2:10pm: Philadelphia officially confirmed Hall’s promotion. Infielder Johan Camargo has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 26, with a right knee strain. To create a 40-man roster spot, the Phils recalled minor league righty James McArthur from Double-A Reading and placed him on the MLB 60-day injured list. McArthur, who’s dealing with a stress reaction in his throwing elbow, will be paid at the prorated amount of the $700K league minimum salary and collect big league service time while on the IL.
10:54am: The Phillies are planning to select the contract of first baseman Darick Hall from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, reports Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. They’ll need to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
It’ll be the big league debut for Hall, a 14th-round selection of the Phillies back in 2016. The 26-year-old has earned his ticket to the big leagues this season, hitting at a .269/.346/.548 clip with 20 home runs, 18 doubles, five steals (in six tries), a 9.5% walk rate and a 20% strikeout rate through his first 315 plate appearances of the season. Hall’s left-handed bat won’t make up for the loss of Harper, of course, but he’ll give interim skipper Rob Thomson another option with some power to mix-and-match while the reigning MVP is sidelined.
With Harper on the shelf, the Phillies are looking at several platoon options around the diamond, but their current slate of left-handed hitters hasn’t performed well — even against righties. Mickey Moniak is hitting .167/.259/.167 in 27 plate appearances, while Odubel Herrera is batting just .218/.248/.412 against right-handers. Hall, meanwhile, has struggled against lefties in Triple-A but absolutely torched right-handed opponents to the tune of a .312/.391/.656 batting line. Seventeen of his 20 long balls have come against righties, as have a dozen of his 18 doubles.
These guys keep raking in the minors and whiffing in the majors. So I have low expectations.
@VPH – I think Hall has finally hit his stride. He has 75 total hits in AAA of which 18 are doubles and 20 are HRs. He has a K rate of 22.5% which, as you stated, will probably tick up some in the majors but his power should transfer over to the majors quite well. At this point in the season, Philly knows that they can’t win playing small ball so they are going to try and out-slug other teams. Hall should fit in seamlessly with this approach. They also can’t win using a speed and good defense approach so they are going full Gashouse Gang. A true 3 outcome approach across most of their lineup. It will be fun to watch when 3 or 4 of them are on a hot streak at the plate.
Hall’s 2nd game with the Phillies: 2 for 5, 2 HRs and 3 RBI. Welcome to the show! Keep this up and you should be able to stick with the team until Harper is back (at least). I’m really happy for Hall, he has paid his dues and then some!
Play mark appel already lol
fr
Pitched a scoreless 9th tonight. 1k. 1 hit. Nice debut for Appel.
Harper’s absence was really felt last night. He would’ve been up 3 times with men in scoring position. Castellanos went 0 for 3 in those opportunities.
The 100 million dollar man
The real problem for the Phillies line-up now, is without Harper, Schwarber is the only left handed power. Di Di has been ok at ss, but no homers, and not nearly enough rbi’s. Have to hope that Castallanos, will lay off that outside slider/curve. Moniak should have a very short leash. The Phillies can’t afford to play an ” automatic out”, with this line-up. Terrible move by Thompson, not pinch hitting Vierling in the 6th, with runners on the corners and 2 out, down 3-2. Moniak is now 0/16 in his major league career against southpaws.
To be fair to Thompson, it’s not like Vierling is Babe Ruth. Without Harper this team isn’t impressive. Sad to say.
Vierling IS Ruth compared to Moniak, who could probably be outhit by VV at this point.
You’re not wrong, but he crushes in the minors. I understand trying to get him going in Harper’s absence, but it’s not working. I’d point out that Castellanos is also completely lost.
Nick should have gone to college after all
Vierling is more, Dr. Ruth
@baseballhistory – Hall bats LH too and has above average power. This is most likely why they brought him up; they were too RH heavy at the plate.
Left-handed Tommy Joseph…
Is a useful player if the expectations were proper
What the hell happened to that guy working at home Depot now?
This comment inspired me to put in a waiver claim in FBB. Joseph, Cozens (right?), Rhys of course….Phils big boys for life, baby!
But what about the first baseman already there
I would say DH option, but I feel Phillies fans are excited to see Castellanos and Schwarber share that role while the other plays outfield
Castellanos plays right field. Hall and Hoskins play first and DH…
Castellanos [tries to play] right field.
He’s been better defensively lately, but unfortunately hasn’t really hit at all.
If Harper goes to the 60-day, yesterday’s “approximately 6 weeks” absence becomes 8 weeks.
FINALLY
On a side note, Appel pitched a scoreless 9th inning tonight in his MLB debut! It would be such a great story if he can find success nearly 10 years after he was drafted 1-1. I hope everyone is rooting for him; it’s a great story.
Can he learn to play in the outfield?
To be fair, defense hasn’t been a huge problem lately (it certainly will be again at some point). They need to hit. Castellanos in particular forgot how to play baseball.
