The Phillies went a disappointing 2-4 on their west coast trip.  But, they return home for a seven game homestand.  Although they start off with 2 games against the Red Sox, they then host the Mets for a rare 5-game series.

During the week, the Phillies bolstered their bench with the acquisition of Justin Bour.  The right-handed first baseman is having a down year, but he has impressive numbers against his East Division foes.  The cost was McKenzie Mills.  I’ve seen Mills pitch and liked what I saw.  But, if Bour can strength our bench and help us beat the Braves and Nationals a couple times, then the trade makes sense.  Even if he doesn’t make a measurable difference down the stretch, it’s good to see the front office make a well-thought out trade like this.

The Phillies had a good week.  After extending their losing streak to four games with an extra inning loss to the Boston Red Sox, they bounced back with a win against the Sox, splitting the 2-game series, and swept a 4-game series from the Miami Marlins.  Their pitching staff held the “best team in baseball” to 3 runs in 21.1 innings.  And the Phillies outscored the Marlins 23-9.

The Phillies took two out of three from the Dodgers and things looked great.  Then they went to Cincinnati and dropped three of four.  You can’t do that.  Their margin for winning is too slim to waste an opportunity against one of the worst teams in the league.  Now, on to Boston!

Well, the Phillies lost the Machado sweepstakes.  Oh well, maybe we can sign him during the off season for just money.  Until then. we have the opportunity to use the prospects we saved, as well as others, to go after some of our other needs. And if we do sign Machado this winter, he won’t cost a draft pick and international money.

The Phillies opened the second half with a series win over the Padres.  That opened their lead over the Braves to a full game.  They face the Dodgers this week and have lined up their rotation so that they face our three best – Eflin, Nola, and Arrieta.  I hope the fans have the good sense to not boo Machado.

One last thought on Machado.  It was reported that the Orioles wanted young, controllable pitchers in return.  That’s why a lot of us and a lot of industry types thought that the Phillies had the ability to provide the Orioles with the best package.  I think the Orioles were mesmerized at the last minute by the Dodgers’ inclusion of Diaz.  They accepted lesser pitching prospects than the ones I heard the Phillies were willing to part with.  Oh well, I can’t help but think that the Orioles found a way to lose the trade.  But, I’m biased.

And now a some other stuff.

A couple weeks ago we had a trolling problem on Phuture Phillies.  I won’t go into the specific actions by the perpetrator again.  I received a lot of suggestions and appreciate the responses.  As you may have noticed, I decided to do nothing, but watch and wait.  This week, Rocco provided the following apology.  It was posted as a response to a Romus comment.

“Romus my next six post will be as j. then 6 as tim , I just like to say this to everyone. it was a joke and I guess I pissed off people. Which I really never intended to do. I Really never heard of trolling. believe it or not. So if I crossed the line I am sorry. I just like to have fun, but sometimes I do cross the line.”

Personally, I think the apology is weak.  It should have been posted as a separate comment to the entire group, especially the people he indirectly hurt.  Also, I find the 13 word introduction to be tasteless, and it causes me to question his sincerity.

However, some people just don’t know how to apologize.  I will continue to monitor all comments with special attention to Rocco.  A similar abuse will be handled with finality.  I have started to, and will continue to delete his non-baseball comments.

The Phillies limped into the All Star break with a disappointing 6-5 record on after an 11-game road trip against the Pirates (.495), Mets (.415), Orioles (.289), and Marlins (.418). They enter the break with a 53-42 (.558) record, the third best record in the National League, behind Chicago (.591) and Milwaukee (.561),  and a half-game lead over the equally surprising Atlanta Braves (52-42, .553).

The Phillies offensive liabilities were on display in Miami –

• 8 hits (2 XBH) in their 2-0 win, 1-4 with RISP, 2 runners cut down by outfielders
• 8 hits (1 XBH) in a 2-0 loss, 0-5 with RISP
• just 4 hits in their 10-5 loss although they did hit 3-6 with RISP

Defense and intangibles also played a part –

• committed 2 errors, 2 passed balls v. picking off 2 Marlins, and an outfield assist
• 1 of 3 base stealers thrown out v. zero attempts of their own
• threw 1 wild pitch and hit 3 batters
• pitchers issued 6 walks and struck out 15 Marlins
• batters drew 9 walks and struck out 27 times

