The latest from around the NL East…
- The Mets are receiving more trade interest in Asdrubal Cabrera, Newsday’s Marc Carig reports. Cabrera received some buzz prior to the deadline (with the Indians and Red Sox mentioned as two of the interested teams) though there haven’t been many rumblings about him yet this month. The veteran infielder has shown additional versatility by playing second and third base almost exclusively over the last two months after beginning the year as New York’s everyday shortstop. MLBTR’s Steve Adams listed Cabrera first in his recent ranking of the Top 25 August Trade Candidates.
- Brandon Phillips has acquitted himself well as the Braves’ third baseman since moving over from second base to accommodate Ozzie Albies, and David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out that the position switch may be a boost to Phillips’ future career. The veteran infielder will have a better chance at finding a new contract this winter now that he has demonstrated more positional versatility, and O’Brien figures Phillips could also handle playing first base as well.
- “Essentially, the Phillies are in rebuilding purgatory,” David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News writes. The Phils find themselves in a bit of a catch-22 of needing some reliable arms to fill out next year’s rotation, as though it makes little sense to spend the significant dollars necessary for such pitching when the club is still in a rebuilding phase, though getting good pitchers at bargain prices will be difficult-to-impossible. While the Phillies aren’t planning to contend yet, Murphy argues that “the goal should be to make next season watchable,” and a lack of pitching could undermine what appears to be some promising development from the team’s young hitters.
- Tom Koehler was dealt from the Marlins to the Blue Jays yesterday, ending the right-hander’s career-long stint in the Miami organization. As Koehler tells Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he is excited to go to Toronto, though it is a bittersweet feeling leaving the team that drafted him as an 18th-rounder in 2008. “They [the Marlins] gave me an opportunity. I don’t think a lot of people would have thought that I would’ve gotten as far as I have, and they gave me a chance to do it,” Koehler said.
Who still wants to tell me the Phillies rebuilds going better than the Braves? Yeah thought so
In all fairness, we’re not competing next year either. I feel we are slightly closer than they are, but they could go on a spending spree and narrow the gap quickly.
I dont think there was ever a consensus the Phillies were having a better rebuild than the Braves.
The Phillies rebuild is going much better than Atlanta. The Braves have Freddie Freeman and seven holes in their lineup. When Acuna arrives they will have six holes.
When the Phillies rebuild is done with Harper and Machado in the middle of their order it will be fun to watch them pound the crap out of the Braves deep pitching staff.
If you can’t hit, you can’t win.
Lol what.
There is no way they are going to sign Harper and Machado. Not that they don’t have the money to do it. I think they are saving their money to make a run at Trout in a couple of years. That guy makes it seem like he will come home at some point in his career.
“There is no way they are going to sign Harper and Machado.”
Even FanGraphs has adopted this idea like an advertising slogan or religious doctrine.
Evidence (math) that the Phillies can’t afford to sign both Harper and Machado?
ZERO
Mathematical argument that signing both Harper and Machado prevents the Phillies from signing Trout?
ZERO
If I were the GM of the Phillies I have an actual plan for doing just this, making all three members of the Phillies.
I don’t think the Yankees, Cubs or Dodgers are losing sleep over either of them, TBH.
In all fairness the Phillies haven’t really been doing much to rebuild. In the past year and a half they’ve only been acquiring short term solutions like Howie Kendrick and trading them for C level prospects.
They haven’t tried to acquire long term pieces. The Phillies might start the rebuild after this year now that a few of their minor leaguers have reached the Majors and they have extra players at a few positions.
The Phillies are in Year Six of their rebuild, which began in October of 2011 and was publicly revealed when they dumped Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence for nothing on July 31, 2017.
When you have a Left fielder who’s 34 , and rightfielder who’s 35 I’ll say Braves have a Problem with rebuild , some People and Teams that have aHard Medicine believing that they need to start from scratch !
They have acuna and pache in the minors to replace them. What pitchers do the Phillies have to replace the fill ins they sign?
Take a look at the Top 100 lists. Fangraphs recent update has two Phillies pitchers listed and several just missed the bottom of the list.
The Phillies can also afford to sign a Max Scherzer type of pitcher.
Only time will tell bud. Braves got a head start because they had a superstar in Freeman and a decent pitcher in Tehran, before the Phillies even started rebuilding. I expected more from the Braves this year, but big injury to Freeman ruined the season. And you braves fans will be lucky if Acuna is anywhere near as good as Altherr.
Braves have good shortstop with Swanson, a better center fielder in Inciarte over Odubel, but I mean Nola>Teheran, Kingery>Albies, Altherr and Williams>Acuna and Kemp. However Braves are pretty set with Folty and Newcomb, while Eick and Vinny Velo are struggling. Braves have a superior bullpen compared to Phils too. Rhys Hoskins will challenge Freeman for best first baseman in division.
