Division Opponents for 2018: Philadelphia Phillies

[Edgy MD]

Hi, we're the Phillies, and we just bought a big, fat, sluggerino firstbaseman in Carlos Santana.

While the fans were all giddy about that, we got a little ruthless and shipped out our longest-tenured player in shortstop Freddy Galvis. Galvis heads to San Diego for AA righthander Enyel De Los Santos, who is much traveled for a guy who hasn't seen AAA, having previously swapped organizations when he was traded by Seattle for Joaquin Benoit.

Trading Galvis opens up shortstop for our top prospect J.P. Crawford, and kinda knocks second baseman Cesar Hernandez' marketability down a few notches. Mets attention seemed to have already shifted away from Cesar, anyhow.

Galvis and Hernandez was a long-running show to break up, the two 28-year-olds having been friends since they were 13, and having signed with us on the same day in their mid-teens.

We're the last-place Phils. We kinda felt we had to do something.

[Centerfield]

Santana will hit a ton for them in that ballpark. He’s a nice addition for them but I think they overpaid. Even if the Mets has money to spend that feels like a lot.

Also signed Neshek who is decent. I think they will be good enough to be “pesky”. Win about 80 games and screw up a contender but not be good enough to realistically compete. Kinda like the Marlins of the last few years.

[Frayed Knot]

Phillies prospect Scott Kingery will make the ML roster to start the season.

"Eh, big deal Frayed. Stop wasting our time with shit we don't care about!" -- and ordinarily I'd agree.
The thing about this transaction which makes it interesting is that, before playing a day in the major leagues, the team is signing him to a Six-year contract covering through the 2023 season plus club options for 2024 & 2025 at an estimated $24 million.
I don't believe this has ever been done before with a player with ZERO ML time. IIRC, Evan Longoria was signed to a similar length deal just a few weeks into his ML life, but he also had a higher pedigree compared to Kingery.

Originally a walk-on U of Arizona and later a 2nd round pick 48th overall) for Philly in 2015 (Longoria was 1st R/3rd overall), Kingery is an IF with some pop and some defensive versatility, but he was only MLB.com's 35th ranked prospect and 2nd ranked in the Philly system, not normally a track record which suggests a 'can't miss' guy.
Speculation was that he'd start the year in AAA, a la Kris Bryant a few years back, so as to delay his FA threshold for a year but this contract now makes that point moot (or 'mute' as some MoFo'ers used to say).

[Edgy MD]

Short honeymoon for Gabe Kapler, as the Phils get destroyed 15-2, while criticism erupts after the new manager calls on a pitcher who hadn't warmed up.

Reserve centerfielder Pedro Florimón pitched the ninth for the Phils in that game, giving up a two-run homer to Lane Adams.

[Frayed Knot]

And the Braves manager got ejected from that game because the umps decided to give the incoming, but not fully warmed-up, Philly reliever extra warm-up pitches on the mound even though the new rule says
that once the 2 minute time limit is up the incoming hurler gets no more practice pitches. The ump's reasoning was that he didn't want to see the guy get hurt but that's not his job or his decision.
These speed-up rules aren't going to work if they're just going to be ignored whenever someone feels like it.

[Frayed Knot]

Mini-KTE
Philly lost 2 of 3 to the Braves in Atlanta to open the season, giving up 27 runs in the process. Their lone win came in the 12th inning of Game 2

So, in addition to their new, and apparently somewhat unprepared manager, the 2018 Phils have a few other changes to their squad:

FA signing Carlos Santana mans the 1B job
JP Crawford now seems to be permanently entrenched at SS now that former SS Freddie Galvis moved on to San Diego over the winter in a trade for a minor lg pitcher.
Cesar Hernandez & Mikael Franco at 2nd & 3rd, although Scott Kingery, their all-purpose rookie to whom they awarded a long-term deal before he ever played a ML game, has already played both 3rd & LF even
though it's 2B that's his supposed 'natural' position.

Rhys Hoskins, the rookie who went on a HR tear late last year following his call-up, along with Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr man the OF.

We'll see an all Righty crew of [crossout:3olegcvm]Blake[/crossout:3olegcvm] Ben Lively on Monday (vs Harv), their ace Aaron Nola on Tuesday (Lugo), and then Nick Pivetta vs Thor in the 'Facebook Live' day game Wednesday.

[Edgy MD]

Deadspin going with a story called, "What Did Gabe Kapler Fuck Up This Time?" which hopefully will need a lot of updates throughout the season.

[G-Fafif]

These Phuckers are on phire and now sit a half-game back of the human without catchers Mets.

[Edgy MD]

Jake Arrieta publicly and profanely ripped his team after getting swept by the Giants.

[smg58]

You want one of your vets to try to light a fire under the team when they struggle. You also want him to do it in private, and you want him to start with himself on a day when he didn't pitch well enough.