He certainly forgot how to not swing at outside sliders
His swings have been terrible. Even if he connects, he’s getting bloop singles at best.
Yea you’d think that weak 1/3 of a season offering lazy swings at the first pitch would push him to mix up his approach a bit. nope. loves that first pitch and pitchers know it, so he gets garbage and you know the result
I thought he did play outfield in a few spring training starts. Maybe I’m mistaken.
Great. Who’s being sent down?
@ham77 No one. “They’ll need to open a spot on the 40-man roster, although that can be achieved easily by moving Bryce Harper to the 60-day injured list.”
I figured someone from the 26 man active roster would need to be sent out to make room.
Ahh. I see. There you go. Carmago hurt again. MacArthur on IL too.
SIGN LORENZO CAIN
Common sense says to sign Cain.
But the organization — even though the previous front office signed him — still feels weirdly obligated to play Moniak.
There’s a word for that: FUTILITY.
I mean CF is a defensive position. Cain doesn’t have legs anymore. Moniak doesn’t start every day. The Moniak/Vierling/Herrera combo is better than Cain IMO. Signing on aging veteran is not really what the Phillies need. I don’t see that as a common sense move.
Defensively, CF is not a weakness for the Phillies right now. CF is weak all over the majors. The Phillies are fine there, although they would love to get more offensive production, but not at the cost of defense.
The roster being so bad without Harper is a testament to how bad a job Klentak did, outside of his big splash moves (signing Harper & Wheeler). Dude isn’t fit to build a tee ball team at this point.
Yes, but even more so of how badly they drafted and developed for years.
If we are honest, the lineup should be much better. JT and Nick not carrying their weight is a big issue.
And keep in mind Schwarber was awful in May before becoming a hitting machine in June. Lots of upside with this team, but at this point, I’m doubting JT and Nick will put it together.
honestly get Stubbs more ABs at this point. not even joking. and slide Nick down to the 7th hole so that his rally-killing isn’t quite as noticeable.
And Dombrowski is doing So Much Better than Klentak???
Where were you during the Klentak era?
Where are you for the Dombrowski era?
3 games above .500 in a tough division. It’s not ideal, but better than it’s been.
Diamondbacks fans are rejoicing. Sad trombone, different D. Hall
While he does deserve a shot as he has produced at every level, this does nothing to help the center field situation. It fills a rotating left handed DH spot.
The CF “situation” is fine.
Herrera, Vierling and they’re giving Moniak and Mercado a look.
CF is a defensive position and all 4 of those can play it well. The first 2 are hitting some, the last 2 are not. The coaches will work with them.
There is a shortage of CF’s in MLB. The Cardinals are playing a corner OF since Bader got hurt. The Marlins’ have been playing corner OF’s there all year. Cleveland is playing Myles Straw most days simply because he can field the position – he’s slashing .202 / .295 /.256 /.551. Grisham is slashing .188 / .287 / .321 / .608 in San Diego. There’s more.
I don’t get it as CF is the easiest of all OF positions to get an early read off of the bat. The primary requirement is speed; CFs have to be able to cover a lot of ground, but you don’t even need a good arm to be successful there either (think Damon & Ellsbury). I think coaches and GMs overthink the position. Second basemen with good speed should be able make the jump to CF but GMs are all looking for GG caliber players who have played there their entire careers to man CF.
Nice theories Dorothy_Mantooth.
Of course speed is the most important attribute. But as far a reading the ball off the bat – CF is the most difficult as often the ball is coming straight at the fielder and he cannot recognize the spin for a bit. It’s why one sees quality CF’s hold their ground for a bit when the ball is headed out to them. It’s easier for the corner OF’s as they initially see the ball coming from an angle, and know that depending on the batter being right or left handed the ball will slice one way or the other to RF or LF.
Years ago I go burned terribly by hard hit balls playing OF. I felt terrible. That weekend the Tigers were on the ‘Game of the Week’ . I saw Mickey Stanley get fooled on a ball hit to him that went over his head. I always felt he was one of the best CF’s. (He later filled in at SS in a WS due to injury.) Figured if it could happen to him……
As far as moving 2B’s or other middle infielders to CF – at times for a year-and-a-half Cleveland has tried Amad Rosario in CF (and LF), The results have been awful.
When the ex-pitcher Herb Score was a broadcaster, he would constantly say that what looks so simple from the stands and on TV is extremely difficult on the field. Which is why I wrote you that I was impressed with Devers turnabout playing 3B. It wasn’t his making plays that impressed me, it’s that he was making difficult plays look easy. The great ones do that in any artistic endeavor.
Samuel is correct, CF is a unique skill set with completely different foot work. A few talented athletes have done it, Ketel Marte and Craig Biggio come to mind. Scott Kingery actually graded out better at CF than 2B. Even with the advantage of seeing pitch call and location, very difficult transition.