As the Phillies take a 2-1 lead over the Braves in the NLDS, let’s check out some other news from around the NL East…
- Jacob Stallings’ offense declined in his first season with the Marlins, and public defensive metrics from Statcast and Fangraphs indicate that his framing and overall defense also dropped off in 2022. However, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hears that the Marlins didn’t have any interest in moving Stallings earlier this season, though there is a possibility Miami’s feelings may have changed since Goold’s last inquiry. Nick Fortes played well in part-time action last season, and could be viewed as a candidate for a larger role if the Marlins did indeed move Stallings.
- Nationals outfield prospect Robert Hassell III underwent surgery to fix a broken hamate bone in his right hand, MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports. The Talk Nats blog reported last week that Hassell seemed to suffer the injury on a swing in Arizona Fall League play. Since hamate surgeries typically take roughly 6-8 weeks of recovery time, the Nats expect Hassell to be ready for the start of Spring Training. Hassell was one of the key pieces of the six-player package Washington received in the Juan Soto/Josh Bell trade with the Padres, as the outfielder entered the season as a consensus top-40 prospect in baseball. While he struggled after the trade and the move to the Nats farm system, the 21-year-old is expected to begin the 2023 season at Double-A ball.
- Guardians GM Mike Chernoff was on the Mets’ radar when they were looking for a new front office leader following the 2020 season, but Chernoff rejected an interview request and still doesn’t seem interested in a move away from Cleveland, as he told the New York Post’s Jon Heyman. Both Chernoff and Guards president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti reiterated how much they like their current positions, and Antonetti has also frequent turned down other interview requests from rival teams over the years. With current Mets GM Billy Eppler building a 101-game winner, it would seem a little unusual if the Mets hired another baseball-focused executive as their next team president, and the club might just hire a business-focused executive and leave Eppler in charge of baseball ops. However, the Mets have been linked to so many notable front office names over the last two years that it can’t be ruled out that owner Steve Cohen might finally land a big target.
Broncos Country, Let’s Ride!!!
Still waiting to hear how important winning the division and the bye is. When Philly inevitably wins the series, people are going to look at them as a model of constructing a team that’s good enough to make the postseason and hope to get hot. Winning a division is irrelevant now. Time off is a detriment to a team.
What Philly and San Diego are doing is incredible. All those road games. No bye. They are the exceptions, not the norm. Also neither series is over. Braves and Dodgers can take it.
The Braves look dead so I doubt it, and as it stands right now the Dodgers are losing to SD. Since this is the first year of expanded postseason, how is it an exception? I would argue this will become the norm. A team will come out of nowhere and knock off division winners and teams that were astronomically better in the regular season. I know it sounds like sour grapes, but I’m genuinely curious how this affects the game going forward. Why waste your energy battling for a division when you can try and win in the WC and carry that momentum. Would you rather play in a 3 game series shortly after the regular season while you’re hot/playing well, or have 5 days off waiting for your opponent?
The AL is telling a different story. Also, the Phils matched up pretty well against the Braves all season. I didn’t expect the Phils to be up 2-1, but I’m not shocked either. It’s a decent matchup. It’s likely a different story if the Phils matched up with the Mets. The Braves are better than the Mets, but the Mets own the Phillies.
@Fw
It’s a best-of-five series and all the teams in the playoffs are good and capable of winning – anything can happen. I think you are overanalyzing the situation.
You could argue that both the Braves and Mets lost steam for their race against each other. Phillies seem excited Braves and Mets look like they are/were ready to go home .
Phils matched up pretty well against the Braves all season.
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This is all about the way playoffs are structured. In Philly’s 5 playoff games, they’ve started Wheeler, Nola, Suarez, Wheeler & Nola. And Wheeler & Nola can win anywhere.
Btw Von, This isn’t a dig at the Phillies or anything. Props to them for playing well when they need to. I just think the time off is more harmful than helpful.
No no. I didn’t see it that way, and I understand where you’re coming from. The Bye is really interesting. I honestly noticed Braves rust in the early innings of game 1. Today I think the Philly crowd got to Strider.
You play 162 for the advantages, time off and home field. It’s up to each team to best utilize them.
It feels filthy rooting for the Phillies, but I did it in 1993 so why not. Congrats man good luck
I was scanning thegoodphight near the end of the season and right up until they clinched the sky was falling. I think it’s more just baseball being baseball. Not necessarily team design, obviously the power and 2 aces helps.
Keep in mind before the season all everyone talked about was their lack of defense and bullpen.
The Phillies weak defense and bullpen was the reason they weren’t in the division race. The bullpen is solid now, and the division has not bit them yet in the post season.
Von, in the Phillies case Dombrowski knows how to quickly assemble a team that can win. The issue is under the current atmosphere, can the team sustain it long term? His FL work was not financially sustainable as were his Boston teams.
deweybelongsinthehall;
He quickly assembles an ORGANIZATION to win.
