Some notes from the National League East before the Nationals, Marlins and Braves suit up for three of the day's four MLB games…
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo discussed baseball's new collective bargaining agreement and the relationship between scouting and player development with David Laurila of FanGraphs.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports makes the case that Nationals rookie Bryce Harper and Angels rookie Mike Trout should be All-Stars in 2012.
- The Phillies need more talent and can't afford to wait until Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Roy Halladay return, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News writes. Murphy also discusses Charlie Manuel's bullpen management following yesterday's loss, a game in which Jonathan Papelbon did not pitch.
- Former MLB player and Mets exec Tony Bernazard is now working in player relations for the Boras Corporation, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports. The Mets let Bernazard go in 2009.
Is Bernazard going to challenge GM’s to fight him?
I think Marine vet Sandy Alderson could clean his clock.
I’m guessing that as a player relations rep for Boras, Tony’s arm will get more of a workout than it ever did at 2B.
Rosenthal failed to mention either Martin Prado or Michael Bourn in the all-star article.
Prado carries a .322/.388/.476 line with a 2.9 WAR while Bourn carries a .320/.372/.469 line with a 3.7 WAR. Both rank among the top five NL outfielders yet they get no mention. Both deserve to be an all-star more than Harper so far this season….and there are several other NL outfielders more deserving than Harper.
Bryce Harper is going to be an outstanding player in the coming years but he isn’t all-star worthy yet.
Bryce Harper = TV ratings. He’ll be there.
I guess you haven’t actually watched any of Harper’s games then. Harper is ALREADY an outstanding player. The kid does something special nearly every single game. Even in a game in which Davy had give him the day off, he comes in as a pinch hitter, draws a walk and uses his speed to score the winning run. He is the sole reason the Nats offense didn’t completely tank after Morse, Zimmerman, Werth and Ramos all went down.
170M payroll and they need more talent… yikes! Just goes to show the dangers of always going all-in and investing heavily in aging players. It works out for a while, but sooner or later it catches up to you.
It’s going to be refreshing to see a changing of the guard in baseball. Hopefully teams like the Nats, Pirates, Orioles, etc can become consistent contenders. Even if they all don’t make playoffs, becoming competitive would be a start. Parity does exist in baseball believe it or not.
Remember just a few years ago Phillies were like those teams. When you start winning, people start going to games, teams make money, owners invest. The Phillies are a prime example of this.
That being said, it’s hard to imagine them being in this much trouble with a healthy Utley, Howard, Lee, and Halladay. Things will turn around but I’m not sure they make the playoffs because of their nonexistent situational hitting
In large, metropolitan areas, that may be true. However, the attendance in Tampa Bay, Cincinnati and Cleveland (who were in the hunt for a good portion of 2011) suggests otherwise.
You make some great points. Where is any team with its four best players on DL but last place.
Fans want to win but this year is a lost season. Those Oswalt and Pence trades were killers but they went for it. That what counts.
Time to start over.
Agree. At the time, we were all excited for Pence, Oswalt, Halladay, & Lee and it was th right move to go for it. The Pence trade is the one that kills me. Losing Singleton AND Santana was too much.
The good news is the Phillies because of their core could still compete in a rebuilding mode and make playoffs and maybe catch fire…the bad news is they have about 4 players in the minors that ate exciting and that’s including Brown.
I don’t know about the Oswalt trade killing us. Anthony Gose would be ready to step in for Victorino next year but beyond that, Villar’s blocked by 3 players and JA Happ is nothing more than a 4/5 in this league.
The Pence trade sure did. Jonathan Singleton not playing the outfield was just smoke and mirrors to justify trading him by the front office IMO.
Why is it all about Bryce Harper? Ugh! Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been consistent and he’s only missed one game due to being in AAA. If anything, he belongs on that team as much, if not more than Harper.
You mean, other than the fact that there are about two dozen outfielders that have performed better than him?
Only 2 dozen?
Who?
The Phillies need more talent, and they need it before Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and Roy Halladay return. This is a conundrum. The Phillies thought they were loaded for years to come with a nucleus like that. Now they are untradeable.
If the Phillies hadn’t signed Papelbon, they would be completely free to have a fire sale and rebuild:
Now the Phillies have a big contract
They gave up a draft choice to sign him
What makes it hard to believe is Pat Gillick is an advisor to the Phillies. When he first came to the Orioles he got rid of all the overpaid bums and then he rebuilt.
