Former Philadelphia Phillies GM Pat Gillick identifies Phillies actual core

Former Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick identifies the Philadelphia Phillies actual core group.

Former Philadelphia Phillies GM Pat Gillick, now 80, said at a news conference Mar. 16 this year’s version of the team he led to the 2008 world championship is still a year away from contending. Meeting reporters and others celebrating his induction later this summer into the Phillies Wall of Fame group, Gillick spoke frankly about several subjects. These included analytics, the 2018 version of the Phillies relative to their most recent champions, and in passing, the real core of the current team.

The “year away” comment was a revision of Gillick’s 2015 comment that the Fightin’s would contend this season, which likely frustrated many three years ago, but all projections are just projections. Gillick, still a senior team advisor, could be wrong about this year. He probably isn’t.

More interesting was his rationale for another year’s wait for success: “I think ’18 will be an improvement over ’17. But give Hoskins, give Williams, give these younger pitchers another year to get their feet on the ground.”

Gillick was wrong about the 2008 Phillies, as Philly.com’s Marcus Hayes notes, predicting in 2006 the team wouldn’t compete until 2009. So file that away, eternal optimists, but don’t ignore the short list Gillick provided in explanation: Rhys Hoskins, Nick Williams, and the “younger” pitchers. Recent expensive acquisitions Jake Arrieta and Carlos Santana were passed over.

Let’s consider Gillick’s list in reverse order, which is probably the proper order of concern:

1. The younger pitchers are, frankly, an albatross around this team’s neck. As often implied, all but Aaron Nola are seemingly on their way to journeyman status, although all of them with big league starting experience – Jerad Eickhoff, Vince Velasquez, Zach Eflin, and Ben Lively – show flashes of brilliance. Unfortunately, just as things were rolling along somewhat smoothly this spring, Eickhoff went down with an injury. The next day Eflin, the guy who probably gained an Opening Day rotation spot because of that injury, gave up a home run to a 20-year-old Braves “phenom” Ronald Acuna that left Spectrum Field in Clearwater. (You can see that here.) Eflin’s surgically repaired knees may feel fine, but that straight fastball over the middle of the plate had a flashing light on it reading “CRUSH ME.” As the young ladies would write on Facebook: *Sigh*. Bottom line: Some or all of the younger pitchers need to be replaced.

1. Nick Williams: This player’s story has mostly been ignored this spring with the expensive signings getting most of the attention, but Williams will likely be the left-handed power bat immediately complimenting Rhys Hoskins in the Phillies lineup. However, although he will probably get the starting right field nod over Aaron Altherr, Williams does need a bit more time under his major league belt. Playing a bit over half a season in 2017, he slashed .288/.338/.473. It would be nice to see an improvement in those figures. Baseball-Reference.com sees a slight decline in his BA and SLG figures, predicated on a similar number of plate appearances. The assumed plate appearance figure seemingly recognizes the fact that Altherr will get some time in right field. However, it would be interesting to know how, exactly, a projected seven-point drop in BA and a one-point drop in SLG come into being.

1. Rhys Hoskins: His story is now pretty well known: 18 home runs late last season in his first 34 games, no homers after that, probably tired, and experiments with him in left field. Hoskins is the immediate future of the middle of the lineup. Everybody is all in on that, including Hoskins, who is also working hard at improving as a leftfielder, working hard on manager Kapler’s “value at the margins.” (That’s 21st-century baseball argot for “doing the little things right,” like learning the crow hop into a throw from the outfield.) This spring he has hit .273 (before play Mar. 18), with four doubles, two home runs and five runs batted in over 40 plate appearances. He has walked seven times, and this is a key. Just “working on things,” he is walking at an excellent (modern) 17.5% clip.

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The importance of Rhys Hoskins to the Phillies success or failure cannot be overstated. Gillick was correct to list him first, even in a passing comment.