Everyone looked at the big name FA signings, said the Phillies had a terrible farm system, and made fun of his minor trades. But the man knows baseball thoroughly as he’s run every aspect of an organization through his career – player development, drafting, etc. He did what the Rays, Guardians, Orioles, and others do – don’t worry about what a guy can’t do – find out what he can potentially do well, have the coaches work with him, and use him for that. Girardi didn’t know how to use those players, Thompson did.
That’s how the bullpen turned from arguably the worst in MLB in 2020-21 to one of the best in 2022 with many of the same pitchers. How guys like Stott, Sosa, Maton, Stubbs, Vierling and Guthrie can come in and help that team in part-time roles. How they can trade for a corner OF in Marsh that can’t hit in Anaheim; trade a top prospect for him, put him in their black hole in CF, and have the hitting coach work with him.
These things don’t magically happen because a player puts on the uniform of a different team. MLB is not rotisserie league. The theory of ‘get me a bunch of guys with top statistics and we win’ has nothing to do with how a manger uses a 26 man roster…..and it takes a 26 man roster….and all the guys on it can’t all be making high salaries.
Agreed for the most part. The team has some expensive talent. How much more can they go? Young players get expensive and the farm is not great. aits the mixter that hurt Boston had Mookie really wanted to stay. Given the unknown of the pandemic and their existing payroll and roster, they were not in position to re-sign him in 20.
I get what you’re saying, but I’d guess that the examples of higher seeded teams losing just stand out more, whether or not they actually happen more frequently.
For every time that the more rested team blows a series they should easily win, it feels like there are about ten cases of the Dodgers, Astros, etc. winning no matter how much more rest they have because they’re just that much better.
So I wouldn’t say that winning the division doesn’t matter, but I agree that making the postseason is all you really need because it’s enough of a crapshoot that just getting there gives you as much of a chance as anyone.
At the end of the day these are the best players in the world. 5 days off shouldn’t be why they lose in the playoffs. But 0-8 Judge 7 strikeouts speaks volumes.
Speaks volumes? What’s the message?
I will need more than a 2 team sample. Both those teams have 3 strong starters. 5 game series doesn’t leave much room for mistakes or bad luck. Not over yet. Braves Dodgers didn’t look rusty to me. Only thing worse than a 5 game series is a 3 game. I will take the bye every time.
DreamGM, Your profile pic is awesome. That bright green check mark is hypnotizing haha
Fw-;
Getting hot? Capshoot?
I’d suggest that both the FO’s and managers/staffs of the Phillies and Guardians set their teams up for the playoffs.
MLB is now a playoff league. You want your teams to peak there, and be healthy.
Heck, the Guardians had guy’s playing in AAA the last few weeks of the season that they intended to bring up for the playoffs, but they left them in the minors so that they’d get regular reps and be ready to play as opposed to coming in and sitting on the ML teams bench.
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“Luck is the residue of design”. -Branch Rickey
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Still a lot of games to play. Not over till it’s over.
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As for the Phillies – just before Dombrowski fired Gerardi he made the comment regarding the teams W-L record: ” We don’t want this to get away from us”. He always had sights set on the playoffs, and made moves the rest of the season to have the team ready for them…..and the manager and coaches were in sync with him.
✎ Edit –
let’s be real the phillies wouldn’t have been a playoff team in any year other in baseball history
Mookie, what’s your point?::We can’t go backwards. I’m old enough to remember just four playoff teams .
So, mookie, I am confused by the “let’s be real” narrative…Hopefully, but I doubt, it was sarcasm….?The rule changes and you’re all “well back in my day…”…? Guess Ruth still holds the single season HR record…?
Am GenX so i also remember only 4 divisions and the Reds and Dodgers beating the Phillies in the playoffs each year….
The Phillies are playing in the set of circumstances that is put in front of them…..Your just salty the Mets, well you know…
As a Mets fan for 40 years, I say so what? They are and that’s all that matters
@mookie As a Mets fan for 40 years, I say so what? They are and that’s all that matters
Same here, cpd. The Phils had the longest playoff drought besides Seattle so it’s a long time coming. I remember pulling for them in 1993 when Joe Carter became a legend
sfes….ty….
And like all weird historical type moments….I remember exactly where I was when Carter hit that bomb…and being as well a superstitious type fan, I never set foot in that Manayunk establishment again……
Jakes? Flatrock? Manayunk Brewing Co.? Do tell.
Yes because this has happened so many times before and is totally statistically significant. Astros & Yankees got the rest too. It’s baseball dumb unexpected stuff happens all the time. I mean, say the Barves do get bounced that’d mean there’s not been a repeat champion in like 22 years. Probably should’ve just disqualified them from even being in the playoffs. The Braves, prior to 2020, last won a playoff series in 2001 when they beat the then in the NL Houston Astros in the NLDS. The playoffs are pure chaos.
Yankees should now be considered the underdog in that series, so I’m not sure how that contributes to your point, Smacky.
The series is tied. This is the first time this format has been used for the playoffs. We have all of 4 series that have no result – inferring anything from that is just dumb. So next year everyone is going to tank so they don’t win their division and go into the wildcard b/c rest and home field advantage is now so clearly a liability? C’mon man
No, I’m just saying you weren’t helping your opinion, although I tend to side with the other person since we’ve seen time and time again how extra days off during the playoffs are actually NOT helpful.
