I like a lot of things the Phillies have done over the last calendar year. I like seeing Maikel Franco playing every day in Philadelphia. I like the Andy MacPhail hiring. I like seeing Crawford and Nola closer to the majors. I liked the Jimmy Rollins trade, and have enjoyed watching Zach Eflin pitch. I liked the Odubel Herrera Rule 5 pick up. I liked the Marlon Byrd trade. I liked the Ortiz and Marchan signings, and obviously liked the slot deal with Arizona. Of course I liked this year's draft, as several of the higher round players are performing already. I even would say positive things about the Aaron Harang, and yes, Chad Billingsley signings. I hesitate to even write this down, but I would give Ruben Amaro positive grades since David Montgomery left as team President. I feel like they've made some smart moves. And yet, I'm a very frustrated fan. As is everyone else, I know, it's hard to watch a 108 loss pace team. it's hard to watch bad players. It's not just that they are bad though- it's how much hasn't changed in twelve months. For example:
- Ryan Howard hit his 14th homer last night, and is on pace for a shade over 27 homers. Last year he hit 23. Last year he hit .223, this year he's at .218. Last year his OPS was .690, this year it's .700. He has more doubles and a higher slugging percentage, but is on pace for less RBI's, and has a much lower OBP. He's still here, still hitting fourth, still playing first base. I'm not sure the Phillies are making much effort for change here.
- Dom Brown was one of the worst players in baseball last year, and I was heartened when they sent him to AAA when he came off the DL this year. He has shown little progress, and has even regressed as a player. Believe it or not though, he's back here, playing fairly regularly, and got even worse. His average is down, his OBP is down, his slugging percentage is down, and all of those were down over his 2013 All-Star campaign during last year's debacle.
- Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon, the two most valuable assets they have to trade, who were in the same spot last season, are still here. Neither has been traded yet. So the Phillies have yet to bring back that mother-load prospect package that changes the future of this team.
- Not that they could have done much about this, but Cliff Lee is still here, and on the DL again this year. The time to move Cliff was two or three years ago, but it's still frustrating that they didn't, and now he's on the DL and has no value.
- Much the same can be said about Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz, both of whom were held onto long enough to kill any value they had. Two years ago, Chase gets you two prospects. Now you'll be lucky if you can pay someone to take him.
The point is this- the team looks the same in many ways- mostly because they've made a lot of bad moves. Some of those moves involve the moves they didn't make to update this team. They've been unwilling to dive head first into building a new team that doesn't involve yesterday's stars. There are a lot of hanger's on here. That is very frustrating to watch.
