the NL starting All Star team. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 11th →

In Phillies’ baseball news this week, the Phillies hired former Reds’ manager Bryan Price as the their Pitching Coach.   And, catcher J.T. Realmuto won the National League’s Gold Glove Award for his position.

Price  had served 14 successful seasons as a  pitching coach for three different franchises.  He was much sought after before finally signing with the Phillies. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 4th →

In Phillies’ baseball news this week, the Phillies hired Brian Barber as their Director of Amateur Scouting.  He replaces Johnny Almarez who stepped down for personal reasons.  A few days later, the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to manage the ball club.  He replaces Gabe Kapler who stepped down because , well … he was fired.  Miller and Girardi both come from the Yankees organization.  If you missed it, I wrote about their backgrounds here. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of October 28th →

Maybe the Phillies announce their new manager on the off day before the World Series starts.  Supposedly, they are down to Joe Girardi, Buck Showalter, and Dusty Baker.  They also may announce a new Amateur Scouting Director as they have been linked with the Yankees’ national crosschecker, Brian Barber.  In other news … Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of October 21st →

The decision has been made to sever ties with manager Kapler and continue with the front office intact and most of Kapler’s staff in place.  Hopefully, we can start to focus on baseball and not suffer too much angst during the hunt for a new manager.  Based on comments during Friday’s news conference, I expect it to be a lengthy process.  In other news … Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of October 14th →

My wife and I would like to thank all for your kind thoughts and prayers during our recent difficult times.  Several weeks ago, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer when a pea size mass was identified after her annual mammogram.  We prepared for her lumpectomy, but during an MRI a week before the procedure, another smaller mass was detected in her other breast.

Her procedure was delayed a week, and changed to a double lumpectomy and the removal of the lymph nodes under her arms for testing.  The surgery went extremely well.  This past week the we received the news that the pathology on her lymph nodes came back negative.  So, she is cancer free.

Now comes radiology and then five years of chemo.  Yeah, five years. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of September 30th →

Two out of four against the Braves wasn’t bad, I guess.  But dropping both games to the Red Sox hurt the Phillies chances of overtaking the Cubs or Brewers, both of whom had winning records last week. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of September 16th →