We’ve seen several recent cellar dwellers climb to contention this season, writes Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The Cubs, Mets, and Astros are playing meaningful August baseball for the first time in years. Davidoff looks ahead at five more struggling franchises that could surprise us all in 2016. Purely for enjoyment, my favorite picks are the Twins and Phillies. Minnesota hopes to surge on the young bats of Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and recent breakout Aaron Hicks. They also have sneaky upside in their rotation although the bullpen could use work. Philadelphia is the obvious long shot. Their rebuilding phase is incomplete, but they’ve identified a few key building blocks. A couple surprise breakout performances and a handful of lucky wins could at least allow the club to perform similarly to the Braves.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Drew Smyly will start for the Rays on Sunday, tweets Bill Chastain of MLB.com. The 26-year-old southpaw has spent most of the 2015 season on the disabled list with a torn labrum. Since joining the Rays in the David Price trade last season, Smyly has a 1.96 ERA, 9.1 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9 in 64 and 1/3 innings. Although the Rays remain in the thick of the playoff race, expect them to proceed carefully with Smyly.
- We learned earlier tonight that the Angels still hope to acquire Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. The Giants remain involved with the bidding, tweets Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. Giants GM Bobby Evans cleverly commented that “the Chase for Utley continues.” As Baggarly notes, every day is one closer to the return of Joe Panik. At that point, Utley may be redundant for San Francisco. It’s already been announced that Utley will rest tomorrow, so trade speculation should remain rampant.
- Padres starter Tyson Ross is happy to have remained with the club through the trade deadline, writes Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Ross, 28, was a heavily rumored trade candidate. He’s in the midst of a solid season including a 3.40 ERA, 9.58 K/9, and 4.14 BB/9. Ross is glad the club made no moves at the deadline. He believes the current roster is “a good group” with “a lot of promise.” He’s controlled through the 2017 season.
The Phillies have a good amount of young arms for next year that could help the MLB deal.
Pivella, Morgan, Nola, Thompson, Eflin, Lively, Eickoff, Asher and some other lesser guys, plus 3 of their top position players are near-ML B ready outfielders in Altherr, Williams and Quinn. They have Franco, Crawford and Hernandez for next year at 3B/SS/2B.
Obviously I’m not expecting them to contend really at all, but I don’t really expect another 100 loss season.
“another” 100 loss season? when was the last one?
They will lose 100 this year.
They’re (probably) going to lose 100 this year. They’re going to shut down Nola at some point, and that puts us at the point of the rotation that we were at earlier this year.
2 4th of’s and williams. hernandez should be traded. he has a good eye but no real position.
I’d keep Hernandez. He’ll play 2B until someone plays off enough to displace him.
Asche and Brown have no real future (or value). Same goes for Williams.
I agree completely.. The Phillies are not as bad as they seem.. They should start to climb out of the cellar next year and have greatly improved their farm.. They have a much better outlook 2-3 years from now than teams like the Diamondbacks, Tigers, or Mariners.. Plus, they are a big market team and are not afraid to spend money.. They should be able to turn things around a little faster than some mid-market teams..
it could easily be a 100 loss season- pivetta, eflin and Lively are not close to mlb ready. Eickoff and Asher could very well join Nola and Morgan in the rotation next year, but they are going to take their lumps- and Franco is the only thing to get excited enough offensively right now. Crawford and Williams might be up later next year (though Crawford down below .250 in AA)…and outside of Giles, that pen is pretty bad.
Crawfords fine. League average hitter in double a at 20 playing ss is awesome. Anything before a september call up next year would be extremely rushed. Id keep him down til may 2017 to get as much team control out of him since they wont be competing anyway.
Jeamar Gomes isn’t bad.
Luis Garcia took some lumps toward the beginning of the season, but is as good of a setup man as the Phillies have had not named Giles since Ryan Madson.
Araujo is a good LHP, Neris isn’t half bad either.
true, i see that Garcia has cut down on his walks the last couple months which is huge. Gomez has been a decent long man and Araju showing a little- and would be nice to see Loewen contribute, and understand the pen has been used a ton with the starters rarely lasting long.
i cant see phils resisting that long on Crawford but i get your thinking.
Utley ALWAYS needs rest.
Needing rest and being injured are two different things.
he’s been hot- no need to throw him out there and get him hurt- his trade value isnt getting any higher.
The Phillies have done well to re-stock the farm, with Starting Pitching with a lot of good talent in A-AAA ball. Some good looking prospects, 6 in the top 100 – and guys like (C) Andrew Knapp and (1B) Brock Stassi killing it in AA.
That and knowing the Phillies “can” and “should” spend for quality Free Agents is another way to get this rebuild completed faster than the 3 years they say it will take to contend again. With their allowance of an 180 Million dollar payroll, they can get a few young but Veteran players like adding a Cespedes or Upton, maybe 2 starters like Kazmir and Latos types, maybe even Zimmermann…. and bullpen arms.
This is a team that won’t take long to rebuild.
The future looks bright for the Phillies.
offer zobrist 25 mil for one year, eat his contract and trade him at the deadline, do the same with an ian kennedy type, but maybe 10 for him.
