We Got No Use for the Moose
Somebody like Moustakas was not an upgrade over Franco at third base. Let’s not worry about what’s meant by “somebody like Moustakas” at the start of last season. Since Moustakas’ name is there, that’s who’s meant.
Are. You. Serious. Todd? OK, Zolecki didn’t come up with this idea. He’s the reporter. Franco is generally a better fielder than Moustakas (10.3 to 12.2 errors a year at third). He can be more spectacular, and he’s five years younger. But, really. Mouskatas was a two-time All-Star going into the season, and came out a three-time All-Star with a seasonal WAR of 3.2, according to Baseball-Reference. Franco’s WAR this year was -0.8, and he still hasn’t been on an All-Star bench.
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The wildest sort of optimism about youth is not a defense here. Moustakas was only moving into his age-30 season last spring.
How did they come to those conclusions? Best Understatement Presented as a Question, 2019.
They should dig into their hitting and pitching philosophies…
Do ya think?
… how they present their information to players, which even…Kapler acknowledged…got too complicated.
Right, this is two clauses, but let’s move this along. Somebody had to commit to the record the fact that the Phillies, muddling through, if not its analytics infancy, then its “toddlerhood,” coupled those analytics to modern long-term thinking (because of the cost of the players) and just screwed up the last two years.
This, however, was obvious in the first Phillies game at home the now-former skipper managed in 2018. As is widely known, Kapler pulled Aaron Nola after 68 pitches with a lead and lost the game. This was because of “match-up thinking” (that backfired immediately) and too much concern way too early in the season about “saving” the Phillies ace.
All of which is a roundabout way of saying Todd Zolecki’s carefully worded advice to the Phillies – examine the processes – is manifestly important. At a time when MLB teams guard their information and true opinions about their realities far better than the current White House, MLB.com’s man in Philadelphia has gingerly exposed some of those recent Phillies realities, and carefully offered excellent advice.