u/Used-Dependent-5653

Preamble:

We suck right now. Obviously. That can change within two weeks (obviously). This post is NOT a “stop bitching it could be worse” post. It’s more something that I just decided to post about given how badly the team is playing right now.

Context:

The 2017 season was not supposed to be a winning year for the Phillies, it was however an intriguing one before the start. The Phillies had many young future pieces (sigh, so we thought) knocking on the door. they had what we thought was hopefully the future at third base, who while he had taken a sophomore slump, still had shown lots of flashes of promise in Maikel Franco. We had an all star center fielder (Odubel WAS good 2015-2018).

Jared Eickhoff had come off a solid workhorse season in 2016. Aaron Nola would also be coming back from a non TJ UCL injury.

There were gaping holes still on the roster but it the light was starting to be visible at the end of the tunnel. little did we as fans know a figurative cave in was about to occur to totally blot that out for two months.

Doom:

On April 20 to the shock of everyone the team was 11-9, obviously not sustainable, but there had been fun moments like ruining Jeremy Guthries birthday and his last mlb start by dumping 17 runs on him and the nationals. including 12 in the first inning.

The team came back to earth during a road trip against the dodgers cubs and nationals before gearing up for a series against the mariners.

I went to the first game with my dad which was a dollar dog night with Jerad Eickhoff starting. The Phillies went up 4-0 then 9-5 before losing 10-9 as they could not stop Ben fucking Gamel (Oh yeah, that’s an oldie).

This was when the wheels totally came off the wagon. The team went 4-17 the rest of the month. Including a 1-9 stretch near the end of the month. It was horrid.

The Wheels Truly Fall Off:

In June they started 4-1. The season was likely over but hey at least they aren’t letting it roll over into the next month.

These were nearly half of their wins

ALL

FUCKING

MONTH

4-17 the rest of the month.

From June 7 to June 21 they won ONE game. Losing 13/14 baseball games. People like to talk about 2015 being the worst time? No, this I contend was the worst the team ever looked during the rebuild. Eickhoff clearly wasn’t right (and never would be the rest of his career), Franco was even worse than the previous year, Herrera was ice fucking cold, the only real bright spot was Pat Neshek and Arron Altherr.

I started full time following the team in 2013 when I was 11. I had never even during 15 really stopped following the team. This made me jump ship for nearly a month. It was actually unwatchable. All these pieces we thought were key to the future were sucking. To an at the time 15 year old me it looked like the rebuild could last legitimately into the 2020s.

Emergence:

Then Nola really fully came to 2018 form in a teaser for his cy young contending 2018 season and Rhys Hoskins came up as did many of the other young talent. They went 40-44 the rest of the season with Nola as their only really truly good starting pitcher.

The 2017 Phillies are the epitome of “the night is always darkest before the dawn”. immediately after that stretch the team was firmly back in the “how can we win mroe games now” mindset as opposed to rebuilding.

There were two Phillies teams that year. The Michael Saunders Howie Kendrick (who got injured reading his name and is on the 15 day DL) and Clay Bucholz Phillies of the first half. Then there was the emergent Rhys Hoskins Aaron Nola Nick Williams Phillies that were legitimately fun and exciting to watch in the second half.

I have no idea how to end this post so uh. Yeah the post is over. Bye

I’m bored, let’s look at all the oddities of the 2022 team.

1. Firing the manager mid season and the team actually doing better after:

There’s a cliche that when you fire the manager it lights a fire under guys and they do better, it rarely ever happens, but in this teams case they got seeminly one of the best versions of it

2. Huge black holes at key offensive positions:

Castellanos (in a show of what was to come for 3 more years) had a wrc+ all year of 95 and Alec Bohm had a 98. Below average to middling at key offensive positions with guys who had no way to make up for it.

3. Center field merry-go-round:

The Phillies had three different STARTING center fielders. Not three different guys play it, three separate people start there. This would be a problem that persisted for years but still.

4. Nick Castellanos:

That is all

5. KYLE SCHWARBER WAS OUR EVERYDAY LEFT FIELDER:

AND MARSH WAS IN CENTER AND NICK IN RIGHT. OH MY GOD THIS OUTFIELD DEFENSE FUCKING SUCKED!

5. The bullpen:

When I say 96th percentile k rate is the first guy you think of Andrew Belatti? (Another fantastic under the radar DD move and Cotham pitching dev job) do you think of elite Connor Brogdon (which he was fantastic in 22)?

How about Brad Hand and the most bullshit sub 3 era of all time?

Dominguez out of fucking nowhere coming back from a 3 year absence to return to rookie form and be lights out closing baseball games?

Jose having the best 4-5 months pitching of his life (seriously, late season 22 Alvarado was fucking disgusting).

People often talk about the Alvarez bomb and act like they weren’t that good in 2022 but we had a fucking elite bullpen in 2022 in the best case for relief pitcher volatility I’ve ever seen as Brogdon Dominguez and Belatti would all regress hard the next season.

6. The Marlins:

Thank. Fuck. For. The. Marlins.

I‘m actually certain the entire casual fanbase forgot how awful this team looked mid september and how the season looked dead following being swept by the cubs. It was saved because an awful marlins team beat up on the brewers IN MILWAUKEE during that and the start of the nationals series iirc. Without that series the Phillies probably miss the playoffs.

7. No true fourth or fifth starter:

the back 2 was mainly filled out by Kyle Gibson, Bailey Falter (whose ERA was somehow 2 better than his fip and he promptly regressed hard in his one playoff start and in 2023), and a washed Noah Syndergard (who admittedly performed admirably in the playoffs).

This is mainly a lesson that the fifth starter just isnt that important so long as the guy has an era below like 6. They never pitch in the playoffs outside of blowouts.

7. Awful Start:

They started 21-29. That’s a 68 win pace ((21/50)*162 for those who aren’t math literate). They looked like shit and had a 96 win pace the rest of the year.

8. Insane playoff opponent luck:

This is the part of the story everyone ignores. everyone ignores the 100 win Mets losing to the padres in the NL Wild Card in one of the biggest LOLMETS moments of the decade, forgets the padres upsetting the dodgers so we didn’t have to face them in the NLCS. We got really really lucky with who we faced.

We got an aging Cardinals team (I was never scared of them), a division rival who we always played tough, and the other cinderella team in the NL. Obviously it’s still insanely impressive what they did (especially against the Braves), but they really did get the best path.

What’s the point of this post? Nothing, I was bored and watching 2022 highlights and realized how absurd so much of that team was.