I’d love Zimmermann and Heyward this offseason. That would be my choice.
Lol signing zimmerman or heyward is the worst idea for them. Their rebuild just started, there is no reason to commit so much future payroll until you see what you have in the youngsters at higher levels. Let alone a corner of and a worse pitcher than hamels for more money than hamels.
the farm system is much, much better than it has been, though im not sure they are going to do much in free agency this year- maybe fill the bullpen a little and a veteran for the rotation but likely not a high priced guy that will cost a draft pick- realize first round pick is protected but with high second round pick and large pool they can get aggressive in the draft and international free agency this season, and then find a bat/arm the year after when they are closer to making a real jump.
He did not make a note for the Royals who built a more extreme reversal a year ago.
And I would put a higher priority on the Royals, Pirates, and Jays instead of the Cubs and Astros who each got significant success in recent years.
I might be a little biased though because I got into the game around 1995-1996 and those were the teams to suddenly arrive for the first time.
The Pirates were a perrennial contender in the early 90’s with stars like Bonds, Bonilla, Drabek and probably the best name ever for a pitcher Oil Can Boyd (he wasn’t really a star but I loved his name) the Royals had a powerhouse throughout the 80’s with Brett, Saberhagen, Cone and Bo Jackson.. The Jays won back to back series in the early 90’s.. You are right that their turnarounds deserve more attention but the problem with the Royals and Pirates were that they were mismanaged badly.. A story broke a few years ago about how the owner of the Pirates was putting an inferior product on the field because he made more profit by doing that and pocketing the revenue sharing that he received.. After that story broke the team was rebuilt and started keeping their stars instead of trading them away when that got expensive.. The Jays have tried and tried to put a winner together,, They just seem to trade for players that they think will be superstars and turn out to be mediocre at best (R.A. Dickey, Reyes, Johnson etc.) They gave up Clemens for Wells, lost Burnett to the Yankees, and didn’t get much for Halliday.. The problem with Toronto is that most free agents don’t want to play there either because of the turf, taxes, among others..
It sounds like there are teams that really want Utley. The respect he has in the game is going to end up netting a phillies a very decent prospect.
the giants have no very decent prospects. but how he’s playing is certainly helping things.
Tyler Beede is a very decent prospect. That shortstop (forgive me for forgetting his name) is a very decent SS. I’d be happy with something like Kyle Crick + a high upset, very low minors guy with a decent amount of risk.
Christian Arroyo is the SS I think you’re referring to.
beedes stuff has backed up and his control wasn’t good to begin with, if he’s still on prospect lists it’s because of name, draft status and scouts who saw him years ago look good. krick has terrible control, most likely bullpen only and he still needs better command just for that. the shortstop is either christian arroyo or lucious fox but those guys arent in an utley convo unless this is 2007. .
The Phillies would be lucky to get anything above a C+ prospect. It’s Chase Utley for just over a month, after all.
Rockies are my turn around pick, a solid vet added to the rotation and some BP pieces; they could surprise
Giants and Angels both have bad farm systems. I’d hate to trade a franchise icon for a guy who won’t even be a top ten prospect in our system. Pick up his cheaper option next year. He’s a good clubhouse presence and good for team marketing. Maybe somehow you can trade Howard then slot Utley at first.
no matter who you trade him too, you arent getting someone who will be a top 10 prospect for a 45 day rental of chase utley.
then he shouldn’t go unless he asks. you just don’t trade an utley for junk.
You do after publicly stating he was no longer the starting 2B (RAJ). Having a GM who publicly downgrades his own players is a severe handicap. While Utley probably wishes to retire a Philly, I am sure he also realizes that a change of scenery might be in his best interest.
45 days and all these phillies fans even saying he needs extra rest so its really like 36 days or a day for every year of his age.
Have you watched Utley play? Its not like you need to regularly rest him. But you need to get him off his knees atleast once a week.
If it weren’t for Utley’s leg issues, he’d have a 1st-ballot HOF case.
Injuries are a part of the game. If not for health issues, guys like Roger Maris, Denny McLain, Pete Reiser, Tony Oliva, Tommy Davis and Herb Score would have been able to be first ballot HOF guys, too.
36 out of 45 is 4/5 or roughly one game a week…
The Giants would love to add Utley but they gave up Zach Wheeler for Carlos Beltran a few years back in a similar situation. I don’t see them knocking down the door to trade for him if it costs them an arm or leg to do so.
If they trade Crick or Beede Phillies are tossing in money to lessen the blow in the event Utley finds himself on the DL next year. If they’re unwilling to toss in money I dont see the Phillies getting anything above b- prospect.
I expect the Phillies to include money in any Utley deal, but even with money thrown in, there should be no way the Giants trade Beede for Utley. Crick is a possibility since he’s fallen off from being a top prospect. With his control issues, he’s looking more and more like a relief prospect but is still young enough to possibly work through it. Either way, I could see Crick being dealt for Utley but don’t see any chance Beede is.
cricks still an overpay, in a system as barren as the giants you are looking maybe 10 but most likely 15-20 in the system.