Among some random league best team stats –

• lead the league with 4.03 pitches per AB, above league average (Dodgers are only other team above 4 at 4.02)
• fifth best stolen base efficiency (72.2%), but among the lowest number of attempts
• Second best number of walks drawn (366)
• 6th best ERA (3.85)
• 3rd most saves (29)
• 5th fewest hits allowed (772)
• 7th fewest runs allowed (393)
• 5th fewest ER allowed (362)
• 3rd fewest HR (94)
• 2nd fewest walks (.281)
• 3rd most K (854)
• tied for 7th with a .242 AVG against
• tied for 3rd lowest WHIP (1.24)
• fewest number of pitches thrown
• tied for 4th with 8 shut outs
• 3rd most base stealers thrown out (23), their 38% CS rate is right in the middle 8th

And the bad news –

• 11th with 411 runs scored
• 14th with 745 hits
• 13th with 144 doubles
• tied for 10th with 16 triples
• 7th with 104 HR
• 2nd most SO with 903
• 12th with .236 AVG
• 7th with .319 OBP
• 12th with .390 SLG
• 11th with .709 OBS
• 2nd most WP (48)
• 2nd most SB against (59)
• 2nd most errors (70)
• 2nd worst fielding percentage (.980)
• league leading 13 passed balls

Individually,

• Odubel Herrera leads the team with a .275 AVG.  Cesar Hernandez (.270) and Maikel Franco (.269) are the only other active players over .260.
• Herrera leads the team with 16 HR.  Hoskins and Santana have 14 each, Franco 13.
• Hoskins leads the team with 21 doubles, Kingery 18
• Hernandez leads the team with 63 runs scored, Santana 53
• Hoskins leads the team with 56 RBI, Herrera and Santana 52, Franco 47
• Santana leads the team with 74 walks, Hernandez 61, Hoskins 51
• Hoskins and Alfaro lead the team with 93 strike outs, Franco has just 41
• Hernandez leads the team with 14 SB (in 16 att), Kingery 8 (10 att)
• Hernandez .378 OBP leads the team
• Herrera’s .460 SLG leads the team, Franco .459, Hoskins .456
• Hoskins’ .819 OPS leads the team, Herrera .787, Franco .776

The Phillies only All Star is a very deserving Aaron Nola.  He leads the team with 12 wins, leads starters with a 2.30 ERA, 129 IP, 131 strike outs, 0.98 WHIP.

Zach Eflin has come off the DL and won 7 games in 12 starts with a second best 3.15 ERA.

Seranthony Dominguez has come up from the farm and stabilized the back end of the bullpen with 9 saves and a 1.60 ERA.  He has 43 K in 33.2 IP and a .139 AVG, 0.65 WHIP.

The Phillies are 49-38 after a 4-1 week against the Orioles and Pirates.  They have taken over first place in the division, and been there for 3 days, now.

The Phils continue their road trip with a four game series at the Mets, a single game in Baltimore, and three games in Miami before the All Star break.

Drew Anderson made his first Phillies start Sunday, and Enyel De Los Santos may make his Phillies’ debut as early as Tuesday.

This is the Phuture Phillies Open Discussion for baseball topics.

“In non-baseball news, we have a troll among us.  One of our long-time readers has started trolling people here.  He has used over a dozen aliases and several bogus e-mail accounts.

His trolling has caused another long-time reader to change his online name and avatar.  He has responded to comments as billy, bravos, bud, gary, hive, j, John Costello, Kim Baptiste, mark, Marilyn Monroe, rmo, Romus, ted, tim, Tim’s Brother, and a couple more.  

You will notice that he is not above using someone else’s handle when trolling.  I don’t canvass comments in the open discussion as closely as I used to.  I DO check new users and if I deem their comments questionable, I’ll check into their background.  On a few occasions, I have blocked new users who appear trollish.  

So, what do you want me to do about our own internal troll?  I blocked two of his aliases but unblocked them when I realized who it was.  But, with this many aliases in the last year and his propensity to use another’s name, I will handle him as you wish.  This is your community, how should I handle this?”

The Phillies are 45-37 after a 4-3 week against the Yankees and Nationals.  This is exactly the type of result I had hoped for if they were only going to win 3 or 4 games, win most of them against Washington.  That’s 5 of 7 against the Nationals in the past ten days.

The Phils play the Orioles twice this week at home, sandwiched between off days.  Then they go on the road for 11 games in the ten days running up to the All Star break.

This is the Phuture Phillies Open Discussion for baseball topics.

The Phillies are 41-34.  Last night’s loss is a hard pill to swallow.  But, they took 2 of 3 from the gnats in DC.  Too bad.  A sweep would have been nice going into the Yankees series.

This is the Phuture Phillies Open Discussion for baseball topics.

The Phillies are 37-32 .536, they are 4.0 games back in the division and 0.5 games back for the wild card.

On this date last year, they were 22-45 .328, 19.5 games back in the division and 20.0 games back for the wild card.

This is the Phuture Phillies Open Discussion for baseball topics.

This is the Phuture Phillies Open Discussion for baseball topics.