And yes, logically speaking (and according to Vegas), the Guardians are now the favorite. Series tied, 2 games left in Cleveland, 1 in New York. Yeah, it’s pretty obvious.
Any time a league, professional or otherwise, waters down the playoffs with additional teams, the regular season loses more and more meaning, with or without divisions.
The NBA regular season has been reduced to basically an 82 game seeding process. The NCAA is on its way to eliminating the value of a football conference championship.
In Ohio, where I live, HS football playoffs used to involve four teams each in three divisions. That has evolved into 64 teams each in seven divisions. Qualifying for a playoff spot is now little more than a participation trophy.
Because regular season baseball is vastly different than post season, short series baseball, there will always be a disconnect between results between one and the other.
In the regular season a team needs eight or more starting pitchers to navigate 162 games. A rotation with a big two, a decent #3, and two stiffs has no advantage over one with five solid, if unspectacular, starters. But come playoff time….
The best formula for success in the post season is going in hot and healthy….but I’m not sure a bye is a bad thing. After all, there is no guarantee that any team will win an opening three game series…and there’s almost no chance a team will go into a second round with its rotation set up optimally.
The Guardians swept the first two games of the first round. Thats as good as it can possibly get. In spite of that, their best starter is available for one game..unless he goes on very short rest. Meanwhile, the Yanks get to use their ace twice.
A guaranteed spot in the second round plus the advantage of using your ace in two games is too much to turn down. Every team gets a break for the All Star game. If managed correctly, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
CATS44;
The best breakdown of playoffs in all sports written here.
It’s why the smarter FO’s recognize that the regular season means building their teams – not just in the offseason but throughout the year – to give their manager a flexible roster that can win games multiple ways no matter who the competition is in the playoffs.
I have no idea what the Nats fascination is with promoting players. Robles, Garcia, and Abrams, as I mentioned many times, should be in AAA.
Now I am looking at Hassell. He had a 12/6 K/W in A+, with -0- HRs in 38 ABs. That’s is, of course, a small sample size. But why promote a kid to AA if he can’t it A+?
Joe;
Because minor league baseball is for players working on things as opposed to running up their statistics?
For the most part, ‘working on things’ equals ‘running up their statistics’. I saw this in LAA with Adell & Marsh, and I am seeing it in Washington with Garcia, Robles, Abrams, and now Hassell.
If you can’t hit the guys at your current level, I’m not sure how promoting you is going to help. In Hassell’s case, they aren’t wasting service time, but in the case of the three formers names, they are using service time to teach them the things that they should be teaching them in AAA.
Congrats to the fightin Phils!! GO FOR IT !!
Mahalo sir!
Congrats to the Phillies! Glad to see the Braves lose as their fans did nothing but troll other teams posts all year. No luck this year like last year when the Dodgers and Giants wore each other out. This time the Mets took you down to the wire and wore you out.
The Mets fans are the angriest little trolls on this site. They’re overjoyed when other team’s have injuries, etc. Plenty of Braves fans like me don’t “troll other teams posts all year.” Most of us are here to engage in civil discussions. So do many Mets, Phils, Angels, Yanks, Dodger fans, etc. I give credit to the Phils for being fired up and playing better baseball than my Braves. That’s baseball. It’s happened countless times in the past and will again. The playoffs are a crapshoot.
“With current Mets GM Billy Eppler building a 101-game winner,…”
—The lack of context is hilarious. It’s the second most expensive team in baseball, and the oldest team as well that, no real surprise, was chased off the field in late September and in the wild card round and will be saddled with an even older lineup in 2023, with just 9 players signed for $148m.
As awkward as its prospects will be, imagine these Mets if deGrom *hadn’t* done them the favor of opting out.
Imagine believing that with Eppler you’ve locked in a top baseball man.
What does expense have to do with it? That counts too.
Remember, friend: Context matters.
A 92-win team put together largely from scratch with, say, a $48m payroll (let’s call them, oh… the Guardians) will have been assembled far more intelligently, on average, than a 101-win team with, say, a $299m payroll that inherited an extremely cheap 40 WAR core and beggared its chances in 2023 by locking in an extremely old roster.
Self-evident, no?
LOL
Man I remember when Marlins fan base got on us Pirates fans about the Stallings trade. I heard we “got fleeced” or even “your front office gave him away and we should be embarrassed”. Those Miami fans are so silent about that trade now. I still can’t believe Marlins thought he was a Yodi Molina type catcher with better offense and was going to the promise land with him. I was waiting for him to come back to earth and glad Pirates got something for him. Still early, but Marlins may have gotten fleeced on that trade.
The early returns don’t suggest ‘fleeced.’ None of the the three minor leaguers ‘irates got took a meaningful step forward, and the Marlins have Stallings for arb money in 2023-24.
Still, he was brutal in 2022. Everything fell apart. Might be that most common of trades: No winners.
A couple pieces from that marlins trade are sitting in AAA now. One of them should see the majors next year.