I wonder what direction the Phillies would have gone if they had decided to make Mike Arbuckle the GM rather than Rueben Amaro?
Personally, I think Laynce Nix is being forgotten about as a blow to the team. The guy was raking against right handed pitchers before he went down, and in his absence, Ty Wiggington (who should not be an every day player) and John Mayberry (who shouldn’t be on a major league roster) have had to take at bats against righties.
Funny reading the comments here. Most seem to agree Harper is not all start worthy with his numbers but not one against seeing Trout. I tend to agree Trout has earned a nod as his coming lit both a fire to the Angels and moved them up the standings. Trouts play has been far superior to Harper’s so far with much less press.
Agree, Harper is going to be a good one but he doesn’t have all star numbers plain and simple
Will be a joke if he isn’t. Clearly one of the game’s best players already, but if you’d rather repeat last year when we saw studs such as Kevin Correia on the roster, then more power to you I guess.
I agree. There are way too many NL outfielders who have had great starts to their season: Bourn, Braun, Prado, McCutcheon, Stanton, Kemp, Ethier, Beltran, Melky, CarGo, Holliday, etc. Leaving any of those guys off for Harper is insane. He will likely get in the game next season but he just doesn’t deserve it this year.
If Harper gets in the game this year it will be more about the hype he has received than his actual production on the field.
The All-Star game is a joke anyway in my opinion.
It’s nothing but a glorified popularity contest.
No love for Jay Bruce? He was an All star last season.
You definitely haven’t actually watched any of Harper’s games.
“He was an All star last season”
Is that an argument for being an All-Star THIS season?
I named the top ten NL outfielders using WAR. FWIW, Bruce is 12th in the NL per WAR. Even if you switch the metric to wRC+ Bruce is still in 12th place. Home runs aren’t everything.
No but he mentioned pretty much every outfielder except Jay Bruce who has 13 HR’s this season.
Allen Craig has been just as productive as Bryce Harper in almost half as many games this year. Should I be pushing for him to be an All-Star?
9th best OPS among NL outfielders at the moment. Not too shabby…
My eyes are very open. Last year the NL roster had 11 outfielders, including Carlos Beltran who started at DH, the final vote winner in Victorino, and Ethier (injury replacement). Right now the following guys should be locks:
Carlos Gonzalez
Matt Kemp
Andre Ethier
Ryan Braun
Andrew McCutchen
Melky Cabrera
Giancarlo Stanton
Carlos Beltran
Michael Bourn
That leaves 2 spots or so for the likes of Harper, Pence, Bruce, Prado, etc.
To say he’s “far” from the talent level of those guys is crazy.
well if 9 outfielders make the allstar team he should be on it
Did I mention HOF? In fact, I didn’t even say his performances merits an all star selection. I feel like there are several players that deserve the nod over him. However, I felt like you were talking about him like he is some scrub. He could even put up a torrid 3 week stretch and play his way onto the team. And, of course he isn’t close on the leaderboards of the counting stats, he hasn’t had enough time in the majors to accumulate them. It is no secret that he excels at all facets of the game. Say he plays his way to a top 5 OPS by selection time. Is he worthy then?
Last season, there were 10
And keep in mind that Jason Bay has locked up a spot in that All-star outfield…
Agreed, except for Kemp should not be considered, in my opinion, due to the fact that he will have accumulated less than half of the plate appearances of most regulars. He has been other-worldly in the time he has played, but I don’t think he will have played nearly enough.
Pence doesn’t deserve even remote consideration as an all-star this year. Both Bourn and Prado should be locks, even though I know they both won’t make it.
Howard’s calf has atrophed. I think there’s 0 chance he’s productive this year… if he even makes it back.
The only problem with Utley is his defense at this point. He’s reportedly added enough strength to hopefully overcome some of the issues he had last year in driving the ball. IF he comes back, I’d expect him to be the most productive.
Personally, if this season keeps going the way it looks like its going, it’d be foolish to have either guy step onto the field. Give them both a full season and hope they play close to their career norms next year.
If I was Ruben, I’d start selling. Victorino should be on the block. Domonic Brown’s taken off offensively and defensively since the move to Center. Hunter Pence should be too. We’re not going to get near the return we gave up for him but one A type prospect (hopefully a Right Fielder or a 3rd Baseman) would be suffice.