Altherr and williams better than acuna and kemp??? They arent even better than Acuna alone.
Yea Acuna is not better than Altherr is right now. Acuna has never seen a major league pitch and you guys think he is a hall of famer. Look at Aaron Altherr’s numbers. I’m sure 29 other teams would want him playing in their outfield. He has good glove and arm, and can hit balls a long way. I’m not saying Acuna isn’t good, don’t misunderstand me. Phillies have 3 major league outfielders, and the Braves have two at the moment for the future.
As a piece for a rebuilding team acuna is far more valuable than altherr and its nt even close. Acuna is going to be the #1 prospect in baseball very soon. Prospects may not be proven but all 30 teams would take acuna over altherr. Doesent matter if he hasnt seen a big league pitch. Ross stripling has been decent at the big league level that doesn’t make him more valuable than walker buheler.
No but it means Altherr is better and if he has a .900 OPS, Acuna is not going to be better for at least a few years. Altherr is also a good fielder. Remember this may be the most valuable Acuna will ever be. Just like Buehler. Also players who strikeout at a very high clip in The minors tend to have a less chance at succeeding in the MLB.
I completely understand the opinions of valuing mlb perfomaces over the high ranked prospects. But aarom altherr is certainly not one of those players. Id rather risk acuna being a bust than have altherr
I respect that, but yea imo Altherr is proven to me that he is the real deal. I just don’t think you have seen enough of Altherr playing. And remember this is Williams and Altherr over Kemp and Acuna lol. I mean both. Most people want to have Acuna over Altherr. Just not me
Rhys Hoskins isn’t even in the same discussion as Freddie Freeman and there’s no way you could have him competing for top 1B in the division after 11 games up in the bigs. Hoskins has a long way to go before you can even project him to compete with Freddie. Not sure kingery is better than Albies either. He’s never taken a swing in the big leagues and that’s the argument you are using to defend altherr over Acuna. Idk how you can make that argument because Aaron altherr has not been a good ball player except for his 300 ABS so far this year. I hope nick Williams is a good ball player too but he has issues as well. A .355 babip and a 28%K rate aren’t going to do him favors going forward. He has had a problem with getting on base and striking out in the minors and if it doesn’t change he won’t be very good.
I think I said it like that lol. I meant to say that in the future Hoskins will be competing with Freeman. If you watch Hoskins at all you should see that super star talent is there. But no Freeman of course for at least the next 2-3 years is best first baseman, while Hoskins will catch up or take over at some point.
To be fair the Phillies rebuild would be further along if they were gifted 2 solid pieces like the Braves were for Shelby Miller. Of course the Phillies should have never returned Ender Inciarte to the Diamondbacks after that Rule V draft.
Inciarte was not ready when we picked him. His career may have been screwed up if Phils kept him on the bench for a full year.
“Inciarte was not ready when we picked him.”
1) Do you work for the Phillies?
2) The Phillies had just traded Trevor May (and Vance Worley) to the Twins for Ben Revere. Inciarte was clearly the better player of the two that March in Clearwater, but keeping Inciarte would have exposed how dumb that deal for Ben Revere was.
The guy in my avatar loved the Ben Revere trade and tweeted his joy as soon as the trade was announced.
You may be right lol I’m just probably forgetting what happened that spring. Maybe the Phils didn’t like that Inciarte can barely speak lol. I always value a guy who can give a good interview (Ty Kelly)
JD tell me who said otherwise? Yea thought so
May it also be stated that Phillips will not answer questions by the media regarding third base, at all, so do you think he’s happy playing there? I doubt he will sign with a team that is looking for him to play much of the hot corner, which is ashame considering ATL could be a nice fallback if they don’t want to invest in someone like Moose.
I don’t think it’s entirely out of the question to believe that Phillips will retire at the end of this season. I don’t really see him wanting to continue playing unless he’s promised an everyday starting 2B job and a decent salary.
The bad thing about it is BP hasplayed third better for the braves than anyone with the exception of Chipper. I see him as not being a team player and I think the braves let him go after this year. BP just does not get it, I could see him playing mlb for several more years, but junk like this hurts his cause. Why do you think there is little trade interest in him. He is a headache, like I said he just doesn’t get it
I think the White Sox have demonstrated over the last calendar year the most effective way to rebuild. I can’t remember a team in recent memory that has added the amount of highly touted prospects in such a short period of time. Maybe the Marlins after the fire sale from their 03′ World Series?
And how’d that workout for the Marlins? The old saying is so true..prospects are just suspect until proven otherwise….
How’d it work out for them? Ummm they won two World Series in a 6 year span. I think it worked out pretty well. The blew it up after the first one in 97′ and put it back together to win again in 03′ just couldn’t win one after that but still shouldn’t be dismissed. Poorly owned or not.
