Articles by Rich Wilkins (406)
The minor league season is over. The results are ugly: The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (AAA) finished 66-78, 15.5 games out of first, in last. Reading's Fightin' Phils (AA) finished 66-76, 22 games out of first, in last. The Clearwater Threshers (High-A) finished 32-38 in the second half, 10 games out of first, in third. On […]
Maybe I'm reading this wrong from David Murphy: As with Castillo, Tomas' eventual landing place will be determined by who values him the most. Since every team in the majors will be operating off the same information – Tomas' track record in Cuba's Serie Nacional and the World Baseball Classic and his performance in […]
A week from tonight, the Phillies season will be over, and the off-season will begin. With 85 losses after today's 8-6 loss to the A's, the Phillies won't figure into any more meaningful games. Both Miami and Atlanta are playing out the string at this point, and this final week is pretty pointless. In fact, […]
Photo by Andrew Gillen- Philliedelphia Last night was Kyle Kendrick's last start as a Philadelphia Phillie, though I hope it's not his last appearance. Kendrick is at 199 innings on the year, so I hope that Ryne Sandberg finds a way to get him an inning in the last four games. Kendrick by no means […]
Tonight I have my last Phillies tickets of 2014. It's been a very disappointing season, for the third straight year. Assuming a 1-2 weekend, which happens a lot to this team, the Phillies will finish the exact same as last year. There's not much to celebrate about the 2014 Phillies, and this weekend is simply […]
Bobby Abreu will officially retire after today. The Phillies legend was the best offensive player the Phillies have had since Mike Schmidt, over all, and was my favorite player while in Philadelphia. As a Phillie, he posted a .928 OPS, hitting 195 homers, driving in 814 runs, scoring 891 runs, hitting 585 extra-base hits, batting […]
Picture by Richard Wilkins Jr. Some initial thoughts on what went wrong in 2014: Cliff Lee's health- If you stopped here, this team was doomed from this. I'm not blaming Cliff so much, he's in his mid-30s and this happens at that age. I'm blaming the Phillies for this killing them off. Cliff is simply […]
The season is over. At 73-89, the Phillies were exactly as bad as they were in 2013, except they finished a spot worse now. The future is bleak, and there is no good pathway forward. None of that matters right now though, because we want to look backwards. I want to take a look at […]
Here's what went right with the 2014 Phillies, as few as this list is: Cole Hamels- He might have been the least lucky pitcher in baseball, but he was really, really good. His opening month health scare not withstanding, his year was nearly perfect. Ken Giles- The young righty was dominating with his high-90s […]
The 2014 season is over, and for a third straight October, the Phillies are watching the playoffs. This is unacceptable, and should never happen. It really shouldn't happen to a $180 million team. In effect this means that the Phillies should either figure out a way to contend in 2015, or should not be as […]