Ummmm, when your rebuilds come on the heels of World Series titles then you don’t need to explain yourself. So continue rambling on like every other annoying Braves fan on this site about how well your rebuild is going and how you guys are going to be so dominant in the near future lol. For a team that hasn’t been to the World Series since 95′ you guys sure like to talk a lot.
He’s not wrong. You literally said “Maybe the Marlins after the fire sale from their 03′ World Series?” and he responded with “How did that work out?”
It didn’t work out after the ’03 fire sale, so your argument about them winning two World Series in a 6-year span is moot because we’re talking about post-2003.
Braves went in 1999 as well know your Series.
Well yeah, but that’s also because they have trade chips like Sale, Quintana, and Eaton that could get back much better returns than most players on rebuilding teams
wtf do the White Sox have to do with this?
Gotta agree. Even if some of those guys don’t pan out, from the likes of Moncada, Kopech, Giolito, Lopez, Fulmer, etc. some will pan out and will be solid major leaguers if not all stars. With free agency/draft/more trades White Sox will be a team to be reckoned with in a couple years
Taking young, cost controlled talent and trading it away for a bunch of maybes doesn’t take a whole lot of skill. To have had Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton, and not be able to build around them just makes me doubt that this same group will be able to finish the task with the next group of young talent.
This. You have a top 5 MLB starter and another who is an ace on almost any other team, a cornerstone outfielder not to mention the likes of solid players like Abreu and others and you couldn’t field a contender? Hard not to win when you have those pieces.
I think the Cubs demonstrated how to do it. Draft well. Shrewd trades. Waiver and rule V claims. International spending and yes free agent spending at the right time
How can you say the White Sox have had a successful rebuild to this point. We won’t know if it was good until 2020.
The Phillies real talent is at the lower levels of their system. There won’t be a substantive improvement until 2020 or 2021. Meanwhile players like Williams Alfaro Hoskins can be developed and traded for younger pieces down the line.
Guys like Williams and Hoskins should be the in the prime players that help your team be good again in a few years.
The Phillies have very little talent in their lower levels. There are pretty much only three prospects that look good, Ortiz, Sanchez, and Medina. Some of their young disappointments, Moniak, Brito, might turn it around but even then the numbers are small. Ortiz and Sanchez are 18 years old and a lot can happen to players that young. Jason Knapp and Trevor May had amazing fastballs.
Some players like Suarez, Fanti, and Romero have put up strong numbers but they are in pitchers’ leagues that have produced impressive numbers for guys like Brody Colvin only to see them bust.
If you plan to build around two 18 year olds,you’re likely in for failure.
Phils need one Veteran Productive RBI Bat,
But then again so does everybody else.!
If the Phillies sign Harper and Machado they should be able to play .600 baseball in 2019.
CF Odubel Herrera
2B Scott Kingery
RF Bryce Harper
1B Rhys Hoskins
3B Manny Machado
LF Aaron Altherr
SS J.P. Crawford
C Jorge Alfaro
Nick Williams plays all three OF positions so he’s a natural 4th outfielder on this team. He could form somewhat of a platoon with Altherr too.
Freddy Galvis is a great shortstop and no one says anything about him. Crawford has been hot lately, but still don’t want to count on him. Remember that Cesar should bring back a good haul this offseason and maybe we can trade him for a starter.
having watched the series with the giants this weekend – yes they need pitching but also there defense is horrible, they looked like an A ball team out there defensively… essentially right now the only thing going for them is their offense.
In all fairness their great defensive CF is on the DL, as is the RF. They are playing their LF in CF and their 1B in LF, and even played a catcher who hadn’t played a game there all year at 1B. And he actually made a great play.
Phillies r gonna have Bautista next year and they’ll sign Jamie Garcia along with JP Howell and JA Happ
I’ll take Bautista if Bautista agrees to be the ball boy.
Here’s there lineup next year:
C: Tom Murphy
1B: Tommy Joseph
2B: Asdrubal Cabrera
3B: Maikel Franco
SS: Freddy Galvis
LF: Michael Saunders
CF: Odubel Herrera
RF: Jose Bautista
That team would stink. Dont bother with those free agents
So they’re going to dump Rupp, Hoskins, Hernandez, Altherr, and Williams and sign players who are worse than they are?
Saunders should be a bench bat, Joey Bats is finished, and Cabrera brings more value as a utility player than an everyday second baseman.
“Saunders should be a bench bat”
For the Long Island Ducks.
Doesn’t Endy Chavez still play there haha
Nola is the real deal and Hoskins appears to be as well. Galvis and Hernandez more than likely will get dealt to let Crawford and Kingery develop.
The phillies may actually get to pick first in a draft that isn’t terrible the time around.